"Oh, oooh, that's very cool. How many do you have?"

Gratitude! A large singleton is also very cool. I am one hundred eight at present.

"Thank you, I got my largeness from my mother. At present? Is it a mutable number?"

Certainly. I tend to gain or lose a few every time I return to the capitol, although one hundred and eight is a good working number for my profession. Do hiveminds on your world come in strict numbers, or is it possible that are no hiveminds there?

"We don't have hiveminds. What is like when... the bits come and go? Why do they come and go? Do they die?"

Oh, no, that's rather rare. It's more of a swap - I tend most often, for instance, to do knowledge exchanges with other landfarmers - or to send some to the Emperor for accounting and management purposes. A few come with the crab. The like.

No hiveminds at all? Strange! We had assumed that the evolution of telepathy would certainly lead to the development of some hiveminds. And yet here you are, telepathic and no hiveminds in your tree of life.

"Oh. My species is not naturally telepathic. Milliways is handling that through translation. Some of us are telepathic, or sort of telepathic, but that isn't a result of evolution. How much information each brain holds? Can you put specific information in specific brains?"

Truly! Dear me, I thought that as you moved your mouth and produced sound, this was facilitating your telepathy, but I understand now it must be the language itself. Forgive my assumption - my singletons also vocalize and I should have considered this. Quite resourceful, if I may say.

How do telepaths come about on your world, then?

Each brain holds... well, a rather scant amount, I'm not sure how to quantify it objectively. One star on its own is capable of little and can remember little. A group of 4 or so can do basic figures and reasoning. And the memory and processing available with telepathy in play scales up scales up greater than linearly, if you follow, so even a hundred and eight like me can do more than a few tricks.

"Oh, there is magic. In the form of spells and magical gifts. I am sort of telepathic, I can communicate with animals. Do you know if it's a function of the possible connections between stars? And what do you mean with stars?"