Shortly, a merely head-sized thing with mysterious protrusions floats down to eye level and says something that is definitely not in Welchin. If he doesn't run off before it reaches him.

He totally runs off before it reaches him.

The head-sized thing stays put and says its piece anyway, just in case anyone's listening.

Another word is said. Perhaps this word is “Hello.”

Red-and-orange replies in kind, or her best guess of 'in kind'.

It tries a few things that might be other languages, not with a very hopeful tone.

Red-and-orange doesn't know any of them. She tries what might be another language too, helpful-like, but no dice.

"Kiribel Ardelay."

It points at the other person.

"Uhhh."

"Tell it your name."

"...Aleko Ardelay."

Kiri names objects.

It starts working on more abstract words and grammar, by creating shapes that act out little cartoon scenes. It starts attempting to construct sentences, and rarely makes the same mistake twice.

Kiri can work with that. She supplies Welchin as fast as the thingamajig can accept it. (Aleko, meanwhile, gets off his horse and sits in the wheat and doodles.)

It seems to be under the impression that humans are capable of telekinesis, or shapeshifting, or something like that. It wants words for these things.

Since neither Kiri nor Aleko is capable of telekinesis or shapeshifting, they're kind of puzzled. Kiri does know the words for both, though.

"Welce, near my house."

“Welce is in where?”

"Welce is a country in the continent of Tocira."

“I came here how? I could leave here how?”

"I don't know. People don't come here from there except you."

“I learn to leave after. I learn now. I do what now?”

"I don't understand."

“I will know what in this place? I will do what in this place?”

"Well, I would like to know more about how your telekinesis and shapeshifting work, if you can tell me."

“I do not complete understand. I more learn language? I moveto more good place before?”

"I can teach you more language. Your large floating part is... okay where it is... but if your small talking part wants to come to my house, it can."

“My — puramem, my” — it runs out of vocabulary and makes a human figure — “come to your house to learn, it can?”

"Yes."

"...Hello."

"Okay. Do you need all that stuff?"

"...I don't understand, but if you want the stuff, you can bring it. My house is this way." She turns her horse. Aleko scrambles on to his to follow.

She follows behind Aleko, as close as does not alarm the horses.

Aleko puts the horses away and Kiri invites Teytis and all her stuff inside.

Some of Teytis's latticework shifts and folds and slides and overall shrinks to allow her to fit into doors sized for unaccompanied bodies. The rest of her follows along, keeping out of the way.

Kiri leads her to a room which looks like an office. "You can sit... if you sit. Teaching you Welchin might be faster if I teach you to read and write it."

So Kiri goes over the alphabet, the sounds the letters make, some of the words Teytis has learned, and some vocabulary added from objects in the room, especially stuff with regular spelling.

Teytis continues to be good at learning things. She reproduces the alphabet on mysteriously floating tablets, and writes sentences and asks if she got them right.

Kiri is very curious about the mysterious floating tablets, but willing to focus on language tutoring for now. She can correct the sentences and supply vocabulary defined in simpler terms.

Teytis seems to be content to follow Kiri's lesson plan.

And here are some books that were not expressly designed to be introductions to Welchin. Kiri will hand them to the telekinetic stuff.

When she's done: “Do you have any books on — kinds of events that might have caused me to be here?”

"I don't know what could possibly have caused you to be here. It does not sound like anything that has ever happened."

“It is not anything that has ever happened in all the history that I have, either. Is there anything close, or things which are not well understood in their nature and their causes? What are the strangest things that are known to happen?”

"...Well, there's people like me..."

“You are strange to other people here? How so?”

"I'm a prime. I'm the sweela prime. Sweela means fire, and mind." The fire winks out.

“How did you come to be unique?”

"The last prime died. The new one is someone in the family, with the right personality, but no person chooses them, it just happens."

“You were undistinguished, and now you can set your hand on fire? Or, I suppose, other things as well. Well, I would be more surprised ordinarily, but seeing as I am here due to an inexplicable selection of almost exactly myself...”

"But you don't belong to a prime family, and your telekinesis isn't one of the five kinds of prime magic we have here. There is one who does wood, but no one does glass."

"Probably the next strangest thing is blessings. They're hard to explain with vocabulary you have... there are extra letters, that mean things by themselves. If you put all the letters on objects in a bowl and pick one without looking, it will be the right one."

“Stranger indeed. How much can you ask them?”

