And now they're here! Leareth takes down the Gate and is only a little tired. He glances over at Matirin. 

He is contacting their ride to the city of Skytree, where he will be doing politics and Leareth will be attending school. A different shuttle will drop Alloran off with his family. He checks how Vanyel seems to like it here; the sky is red and gold and the ground is purpleish and he thinks it's prettier than Earth or Velgarth but he doesn't know if humans will think so.

Vanyel looks excited and fascinated! ...Also a bit tense and anxious, partly in the aftermath of the Gate but also new places are overwhelming. He holds onto Yfandes mane and seems to be trying to look in all directions at once, which is harder since he's human and only has the two eyes. 

He's mostly looking forward to being shown where he's staying, he doesn't actually want to hide in his room for the rest of the day but he'll better knowing that he can if he wants to. 

They get a ride to Skytree! It is very very tall and compact, the better to have the entire rest of the surface of the planet for grazing land. (There are two other cities, but they're not visible from the shuttle over.) Vanyel and Yfandes's room is set up much like Leareth's except that they did not cover the grass with a rug.

Vanyel tries not to stare too much even though this is very neat, he's supposed to be claiming to come from a world with advanced technology - well, it is true the Andalites don't have Gates, and probably there are other things magic can do cheaply and easily that they can't replicate. 

He spends a little bit hiding in his room and then is ready to poke his head out and discover whether there's sightseeing or anything, or whether Matirin wants him to meet and schmooze with any Andalite politicians before he gives his talk. (Vanyel does not like doing politics, per se, but he's done it before a little and can make his way.) 

Matirin has some variously filtered people who are interested in being seen with him and Yfandes and hearing about the system of governance in Valdemar.

Vanyel is happy to go along with this, and can describe some of Valdemar's history and how the Companions were a miracle of the gods after King Valdemar's prayer, and the various functions they serve in Valdemar, especially the institutional, regulated use of Gifts for various purposes. He's reasonably poised for public appearances. Matirin can probably tell that Vanyel, personally, is both dubious of Valdemar's founding legends and not especially delighted with the current system even if the stories are true, but most of the Andalites won't be able to. 

Andalites mostly don't have strong opinions about how governance of magic ought to work and in any event wouldn't rudely suggest to a guest that there's something wrong with their system. They're really interested in the gods! How many are there? What are they like? Are they interested in diplomatic relations with outsiders?

...Wow. Vanyel hasn't prepared an answer for that, and tenses up noticeably about the question. He's...not sure? The gods seems like they're a very different kind of being from humans and Andalites - after learning some things from both, Vanyel has wondered if they're a little like very weird magical artificial intelligences - in any case, they're hard to communicate with. He's sort of succeeded at communications a few times but it was complicated. (Vanyel does not go into detail here.) He doesn't know how many there are - at least three or four? Leareth knows more, he thinks. Anyway, if they want him to convey diplomatic overtures or something, (Vanyel grits his teeth), sure, he can try to convey a message. 

They are intrigued but mostly Andalites leave alone people who don't seem interested in contact. - honestly until recently Andalites mostly left everybody alone, and now they don't even need allies in the war with the Yeerks. He needn't bother.

Vanyel has no particular comment about this but is happy to leave the matter alone. 

Leareth is trying to find out if there's anything he needs to do to prepare for the classes he's taking. 

They have his enrollment and things but he should make sure his computer is up to spec and that he's familiar with the prerequisites, there are quizzes for that. 

- All right that sounds complicated. Leareth technically possesses an Andalite computer he's been using for some of his work, but has no idea if it's up to spec and is confused about how to check. Probably he should ask Matirin about that? 

He attempts the quizzes first, though, that he's more confident he can figure out on his own, and he expects he's covered at least many of the prerequisites with Cayaldwin during their various research projects. 

They expect him to understand their notation for planar math and to know how to do various basic math operations like solving matrices and doing multivariable calculus. The quizzes confirm he picked up a lot of this from Cayaldwin and understood some of it from his own work in his own world and only really struggles with the math that Andalites do on computers in their head.

Matirin can help him check if his computer is up to spec but it should be.

It's clearly going to be inconvenient in the long run, that he can't do math on a computer on his head, and maybe he should find out if he can - get that...? Leareth asks Matirin what he thinks about it. 

<Huh! I don't know whether there's a way you could but I can ask someone to look into it. It'd be easy enough to insert it surgically when you are in Andalite form, but you'd lose it when you morphed. Maybe they can figure out how to do it for humans but your brains are quite different.>

<Yes, I assume I would need to do it while in human form, and that it would be more complicated. Possibly having a Mindhealer on hand to help do brain-mapping would simply the conversion, though? I would appreciate if you could look into it.> 

<I certainly will. It seems like it would be very limiting to not have a good way to keep track of time or do simple math that happens to involve large numbers.>

<It really is.> Leareth has a better time-sense than most humans, likely a result of engrained procedural memory over millennia (that transfers better than specific memories of events), and he's very used to his calculator-computer by now and can work quickly with it, but not enough to keep up with Andalites. 

<...Also I would enjoy getting to spend time with you when we are both here> he adds. <At least when neither of us is busy, which may not be that much of the time.> 

<I was not planning to invite you to my planet and then neglect you while you are here! I can come over in the evenings at least three times a week.>

<I would like that. And you can keep me updated on all the politics. I am sure I will find it much less tiresome if I am just hearing about it from you.> 

<I will tell you how it's going. Right now I should get Vanyel set up to give his talk, though.>

<I am excited to see it!>