...there are (??not-??) Crafters flying by themselves above his house and that's scary.

Yeah, he's not thrilled with it either. He can ask them if they have any problems with the crows coming and going; they can't craft so they can't communicate the way the crows are used to but some of them can write to him.

...he'll tell the others and come back tomorrow to say what they think about all that.

All right. Here's a mirrored pebble on a string, if they hang it in the sun he'll notice and come over.

Ooh, mirrored pebble on a string.

Okay, thanks.

And he gets to work gathering supplies.

The flow-mage team who came down to investigate seem distinctly befuddled by the interaction, but don't say or gesture anything about it. Seeing that he's taking the initiative to collect his soil and plant samples, they'll take off as well. They don't rejoin the circle, though, instead heading back towards the city.

Well, okay, if they don't want to stick around and get his explanation he won't explain himself.

He fills his boat with dirt and his pockets with leaves and heads back to the house, and half an hour later the chickens' pen is nicely planted with a variety of different bushes to hide in and he goes inside to take a break.

Another half hour or so after he's planted the chicken pen, his doorbell will ring. Outside on the water, there's another two flow-mage squads, including the familiar five, and two vine-boxes, one of which is open, along with four unfamiliar people standing in front of it. One is an older man dressed in a green suit with a white color, like two of the ones before. One is a seemingly middle-aged woman, aside from her stark white hair, dressed in all white similar to the doctor before, and with a tightly-wrapped white cloth covering her nose, mouth, and neck. One is a younger man with long hair and beard and dressed in a much less neat shirt and shorts compared to most of the other people who've come out here. The last is another older man, dressed in darker greens and grays and with spectacles perched on his nose. The green-suited man has a vine-hat, while the two other men have moss caps and the woman in white has no head-covering.

He comes up to the rooftop wearing his new hat, and is surprised not to find anyone there. He spots them after a minute, spends a moment contemplating the situation, and extrudes a dock at the base of the house and a stairway leading up to the greyed portion of the roof.

The older man and woman will lead the party onto the dock and up the stairs, followed by the other two men and then by the familiar flow-mages, while the boxes and other squad remain on the water.

The representative among the familiar five has one of the smaller signboards with them, and have a greeting for the afternoon pre-written on it as it floats up to present itself to him.

Hello to them too, is everything all right?

The greeting is erased, and more messages are written in sequence. "There are two matters which we have come to discuss."

The woman in white is gestured to by the representative. "The first is the availability of White Maiden Prastsek. With your participation, she may be able to use her white magic to determine the risks presented by your exposure to spiritual energy."

Then they gesture to the two other unfamiliar men, evidently prompting the younger man to wave and smile. "The second is your collection of soil and plant samples, which ecologist Mjekadzarm and his protege Trettsedwet intend to review and assess the potential effects. This doesn't strictly require your help, but knowing the particular reasoning you had for the individual samples you took may help their work."

Well, he got the dirt he did because it was the easiest to move that wasn't too sandy, and he picked these three bushes because they look like good shapes for the chickens to hide in - not that he's going to leave the pen open to predators, but happier hens lay more reliably - and this one because it smells good and he hopes it might discourage parasites, and this one because the leaves are a neat shape.

What's involved in participating in the white maiden's thing?