"It's very exciting. I'm delighted to meet you- Is this a bank? I go by Megi, this is Sinnah, and you already know Weiss..."

She taps out a message to dispatch on her phone.

"It's good to meet you too," she agrees. "I'm Xolkensa."

She says it with an initial sound like the last sound in 'Bach'.

"And yes, this is a bank! Or, it was — I think they've already retrieved the secret keys from the vault, and are considering plans to turn it into a permanent transport facility once the rift is stabilized. They didn't want to mess with it too much before that in case that destabilized things."

"You should see the computers- Notal doesn't really have an equivalent word, I think we're just going to loanword it- I bet they can help with your more experimental things."

(Sinnah 'hm's. She's still holding her scroll and wand in a relaxed but ready kind of way.)

"I'm a priestess, has Weiss explained...?"

"She gave us a book about the light gods. It's — we've had stories about magic beings before, but they were just stories, so we don't really have priestesses," Xolkensa explains apologetically. "I think we understand, but it's foreign to us."

"It must be quite unbelievable. I've known about magic and gods as far back as I can remember. I'm happy to explain what I can about the Light Gods, and demonstrate or offer proof in ways you arrange- So that you can trust them more."

"That's kind of you," Xolkensa responds. "I'm sure we would like some more demonstrations. But we do already believe in magic; Weiss used illusions, and I just saw you appear."

"Anyway, would you like any—"

She cuts herself off as she spots a figure through the glass doors of the bank.

"Ah, here comes the diplomat," she says, pointing.

Tatenika is wearing a different floor-length purple dress than yesterday; this one is a pale lavender. She makes her way through the doors with a smile at everyone.

"Good morning. I am Tatenika," she says. Her command of Notal has also noticeably improved in Weiss's absence. "And I'm so happy to meet all of you. We'll have good paper and ink here in a few minutes, but diamonds will take longer, since they're only really used in industrial applications. Do you need particular sizes, purities, or amounts?"

"Diamonds are used for magic item crafting. Various sizes and clarities. Diamond dust too. Quartz can be used for low power applications in a pinch. Who am I teaching, what am I making? Good wizards are good at a mental motion that it's hard to find mundane correlates for. I can make testers that shine light if you are exerting will correctly. They are also good at geometry and mental timing."

Ah, Tatenika is thoroughly familiar with this kind of person.

"It sounds like those testers will be a good thing to make initially," Tatenika remarks. "After that, our priorities for magic include stabilizing the rift, and then a great number of experimental designs to find the limits of and applications for magic. We are unlikely to want to commission bulk goods from a master wizard — better to train our own people up for that. I have a preliminary list of experiments that have been proposed, but you might find it more productive to talk through the list with one of our professional-discoverers of material properties and making things."

"Are there any attributes other than geometry aptitude and timing that are important?" she questions. "If not, I can have an initial class drawn from the population of the city ready for an introductory lesson in a few hours. Otherwise, designing an aptitude test and getting students may take time. How many people are you willing to teach at once?"

... and the other two Kitsune look like this discussion is hitting them wrong, for some reason. Unfortunately, she really thinks Sinnah and Weiss require very different approaches.

"Mediator, perhaps you would like to take our other guests outside to talk about some of the preparations we've made from them while I go over logistical concerns with Sinnah? I believe we have some refreshments they will find suitable."

She subtly signs I'm Xolkensa with one hand, turning to address Megi and Weiss.

"If that's alright with you, we can talk a bit more about being a priestess?" she says.

"Exerting will is the most important skill for general magical aptitude but you can perform design and theory work without it, technically. Timing is important for using scrolls, which are stored single-use magics, and free casting, which is doing magic- Not without tools, but without specific magical preparations beforehand, I would say. Like this."

She draws a perfect circle in the air with her hand and there is a little burst of wind for exactly two seconds. 

"Geometry aptitude and to a lesser extent general intelligence is important for design, preparation, crafting, and so on. I'm fine with teaching but I would want more pay than the same time spent on mid-high level crafting because crafting is very simple to me and students sometimes aren't."

"That's fine by us. As Weiss would say, Sinnah is very Sinnah and I can tell the conversation is going to be two hours of magic theory- Not my hobby if a perfectly valid one!"

"I'm looking forward to what I presume are the results of the baking contest!"

"Yes!" she agrees. "The baking contest, and also we have made a bunch of these!"

She digs around in her bag, and comes up with a pair of fake fox ears on a headband, which she slips on. Then she hands a pair of headbands that don't have ears to Weiss and Megi. The earless headbands are designed to be a little flexible, and have cutouts that will let them subtly curve around the base of their ears.

"Tails are harder, but we also thought they're probably easier for you to hide under skirts or jackets," she adds.

"Oh, interesting! So we don't stand out quite so much? That's a lovely idea. I suppose I can do my best to hold them still... It's like not scratching an itch sometimes, though. And yes, we usually hide tails under skirts and jackets. Ummm... Weiss was very excited about something called 'computers', but I don't think I really understand...?"

Xolkensa thinks about how to explain, while leading the way down the street and around the block to the Emergency Services staging area.

"Computers are ... a kind of thing that can manipulate numbers very fast. At first, they were useful for keeping track of money, but it turns out lots of things can be modeled with numbers. Now, they form a Network that lets anyone on the world talk to anyone else instantly, access all of our books, play games, write, and things like that," she explains.

She holds up her phone and shows the screen to them.

"See? Here is my message that I sent to dispatch about you three arriving."

She flips to her reader app.

"Here is the book I am reading."

She flips to her pattern book.

"Here is the pattern for the socks I am making. Computers are very useful."

"Trust me, computers are amazing. I want to learn a computer language..."

"The Network... Like the postal system they have in the north? But automated?"

She is putting the headband on, frowning thoughtfully. 

"Machines speaking to each other very quickly with low-colored light, Weiss tried to explain... They seem quite useful, but I think the first things I would import personally would be the cloth machines and farming machines."

Xolkensa nods.

"Yes, of course," she agrees. "But the cloth machines actually were the thing that led to inventing computers. The first computer-like things were for controlling cloth machines to make different patterns. Modern computers are made of parts, and the same kind of parts go into modern cloth machines."

She leads them to a tent, and holds open the flap for them to come inside. Inside, there's a long table that a young worker in a purple tunic over green pants is uncovering and tidying up containing a large number of baked goods.

"Actually the most important machine to share is the machine that turns air into fertilizer. About half of our food is grown with fertilizer from it."

"...I'd like to learn more about that. There is a lot that goes into farming, magic and labor and technique, it gets quite complicated. Ooh, these look lovely."

"Warm buttery bread! Sugar! Chocolate! I told you it'd be worth it, right? And can you smell it-"

Megi takes a deep breath. "I can! Made with care."

"I figure a few of these are roughly... What do you think, half?"

"We'll just have to experiment and see how much energy we get out of it."