A third of the world is covered by the howling maelstrom that was born a century ago. It is not ordinarily a place you'd find people surviving, but sometimes things appear in it. Strange things - otherworldly things - brought into the mist of a howling storm of cloudy dust and wind that blows in whichever direction it wants.
"...can you break that down into sounds, like we were doing with the letters on the sign? Like how 'night' broke up into nn-igh-t."
"Can you break down a word I say into sounds, like," which of those words is phonetically simplest, "the word 'can'?"
"Huh. I think your language magic must be very very different from what I got."
"I think it's a good thing to be able to do, and it looks like it's at least reasonably common in this society or they wouldn't bother with the signs."
"So that if there's something written, you can find out what it is. Like a sign or a story or a note."
Sure, they can go over the sign again. "If you see any blank paper that'd be helpful for this."
"The napkins are cloth, I think paper might be too expensive to use for napkins here."
"I'd still need a pen, though, I don't have one of those... the power might work well with a wax tablet, which I also don't have..."
"I think I'm out of progress to make with this sign but we can review it tomorrow perhaps."