Waltana will cheerfully keep going down her list as fast as Belmarniss seems to be absorbing information, until the Comprehend Languages runs out or something interrupts. The air and water also have forces, they're called pressure! Friction is a thing you can do math about!

(Somewhere along the line she grows more somber again as she remembers that there are slaves everywhere. Her breakfast was cooked by a slave. It kind of sucks.)

A slave also comes by to empty the chamberpot.

Would it be weird to thank them? Or do... Something other than have an awkward look on her face?

"-Should we be getting to work soon?"

Nod nod. She packs up her stuff and leads Waltana out. They will be going shopping!

The market is a ways off. It's a maze, many passages connecting many caves, with carved stairs and bone ladders connecting different levels. Belmarniss walks them pretty quickly past an area that's just selling mushrooms, that's not what they're there for, and then slows down in the area that has exotic surface goods and stuff like metal and coal, awaiting Waltana's judgment.

Copper (wire, if possible), iron (both bars and whatever cheap objects are available), glass, coal, sulfur, sand (if there is any), stone bowls or slats, a file for sharpening, bones, leather or skins, clay, thread or cord, a needle, an odd chunk of pewter- They can get rocks and chalk later. Cheaper, damaged things are mostly fine.

She tries not to be obvious about what interests her and will let Belmarniss judge what to actually buy, gesturing vaguely with her hands how urgent something is. She doesn't rate anything higher than copper and iron, but thread gets rated almost as high. Probably they won't get everything.

There's sand! It doesn't even seem expensive. There's glass in various forms, coal available in bulk (Belmarniss brought a bag), stone bowls, files, probably-pig leather, bones, almost everything she wants. Once Belmarniss figures out that she'll take low-quality stuff she swings to a lower-end part of the market. There's a stall with copper wire in amounts and gauges that probably intended it for jewelry. If she'll take the iron in rusty unkempt forms it can be had for not too much.

The Spark will clean it up. She doesn't really want to think about how. She will carry things, not seeming to be much impaired by the weight.

Pretty good haul, maybe the whole endeavor isn't doomed. Going for actual ore as even cheaper is probably an 'another day' thing though.

They can bring it back to Belmarniss's cave as a staging area while Belmarniss hunts up a suitable location.

She will do math and sketches in chalk. For as long as the Light lasts, anyway.

Belmarniss says something apologetic-sounding about the light and nips out to go spelunking.

Somebody comes in when Belmarniss has been gone for a bit. She lacks the courtesy to put on a light, so it's probably not Belmarniss herself.

-She drops the wire and thread she was fiddling with and grabs for her saw and jumps to her feet.

"-Belmarniss?"

Giggle. Footsteps.

Calm. Calm. Calm. Calm. CALM.

"Okay, so you're probably not a monster. But you're making me a mite nervous on account of I can't see right now. Don't know if you have Comprehend Languages up either."

Try to remember the word for 'light', the spell... She makes a guess and says it questioningly.

Giggle! Departing footsteps.

Great. Joy. Amaze.

...Fuck this. She's going to tear down her saw blind and use what's there to make the little indicator light a BRIGHT indicator light, crank powered. It doesn't make sense and shouldn't work but she's Cheating. She NEEDS it, and the Spark responds to NEEDS with alacrity. She cuts herself a couple of times during this process, muttering grumpily.

Belmarniss comes back after she's been gone for some four hours and casts a light as soon as she arrives. "- hm?" she asks, pointing at the saw-pieces.

There's a bright and even red light casting shadows, and a little mechanism with a spring slowly ticking away attached to it. She is fussing with putting fiber weave over wires again.

"Someone came by while you were gone and it turns out I am now afraid of the dark."

"Ugh. SOVI!"

Drow language yelling!

Drow language yelling BACK!

"I needed a light anyway. Maybe not more than I needed a weapon though."

Stomping! Yammering!

Belmarniss makes a "ta-da" gesture at the other drow. "Sovi," she says.

Sovi looks younger than Belmarniss, maybe about twelve in human equivalency.

A kid. She closes her eyes for a moment of focus.

"Hello, Sovi." she has caught on to 'Hello', at least. And now not understandable again but hopefully the tone will come across. Maybe Belmarniss will translate. "I'm not mad. This is your home, after all. I'm just a bit nervous." Shrug.