"Not very much. They're abstract concepts; no 'yes' or 'no'. But they're nice to have."

“Do you think they could help me learn about how I came to be here? Even a hint?”

"Maybe. We can try it." She gets up from her desk.

Teytis lifts off the floor and follows. “If you showed me the symbols then I could make them, but I imagine that would interfere with picking them.”

"It might not, but it's faster to go to the place where I already have some. ...Keep about that far away from me. If you get too close I'll read your mind."

"I haven't yet and I don't want to. Just don't get close."

“I won't.” (She makes sure of that.)

She thinks, and reaches past the coins visible on top and pulls one out.

"Intelligence. ...Fast mind good at doing mind things. It's one of the first three I got." Kiri taps her blessing jewelry.

"...Power. Being able to do many things or big things."

“But now it seems more probable that these are only matching yours.” One more?

"Clarity." Her last one. "Knowing what to do, not thinking about other things that aren't what you want. I'm not sure this works for you."

“Now I wonder if you could actually read my mind. Not enough to try it. Perhaps all of these things do not work for me.”

"You don't have to try it. I can feel your warmth from here, though."

“My warmth?”

"Warmth is -" Well, easy to demonstrate. The room warms up a few degrees. "That. The opposite is cold." The room chills. The room returns to normal. "I can feel when things are warm or cold, from farther away than I read minds."

“All right. Would you care to tell me about the next strangest thing, or perhaps ask me some questions of your own? I do appreciate your taking the time to teach me.”

"There aren't any other really strange things, the way I think of strangeness, after primes and blessings. How does your telekinesis work? Is it only you who can do it?"

“Before I came here, I would have said anyone can do it, but everything I have seen since arriving here suggests that it is unheard of here, and I don't see how no one could have lankored accidentally in the history of this world.”

"It's something you could do by accident?"

“It would be hard to live a life without doing so, unless you carefully avoided being good at anything or ever reusing a tool.”

"...People here do not avoid those things."

“That would seem to settle the question.”

"So this is something anyone from where you are from can do, but people here can't. And you can't do blessings. I think you got the good stuff."

“Perhaps I could do some things for you.”

"Perhaps. Can you move the big thing even when you're here?"

“I am there almost as much as I am here, though I imagine your mind-sense would likely disagree.”

"Probably. I couldn't read the little -" She gestures. "Thing that you had."

“Anyway, I could move anywhere you want. I could also make you things that I don't see how you could make without any kored.” She looks around, perhaps at the construction of the house or the things in it. “Or possibly even teach some useful things that work without; I am a jobont and I have much information, though hardly what I would have brought if I had a choice.”

"What is a jobont?"

"That's an interesting sort of work."

“Indeed, I found it to occupy myself completely. And I have nothing to do now, other than to learn about this world, and thus find every scrap of information I can about how I might eventually be able to get home. Er. Not that you haven't been welcoming.”

"I understand. Well, I have a lot of books. And I'd love to hear all about what you can teach us to make, or use your stuff to make for us."

“If you would care to show me your library, then I could occupy myself for a while and you can get back to whatever you wanted to be doing before, I can only assume, alarmed people told you about the strange thing in your sky.”

"...It is pretty out of the way where it is, but might alarm fewer people if you put it on the ground, tucked between some hills. Library's this way." She leads the way.

Teytis looks at book spines. “Is there any particular book or section you would suggest I start with?”

"What are you interested in?"

“Everything, eventually, but what comes to mind now: people I might meet; technology; topics something like ‘how people expect things to go’, perhaps history and etiquette and such; and more information on strange events, even the ones you’ve already told me about.”

"Hmm -" Kiri grabs her a book entitled A History of the Primacies. "Start on that, I'll get you some more." She sweeps off into the stacks.

Teytis reads. This process appears to involve both her eyes and little floating black things looking at each page, and she rarely turns back to a previous page with her careful telekinetic page-turner appendages.

That is interesting, once Kiri comes back with more books: Developments in Trade and Manufacture volumes 1-4, Berringese Culture and Philosophy: A Comparison, The Monarchy of Welce, The Life of Ferv Satch, Seventeen Case Studies of Birth Blessings, The Etiquette Book, and Ances Lalindar's Journey to Malinqua.

Read read read. Teytis appears content to read everything straight through rather than discussing clarifications or implications along the way.

"I don't mind. But you might not hear very much. My brothers usually sit near me and don't talk aloud very much."

