"Random townsfolk who are curious about another world's history, then, should work pretty well up to the 'and maybe publish it' part that I was assuming the historians would do. Unless nobody's interested, but then there's less point doing it anyway."

"I'm sure some people would be interested, it's just... not really in most people's minds most of the time."

"Nah, but it doesn't cost me all that much to ask around at some unspecified time when I already have the preliminary timeline thing." Shrug. "You want this again?" He holds out the phone to Kaede.

Grabby hands!

"Enjoy," he smiles.

Theo is giving Kaede information. Kaede will enjoy himself muchly.

It might not be directly relevant if he's reading history, and the tech stuff might not be implemented for a while because of the religious stuff in the area, but sure.

"Do any of you know any more about the, uh, yellow and blue spheres I think it was? They could be useful, maybe, if we can get them somewhere?"

"They are very specialised spheres, very rare and very difficult to make. It is not even clear whether they can be made or are all the remains of very powerful fiends."

Nod. "What sorts of things do fiends typically leave when they get– banished or killed or slain or whatever? I'm not sure I saw them dropping much the past few times, and I don't know if that's approximately standard or not."

"Only spheres, and it's common for them to do it but not so much that it's surprising they're not doing it every time."

"We got a few while you were with that guy."

"And fiends attacking is, uh, a 'every twenty or thirty meters or so' kind of event, along here?"

"Kinda. It was really weird to me, too, Zanarkand has them but it was a big deal when it happened, but here they're everywhere." He points with his sword just a few metres down the Highroad where there's a flying... symbol? Of sorts?

"– Does that indicate fiends, or…?"

"That is a fiend."

"… I had the impression this world had a slightly different aesthetic," comments Theo, almost to himself. "But okay. Shiny flying object fiend."

"It's all the death," Auron explains curtly.

"I just didn't realize fiends came in shiny and geometric, is my point. Anyway, does it have any obvious weaknesses I can exploit? Because I really should find out more about the element system."

"That one is a White Element, and it controls ice."

"So should I use fire and heat against it, or is it actually weaker to water or something?"

"Fire and ice are opposed, as are water and thunder."

"White Element is the name of the fiend itself?"

"It's what we call that kind—it's not like they have much choice about it."

"Yeah, I was just checking 'White Element' didn't mean 'ice elemental' or something. What sorts of things count as fire, just high temperatures and literal flames? And– is there any crossover in the elements, like fire and thunder, or water and ice? They seem similar."

"High temperatures and literal fire, yes, and I'm not sure what you mean by crossover in the elements—"

Oh look more fiends! A lizard thing and a wolf thing and a White Element.