"I haven't told anyone anything, except that I was going to talk to you. Want to talk someplace more private?"

"I can't promise amounts of payment on secrets you've figured out in advance, not knowing what you've found, obviously. But sure. Back to my office." They go.

"It works by having a memory containing a lot of things that can be in one of some number of discrete states. Everything comes down to changing one of the values of one of those things or displaying colors or letters based on a code for converting from those values to colors and letters. You've put some work into trying to hide the number of possible discrete states. I'm not sure how many states yet, I have a guess but I'd need to do some research to be sure if it's right."

"What you've figured out so far would have been pretty hard to hide without abstracting the programming language and a bunch of other things to the point of uselessness, but you're being very inquisitive and clever about it, getting it so fast, congratulations. I am loathe to give you hints but if you correctly figure out the number of possible states and tell me how you did so I can hide it better and swear to secrecy for a year I'll give you 6000 rings. Knowing how you got this insight so quickly, and keeping it a secret for a year, is worth 800 to me."

"Sure, deal. My first clue was the existence of pixels and then everything just kept being discrete. And file sizes use the same units for images and texts, like they're drawing on the same resource."

"Yeah. Songs and programs and the games and the calendar file too, all use the same units. Walk me through all the steps of figuring and leaps of intuition? Did being an illusion mage or having certain background knowledge give you a special advantage at it?"

Nimo tries to explain in enough detail.

"...I don't think it's the type of magic. Being a working mage, maybe. Programming is kind of like doing magic, but to a computer instead of reality."

After the explanation is finished, "Well, if there weren't any clever people in the world other than me it'd get awfully boring eventually. Here's your pay. Do let me know if you figure stuff out about the memory."

"I will!"

She's going to make out well for herself. He'd probably even be interested, were he a caralendar. But he's turned off by the idea of being in an interspecies harem quite effectively.

He goes back to work.

...He finds Milliways at the entrance to his workshop when he's about to get to work and tells Dareni, accompanying him, "Oh, excellent! Two rings to hold the door for a minute or two while I fetch up Valanda."

"For two rings I will be here holding the door when you get back."

And how long he spends frozen while she reads every book Bar has won't matter from his end.

Oh shit. Dareni can read books on computers and maybe learn how to make one that's somehow not covered by his nondisclosure agreement.

Well. He's covered quite a lot of ground and physical principles and computer design with her so far. 

"...One sec. Just to be clear, our nondisclosure agreement still applies if you find a book that tells you things I have already told you in there. Two dozen rings to wait to go in until I've fetched Valanda." He's well off enough now that a dozen here and there doesn't really matter. And Milliways time is funny but this still reassures him, somehow.

"Fine, fine, I'll hold the door and not go in until then."

He flips up two twelve-coins and runs off before she catches them.

Valanda is probably in the government building this time of day! He goes in and checks.

Yup. Taking a short break from paperwork to put up a copy of The Law Will Find You on the wall.

"Hi, Nik!"

"You'd better let me carry you off into the wilderness-" oops, flirting not intended, oh well move on, "-or we'll lose Milliways. Dareni's holding the door at my workshop right now but I only paid her to do it for a few minutes."

"Thanks for finding me!"

"No problem. Anybody else who should see the magic interdimensional bar today? I'd go for Katherine at New Dover but she's at least an hour away."

"Mahan had a good idea about how to use it last time but I think he's at New Dover right now too. ...Wonder if the other refugees that decided to stay are still there."

"I can check the rooms they were occupying but they might have changed. I don't think bar could give us a straight answer, because of the time thing."

He picks Valanda up and whooshes him to the door. "Anyway, here we are."

"Hi, Bar! It's good to see you again!"

Welcome back. Would you like some Hylian-style food?

"Yes, please!"

Meanwhile Dareni sits down at the bar and asks for the lost library of Seirvlen.

Cake and a mushroom skewer and steamed meat wrapped in edible, tasty leaves is provided.

I have many but not all texts from that library. Is there anything in particular you're looking for?

"Any really boring records of everyday events? A guide to doing illusions that cover a whole country? A census of Seirvlen when it was still a unified kingdom?"