[ Elusive and difficult to pin down, Lighter realizes he's cast quite the spotlight on himself. But he finds the cadence and the simplicity of the question soothing, unmoored from its context by their circumstances. ]

Alright. Let me tell you a story. [ A breath in which he might offer a smile, however unseen it might go. ] They're disasters. Spacial fluctuations that swallow up whatever they appear near — whole quarters, towns. Cities. Everything inside is eventually lost to Ether corruption. After the old capital fell to Hollow Zero, the new one figured out how to industrialize the Hollows and harvest Ether as an energy resource. With the right technology and the right firepower, you can go on in to recover some of what was lost. It's risky work, but lucrative.