...ah. Right. They said something about a broken 'Way', and no other planets they're in contact with, which could mean there aren't any aetheric currents to follow. 

"I'm not an expert in aetheric navigation, but, uh...ships travel along aetheric currents, which are basically tunnels of ambient magic connecting different points in space. I'm hoping our navigator will tell us there's at least one of those leading away from your planet, because if not then we'll have to get creative."

(Creative, here, sounding very much like a euphemism for I have no fucking clue what's going to happen.)

Arizvam raises an eyebrow, and makes an odd little series of motions, involving a great deal of finger-twirling.

“- okay, it sounds like we’re describing the same phenomenon with different- underlying assumptions. We have a great many Ways leading away from this planet. All of them lead to uninhabited systems, and all of the Ways leading away from those systems also lead to uninhabited systems, and so on, presumably forever. We are hopeful that we’ll be able to make contact with our mother planet. We are not optimistic. It sounds like you’re used to being in the middle of the network, instead of the edge; we’re sorry.”

"When you say 'forever', how far have your people actually explored?" Su-Jin asks. "And how have you not found a way back to your parent planet yet, if you have so many options? Could you not just follow paths going in approximately the right direction?" 

At this, Arizvam, vaguely frustrated at her interpreter’s difficulties, speaks directly- or, rather, uses that odd directly-vibrating-the-air trick that she’s so fond of. It’s more overwhelming that just gesticulating and letting someone else pick the right sentences, the right words, the right turns of phrase, but not quite as bad as speaking mundanely; she doesn’t have to hear her own voice.

”Ways not directional,” hisses the wind; the nearby grass flattens, and the birds all hush, and the clouds swoosh rapidly from great gusts, but they themselves are left untouched. “Ways based on connections, not locations. We have explored in shells; millions of Ways from this system, from each connecting system. Rapidly intractable.”

Cool trick, but Cas can do something similar, so it doesn't faze any of them much. 

"That doesn't sound like what I know of aetheric currents: it's been all but proven that they are directional. We might be describing different phenomena." 

“Ways look like panes of stained glass, or violet water, thousand to five thousand miles wide. Cover outer shell of system, lead directly to other system’s corresponding Way, no intervening space. Sometimes change where they lead. Aetheric currents?” asks the air.

Su-Jin looks at Cas, who takes over again. 

"I was being pretty literal when I called them tunnels. They're essentially a path through the void that's safe to travel because it's full of aether; if someone tries to leave the path and go off into the void, they...well, the people in question usually explode, or so I've heard. I've never seen it happen." He grimaces at the thought.

"Aetheric currents are hard to see with normal vision—you can see them from outside, they look sort of like more colourful streaks of void—but trying to find the edges when you're in one is chancy. Navigators learn to sense them with magic, so they can keep their ships from drifting out of the current by accident." 

The wind whistles. 

“Our void is blank. No streaks. Would have noticed.”

"None at all? That's...really weird. And it sounds like we might have to get creative after all." He sounds determined rather than hopeless, though. 

"If you think about it, the fact that the aetheric network has never discovered a planet without connections to the network is almost a tautology," Su-Jin comments. "It says more about the limitations of the network than about its ubiquity." 

"Huh. Good point." 

To Arizvam, he says, "We might be looking at the longer end of that projected timespan, maybe a month or more assuming we won't be able to hire any local experts. Would it be possible for us to find lodgings for our crew off the ship, so they can experience your people's culture while we're here? Some of us get a little stir-crazy if we go too long without the chance to explore a port." 

Mm- Brada is an emphatic no, she doesn’t even slightly want to deal with them, Tasha is a no, Lalvien is a- maybe, but he could leverage them to improve his position and he’s already more personally and geopolitically powerful than her- Sasha is a no, Rakaskem would subject them to an endless tide of beige cubicals and tile hallways, Kelsiran would badger them, she is not handing a noble mage that much leverage...

Oh. 

“I have a friend. Can get you somewhere to stay.”

"For how many people? We're a crew of thirty, in total—I don't imagine your friend would want to host that many for very long, and I'd like them all to get at least a week on land." 

“Size not a concern,” quoth the air.

"Convenient." 

He considers. "I'd like to relay what we've discussed so far to my captain and the rest of the crew; is there anything else you want to ask or tell us before we go back to the ship?" 

“No,” sings the sirocco and gale and breeze.

"...if I fly back out here with another couple of crewmembers in an hour or so, will there be someone here we can talk to, and will you stop us in the air again?" 

“Yes. No.”

"Thank you. We'll be back later." 

The wind picks up Casimir, Su-Jin, and Kirill, and flies the three of them back to the Covenant. 

"Oh good, you're back. I have good news and bad news." 

"Oh, yay, me too!" Cas shoots back with false cheer. "Is the bad news that you can't find any aetheric currents?" 

"...I think you'd better start." 

A short time later, everyone is caught up on the events at the lakeside. 

"...and according to Arizvam, there's no limit to how many people we can send. I'm not sure I want to test their hospitality with twenty rowdy sailors all at once, though."