......The adult in the room fishes out a touchscreen tablet and sketches on it a tall stick figure with a flower and a short stick figure touching and a '//' question mark.

That looks like a retelling of the illusion sequence demonstrating her process for sharing languages; so she'll replay that set of illusions.

She takes her gas mask off and says something that has ALL the kids objecting loudly and pointing at things!

Okay, okay, she relents-

-Uhhhh. Gesture time. Mime touching and then she groans and holds her head?

That's a reasonable question. She conjures a few more illusions. The first shows the first part of the process and the recipient smiling afterwards. The next five show five different people doing the second stage and and one of them groaning and holding their head for about thirty seconds while the others just smile.

Talking talking talking-

-Tablet sketch of doing the touching thing, and then an arrow to small stick figure lying down, and then stick figure with gun and truck and a very exaggerated angry face.

"But if you really want to risk it, Meto, I guess I can't stop you. I think it's a terrible idea, though."

"It'll be fine. Maybe it's some kind of cybernetic tech. Or maybe she IS a witch and this will make me a hero." Or maybe bad things instead, but he wants to.

Wren sighs deeply as Meto approaches the stranger again.

She nods gently in understanding of the sketch. It makes sense for her to be protective of her people especially since they appear to be young.

She kneels down and offers her hand to the kid.

He will shake hands and squint his eyes closed, bracing himself.

A sensation of something a bit like warmth spreads through Meto's body starting in his hand. Little bits of discomfort that he hadn’t even noticed flee before the gentle ebb of magic filling something that isn't quite his body but is certainly connected to it. Other greater aches and pains he's been carrying ease a bit.

The sensation builds a little as it spreads carrying his attention with it to every finger, every toe and everywhere else. Once it encompasses his whole self it deepens somehow, or perhaps ignites? There's no perfect word for it but he knows instinctively that something important has happened; he knows the magic inside him isn't Maenik's anymore it's Meto's. The sensation is more than a little overwhelming.

Maenik discreetly supports his body a bit in case he loses his balance to prevent any misunderstanding.

He wobbles. The oldest kid steps forward, looking suspicious, but Meto says something and she stops approaching. Doesn't step back, though.

Magic! Magic! Did he just BECOME a witch?? Can he pick things up with his MIND???

If he can it's not immediately obvious.

Maenik waits a little bit and then pulls out the metal block from the illusion and hold it out.

What if he WISHES really hard to pick up that discarded license plate over there with his MIND.

(He is too distracted daydreaming and babbling to his friends to notice this.)

The magic doesn't seem to respond to abstract wishes like that. Or at least not to that specific wish.

Maybe this will be harder than he thought...

The local adult says something and points to the metal box. The kid extends his hand hesitantly.

The metal box feels strange when he touches it. It feels like an absence of magic or maybe a magnet for magic? Something in between those. He can feel a bit of Maenik's magic already in the box.

...Is this where things go bad? Probably not, right, she seems nice, but.

...Poke?

The box seems to pull on the magic he gives it, not enough that he couldn't pull it back but enough to be noticeable. There's some sort of network of passages inside the box, with the tiny poke's worth of magic it moves down the paths slowly. Even the small amount of magic he poked with is enough to start doing something though. The passages in the box seem to reshape the magic that passes through them into an incredibly intricate structure. That reshaped magic moves back up his arm and through his shoulder and his neck towards his head. With just a tiny amount of magic it moves rather slowly.

This is kinda scary! He - yanks back reflexively, pouting. Then thinks better of it and will touch the thing again and... Poke harder?

With more magic it flows a bit faster. If he lets it get all the way to his head he can feel that it's not changing anything. It's looking at something about the pattern of cells there and then recording it in a bubble of magic. After it finishes that process it'll move back towards the box pulling the bubble with it.

He reports this aloud to his friends.

This one gasps and starts talking excitedly about- Brain things, maybe, given the gesture and pointing at her noggin.

Maenik smiles a different smile at that. It's good that they're talking to each other and understanding what's happening.