Taking Ian's lead, Niels decides that it would be best not to reveal the extent of Earth's technology, at least until they learn more about the society they find themselves in. "I'm a... craftsman. I designed and built wheeled contraptions, somewhat like carriages." And aircraft, for most of my career, but best not to mention that. "We also have farmers and foresters, but we developed tools to help them produce more food with fewer people. Most of our people live in cities, and we have a lot of merchants."

"Ian, Ronja, and I are... academics? Scientists? Natural philosophers?" Chloe's not sure exactly what the translation magic can do, especially if there are words that do not have an equivalent from one culture to the next. "Ian studied the past of our people, and Ronja studied chemistry." Will "chemistry" translate? If they don't have a scientific tradition, maybe as "alchemy"? Only one way to find out. "I studied a type of mathematics, but I ended up in a job where I managed other people who were using mathematics to organize things."

"I believe some places in Noten do such- They carry and trade promises of payment from a specific noble or merchant guild, rather than physical coin. I heard that many do not trust them, though, as the Duke Pharos infamously refused to acknowledge his late father's debts, and the King had to step in. Ah, a craftsman and three scholars. A noble pursuit, all. Of history, or something more than that? Of - salves and tinctures and acids? Medicines and poisons and esoteric liquids changing form, like lye and tannins and wood-varnishing? And of mathematics. I hesitate to ask more about the mathematics, lest I sound like a pig trying to speak! Were you from a great city, then, that there was opportunity to go to schools?"

"The King of Noten offered to those holding promises of payment to Duke Pharos the third, to purchase the papers at half of the shown value if they would swear before Erius that the claimed debt was legitimate. Half is not none, but half is also most certainly not all, and there's little to say that other nobles won't do the same thing, so people only trust the Royal promissory notes."

Ian makes a mental note to learn more about the economic system of this world. "Not all of us were born in large cities. Promising students in our world would move to the cities with the great schools -- we called the great schools 'universities'. Ronja was born in the city of Stockholm, and attended the university there. I was born in a small town, but moved to a city called Cambridge to study. Niels studied craftsmanship and the sciences there as well. He was born in a different city, Munich, but because of his intelligence and diligence, his accommodations and schooling in Cambridge were paid for." Ian spoke the last sentence with a clear note of pride; Niels looked slightly bashful.

Ronja thinks carefully about Ceejay's response. "Mostly, yes. I haven't done any work with medicines since I graduated, but I should remember some things." I'll have to look into what magic can do first, but perhaps I'll be able to make something useful. "Do you have any chemists in Wo Liua? A pharmacist or apothecary, perhaps?"

"We have an herbalist, who gathers and grows and prepares some natural remedies like willow bark, turmeric, or blue threaders."

"I'd like to meet them soon, if possible. I think I could learn a lot from them."

Chloe waits for a moment to interject. "What are our options for learning Atsosi? I'm sure the memory of understanding your words will help us a great deal, but are there any other ways you or someone else could help us? I think the language will be our greatest short-term barrier to integration here."

"You could look for a spirit caller who can grant a different boon than myself, perhaps one of insight or learning or a longer form of translation. You could seek a great city, with their numerous scholars and wizards, and learn there. You could simply experience life and come to learn it by necessity. Most people will be understanding! You're strangers! In truth, our humble village might not hold much opportunity for you- But you should journey where you wish. A person's first journey is a great thing."

"We might want to stay here for a little while at least, to get our bearings." Ronja speaks slowly, waiting for the nods of her fellows before continuing. "What season is it here? Is it possible to travel year-round? And what sort of odd jobs are there in this village suitable for someone on a journey?"

"Wandering scholars is an entirely different question than most young people- They tend to be eager to learn and vigorous of body, so one common arrangement is to help out with busywork or the strenuous parts of someone's job in exchange for lessons, the experience, and a bit of pay. Say, a day with a potter fetching and preparing clay, or with a woodsman cutting trees. Maybe if you have any clever ideas or foreign tricks and crafts someone could pick up? We don't have a Traveler's Guild here, too small, they would know better."

"I'm sure between us, we can find some good bits of knowledge to share." Niels smiles in relief: there's an existing framework for new ideas to be introduced. "Once we learn Atsosi better, or if we can find a spirit caller to help, we could probably also teach more abstract arts and sciences if there was anyone willing to pay or provide room and board in exchange."

"If we are to start travelling, where should we travel from here? What provisions would we need?"

"I think you should go to Five Wheels, it's two days' walk east of here and there's another village along the way. You would need food for those two days and perhaps a few coins to pay for rooms."

"I would like to accompany you and chronicle your journey, otherworlders. Tamamo was surely laughing at me when you met me yesterday- It's a thread I should keep following! I can even support you for a little while until you figure something out."

For the rest of the meal, the group answer questions as Ian and Chloe work on producing an Atsosi phrasebook. They end up with a decent amount of phrases, with the English next to the spoken Atsosi in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Learning whatever script existed can be done later -- for now, they need basic communication.

Eventually the meal finishes and the spell dissolves. Ian graciously thanks their hosts in accented but still correct Atsosi.

There is some time remaining before sunset, and Niels decides to walk around the village and take a closer look at the infrastructure. He's especially interested in the wall, the roads, and the construction of the houses, but he remains attentive for anything else interesting

The roads are packed dirt, aside from one heading east, which is packed gravel. A small square with a little keep including battlements has cobblestone paving. The village is laid out in an orderly, defensible manner, with an extra set of gates near the inner square. The outer wall is a palisade wall, rough logs stuck deep into the soil with outer spikes. There's no inner platform or battlements, just a watch tower near each gate. The houses are mostly rough wooden construction. There are several new ones going up, even, and the carpenters are using solid iron tools and lots of cross-bracing with the wood. There are a lot of logs around, so presumably the wood construction is making use of what is available locally, though some of the homes have stone foundations and a few feet of stone wall, with wood on top.

Niels observes the scene, wanting to ask questions but not wanting to waste a worker's time with playing charades. He realizes that what he's seeing isn't necessarily indicative of Atsol's technology: it's indicative of the technologies in use in a rural village. Nevertheless, he gets some useful information. The keep tells him that this is a village which expects to need to defend itself, and the keep's battlements tell him that cannon have not been invented. The roads speak to a central government that at least cares about infrastructure a little bit, and the stone walls speak to quarries. The tools indicate that at the very least they can smelt and work iron. Probably at least some forms of steel then, although Niels has no way of knowing what processes they use. Perhaps they use magic -- uh, spirit-calling -- for some of their industrial processes.