It only takes another few words of discussion before the next message is written. "As the only known person capable of making or using crafting material, you will naturally be among the first to learn what our experimenters discover. Generic crafting material will suffice for investigation into its interactions with spiritual energy, though the executives are uncertain as to whether this will be enough to ascertain the specifics of what mechanism ansibles function by. Signboards will suffice, though in that case we may request some additional hot-cold markers, preferably at least one for each half-ansible."

He can do a bunch of hot-cold markers, yeah. (He begins crafting up the first ansible-pair-to-be.) He's not sure what they're expecting to figure out about how ansibles work; they aren't machines with internal parts, they're fundamentally their own thing.

That prompts another short discussion before an explanation is written. "We will not be studying the ansibles as machines, but similar to as if they were smoke-constructs. We will be seeking to understand what causes ansibles behave like ansibles, rather than like things that are not ansibles."

Well, if they think they can get somewhere with that he won't stop them.

He's got the first writing board ready and shows it to them for their approval; it's fairly small, and thin enough to look flimsy even though it's not, and it's a pale grey with black markings when he demonstrates with the attached marking pen. (He can just add a slot for the pen to clip into if they prefer not to have it attached, but without crafting that's much less secure.)

The executives and flow-mages both inspect the signboard-ansible, and everyone seems satisfied. "These will work for our purposes," is written a moment later.

He'll copy the board-and-pen half a dozen times, then, and then split each of those into a pair of ansibles and add pens and connecting lines to the second ansible of each pair; if the connector was included in the ansible, he explains, then both pens would move whenever someone on one side used one, and there'd be a high chance of the other one getting tangled in something and making the whole setup unusable until it was untangled.

There's a look of understanding on the flow-mages, and the three executives nod. Assuming he sends them over the table, the flow-mages will be ready to accept eleven of the twelve ansible-halves.

Well, he does want to know what the plan is for him getting what he needs, somewhere in here.

There is some discussion at that, longer than the last couple but still not exceedingly long, before the reply is written. "If you have specifications as to what the desired qualities of the food animals or seedstock, we can receive those now or you can share them via the ansible or by getting in contact with a civil servant in person and will do our best to find and deliver them to you or your last known location. In absence of specifications, we will bring you a small representative set of the varieties of food animals which seem amenable to your lifestyle, as well as larger selection of our food crops. In the former case, a precise time estimate can't be given as some specifications may take more time to fulfill than others, but in the latter case, it is expected that the animals and seeds, along with further mass for conversion, will be delivered within six days*. A vine hat can be procured tonight and delivered the following morning."

There's a pause without further discussion for a moment before a small addition is made. "Given you do not have spiritual energy, your thoughts already cannot be read. This will likely remain the case as long as you continue to eat food that also does not have spiritual energy."

Yeah, he doesn't want to assume he can keep his spiritual energy intake down to zero, though.

In terms of food animals he's most familiar with chickens, and a flock of fourteen or sixteen hens and a rooster should keep him and his dog going indefinitely; if he's going to be traveling by land he's going to need a couple more dogs and he'll want about a dozen hens per dog if he can't hunt for their meat but he'd rather hunt if possible. He can do other small meat or egglaying animals if they don't have chickens or can't spare that many but he doesn't know how many he'd need off the top of his head; the dogs might be harder to substitute but he's willing to try other animals that are good with taking instruction and he can do without if he really needs to. In terms of food plants he'd like a variety of local staples, he can presumably manage on whatever sorts of things they usually eat.

Another very brief discussion precedes the next response. "Hunting may be somewhat troublesome, as it will need communication with the wildlife and nature preservation administration in whatever province you're in at the time. Ecological repairs from the damage done by the Kings remain in progress even after all this time, and while it seems unlikely that a single human and small pack of dogs hunting for supplemental protein will be unduly disruptive to the repair efforts, it is not the specialty of any of us here to know the dangers involved. Accepting that, three dozen and six hens, a rooster, two good working dogs, and a selection of local staple-crops can all certainly be acquired within the same previously stated six day time-span."

One of the flow-mages has a thought at this point and discusses briefly with the executives, before an addition is made. "Our working dogs will be trained to respond to verbal commands, however. They might require additional training to respond well to your communication. Also, do you have any known food allergies? Particularly, if you know any specific constituent substances that make up food that you have an allergy to, we can avoid crops that contain that substance."

That sounds fine; he doesn't have any food allergies and he's prepared to train the dogs for what he'll want them to do. He's also going to need meat or eggs to keep his dog fed while he's waiting for the chickens.

There's just another few words of discussion before a response is mad. "Dog-appropriate food can be brought with the hat. It might not contain eggs and very likely will not include meat. Meat or eggs can be acquired in specific, if you believe them to be necessary."

...well if they've figured out how to keep dogs healthy without meat or eggs that's fine, he guesses.