Once his bubble gets back to the box there's another bubble waiting made from Maenik's magic. Each of their respective magics copy the other person's bubble and then magic with a new intricate pattern drags this new copy into their respective bodies and while he can't track the motion of the magic inside Maenik he can sense his own magic pulling it back towards his head. This time the pattern will settle in around the same place it was looking before and make some tiny changes while still looking.

Still nervous!! But will let it happen!!

She waits another couple seconds but once she's pretty sure the language module is active she repeats her hello. "Hello, you should be able to understand my language now. I can also understand and speak in yours so if you'd prefer you can get rid of the translation magic on your end and we'll just talk in that."

Then she'll turn to address the adult and demonstrate that fluency in their language. "Thank you for trusting me not to hurt your companion."

"I don't know how to do that."

"He was very insistent. I'm effectively their guardian so I would rather appreciate a thorough explanation of what you think is going on with him."

She takes a step back and pockets the small box. "I did two things. First I awakened magic in him. Passively the main thing magic does is heal the people who have it. With templates like the language sharing one we just used magic can do a lot more, it's also possible to learn how to do magic without templates but it's something that requires a lot of practice. The second thing was that we used a template that lets us people trade languages. I gave him a common trade language used by my people and got the languages he knew in exchange. That's how I'm talking to you now."

She turns back to the younger boy. "If you just grab hold of it with your other magic and squeeze really hard it should go away without any issues."

"They say never to trust a witch, they don't know how their own magic works, or else they do and how it works is 'it screws you over'." Suspicious Girl declares, suspiciously.

"It's probably fine, I feel great!"

"I bet cocaine feels great."

"Oh so you do have local magic. I wasn't sure, all I noticed was some unusually durable materials. I'm from a bit further away than that depending on how you think about things. Multi-spatial distance is always hard to measure. My magic at least is rather well studied and the mechanics of how it works and what it can do are well understood."

"We don't personally have local magic. It's rare. And usually not more useful than an engine or more deadly than a gun."

"My magic doesn't tend to win competitions with major equipment on raw power. The healing is pretty nice though and efficiency and flexibility counts for a lot."

"So how do I do things with it? Can I pick things up with my BRAIN? That would be really handy for scavenging."

"That's simple enough that with a lot of practice you could do it without a template but it's a lot faster to just use a template." She looks around and finds a bit of scrap metal in a nearby pile and splits off a piece of it with magic then levitates it over to her hand and transforms it into a bracelet there before sending it over to Meto. "With a bit of practice you should be able to use that."

He will POKE the cool gadget with his magic.

"So is what you wanted to get- The language, and you consider yourself paid up?"

"That's not really how I approach the world. In terms of fee for service I mean. My translation magic is bidirectional to put me and the other person on more even footing. And to facilitate having actual conversations instead of trying to guess at meanings with illusions and drawings."

"...There's no such thing as a free lunch."

"Yeah, what are you really up to, lady?"

She takes a breath. "I don't know how to convince you of the core truth. I can tell you about things at the edges of what I do that probably fit better within your frame though. My role in my broader society is to check for potential dangers and to build good will with our neighbors so if the war the most paranoid parts of my society are worried about happens there will be more people willing and able to fight it with us. And in the less paranoid case so that those neighbors are less likely to attack us when they have the means."

"Oh, so, scouting, recruiting. And diplo-whatsit." She nods. That makes perfect sense. Not necessarily great to be next to, but it makes sense.

"Yeah, I've heard places that are less crowded are... Nicer than Bastion's trail. And allies and friends aren't out of the question once you've had a couple good deals with someone, just... Yeah. Well, we can definitely trade on this basis, information. I don't have any special insight into things but generalities, for sure."

"Sure, that works. I'm Maenik by the way. Would you be willing to tell me your names?"

"Wren."

"Alice!"