"That's the part that took so long, I had to use magic and I don't actually know how magic works so I sort of. Fiddled with it until it did what I wanted."

"... Okay," says Ranelin, slowly. "That. Um. Esere couldn't do that."

"Oh."

"So. Good job."

"Thanks! I'm very proud!"

Ranelin smiles, then stands and carefully floats towards the sound of running water, a hand outstretched.

The first thing she encounters is a small cloud of cool mist, billowing from the end of a tiny, tiny waterfall that spills off the edge of a little continent. At this scale, the continent is just about the right size for her to hug it around its widest point with both arms.

"That's the Misty Falls, namesake of the capital of Heron River province," says Riale. "If you follow the Heron River back through its province, you can find where it flows down from the Jeweled Sea. If you go down from where you are, you'll find the south end of Golden Plains."

"Oh," she murmurs. "Oh my."

She follows the river, amazed and looking like she's considering crying again.

The river winds back and forth lazily across a damp, marshy province, but the damp doesn't cling to her after she touches it; all the water seems very intent on staying in its place.

On the other side of the little continent, she can follow the river up a short distance to the edge of another continent, about the same size. This one is colder, with tiny icebergs floating in the salt sea that covers most of its surface.

"Jeweled Sea province is named after its icebergs. They're very pretty. Green and blue and white."

"It sounds as beautiful as its name. I get to, to see, the world - thank you -"

She explores, delighted, only mildly inconvenienced by occasional sniffling and scrubbing of tears.

"That's Rainmere," he says when she touches the third little continent in the cluster. And down onto the mainland from there, "That's the Slow River, in Glass Lake province. It's a glacier."

...And he rustles around in a drawer and comes over to the world-model and adds, "Do you, um - those are the Singing Mountains, they make the most amazing sounds when the wind blows through them, I'm sure I can find an excuse to swing by there at some point - do you want a handkerchief?"

"It's probably bigger than I am but, yes, please -" Sniffle. "I'd - love to visit them, but only if we have time..."

"I'm going to want to include them in the next world anyway, I think."

He gently offers her the handkerchief. It is definitely bigger than she is, but also lovely and soft.

Lovely and soft are excellent qualities to have, and she can get accustomed to how it's bigger than she is. She'll carry it around with her like an oversized blanket.

"O-okay. That makes sense."

And then she goes back to exploring the world.

(Someone has noticed the open window. He doesn't spend all of his time keeping an eye on the creator, but he will spare some attention to occasionally check in to make sure Ranelin is being treated properly. The window open implies that she was being ignored. Ranelin doesn't mind being ignored, and certainly doesn't want to always be around people, but he still feels obligated to check to make sure she's all right.

He catches drifts of voices coming from the room, and - well, he's not above eavesdropping. He floats out of sight of the window, listening, piecing together what's going on. Then he manages it, solves the puzzle, and - has no idea what to do with this information.

Well. At least Ranelin's not being mistreated?

He lingers, out of some flavor of curiosity that he doesn't actually feel. Perhaps morbid. He wouldn't know.)

"That's Rose Mountains province, I think I've mentioned it." Of the neighbouring desert, "And that's Silver Sands..."

And the waters of Laughing Lake, and the forests of Wildwood, and Golden Plains - "that's the Dawnbrook plateau, we're on it!" - and Dusty Hills - "the capital's Highpoint and it's on top of a mountain right underneath the middle of the first three continents you looked at, see?" - and higher up, a lot of "I don't remember what that island is called," with one, "oh, that's Fairground, it's one of the Imperial Settlements, not big enough to be a province, there's just the one town there."

As she nears the top she reaches two very flat grassy continents right next to each other with one identifiable lump of rock sitting on the higher one. "Twin Steppes, and that's the Tall Rock. It's really tall and the Twin Steppes are really flat, so they built their capital there because it makes an excellent landmark."

Last of all, the highest group of floating islands in the world, very close to the edge between the Fire and Air faces: "Those are the Blazing Isles! The capital's called Long Drop because it's right on the edge of the highest island and if you look straight down you can see all the way to the line between Earth and Ice! My mother was born there. And it's the highest island - I think there's one rock with a tree on it a little higher up, over near the Light face, but nothing big enough to live on. There's a bunch more islands under the mainland, but I didn't do as good a job with those because I'm not familiar with them. Not many people live there because it's dark and cold and hard to grow stuff. The model still had them all, though, so you can check them out if you want."

"That's okay," she murmurs, finding a comfortable spot in the Golden Plains to sit. "This has been wonderful, thank you so much."

"You're welcome. I'm really glad you like it."

...he wants to hug her, but she is so small. How do.

Ranelin is oblivious.

"It's really well made and I can't believe you did it on the first day! You put magic into something you made!"

"I just kept trying until I found something that worked," he says. "I probably could've done it faster if I'd known more about magic. And I might not have been able to do it at all if this world's magic wasn't so nice and tidy and reliable."

"That makes sense. It might be the most reliable yet, but I haven't seen much of this world's magic to say for sure."

"We have reliable flying vehicles, I'm told that's unusual." He yawns. "I should probably go to sleep soon so we can leave early tomorrow."

"Oh! Yes, that. What time is it...?"

"About ten."

Nod.

"Is there a good place for me to sleep? I don't need to, but it's a bit more comfortable."