They arrive in orbit without announcing themselves, sell things nobody else sells, and leave. No demands, no ideology, and no record of where they are from.
The Custodiate’s position on the Drift is that they are a market, and that a market is a fact about the galaxy rather than a party to a disagreement. We buy from them. Most colonies of any size have bought from them, and the ones that say otherwise are being careful about the phrasing.
The offer
It will be made to you eventually, and it will be made in a way designed to sound reasonable.
For custody of one Fragment: an amount that would fund a season of expansion outright. Payment immediate. No conditions attached, and none implied.
They do not haggle and they do not repeat an offer that has been refused.
What you are selling is not the object. It is your claim on the ending. Forty-nine exist, the threshold sits below that total, and a Fragment sold is a Fragment that is going to answer somebody else’s.
What you are buying is a season of being genuinely, measurably ahead — and the relief of no longer being the loudest thing in your own sky.
On the rumour
It is said that the Drift are assembling a set of their own. They have never confirmed this and they have never denied it, and being asked directly does not appear to interest them.
The Custodiate’s archives contain no evidence either way. What they do contain is a count: the register has recorded custody transfers to the Drift in every catalogued period for which we hold records, and no transfer from them that was not a purchase at a price they set.
That is not proof of anything. It is the kind of shape a fact makes before anybody can prove it.
In game terms: selling a Fragment trades the win condition for immediate advantage, and it is the most uncomfortable decision available. Whether the Chorus registers the transfer publicly — making it a political act rather than a private economic one — is still undecided. It probably should.