“Then I will read, and leave tonight to sleep. If you or your brothers want to ask me anything, feel free.”

"You could sleep here if you want. We have room."

“Thank you, but I feel — exposed to strangeness — enough as it is.” Weak smile. “Not that I would not have been even more so if I were to eat at your table, but sleeping is another thing entirely.”

"Okay. Up to you."

Upstairs goes Kiri.

“Good morning. I am Teytis tel Jobont and I wish to speak with Kiribel Ardelay, if it is a convenient time for her.”

Teytis shrugs and speaks a non-Welchin phrase. “Or rather: my body is healthy and my self is as I will it. Not an easy translation. And you?”

"I'm fine. I found some more books you might like after you've finished with the ones I located yesterday. They're all down in the library."

“Thank you. But I had thought that I might first show you my library.”

"I'd love to see your library. ...Is it in your floating thing?"

With gentle amusement: “Perhaps you could pick only one subject, to start? I'm sure you'll find my translations will need work and I'd rather get the next one right from the beginning.”

"Okay. Radio first."

"That would be very useful, assuming radios can be built by local people, or by you in very large quantity."

“Now that you point it out, the simpler construction techniques, like in that one book I noted, all involve a lantamsilt so they wouldn't work for you. Hm. It will take some research to figure out the best route to start being able to make purely pimsilt radios. But I can certainly make you radios. How large a quantity were you thinking of? Or rather, what is the communication problem you are thinking of solving? In my world, almost everyone has a radio, but there are ways to start smaller, depending on the need.”

"There is no specific problem that needs radios, but a lot of things would be better if a lot of people had them. How far can they reach?"

Kiri has an atlas in her office. "We're here," she says. "The capital of Welce is here, and the next biggest city is here. We have trading partners over this ocean, and over these mountains, but perhaps the radios can't go that far. If I had two radios, I could talk to my businesses from far away; if there were more, the other primes could do the same, and we could learn if someone needed us sooner than a letter can arrive."

"It would still be better than waiting for boats. I can purchase land on which to put tall structures, especially if you don't mind me treating it as an investment and profiting from the entire thing."

"Everyone benefits from a larger network, including myself. However, if I'm going to be building this much equipment and likely more, I would like compensation including at least the raw materials required or the money to acquire them."

"Oh, of course, I can fund that."

"I will need to research what metals and minerals are available in Welce. For all I know, it might require starting new mines. But before I return to your library, is there anything else you wanted to know? And would you like any of these books on radio communications prepared?"

"I'd like introductions to all the things you mentioned, radios first."

Kiri reads as quickly as it spits out pages, and takes notes between them. It's all very interesting.

Kiri makes a note to ask about that. Teytis did seem to understand that people in this world don't do telekinesis. Well, except the primes who handle solid objects, they sort of do.

Apparently, that was all of the 'introductions to all the things' Kiri asked for. No more books are currently in print.

Kiri goes downstairs.

Teytis has finished Kiri's recommendations and is working on the rest of the library.

"Do you want more recommendations or are you finding your way around pretty well? ...And please make sure you put the books back where you find them or mark them for return by the librarian."

"They might not be well-reported. I don't think we've gone to any special pains to advertise what primes and blessings do, so it's possible there's magic elsewhere too. I haven't heard any likely-seeming rumors, though."

"Readable. Although I'm sure there's some better way to render the thing you're calling 'shapeshifting and telekinesis'."

"Yeah, it sounds like we should just use your words. 'Shapeshifting' refers to something that it seems like you can't quite do - and 'telekinesis' means moving things without using your muscles, which you are doing, but very differently from how one of the other primes who works with a solid or liquid element would."

"I will avoid those words in the future, then. Did you want more translations?"

"Yes. I'll take your recommendations for now. I did want to ask - if you can do the things described in the book without kored, where does the force to start things moving come from?"

"I can certainly produce a lot of fire, but it's not necessarily the best use of my time if there are other methods, and there is only one of me."

“I meant for anything you were personally using. Probably not really worthwhile. In any case, powering things shouldn't be a problem; might need a little more land and materials.”

"I can supply both as investments. I'm pretty rich."

"...I wasn't. Could you have heard me if I said something?"

“Yes.”

"...noted. Is this always true when some of your stuff is near?"

“I can, but I don't have to listen. —I'm sorry, it didn't occur to me that you wouldn't recognize the usual symbols and so I would be eavesdropping.”

"I didn't do anything I needed to be private. But I'll be more aware in the future. Can you see through your stuff too?"

