It's probably because the monsters are weird and frightening. They probably don't try dissecting them on a daily basis or studying their interactions with other weird and frightening monsters, likely for this reason.

So they can go down. At the bottom of the steps, it seems mostly as it was before with just a couple of guards near the gate, so apparently the man got through fine and quite quickly.

Ev seems to be on the lookout for something.

Airta will tilt her head, but surprisingly won't make an inquisitive noise. Perhaps she's used up her day's supply of them.

Perhaps she has! After a few moments, Ev will stop and then– "There can be a thing that's hard to see. … It is not dangerous."

"A thing that is a monster?" She seems to have picked up 'monster' as a term for the sort of creature the shadows and hazes are. She hasn't heard it used often enough to realize it's more general.

She waves her hand a bit, suggesting uncertainty. "Monsters are usually dangerous. This thing is annoying, not dangerous. … Creatures are monsters and other things? It is a creature?"

"It is a magic creature?"

Nod.

"It is in the town?"

"They can when the gate is open," she indicates the gate, which is now closed. "Like before. I was looking for one."

That makes sense.

Airta expresses that she is impressed with the lamps. In the city she's from it would have been impossible to see by now.

Oh, huh! Well, this town was quite fortunate to have them back when they got them, but now they're quite common across the country.

If Airta's curious about the creatures, Ev could introduce her to someone who could explain more about them? It's her magic teacher, and he got back earlier – she probably noticed, what with the sparks and the gate and everything, yeah, that was him.

... Alright. Is Ev proposing that they do that now?

They can if Airta's up for it, but it might be polite to leave him a little to settle down from his entry – or perhaps they should go do it anyway, he's the sort of person who might like to talk about his 'battle' right away.

Or they can wait until tomorrow.

Airta would normally go to sleep in about two hours, so she's not particularly tired, but it might be worth getting used to going to sleep in time with this world's night, so she's not sure. Ev presumably knows better what the mage would prefer than Airta does.

They can meet him tomorrow then, in case he has anything planned for tonight.

Back to Ev's place they go.

Airta is much more comfortable in the now relatively-empty streets than she was earlier. She seems to be done learning the language for now, though.

That's fine, Ev can notice that and let up on the language.

Then they're back to her place, and it's been a while since they last ate, so she offers Airta some food.

Airta will gratefully accept. Once they're done eating, she'll also sleep where directed to, if somewhat fitfully.

And in the morning, when Airta gets up, Ev's dad will probably be up!

Ev might be, too, depending on how early it is.

It is not early. The morning light does a lot to counteract the twoish-hour offset, but she still ends up waking up about an hour and a forty-five minutes after dawn.

"Hello, sir," she says to Ev's father. (She was fairly thorough when grilling Ev for honorifics, yesterday.)

Ev must be out at the moment, then, because she's not present.

"Hello," says Ev's dad. "How's your Thuria?"

(Thuria is the name of the language they're speaking. Ev probably covered this yesterday.)

Airta takes a few moments to think about her answer. She settles on saying, "It is uncomfortable. I have not talked to people who are not Ev. I do not know if it is good or bad."

"It sounds good!" he responds. "I don't know how much you know of it, though, nor if it's similar to your own language…?"

"Ev taught me many words, but I do not know particular words for many things. It is not similar to my own language."

"You're doing very well at it anyway," he says. "Oh– do I need to simplify my language, or does this work?"