The black sea of space, the possibilities of technology and magic combined
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Then Tolesli is still a representative of Lei, and Mirana will tutor him in English.

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Observing the planet of Ansaf from space: there's an icecap on the dark side, a storm on the bright side, no oceans, no active volcanos, and some craters softened by wind and dust and slumping ice. The habitable band is clearly wider than would be predicted by a simple model of a slightly-prolate-spheroid planet with random mountains, due to the extensive shade walls and bulges in the ground over excavation and places where whole mountains have been raised or lowered. If one projects the satellite images onto a 3d model and views it from a simulated distance, the planet looks like it has a flattened strip around it, like a round ball of clay that was very gently rolled over a flat table, and for once in astronomy, the visual impression is accurate.

The ground is flat and even, except in the brightest areas where it's crinkled, or when prevented from uniformity by mountains or elevated aqueducts, and even then the obstacles have edges that are straight and point directly at the sun, broken, if necessary, by sideways terraces. At four locations, a narrow slash of dark forest cuts across the whole width of the habitable band.

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Weightlessness is comforting. Pursuing a simple mission, a short orbital hop, is comforting. He can have a couple of hours of... Utter aloneness, except for the tertiary pilot, Lida, who is even more taciturn than him. She gets it.

The feed from the satellite is interesting. They've clearly done large-scale geoengineering over however many years. He's sure the more analytical folks back at Nivis are going to have a lot to look at. Lucy wanted that satellite? Well, there you go, much good may it do us.

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The satellite is really useful! It gives us intel on how these people work, where any visible fortifications, activity, or development are, an easier point of connectivity than an ultra long-range VHF radio system for the diplomats, confirmation of the habitable sector and the bright area, and detailed maps of the ice sheet. The could definitely build an utterly massive field of solar panels for 24/7 solar power in the long term, that's really convenient. No weather or night to get in the way! They're already going over the ice sheet maps to confirm a route for a more permanent road out of the dense ice, and onto solid stone ground, where they'll be able to build more effectively and trade more...

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...And that's his analysis from a Exodus-science perspective of what the liefling magic did in the case of the night vision leaves. It may be possible to design a genetic intervention to make such a change permanent, with careful enough study. He's heard there is a species that cannot be treated with magic? Perhaps Exodus's techniques can prove helpful there; However the politics shakes out, most people at Exodus will agree that sharing medical knowledge is morally good. They'll likely be recalling him soon but Dr. Montero would love a chance to scientifically study basically any and all species magic.

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The PDA given to the Allheart Alliance is kept in the diplomatic center, where representatives from all the member countries may consult it, submitting proposals the duke of engineering of Nitatlel.

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The Freedom Democracy takes their PDA by apple to the other side of the planet where radiobugs can poke at it.

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Lei creates a new shrine for the alien knowledge and shuffles elves to spread it to most of the Lei counties. A few counties are left uneducated to compare, but not half; it's clear that the lessons will be very useful.

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Having read the published summary, Meikalani prepares for change. Kef's water mining is no longer useful. Kef's water transportation, however, has a healthy future, albeit in blocks of ice rather than flowing water. Regarding steel, the situation is reversed: the aliens have better mills, but Kef's iron mines remain valuable.

Kef is ready to use the aliens' knowledge, but so is every other town. And, she must admit, the Kef spirit is not of particular advantage in applying it; the mill is operated by its own corporation, not by the town, but it is a corporation mostly owned by the magistrate of the town, and only one such corporation. Kef would not be any less prepared to renovate the steelworks if Fuzzer were simply the catfolk don, as he would be anywhere else.

What else distinguishes Kef? It's a place in the drydark where there is very little wind, so non-catfolk are more easily made comfortable, but the same goes for Archer's Tabard. It has friendly relations with its frogolds, and warm moist caverns suitable for wetlands species... and is especially vulnerable to drakebreath in the stagnant air, which also foretells a lack of electricity.

It has a population accustomed to individuals keeping money and exchanging it daily, but she doesn't know if that's an advantage for dealing with the aliens.

Metal is going to become more plentiful soon, which will ruin its value as money. One might think that there will be pieces of metal of convenient sizes to carry and convenient values, furthering the Kef spirit, but she considers this the optimism of a mind eager to cling onto specifics. Metal is not going to be trusted in the future.

The growing enthusiasm for credit might have an effect in either direction: to gather usage of money among elves and their trusted dons, or to provide it to all who are able to agree to a contract. How might she lead it to the latter? Kef can attract people with ideas, spurned by their local superiors, and eager to hire employees of their own without having to explain themselves. Dangerous, with the Kef experiment marred by selection bias. And the other towns may well be happily rid of their grandiose dreamers. How can she ensure the gathering of good ideas - good ideas that are also easily overlooked? It seems an impossible problem.

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Should she, Meikalani, give up Kef? There will soon be vast expansions into the drybright in need of magistrates, and with her experience she might take on a large allotment. Let Kef stay, and in a decade, it may be moderately more successful than otherwise expected from Abilanedi's mediocrity... and that will be entirely thanked on its aqueducts, not its economic system.

Should this location be abandoned, but for the pumping crews, once the iron is mined out? The population resettled in her new drybright lands, if they can be thither persuaded, in unison? Risky.

For now, she will wait to learn more of the aliens' intentions. For now, she will focus on exploiting the current extent of the water mines, redirecting the freed-up werewolves to prepare the waterworks for receiving ice from Orocide and floating it onwards.

...And she will - she's not even pretending not to direct the activity of Kef at her magisterial command, what an embarrassment for the Kef spirit already - she will build some rooms underground, insulated and humidified, just in case.

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What about the countries that are none of FD, Lei, or Allheart? Do we get to look at these miraculous alien artifacts?

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You're welcome to read our publications.

