I don't think magic is real...?

...Why not? You have floating islands.

...That's hydrogen? Floatstone. It grows like a little lattice with hydrogen inside, tiny balloons full of hydrogen, and it floats.

Hydrogen?? The concept is sent back covered in confusion. I only got that is a gas.

We're coming at each other with crossed ropes. They're both missing a lot of info, that is. You don't know English very well? Where'd you come from?

Arion sends her images as an answer. A city covered under a dome of magic energy. Locked away from the world for years. And a portal to another world.

Weird. Very weird. And kind of alarming. She's not sure what to do about that.

I am sorry?

It's just... What are you going to do now?

Look around? I don't have any plans.

I suppose if I think of magic like Lost Tech that you can't actually sell it doesn't change much... Need anything mechanical fixed?

Magical objects are a thing, but I don't know how to make anything more complicated than a floating light. And nothing mechanical to be fixed. We don't even have that many mechanical things.

Then maybe you could use some. Want a look through my inventory?

Sure, why not.

Clock! Mechanical calculator. Grappling hook. Tiny engine. Coiled-up spring that can store engine-power without burning anything. An air pump with attachable hydrogen filter. A compact typewriter for the English alphabet. Strange bundles of equipment meant for flying ships like an 'attitude gauge'. Other toys, bits and bobs.

He finds all of these things fascinating. Enough to check for prices of some. He wonder if the filter is something he could do with his magic and so on.

She has prices. Reasonable ones, even.

(Most of her stuff is not made out of metal. Wood and that weird glass are common materials.)

The filter is actually biological. We grow a lichen similar to floatgrass onto a mesh, and it filters hydrogen out of mixed air for us.

How useful is separating hydrogen out of air anyway? And is metal rare or something?

Hydrogen is fuel, and lets ships fly. And, yes.

I wonder if I could separate it myself. I am pretty sure a life-capable mage could do something with the lichen.

I know the rules of magic even less than the rules of lost technology, so...

Fair enough. How much does a clock costs? And are they easy to reassemble?

Yes. But for you? Not really. Clocks dancing in her mind. This bit connects to that bit which has tension on that other thing balanced with the bit over there... 

I can put it back together cheap if you bring me the parts after you look at it, though. Let's call it two glass coins and six wooden ones to buy. Three wood to reassemble.

Arion thinks for a couple of moments and then. "Deal."

And a good one. 

Money is changed. She demonstrates how to control the clock and how you have to wind it at least once a day. 

How does magic work?