The bard is tempting but he is a bit hungry, lunch sounds good.

The food they have is simple and hearty. They have tea. The parents chat amiably with him about how it's their long-awaited holiday- They're from a small town with nothing much to its name except food for sale out in the Reach, but at least it's close to the Titania-New Winchester route so engines stop by sometimes. The jungle is so colorful! It's excellent to see something other than the same rocks and plants every day, even if their kids don't seem to appreciate it quite as much as they'd hoped. They're seeing Titania on the way back, too. It's used up a lot of their savings and it's a bit dangerous but they think it's worth it. It's no good for kids to stay on the same farm all their lives.

(Said kids, three of them, are playing some sort of game that involves marbles and flexible rules at the opposite end of the table.)

It's always good to get out, and they're right that it's especially important for children - they might not appreciate it much in the moment but it'll be something to look back on, when they get older and have more interest in seeing the world themselves. How has the journey been, any difficulties?

Mostly just the expense. They expected cramped quarters and a somewhat uncomfortable time travelling, and Captain Morgan is a good sort, but everything is turning out pricier than they expected. They also passed a wreck and failed to shield the children from seeing it and had to explain scary things and deal with them being frightened every time something groaned in the locomotive for the rest of the trip here.

That does sound like it's going about as well as can be expected, except for the wreck. Have they considered introducing the children to their train's engineer? It's often reassuring to children to know the person responsible for keeping them safe.

Perhaps they'll try that.

The kids seem to have missed all the magic he was doing earlier but their parents tell them about it! One says 'but you said magic isn't real'. Her mom replies 'well, we change our mind when we learn new things, that's the point of learning! We saw him flying and then he knew a lot of languages and found things people were hiding without looking.'

The dad whispers to Raafi, "Sorry to put you on the spot, but d'you have any more demonstrations in you? They get real absorbed in their marbles, I suppose they weren't paying attention earlier. That's Meena, Xavier, and Harold, youngest to oldest."

He can do another demonstration! Do they want to see him find something with magic, or take turns trying his translation necklace while he speaks exotic languages, or make a (smallish) mess for him to clean up with a cleaning spell?

Here are some messy napkins and plates, that seems the lowest effort to demo!

Cleaning magic is boring, though, the oldest complains. Cleaning is a chore!

"Well, yes, the fun part of that one is that you get to make the mess in the first place and don't have to spend time cleaning it up." A few words and a wave of his hand and the dishes and things are clean.

"What type of things would you want to do, if you could do magic?"

"FLYING! I MISSED IT!" "...Showy stuff like in circuses? Tricks and illusions." "I wanna talk to animals."

"Flying is pretty great," he grins. "And I know people who can do illusions, and talk to animals, back home - there's a few different kinds of spellcasters, the kind I am can't do those things. You might be able to, though, someday."

The kids are excited about this prospect, though the oldest looks a bit dubious.

Their father explains the requirements to be a cleric. "It sounds like something that works best when you're older."

"If it's real at all," the oldest mutters.

"Oh, I don't know, I wasn't that much older than Harold when I found my calling, some do at that age. But it's reasonable to be skeptical, with something this new." He shrugs, lightly. "I bet I'll be able to bring more mages over in another five or ten years, maybe that'll be more convincing."

The mom pats Harold's arm. "I'm sure it will be. Seeing a strange thing in the sky once is one thing, seeing five of it is entirely another. Nobody thinks scrive-spinsters are a myth and they're at least... A third a strange as you are from a Londoner's perspective, maybe up to as strange, from a Surfacer's perspective."

"It all depends on what you're used to," he nods. "Manipulating time like you can here seems very strange, to me, we don't have that at home at all. - speaking of time, I bet they're wondering where I've gotten off to, I should probably check in with my train."

They wish him well. The bard is still playing and collecting donations in a hat. He's not doing well on that front.

Several of Abernathy's crew are drinking and being rowdy around a campfire set out near the railyard but they don't explicitly beckon him over if he'd rather just go back in the engine.

Hmm, how's the bard. He goes to check him out.

He nods at Raafi with a slight frown, mostly paying attention to the music. He seems technically skilled, but his choice of songs leaves something to be desired. They're the kind of songs that get played in quiet parlors, not outdoor venues. And that might need more instruments, or at least a singer. (The violin itself, and his outfit, look a bit ragged.)

Down-on-his-luck court performer, seems like, or whatever the local equivalent is. Raafi listens through two songs, puts a generous handful of sovereigns in the cup (mostly on the assumption that he's a traveling performer, however temporarily), and moves on to the crew's campfire.

That gets a bow and a humble thank-you from the performer. If he can be of service in some small way he would be happy to.

The crew are trying to convince their two new friends that the thing with the downed engine and fighting off some kind of porcupine-bear is not made up at all! They're not succeeding so far.

Raafi settles in and listens a bit before jumping in.

Well, the reason they don't have any giant quills is because the other captain paid Raafi here to give up any interest in the corpse! He healed people up afterwards and they were all fine. Nobody here would want to fight that thing without him, or much more firepower instead.

"Pfah, healing? That so? Fix my fuckin' 'ead then!" (He has a prominent bruise and bandage on one side of his forehead. From an accident aboard ship, he claims.)

"Sure, come on over, that'll only take a little magic." He's already casting, producing the now-familiar blue glow.

He's suddenly frightened, but with Abernathy's crew urging him on and his own buddies telling him not to back down he walks over and receives healing.

"-Damn. I'll buy you a beer? Or a steak."

"Oh, don't worry about it. The point of magic is to use it, after all."