She laughs. "Stars are certainly hot and they are certainly far away!"

She is looking at the bookshelf herself, for what other social-relevant non-fiction there might be.

"How do I make this show me more things?" 

"Please," she adds, when M turns briefly to look at her.

"If I were to say 'don't touch stars is a good rule, it will make people not hurt.' What do you think some other good rules would be?"

"There's a button on the thing," he says, motioning vaguely towards the TV. "I dunno what happened to the remote."

He doesn't say anything about the bookshelf, but on the upper shelves there are some more advanced texts. A few focus on historical periods and the sciences, with an emphasis on space and prehistoric Amentans. One of them traces the history of pottery. Several collections of fables. Something about castle construction. A couple parenting books. Introductory textbooks for linguistics and economics classes the owner has never considered taking. Nothing on politics or government.

"Good rules are things that keep you safe! Like, don't touch the stove, and don't go outside without a coat on, and always wash your hands after you go to the bathroom, and never ever ever go play by the red building. And also always be nice to people, and don't hit them. Things like that!"

She will go click around the TV button, glance at Xeyr and M, and then try to find a news channel.

Historical periods, sure, that's something. Preferably not just prehistorical.

"Those sound like important rules. What do you think would happen if someone broke the rules?"

"They would get hurt! Or if they broke a big rule, then the police would come and stop them!"

There are a couple news channels. One is reporting on the renovation of a major government building. Another has people discussing the effects of trade restrictions with Orvara.

The books about history tend to focus on very specific subjects. Apart from the history of pottery and castle construction, there's one about the Voan filmmakers in the 3370s, another about an ancient Cenemi poet, a book titled The Rise of Agriculture, and one about the history and supposed effects of mixed-caste primary schools. There's also much simpler book titled The Amazing History Of Voa, in the middle of all the other books that look like they were written for one-year-olds.

Amazing History and mixed-caste primary schools, sure.

Trade restrictions with Orvara, that sounds news-y!

"Which rules do you think are big rules? Would the police come if someone touched a stove?"

Now this is a complicated question. She frowns thoughtfully. Touching stoves is bad because you might get hurt. When someone gets hurt badly enough, the adults call for special adults who take you away to fix things. The people who take you away definitely wear uniforms, but does that make them police? It probably does. She thinks there might be another group for getting rid of fires, and if you touch a stove then it's possible that fire might be involved somehow.

"The stove is hot," she says, trying to work this out. "And if you touch hot things, you melt. So that's real important always. And if you did it anyway and you got melted, then someone would have to make you not be melted anymore. So the police would have to take you away to get you fixed. But if there's a fire, then someone else has to come and help the police, because police don't know about fires."

She is not entirely sure this is how it works, but it seems like it makes sense.

He giggles.

Amazing History begins with a glowing account of the ancient Voan wars of conquest, followed by an imaginative description of daily life in the 2600s. It glosses over much of the rest of the ancient period, and picks up again with the creation of a much larger united state and the subsequent introduction of the caste system. It neglects to explain the specifics caste system, though it does state that "this meant everyone could focus on things they were good at, and Voa soon had much more food and other useful things." It continues on through the rest of Voan history, ending with an illustration of a middle-aged Governor Avalor leading the country into the future.

The book about intercaste education is written at an adult level, includes a lot of citations and footnotes. It argues against the practice, claiming that it makes children less capable of adequate specialization.

One of the TV panelists argues that limiting trade with Orvara will be bad for people who create certain specialized items. Another argues that the risk of pollution is too high.

"Well I will make sure not to touch any stoves!" And that is enough interrogation through children. (She wonders if locals here do actually melt in response to heat.) She looks through her book some more before swapping with M, pays attention to the TV news.

She rolls her eyes at the intercaste education book. She plans to looks up all these wars later on for the kind of things that don't get included in books for small children. 

This news seems to just keep talking about the same thing! What else is on TV?

He calls Zada over and reads the astronomy textbook to her while she sits on his lap. He doesn't know the answers to most of her questions, but he tries.

The TV has lots of things. Sports, dramas, cartoons, cartoons and dramas inappropriate for one-year-olds, taped theater performances, a documentary about the history of vaccination, a cooking competition, a show about cleaning and uncluttering houses, a channel devoted to talking about space...

She occasionally volunteers astronomy answers, in possibly unconventional phrasings!

Dramas can tell you things about the world, right?

They can!

This drama is about a person with yellow hair whose mother has been accused of stealing a large amount of money. The case is expected to finish in three days, and she is unsure whether the death penalty will be involved.

She sits on the edge of her seat and worriedly watches the plot!

She exchanges glances with Xeyr at the bit about the death penalty. 

Meanwhile it'd probably be useful to ask this Kor if he knows when he's planning on leaving, but that's not going to mean much unless they've gotten something about timekeeping first. Does this house have any visible timekeeping instruments?