She's swapped out her clothes for identical dry ones, by then, and is using a very strange-looking, very noisy handheld machine to blow air at her hair; it vanishes when she notices him getting close.

Thank you, she sends. Would he like a chair? One of her spells makes things.

"If you're sure it's safe. We're pretty wary of things like what you can do, lost abilities, lost technology. It's an abundance of caution. You said you were - eaten? And then found yourself near here?"

She's sure it's safe. It's not technology, though, it's magic. She can make technology with the magic, but only simple kinds. (She manifests a chair, the simple sort you might find at a kitchen table, and a matching one for herself, but explores the basket rather than sitting immediately.)

The basket contains the promised bread, half a baguette, a section of squash, and plastic jugs of water and apple juice. And a thin towel. The President dusts himself off and sits on the chair.

"See, there's an old saying - 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'. We don't have the ability to make advanced technology anymore, but once in a while something from the old days turns up in working condition, and we usually can't figure out how it works. But lost technology isn't magic."

She starts on the baguette.

She really doesn't want to argue about this, but if they expect her stuff to work like technology they're going to be confused, and that might be bad. But they don't have to talk about that first, anyway. Does he want her to explain what she can do?

"We expect what you can do to work like lost technology. We expect to not understand how it works, and only be able to understand what it does... Which might be just the same, really. I'd appreciate it if you explained."

All right.

All magical girls - that's the term, she didn't pick it - can shapeshift and make clothes and accessories for themselves. The shapeshifting is limited in two ways - she can only look so close to human (like this, for example, tiny claws and pointed ears and something odd about the example girl's posture), and if she goes too far from human, she'll stop being herself, mentally, and instead be a cryptid. Cryptids are weird and nobody knows very much about them but she's not going to become one, so it doesn't matter very much unless there start being other magical girls here somehow. Clothes she can do whatever she likes with, and the prettier she is the better her magic gets.

For magic, she has the two spells he's seen. The first one is the one she's using to talk to him right now, and it's not very complicated. The second one makes cartoon things; it can make anything she imagines, but the things always look fake, and they don't always work - books don't work, complicated electronics don't work, decks of cards look like they work but the cards don't have the right values, that kind of thing. Anything without moving parts or information on it works fine, writing things down works fine, bikes work fine, hot air balloons work fine, she could probably make a plane if she wanted to. Things with moving parts will stop working if she's not paying attention to them. Some girls get more spells than that, if they're pretty enough, but her second spell is really good; it'd probably take a lot for her to get a third one.

None of that is so out-there that it requires closer examination. Though he's not sure if she's very lost, or delusional.

"That does sound very useful. We don't have electricity... Some people here believe in an old religion about winged people and might think you're something from that religion. None of us here would, but others might. Just wanted to warn you. Now, I was told you're very lost and that you might need a place to stay?"

Yes - she might not stay for very long, it depends on whether she likes the place, but she needs to know how things work here before she makes any decisions about that, and that's going to take a little while.

"How things work here as in, in our commune? Or as in, on Cloudbank?"

She doesn't know those words. She meant the world, if this is a different world, which it seems to be.

"The planet is called Cloudbank. I imagine it's very different from Earth. I'm not sure where to start explaining, but I can answer any questions you have. Our commune is this island here, and the people living on it. Our community."

She's not really sure where to start asking questions... well, actually, yeah, she is. On Earth, it's too complicated for someone her age to live on their own; they need to have a job and a house and buy groceries and all sorts of things that take a long time to learn. Is it like that here, too - will she need to find grownups to help her until she can learn what she needs to know - or is it simple enough that she'll be okay by herself pretty quickly?

"Well, you need to either live with some people, or in a community, and help each other, or be able to get everything you need on your own. If you can hunt or farm and make a house, you could go off on your own and live on an empty island out there. Some places use money, and if you can earn money and know what you need and buy it, it wouldn't be a problem that you're still young. If you want to be as independent as possible, you can probably manage it. But I think you are probably young enough you'd find living with someone and having them help take care of you useful, still."

She'll have to see what the adults here are like, then.

Are there any places that he thinks give a particularly good impression of what it's like here?

"Every settlement will be different in a lot of ways. We're unusual - we don't use money much internally, we share things like food and houses and help each other. I don't know what other islands are within flying range of us right now or I would suggest you could visit one of those and see what they're like once you feel ready. Perhaps you can talk to the traders that come along sometimes - town life and ship life are very different, ship life might suit you. I don't know you yet so I can't tell."

She relaxes, a little, at that.

What about places here in the commune, anything she should see?

"Well, all around us you see our fields. We have apartments and a community center in the middle, everything we need - school rooms, storage, a plaza, places for relaxation, workshops and an infirmary, art rooms. I could also show you one of the houses we've built into the island, or the sports fields, the woods, and the airship landing. None of the houses are meant for a single person, but we could free a small apartment for you alone, if you wanted that."

She'd like to see the art rooms, if that's all right. And the workshops, maybe, if there's anything interesting.

"Alright. I'll show you the art rooms. People will probably be pretty curious about you, but I can ask them not to bother us if you'd rather."

He stands up from the chair. "Bring along the basket, if you don't mind. No sense making a second trip out here to come get it again. Oh, and I don't think I've asked for your name yet...?"

Her name is Dusk Glory. She won't mind if people are curious but she'd rather not be touched by strangers.

She takes the basket, dismisses the chairs, swaps her wings for her more customary ones, and follows.

"That's quite a name! I like it."

Gorvan Mills walks calmly into the central area, tells everyone he sees that he's giving their visitor, Dusk Glory, a tour of the art rooms to start, and she prefers not to be touched so be mindful of that. Someone asks him if Dusk Glory is going to be staying here and whether she'll go to the school, and he says 'that's a bit premature at the moment, we'll see what looks reasonable'.

"That was one of the teachers. Hila. She teaches students older than about ten until we figure out what job suits them and they go learn from someone who does that job most of the time."

The buildings are neatly laid out and clean, all bundled up near each other in a small area in the center, with small gardens and green areas here and there. There's a few murals on the walls, nature scenes - including the strange critters that are natural here.

That's cool. She was learning about technology and can probably continue on her own a little bit but she'd like to know how things are made here, too, and might pick something up in that area.

"That's one of the things we focus on most when teaching. I know we can't match the technology of Earth, though - there's too much lost knowledge, and metal is very scarce even besides that."

He indicates a certain building. "Most of the art rooms are in here. We have fabric art, paints, sculpting and carving, a little library and writing area, a music room, and papercrafts."

Not having metal is a problem, you really can't do much without it.

Can they go in and see what people have been working on?