"It's not like I was personally basing anything on his reputation but that makes sense."

"True enough. I, mm, don't have a good handle yet on what kind of information you will and won't want."

"...most of it? Maybe not the entire fashion history behind your shoes, that would probably be irrelevant, but I like information? Why?"

She sighs.

"I was hoping to come up with a more graceful way to explain this. My brother and I have lived long and, for the most part, difficult lives. And he shielded me from the worst of it, at his own cost. My brother was never very social even as a child, but he--burned out on it, very badly. He hasn't enjoyed the company of another person besides me for its own sake in over half a millenium.

After you went to bed, that first night, he called me in a panic because he had experienced a mild positive emotion connected to you separate from your magic system and he had no idea how to handle it."

"I'm not sure what to do with that, honestly."

"You don't have to do anything with it if you don't want to."

"He panics very discreetly."

"Lots of practice," she sighs.

"Well, I'm enjoying being here and do not plan to vanish."

"It does have a pretty great library."

"And crash space for interdimensional visitors on no notice!"

"That too, yes."

"I'm imagining we wouldn't have been so lucky most places."

"You're not wrong."

"I'm told this world is not a paradise yet! Shame on you."

"Oh, we haven't been completely idle. But I take your judgement to heart."

"It's nicer than where I'm from, honestly. I wasn't forming any strong expectations about that."

"What's where you're from like?"

"Lots lower tech. Magic is common knowledge but you have to have it from the start, you can't learn it if you don't. Humans and various kinds of elementals are the only sapient species."

"Hm. Very different, yes. What are elementals like?"

"They start as adults knowing every language in the world at the time. They can all fly. Wild ones aren't interested in the same kinds of things as humans but they get that way after a lot of time around us. They've got more magic but can only use one or two elements each, usually one - a fraction are hybrids."

"Ooh. That must be very strange, an adult mind with no knowledge in it."

"I've never talked that much with a brand new one but yeah, it's really different. They know how to do things, but not facts, mostly."

"Procedural but not episodic knowledge. What kinds of things do they know how to do?"

"They can do magic but won't think of all the applications. They can walk and talk and read and write and fly. They can guess reasonably well about what will be safe to eat."