"...I am not the smartest but I'll try. The short answer is that we did a lot of experiments over a long time. The long answer is... Long..." 

Maybe selling this kind of knowledge would be better but that's a really unfriendly and uncharitable tack to take? Where to start, though... 

"...There is a math thing called 'entropy'. It is - how stable something is in a math way. ...I might need to draw."

Once a surface is acquired:

"If you have a lot of little things that could be pointed in any direction, there are a lot of ways they can be arranged. They could point all in the same direction..." He draws three needles, vertical. "Or in different ones." Three askew. "There are a lot of ways that they could point in all different directions. This one could point here, or here, or here, or any other direction. And for each of those directions this one can, too. So there's really only one way that they're all pointing the same way, and many many ways that they're not. If you change one of these, not choosing it just - 'random' - and nudge it a little bit, and then keep doing that over and over, probably it will tend to make them point all different ways eventually, right? There are a lot of ways that they could point differently, and only one way they point the same. Entropy is a measure of how - pointing everywhere - a thing is. A stone block has low entropy, and a pile of dust has higher entropy."

"Heat is kind of like pointing, because some tiny things move fast and are hot, and some tiny things move slow and are cold. They hit each other and change speed. That's how heat moves. A hot pot of water in a cold room has low entropy, because heat will move randomly and almost always from hot to cold not cold to hot, and when everything is the same temperature it has more entropy. Entropy always goes up every time we looked at it. Always. The sun shines light, and that can make entropy on a planet go down, but the entropy in the sun and the planet is still going up! Catfire would make entropy go down! But we think nothing can do that, and we tried a lot of things."

"I think I understand except for the last part. Why does catfire make entropy go down? ...Also I want to know more about what you tried to do to make entropy go down."

"If catfire doesn't come from somewhere, it is making a low entropy thing - hot in one place and cold in another - without making higher entropy somewhere else. The sun is - burning, kind of, it will go out eventually. The sun's heat isn't lowering entropy because entropy in the sun is going up and it will go out eventually."

"The sun is going to die? Scary. - Some people think the sun is made of catfire.

But you were saying, catfire makes a situation where one place is hot and one is cold... but it does not make any place cold. Just one place hot."

"I didn't learn about this as much... I learned about plants... Uh, if I take things pointing everywhere like this, and add three new ones that are all pointing the same way, there's still less pointing-everywhere then before."

"That makes sense, for kappas making entropy go down. But catfire makes things hot and move fast and hit other things more? ...which then get hotter so the whole room becomes equally hot everywhere. So the room has higher entropy after all that, but before the heat spreads out to the whole room, the situation where part of it is hotter has lower entropy. Very nice! If I understand it.

But how do you know the math is how things actually work?"

"I think you have it right. Or at least mostly right... I don't know that part. It's- They built huge places with 'magnets'* and hot air and looked really closely at the hot air, I think? Except it was not air, it was things that can be air that the sun is made of. I think they can tell what the sun is made of by what kind of light it makes? I don't have books about this on the PDA. I mostly have books about plants and hydroponics. Someone at Exodus will know more.

...Are you understanding all this?" He asks the other two people-who-are-learning-weird-pidgin.

*A new word

"Hrm... I will enjoy talking to them, then. Thank you." Magnet, he repeats to himself, to ask about it later.

"Not all of the math, but it sounds reasonable enough."

"I assume the math doesn't talk about the number of ways something can be, since you can't actually count them, it's 'infinite' - there are always more ways no matter how big you count. And I don't understand why" three fingers pointing together in the same direction "is special... I mean, I understand that there are lots of ways if you're not looking at exactly how each finger is pointing" wave hands around "but maybe this" stop moving "is special? Maybe you want the fingers to be exactly here, and 'random' changes would break the thing you care about? But I'll ask someone in Exodus who knows more about this."

"We can know about how many tiny things are in a cup of water. But this is hard to explain right."

"It's okay, we can ask someone who knows more.

Do you think Exodus would be interested in trading for us using magic to:

• Hold things in place so they can't move or change.
• Keep things so they don't change, but can be moved and released later.
• Make plants give fruit and nuts which make more plants that are different.
• Directly make plants different, but their fruit and nuts make the first kind of plant without the change.
• In a dangerous situation, think and learn very quickly.
• Create air and water.
• Eat things that you don't want.
• Go into dangerous places without getting hurt.
• Take things out of places, like if there's a narrow hole and you can't put your hand all the way in.
• Know what people are thinking.
• Know if a house is strong.
• Make people think that they see or hear or touch or smell something.
• Pick up heavy things.
• Move very quickly.
• Look at things far away.
• Smell the inside of things, like is a person healthy or does this rock contain the particular type of rock you want.
• Bite through things.
• Lift heavy things.
• Talk to people far away.
• Take the things that people feel.
• Move very small things.
• Look around at a lot of things at once.

