"I know, it's just. Wow." They shake their head very quickly at if to clear it. "Anyway, what's a Vela?"

"Our name for our people with powers. I'd translate it to something like 'fate'."

"Oh. You said you were human before...?"

"Yeah. But when you achieve something sufficiently grand, I guess my world decides you deserve more."

"So it just... happens? What's sufficiently grand, for your world?"

"It just happens. Mine was a large, automated, safe underground transport grid. A bit like the subways. Some other famous examples are the stormveil, which prevents tornadoes from touching down over a few dozen squares and directs lightning strikes to harmless areas. Or the wardwall, an anti-volcano shield over an entire city. Big feats of our equivalent of engineering, which this world would call magic."

"That... sounds pretty amazing. Where does weather come from? Have you ever flown below a square to see what's there? What keeps the squares up? Is there a sky?"

"I can't remember five questions while multitasking. There is nothing below the squares, we've looked with telescopes and scries. I've flown a few tiles down but it really is just empty. There is a sky, people have been determined enough to go visit it. Seems like there is a separate grid for suns and moons and stars a really long way up, and it's just as empty beyond that as below the surface."

"A grid? How big are suns and stars? What are they, there?"

"Suns are pretty big. They're spheres of fire... We don't understand our world as well as people understand this one."

"Are they embedded on something? What does this grid even do? How does it separate? Does it correspond to the earth grid?"

"The grid is what we call whatever-stuff-sticks-to. It's not detectable except by how stuff sticks to it - no light, no physical substance. Stuff falls off grids sometimes, especially after disasters or battles, or when it was uneven in the first place. I think the two grids are arranged differently, but falling stars are totally a thing. I've never seen a sun fall, but it's said to have happened. Ancient history."

"That sounds... really fascinating. I mean, it sounds so made up, but, magic, and flat lands, and stuff. I'm not even sure what I'm talking about anymore, I have a bunch of questions still but they can mostly be summarized by 'tell me literally everything about everything' which is not a helpful way to phrase it."

"Ha! Not really, no. I'm about done with what I planned to do today anyway. Maybe you'll have coherent questions if you come back tomorrow. Good luck for whenever you pick a fight with villains who deserve the label more than you."

"Alright, and thanks! I could call you up next time, kick some villain ass."

"If you do the work of finding the villains for me I just might do that. Try not to destroy things just because you know I'm going to fix them if you can avoid it, though?"

Nod. "Alright, I can do that."

Coming along nicely, if she can provide transport there will be people available to start installing things on the morrow. And Laura herself has a few suggestions on transport that don't necessarily involve Mountain, though they do involve spending uncomfortable sums.

Internet things can be ferried by helicopter or plane or ship. Just let her know what she needs to put in, she can probably build a landing strip and haul tanks of fuel there if that's what it takes to make getting deliveries work. When the big generator turbine for her personal hydro plant is ready she'll carry it herself, the thing is going to weigh on the order of dozens of tons.

Another reason to have the helipad or airstrip working, unless there are electricians and engineers who are willing to live on a mountain for a week while they work.

Laura is certain she can find it with the right incentives, but those tend to be 'money.'