Shrug.  "We do what we can."  She brushes her fingers across the map again on the way back in. 

"Yeah, I understand."

Thomas shoots Fernando a glance.

Who just ignores it.

"Right, so."  She leads them back down the hall and pauses outside the kitchen, where a stocky sandy-haired man is stirring something in a large pot.  "Uncle Marr?  These are my guests- Fernando, Thomas, and Felix Vaesteri."

The triplets choruses a hello.

"Marr Tarlin."  He gives them a friendly nod but doesn't put the spoon down.  "My eldest tells me you're from another- dimension?  Quite the trip."

"That's about it. Luckily we landed near Peg here."

"Astronomically lucky, if it went for a random location, so I'm figuring your offworld magic can't reach the Abyss either?  But you could've picked a lot worse places filtering for atmosphere, even just on Eridani."

"Aiming for atmosphere should be something our magic could've handled, landing somewhere that isn't wilderness still is very lucky. I am not sure about our magic being unable to reach the Abyss."

"Hm.  Well, it eats magic, at least every kind we know about, so I recommend against doing science to it."

    "What aren't we doing science to?"  A woman about Peg's age pokes her head in from the back door, toddler on one hip and two slightly older children in tow.  She and the middle-sized child hiding behind her legs have Cressy's fair skin and blonde hair, while the other two look more like Peg and her grandmother.

"The Abyss- get down from there, hon, dinner's in a few minutes-"  Marr shoos the older child away from the shelf he was trying to climb on.

"Honestly, that sounds like the exact sort of thing that would motivate some types to do science to it."

"Oh, for sure, but there's only so much you can learn from 'that didn't work, and that didn't work, and... that didn't work but now it's watching me.'  Most folks'd rather that kind of science stayed somewhere uninhabited."  She hands Peg the toddler and flops into the nearest chair.  "I'm Sennet, you must be the visitors Cressy's so excited about."

"Beh," the smallest member of the party contributes, staring solemnly at Thomas over Peg's shoulder as she shepherds the other children off to wash hands.

"Beh." Thomas with a knowing nod.

"I guess we are exciting, aren't we?"

"Most interesting thing that's happened this year at least, assuming the earthquakes and that mess with the fear spirit get docked points for likelihood of killing us all.  What's spaceflight like in your world, then, if the void isn't eating everything it gets its appendages on?"

"Spaceflight isn't. Or rather, we only have ever sent a manned mission to moons."

"Wait, really?  One planet?"

"Five, actually. But we have means to move between worlds without going to space."

"And without going crazy either? Nice."

     "Sennet, that's not-"  Something beeps and Marr pauses to pull a covered dish out from under a heat lamp.

"Fine, yes, without throwing your spirit side out of balance or whatever the heck happens to changelings."

     "Actually, I was going to say going that deep in the spirit realms is the stuff of legendary quests rather than cargo runs and you're probably confusing our guests, but yes, that too."

"As epic as a spirit quest might sound, I think I prefer our method."

"Yeah, no one's ever met someone who managed it, 's always someone's cousin's business partner's brother-in-law's ancestor tried to make the crossing and was never seen again, but they found his wristband three systems over, babbling in a language no mortal could understand..."

"They found them and their wristband separately?"

"Well, they never did find the guy, at least not in the version I heard, but yeah."  Sennet twists in the chair, stretching her back.  "And it doesn't make sense if you think about it, like, you shouldn't be able to drive a spirit mad from being too far in the spirit realms, 's not like they have a flesh aspect to lose touch with."

Fernando backtracks the conversation. "The wristband was babbling in a language and was a spirit or something?"