"I have the same impression!"

"You'd know better than I would."

"Would I? I live up in the city proper and am not working on anything at all sufficiently interesting."

"Well, yes, but you've known not only him but everyone else with an informed opinion multiple orders of magnitude longer than I have."

"I know everybody. I'd say 'it's my job' but that'd be nonsense, it's just fun. But I might be biased when it comes to my father."

"I accepted an apprenticeship from him based on his showing up at my door saying he liked a paper I wrote and did I want to actually learn something. I am not wholly without reason to prefer to think he's brilliant enough to justify doing that."

"Okay, fair. What were you doing before?"

"D'you want the technical detail, or...?"

"I will find it incomprehensible but nod appreciatively."

"I mean, I can summarize in non-technical detail!"

"Then I will find it comprehensible and nod appreciatively!"

She summarizes.

And is rewarded not just with nods but with some followup questions.

Which she can answer!

"Thank you! I understand why my father was fascinated."

"Thanks."

"Do let me know if you need anything, all right?"

"I will."

And the unconventional apprenticeship continues to be productive, if not any more conventional.

Eventually Marille's sister shows up to see how she's doing.

She'll find a workshop partitioned so heated debates don't distract the people working elsewhere.

They have those a lot? Cool. ...Is her sister engaging in one such that she should probably not be bothered right this minute?

Actually yeah.

Good for her. Ahyadacil can loiter around for a while until she's probably done.

It's a pretty house! There's a courtyard, there are kids dangling from the trees, there's an adult sleeping next to the fountain with his giant dog.