So Sadde can explain the atomic model (with heavy warnings about how incorrect it is) and if Nils wants can do an overview of quantum mechanics.

This... Requires diagrams.

He has something like a drawing tablet.

He's already correcting their periodic table for new information.

Sadde would like to disclaim that they don't know for sure that their elements are the same.

(But they probably are, there's enough in common to be suspicious.)

The things Sadde's saying about chemistry make sense.

"This maybe is a distraction from your questions about the world though."

"Well as long as you answer mine after I've answered yours, I don't mind the order."

"Alright, just warning you I'm going to be busy once we get to Windvale and might ignore you for a few hours."

"I can deal with a few unsupervised hours. What're your plans there? And for that matter should I shift the sparkles away, would I be attracting too much attention?"

"I was originally going to refuel and make some of my deliveries and sell some things and buy others. Now I'm going to sell most of the contents of my hold except what you just made, and rent a shipyard and a lot of hired labor and rebuild the ship. You'll be taken as an obscure Fair Folk species, or possibly a regular human with strange aesthetics. You'll get looked at, you might get bothered by scholars or fair folk-lovers but not shopkeepers."

"Hmm, that doesn't sound too bad, think I'll keep the sparkles. What about feats of superhuman abilities?"

"Same deal - don't be too flashy and alarming though or the police might try to fine you for public nuisance."

"Hmm, alright. How easy is it to sell the kinda stuff I can produce?" he asks, making a small horse figurine in his palm out of ivory.

"I'll give you 2500 Kava straight for the materials - rent a street stall on Tower Avenue and put up a sign advertising custom stuff and you'll do great. Stalls there are rather expensive, but that's because that's where all the rich socialites and fashionistas live, they'll love things like ivory figurines or detailed woodcarvings."

"Would they be more expensive if they sparkle in the sun?" he asks, covering the horse with his skin. "I really like this world."

"I bet they would. You should probably let me focus now, they're guiding me into the airlane."

Sure enough, the sky around them is rather crowded with other flying ships now. Most are less house-like than Nick's, but most are around the same size or smaller. The town that's approaching from up ahead certainly does look busy. A series of stone towers is dwarfed by the gigantic floating ships lined up next to them. Flying platforms that seem to fill the role of cars float near street level but are apparently mostly forbidden up high, to make way for the heavy ship traffic. There are fireworks going off over the water at one edge of the town.

And even in the middle of the town, you can see the tile change. The architectural style suddenly shifts.

"Why do people change the way they build things when the tile changes?"

"Probably just a cultural thing."

"Huh. Alright, I guess."

"There is a widespread tradition to build major roads along tile boundaries. Eight-way intersections where the triangles meet are tricky, four's a little better."

"Are tiles shaped like that on purpose or is there just no way for them to be?"

"By all accounts from Fates, that's the only way for tiles to be. At least there's only four sides to match up, keeps the number of rifts down."

"Rifts being when tiles of different types meet?" he asks, recalling the dictionary. "Are they bad?"

"Yes - there's an actually quite tidy system of different categories of tiles. Twenty five, in a five by five grid of aspects. If two bordering tiles don't match in at least one aspect, you get a rift. Do not touch the rift. Do not approach the rift. Do not look directly at the rift. Especially if there's more than one in an area. I am being deadly serious on this."

"...why?"

"Well 'do not look directly at' is your own choice, but most people find it unnerving. They destabilize the area, make it easier for tiles to fall, causing earthquakes and nasty weather, and groups of them produce a steady supply of horrible monsters that wander around the neighboring tiles. Even messing with time and physics in the worst cases."

"I kinda do not have self-preservation instincts anymore and kinda wanna go poke that."