"Huh, that must be something to see.  Didn't Grey Jen visit someplace with multiple moons once?"  Brett Joel glances at Ayla, who answers,

     "Think she said it was cloudy, and none of 'em were gibbous then."

"Course there's a spirit, nothing's big enough to eat a planet.  You just can't see 'em."  Cressy still looks sulky.

     "No one in that world can, though," Gran Tarlin points out.  "It's possible the Gauntlet is thick enough there nothing's gone either way in recorded history."

Thomas gives them an exaggerated helpless shrug. "Our options to figure out this is involves waiting for them to find us in a few days or for us to find them in a few years."

(His brothers flinch.)

"Well.  Let's hope for the first one, shall we."  Marr shoots Cressy a quelling look.  "In the meantime- you mentioned magically shoring up the caverns, I'm told?  What would you need, if you were to do that?"

"Nothing too complicated. Chalk, something to burn - controllably, in a bowl - and maybe clay, though that one mostly if you want to change the structure someway more complicated than put a pilar over here."

"That's simple enough to get our hands on, but I meant more- in terms of fueling it?  If you need volunteers I expect we can work something out."

"Oh, that helps. As long the volunteers are capable of doing something like following instructions to the letter."

"I've got it."  She and Brett Joel have a brief argument by means of Significant Looks, which ends with Peg glancing to Big Tad for backup.  "Spirit side's been quiet, the kids can mind the farm for a while if it takes me out of commission, and I know the lower tunnels best.  ...as long as you mean 'to the letter' metaphorically?  I, uh, do better with things that're out loud instead of written down."

"Metaphorically, just... if we tell you thirty different steps to follow, follow them. And it's unlikely to take it you out of commission, we are going to go with a mix of mostly health and stamina for this, and it's stuff we would be able to do ourselves."

"Yeah, I can do that."

     "It's still wise to be cautious,"  Gran Tarlin puts in.  "It'd be the first time your magic interacts with ours more deeply than the translation effect."

"Speaking of, I'd like to ask about that in more detail at some point."  Marr gestures at the triplets with a fritter.  "I'm curious how it handles compound and proper nouns."

"We haven't tested this one much, but I think it translates by intention?"

"Fascinating. And it works on written language as well as spoken?  Have you noticed it behaving any differently if the author is dead, or on another planet?  Or dead and on another planet?"

"Both written and spoken and we haven't noticed anything different when the author is dead. This particular one was also meant for old ruins exploration, so it had to account for dead authors. I think something is lost if you're not right next to the live person when they speak or write to you. But it can still do a serviceable translation job."

"Well, if you ever get bored of hanging out on Eridani, you could write your own ticket with that.  Explorer's Union would take you anywhere there's a Gate, and pay you to do it."

Chuckle. "Okay, I will keep that in mind as an option."