There might be other, rare species that we can search for if there's something else you want."

Did the Lei emperor just admit that undines and apples exist?

Yep, and he's not going to make a big deal out of it right now because working with the aliens is a higher priority.

"If Exodus is willing, we could look around and talk to people there, and then we might think of things that would be helpful for you that neither of us would think of just by talking here."

He has to think about all that for a bit. And write down notes.

"I think they'll definitely want to talk to your countries and trade. They'll be as surprised as I am about magic. But trade is still good. Hmm...

Catfire is really useful for turbines. And probably other things I don't know as much about. A reactor* makes a lot of heat but catfolk can move around more easily than one of those.

Changing stone is really very very useful for building things. I think probably they will want to build some things.

Holding things so they can't move would be useful for building. You can lift very heavy things that way.

I don't think I understand the second thing, it sounds just like the first one?

Making plants different shapes might help in hydroponics, if some plants are outgrowing their trays. Or for decorations. Things that are nice to look at.

Making new kinds of plants sounds like what radioactive* trash does. But we do it on purpose instead of randomly.

Thinking and learning very quickly could be useful for some things. I'm imagining needing to read a book of instructions on how to use a big tool all at once, so you know how to fix it or stop it before it hurts someone?

Creating air and water is very very useful! Especially for going into space! You can boil water and throw it out of your space ship to go places. Usually you have to bring all your water with you in the first place.

We will probably have trash that is hard to recycle? Magic can eat** it? The reactor* makes trash that is radioactive*. It's dangerous and hard to get rid of.

Going into dangerous places like the reactor* to check them or fix them might be handy but we have robots* for that.

Taking things out of places... If it can make sealed things with no air inside I think that's probably useful somehow but I don't know how exactly.

Reading thoughts is scary but maybe Security will want it!

Knowing if things are strong- Good for building! Good for making tools!

I think making people think they see things is called 'illusions*'. That would be fun, I guess.

We can pick up heavy things with tools. I don't know what you mean with this one.

We can move quickly with tools. So same thing I guess?

We have telescopes* and cameras* but maybe magic is better at seeing than them.

Smelling the inside of things might be useful. I remember we trained small friend animals to smell things sometimes at home. Smell sick people, smell poisons, smell dangerous things. I wonder if you could smell viral* sick plants?

Biting through things sounds... Dangerous? Maybe if tools weren't working?

Lifting heavy things again. I don't understand.

Talking to people far away! We know how to do that but my radio* is broken.

Take things people feel? Like make them feel less? If they are sad or too angry or need to sleep, maybe.

Moving very small things sounds useful for a lot of things. How small? Too small to see?

Looking at a lot of things all at once I think I also don't understand.

That's a lot of kinds of magic. I think even in not-true books for fun usually there are less.

Other magic that might be useful... We will want to find a lot of the kind of rock that you can make metal from, and make metal from it. We use a lot of metal, for eveything."

* = new words

**'Eat' is being used to mean both 'consume as sustenance' and 'destroy'.

"Would you trade us a 'reactor'? Towns in the drydark need a lot of heat, even if it can't be moved around. Does a reactor get hot enough to melt metal?

The difference is that an 'aasimar' would take this piece of ice and make it stay exactly here and not melt" he holds the chunk of ice in midair and puts a flame under it with his other hand "but a 'gnomunk' would make the ice go away and then come back later, and it doesn't melt because where would you even put the flame?

One species, 'gnolls', can eat things, and the food is gone then; they don't need a chamber pot. Usually they eat stone. If radioactive trash is dangerous, it might hurt them before they eat it.

No one here can read thoughts, and no one of that species is coming here. Exodus should not be scared of that.

What are robots?

Picking up heavy things is done by 'harpies', who make heavy things lighter and then pick them up.

Is your radio dangerous?

Could telescopes and cameras, if they were here, see the shape of your ship before it crashed? With the big hot wing-shaped parts?

Moving small things is done by 'mouselings', who can make a second body for themselves. The second body has to be big enough to see, but it can see things which are too small to see any other way.

Looking at lots of things at once is done by 'tengu', who have lots of bodies and... hm, so a mouseling can only really think about one of their bodies at a time. Just like how if I put a hand between my eyes and look at your sunlight-image thing with one eye and at Merta with the other eye, I can still only think about one of those things at a time. But a tengu can think about a different thing with each of its bodies.

