Apologetic shrug. Does Waltana want her bits and bobs back or can Belmarniss put them in her bag.

She will stuff them in her pockets, aside from a couple screws. "Keep those two in case you need to show them to someone. Uh... Running out of thoughts on what to say to take advantage of the understanding."

Nod, nod. Thoughtful chin-tapping. ...gesture to come along through the tunnel? Also the light needs a refresh, she does that.

"I'll wanna learn how to do that, if I can. Or at the very least, study it. Not urgent."

She follows, trying to move... Quietly and cautiously? That's a thing adventure novel protagonists do, right? (She's completely untrained at it.)

They travel through a series of tunnels and passages and rooms. The rooms have people of Belmarniss's species in them and often appear to have been completely dark before they show up with the periodically refreshed light. Sometimes there are also ?midgets?.

The whole place is one giant cave system, and the local dominant construct(?)-species can see in the dark. Light is a convenience for foreigners. A potent home field advantage.

There's no reason for there not to be more construct-species. But it's very strange. Are they adapted to fit into tight crevasses?

She tries to walk snootily and confidently. She has a power saw and is following a local into a trap who saved her from the facehugger.

Eventually they get where Belmarniss meant to take her. It's an older woman of the same species - not old old, actually no members of this species have looked really old, but more firmly adult and mature looking than is Belmarniss herself. Belmarniss introduces Waltana - her name's in there - and then a conversation ensues.

She makes sure nobody is behind her but otherwise tries to act calm.

What does the conversation feel like? A guard talking to his buddies? A factory worker and foreman? An ordinary miner addressing a guard? Someone schmoozing up the quartermaster? Belmarniss doesn't seem worried...

If you were somehow really good at analyzing conversation-qualities like that you would conclude that Belmarniss has tracked down an erstwhile teacher of hers and is asking for a favor.

She parses it as 'not a big authority figure, at least' and relaxes.

Eventually Belmarniss secures her favor. She reaches out for Waltana's hand.

Her first instinct is once again hesitation, but- It wouldn't help to act like a cornered rat.

The non-saw-holding hand is extended to match. She's wearing leather gloves.

Belmarniss holds out her hand to the teacher. The teacher casts a spell (that's probably a pretty recognizable class of action by now, she's seen a few) and boops Waltana's knuckles.

"There you go! That'll last about an hour, I can spend much more time understanding you than you can spend understanding me so we should be efficient," says Belmarniss. "Come on, this isn't an ideal place to chat."

"Always a pleasure, Niss," says the teacher, waving them off.

"Oh!" This is fascinating. "Quite, yes. Cheers." Nod at the friend(?).

"Lead the way."

A place she deems acceptable isn't far off. "Anything you need to ask me, first?"

"I'm a stranger in a strange land right now. Time to listen... That thing, was it venomous? Anything I absolutely mustn't do?"

She's feeling the aches of everything that happened now, with adrenaline and fear fading away. Ugh.

"Not venomous, just suffocates prey. You should probably not go all - weapon construction rant - in a crowd, scared folks are dangerous."

"...Yeah. I try to confine it to workshops but being effectively unarmed didn't sit well."

"You can probably buy a real sword or at least a good knife, your powers sound pretty useful."

"They really are. Also, dangerous. The Captain had me training discipline to control it. They benefit from tools, materials, a workshop- They just kind of hired me and gave me one, back home. Probably doesn't work that way here?"

"Nnnnot exactly. I can probably get some startup funds from my mother, she's spendy, but you're going to need to pick and choose what's a priority till you've got stuff that can do big industrial work in the mines or kill monsters or something."

"...I mean, Sparks are supposed to be good at killing stuff, but... Sounded like crops were a big deal?"

"I was assuming that'd be slower - even if you can make the machines in the same period of time plants take time to grow. Or does it make them grow faster too?"

"The one in Hothouse Five took me... Five days all told to build and install? With a half dozen technically literate helpers. Plus occasionally fussing with it until the farming crew got used to its quirks. Made 'em go from seed potatoes," she pinches her fingers together, about an inch apart, "To full size ones in twenty days, in the dark, over about... Four thousand plants I think? And also automatically watered them and controlled the temperature. But it was as big as this room not even accounting for the pipes. I could probably replace most of the metal with, like, rocks, most of the metal by weight was just frame."

"That's amazing and might return better than monster-hunting! Do you need things that aren't metal or rocks? We have those but wouldn't be so excited about plants if we had lots of those."