"Nick! What's yours? How'd you two get down here anyway? You didn't go through my secret passage it was all dusty."

"We... climbed."

"You climbed. A-huh. I definitely totally believe that."

"You don't do you."

"Nope. You're the weird tech-hunters-or-ancestors-or-something who riled up Glass Street and half the guards in town."

"Please don't burn as at the stake or something!"

"I don't think I could if I wanted to."

"You sent lookin' for us?"

"Nah. This is my hideout, I said. I run away to here."

"Why's that?"

"Because it's an adventure!" He lies.

"That doesn't sound like all of it."

"I find good junk when exploring too, I guess. And sell it."

"Okay then."

Maurice senses sad. Must resist urge to hug.

"Anyway. You two look like you might have neat stuff to trade! Color tech!"

Maurice goes colourful. Air pants thankfully remain. "I keep telling people, it's not tech!"

"What else if not tech? Magic? Pffft."

Evan shrugs. "Sorta."

"No. Magic's fake. Magic is what stupid people think tech is. Even gooey stuff that doesn't look like tech is tech. Or natural." He shrugs.

"Except Miracle powers."

"Tech. You're not gonna convince me otherwise."

"But I don't have any tech."

"Then you had tech do something to you, or you are tech, or you're lying." He shrugs. "I'm not getting it apparently."

"Are tech?"

"I've heard stories about someone who touched an ancestor device and it put them to sleep and they woke up with super eyes and a metal arm."