You can see the saltations in the sky on a clear day

‘Usually the surveys came back safely, and no one was lost. Zivia told me there hadn’t been any losses for a while, as far as she remembered.

‘But people get lost every day, if you count every city on the coast. Someone from Harborside gets lost probably once a month. It might be more. The Guard wants the lost to be able to start their lives over if they make it back, so it isn’t announced, and we don’t acknowledge it. But we notice if someone’s gone.

‘You can see the saltations in the sky on a clear day – perfect bands of rain and sun and snow flowing past each other. Kids dare each other to get close. Zivia told me she ran in on a dare. Some people harvest plants, ice, fresh water. Scouts get lost, but they know the risks. We did, too.’

— Marsh Hlavka, ‘In the Museum of Unseen Places’