“—In that they are tamsilt for me to see through. They're not biological.”

"How can you see through them?"

“The same way I can hear. I can sense all of my kored; if it vibrates, I can hear that; if it is sensitive to light falling on it, I can see. Though seeing an image and not just light requires a lens and quite a lot of fine detail, of course, which is why eyes are harder.”

"That sounds hard to keep track of. I can keep track of more things than most people because I need the room for my magic; so can other primes; but where you're from can everyone see out of many eyes and hear out of stuff scattered all over the place?"

"Your - computer, that's the thinking machine? - it can translate things?"

"It is more that it helps me with the work of translation. I find that this word corresponds to that word, and that words usually get rearranged like so, and so I can compute a rough draft which I then adjust into actually making sense. If I am not translating writing, it still helps me remember which words I should be speaking."

"How well does it think?"

"—That does suggest an experiment, doesn't it. Of course, what you observe might be dependent on the substrate as well. You didn't notice anything from the part in your office, did you?"

"No. And I don't want to read you if you don't want me to. But you were talking about how people claim minds work, and every time I'm near my brothers or some of my friends, I feel it directly."

"Well, I don't particularly want to argue about how minds work, certainly not to disagree with your experience; I only mentioned that theory because it's a point of comparison with computers. And if you want to see if you can read my computer directly, I wouldn't mind a brief test, assuming you don't instantly get everything."

"I don't get complete memories or personality automatically, only what's going on in the mind at the time."

"That would be fine."

"Okay. Is it better for me to go there or for you to bring it here?"

"Okay. I can be there in about ten minutes."

"I can bring you faster than that, if you like."

"How?"

"I would make a seat for you, and move it there, the same as I move myself."

"...If it's safe."

"Safer than walking or riding, I would say. No chance of falling down."

"Sounds good."

Kiri sits on it. "Am I meant to wear this part...?"

She wears the thing.

“Are you all right? I’m sorry, was that too fast?”

"It was. Unfamiliar. I'm a little dizzy."

Here is a seat that is obviously not going to go anywhere, if Kiri wants it.

Plop.

A minute and a half will do it. She gets up. "Right then. What now?"

Kiri goes through the door.

“Well, that's the least informative result we could get, at least if we want to know how computers compare to brains. Not very useful to you, either.”

"Yep. Oh well."

“Er. How do you want to return? I'm sure you don't want a repeat of the last trip — sorry I forgot motion sickness was a thing — but I could go slower, or make something that you're in control of instead, or ask someone to bring your horse.”

"Going slower should do it for this time. I didn't suffer any permanent harm. But next time I'll probably just bring a horse."

Sit. Belt.

"I'm fine, really."

House sweet house. Out Kiri gets.

"I would like more to read! And I can start sending out instructions to buy things, if you can tell me specifically what things I need to buy to make parts for radios."

"Well, having you make tools is more efficient than having you make products."

"Right. It's sometimes annoying to be unique."

“More than sometimes, for me; one reason I like being a jobont is that it's all about sharing information, making whatever knowledge I have less unique. Nobody’s depending on me in particular, and I wouldn’t like it if they were. And since I mysteriously vanished yesterday —”

"...then at least nobody's in the lurch. Yeah. If I died a new Ardelay prime would replace me, but if I vanished I don't know what would happen."

"I'm going to have to train staff to use these things; if I'm going to wind up with a permanent design that's different or a permanent set of protocols that's different because there are more radios, the information might not be as useful."

“As you wish, but in your place I wouldn't consider anything permanent until we have some experience with how the system works for the people operating it.”

"Yes, but there's 'revised' and then there's 'built on completely different underlying assumptions'."

“I'm not sure what sort of assumptions there might be that would change plans to that degree, but that's rather your point.”

"Exactly. Also, I like looking like I know what I'm doing."

“And that's always useful for convincing people to accept your help.”

"It really is."

"A little. I'm generally read as very sweela, but I'm introverted, which is off-type, and that surprises people."

“I didn't mean fitting the personality type so much as, like, speaking on behalf of Fire itself. —Maybe that's silly, I don't even know if that's a plausible thing; I don't have the benefit of even having heard of Welce two days ago, much less growing up here.”

"I don't think anyone expects Fire itself to speak, through me or otherwise."

“So, merely human expectations to satisfy.”

"Yes. I find I occupy a very comfortable optimum between power and obligation, anyway."