What kind of sick people do your animals smell? Like if they have a dangerous thing growing inside of them but it's still very small? ...most species here can smell better than humans here, so if someone is clearly sick we can smell that from the outside.

Our not-true books for fun also don't usually have as many new kinds of magic as there actually are, unless they're thinking about an idea for how humans might work differently. Some fun books add a single new species, or a new kind of magic that everyone can learn, and all the real species are still there, so you could say they have more kinds of magic than we have, but most of them aren't new. I've also seen some books that ask, like, what if the only species was frogolds? Could they survive? What would it be like? ...I once read a book that had three times as many kinds of magic, though! The real kinds, a not-true kind for each species that they had plus their real kind, and a kind about a 'god', a very strong magic person who doesn't die, one for each species."

"A reactor is probably the biggest and most expensive thing we could trade. I think we would trade other things and get to know each other first. It can definitely melt metal." Also he thinks you might be able to make nuclear weapons with it? Which would be bad, obviously.

"Yeah, I wouldn't- Try to eat it with your mouth even if you have magic." He shivers. "Robots are like the PDA, but they have metal arms. They can do things that are simple if you tell them what to do. They're not people. I don't think radio is danger- Oh, 'radioactive' uses the same sounds. I'm not sure why that is. They're different."

"Telescopes could see the ship even far out. The big telescopes, I mean. Wings? Do you mean the 'radiators'? Those get rid of heat from the ship's reactor since there's no air to do that in space."

"Teeny tiny bodies that are animated by magic could be good for making more computers- Things like robots and the PDA. They're very small and delicate. I think I don't understand tengu still. I don't know much about things we smelled. A dangerous thing growing inside of them sounds like 'cancer', which is a big problem. People do a lot of work trying to fix cancer and got better at it eventually. You can cut it out, or hit it with radioactive things very very very carefully, or use drugs. Or all of those depending on what kind it is."

...........Don't proselytize to the aliens. It seems likely to get so, so messy.

"Some humans from Exodus think there is a god, and some don't. It's not polite to argue about it, but talking about it nicely is okay."

"Yeah, radiators! That's what we thought they were for, nice to know we were correct!

We can usually fix cancer too, by using magic to tell it to stop growing, or telling the rest of the body to kill it. 

Only one god? That happens sometimes here - thinking that one god created humans or gave them magic - but most people think there are no gods or think there are many gods. And here too it's not polite to argue about it."

He chuckles a bit. Kind of darkly.

"I hope everything turns out okay. I think I want to hear more about the FD and Lei. And Allheart. Maybe I should learn Sotalese properly or teach you English properly instead of our weird talking, but I don't know how to do that right... And I wasn't thinking good before. Anyway. The FD is a democracy? And Lei is a - saying who is in charge next? What is the word for that?"

"I think that learning Sotalese is a good idea."

"If some of what you trade to us is knowing things, I think we would like to learn English too."

"FD is a democracy, yes. All the other countries are not democracies... The thing where the person in charge says who will be in charge next isn't important; the important thing is the each person in charge gives notes to the next person using 'elph' magic - that's his species - so we say that the other countries have elves in charge.

The other countries are different from each other by how the elves get jobs and move between jobs and lose their jobs. In Lei, the elves move around a lot, and they lose their jobs only when the other elves say so. In Sota, they don't move often, and they lose their jobs if enough people are angry. In Nitatlel, it's similar but the elves are not in charge of towns, they're in charge of a small job for large piece of the country. Nosimasna is like Lei but the elves keep their notes in a lot of small pieces and if enough people are angry they can take the piece of notes that are bad."

"It's true that in Lei, elves don't lose their job unless other elves say so, but I think it's important to say that there used to be many countries like that, and people liked Lei better and moved to Lei, so that Lei got bigger and the other countries got smaller, and now Lei is very big."

So, what... Lei is Imperial China and the FD is not early USA- Maybe revolutionary France-

-Actually, none of those, he's searching for familiar patterns where there probably are none again.

"...I think now that we can talk at all in this half language we should do learning Sotalese and English. It is good to meet new people and it's good to talk but it will be better if everyone can talk, not just me and you. We can talk enough to probably talk about things that are important or dangerous. It seems bad to keep talking 'maybe maybe maybe maybe' forever. Instead, do a thing that will be good later. Since we don't know how long until we find Exodus I still want to ration the PDA's charge- Only use two hours each wake. So we should get a lot of paper or stone for you to write on, and be ready to write down a lot lot of English things. I will write Sotalese next to English on the PDA so I can give it to Exodus later."

Languages can be exchanged!

Does he want to stay with the expedition, or come to the diplomatic center where there are more people and plenty of writing material and much more comfortable weather?