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What if there are things we want to learn that are specific to wetland life?

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Then talk to Koy and their scientists can submit the official proposal.

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The aliens are adorable. Yep she can touch the top of her head, she reach her arms all around, just not straight up. Yep she will give you a hug. Yep she can pick up anything with her wings as long as it doesn't require sticking a finger into a long finger-width hole - she can pick up a teacup like this with all her fingertips on the handle. Oh my what a question, hey the grooves on that guy's skull are really pretty, I'm going to go tell him. Well as far as we've discovered so far, I'm better than an ekeserei because I can hear how things are stressed. Yep I've been looking at Nivis, except for the places I'm not allowed, and it all looks safe. My fur is short enough that it doesn't require grooming, which is good since my tongue isn't the best at grooming, but sure you can pet me. That's enough petting.

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Siamek's friends at home have been telling him lots about how a PDA works. They have the advantage of being able to take one apart and transmit to it, but he has the advantage of being able to observe multiple poets working together in their natural environment. He has figured out precise limit on when poets can hear each other, although he's not sure of the capabilities of the finer measuring devices at Nivis, so he doesn't have a way to directly report his discovery and be sure of evading detection.

Poets generally talk to nearby poets, which gives the impression that they're weaker than they actually are. But when he looks inside them at the parts that hear other poets and decide when to pay attention, he can see the truth - and it's very simple! The prominence of a signal in a poet's perception varies with the true loudness of the signal, and with the inverse square of the distance to the singing poet. Inside Nivis, large pieces of metal obscure poets from each other, but elsewhere, this rule is exact.

Well, that's for any particular pitch. The 'range' is different for different pitches, but he's still figuring out exactly how. In any case, no kind of device should be able to hear radiobugs on the other side of the planet speaking at a normal volume.

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"...so, there's a country that isn't in the Allheart Alliance, and isn't an ally of Lei or FD, and they want a PDA. What do you think?"

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Present at the diplomatic center is Dr. Montero, trying to strike a balance between teaching and learning about magic, Riley Cameron, under instructions to push the narrative of 'selling machines and capital goods once we know what you even want'- She's working on a proposal to have a town partially built out of stone in exchange for about half a Hydroponics Module's worth of equipment, maintenance contract and tech transfer/teaching for further magic services TBD- And Sergei Kruschev, officially the diplomat-in-charge who spends a lot of time talking to Nivis but unofficially the one who's supposed to figure out how to 'win hearts and minds'.

Miguel has been sent home on another Shuttle run.

"Miguel mentioned that such countries exist, such as Koy. We have had a lot to think about, but I would of course be delighted to speak to a representative. An additional PDA is not something we can part with trivially, I hope everyone understands... But we can talk, and perhaps find a trade. The rising tide lifts all hearts, after all."

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Present for Ansaf: Hester and Mofil for the Freedom Democracy, Mirana and the emperor for Lei, and Merta and the tengu for the Allheart Alliance. Also available nearby are: Harqa, the duke of engineering of Nitatlel, the duke of trade of Nitatlel, a monarch of Sota, Fuzzer, Lin (a frogold from the expedition), Calsa, Siki, Doctor Mipawtn, Bzrot (the wroth from the Frozen City), and plenty of assistants.

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"I understand. The representative is not here but they will come here.

I want to clarify that Koy is part of the Allheart Alliance. The other country, Stchà, is talking to Koy and wants Koy to join a new alliance, but currently this is just talking.

If you don't want to give more PDAs, in the future how will you trade knowledge to us? You don't want to give more PDAs, is that because you want to trade them not give them, or because you don't want to trade more PDAs entirely?"

He makes a note to ask what a 'tide' is later.

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Ugh. He's a terrible diplomat, always losing track of these things. But it's his job to remain calm and know what Carver wants.

"We want to trade PDAs, not give them, because we can't make more yet. We know how to but it takes a lot of very big machines and being very careful. We think we will be able to make more in maybe fifteen to thirty deci-years. We want to build many great machines, we want all people to have what we have, and we can't do it alone. This requires trade. We will need metal, and magic, and smart people who can learn what we teach. When I said 'the rising tide lifts all hearts', this means that - when people know more, everyone is happier. Everyone has more things. Even if Koy or Lei benefits more than Exodus, Exodus still benefits. If we try to keep our knowledge and machines secret, it might help Exodus compared to the rest of Ansaf, but it is not nice, and does not help anyone. Instead, when all of Ansaf learns, there are smart people who might think of even more new things, who can make machines, who can make Exodus happier because there are more things in the world. We want to trade knowledge by teaching people who come to Nivis or to another new town that my friend Riley is talking to people about. But we are a little worried because we don't know Ansaf, and we don't know magic. So I will talk to the representative of Stchà, and maybe let them use the diplomatic PDA for a little bit, and see if we can help."

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"I understand, to confirm, the three PDAs are gifts for the expedition, not gifts for Ansaf. Now, no more gifts, you want to trade with all people on Ansaf. You trade knowledge how, not trade PDAs with knowledge, but teach people.

Suppose. Suppose the FD and Lei war becomes a fast war, suppose FD people and Lei people go to Nivis and fight, that is bad, so FD people and Lei people don't go to Nivis or the new town, don't learn. This is bad. So I think maybe there are three new towns. And I think, three is still a small number. Maybe a hundred new towns. So maybe many bad things happen, then trade is still strong, many people are still happy."

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"Maybe a hundred towns in the future future future."

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"Yes, a hundred towns is not necessary. Important is the idea, many trades happen, maybe a few trades don't happen, still many trades happen. Maybe having many trades requires many towns, maybe not. Maybe we can have many trades in a different way, an easy way."

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"Suppose Nivis teach ten people, ten people teach a hundred people, a hundred people teach a thousand people. What do you think?"

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