"Okay. I cannot move water around in ways that aren't melting it so this might get complicated if there's slopes or anything, you got the fire prime not the water one, I'm happy to be directed by people who know more about fluid dynamics than I."

"We'll be happy to consult."

"If we're not in a hurry on a scale of the next couple days right now, then we should probably maintain something like our usual sleep schedule, which has us awake for another few hours and then sleeping for about eight. I can't maintain heat effects in my sleep - although I retain my general indifference to cold and my own body temperature - and I think you lot cope better with the current unadjusted temperature than Aleko will, so he needs priority insulation and probably also to sleep snuggled up to me so he still has his ears in the morning."

"I like my ears."

"Tent in the snow with a few people staying in it - and we do have songs for heat, they're just limited in effect - should keep him warm," he says, "and we'll throw additional blankets at the problem if it's not yet solved."

"Songs?"

"Magic songs that make it warm. They're not very efficient because heat wasn't a common problem in Tirion."

"We do not have magic songs, that's interesting, but... Aleko's a really light sleeper and I'm not sure he can sleep through music."

"I'd have to be really tired to sleep through you talking in your sleep, too, even if I'd freeze otherwise, but music I'd probably have to be practically dead of exhaustion."

"We can have someone else sleep with you for body heat if that's not somehow culturally objectionable."

"...am I just assuming you speak Welchin now just like that or what, um, anyway, it's a little weird but I can live with it if blankets are hard to come by?"

"I don't speak very well yet. I am only speaking of present things, you will notice, and I have not attempted to use - several kinds of word forms. Blankets are not so scarce there are none among the whole host. I don't know if blankets will be sufficient for you because I don't know how much heat you need."

"Blankets should do it if there's plenty of them."

"Then we'll have those."

"That is ridiculously impressive even without conjugating verbs, especially if you're going to retain much of the vocabulary later."

"I think I retain and should be able to use all of the sentence forms you've demonstrated and certainly all of the words. Sentence forms I might have generalized wrongly and therefore retain wrongly."

"Wow." She does not ask can I see .

"I like languages. This was a treat."

"I know some Soechin too but I literally studied it for a couple of years and am worse at it than you currently are at Welchin."

"And everything around me does not adopt the temperature I desire. We all have our strengths."

"True enough."

"Let's see what can be done in a couple hours. Then you sleep?"

"Sounds like a plan."

So he accompanies them out onto the ice. A number of other people press in, a little curiously.

"You want me to just melt along -" She outlines a path in fire. "And see how that goes?"