"I can't fly, no. Using a bridge, I can travel in ways that aren't physically possible without one, but I doubt I can create bridges here. It's worth a try if I find a good moment to do it, but not for testing purposes. Tell me about how you fuel your rockets."

"We use Kerosene for rocket fuel. Does that translate?"

"Not quite, no. Which animal does this oil come from, or is it produced from some other source?"

"We get it from coal in the ground. It's a pretty complicated process to refine it though."

"Finding it more easily doesn't help us with the problem at hand, then. We'll worry about that later. All I can offer over another person is that I will survive a bit longer, and stand a better chance of resisting other dangers. Is that enough to justify an attempt? If you think it could help save a friend and reclaim a planet, I'm willing to try."

There's a chance Nymet would even be able to call back some other version of her, she thinks. Not this her, but something close enough.

"That's a very generous offer. I'm just not sure how much this magic of yours will help. The bramble is huge, bigger than our entire planet. I don't think you have much chance of killing it unless you have some magic you didn't mention." They run their chin. Syl will be leaving on their first expedition in the next little while. I expect they'll be willing to take you to Dark Bramble. I don't know if they'll choose to go inside with you. In the meantime, we can get you fitted with a space suit. And you can think on things a little more."

"Thank you. I look forward to speaking with them."

She'll allow herself to be led through the museum if there's more to see, although most of what she cares about learning immediately has already been covered.

Hornfels explains that the Heathians use salvaged Nomai tech in their probes to be able to teleport them back to their launchers.

They also show her a purple crystal mounted on the wall that allows people to walk on that wall. Apparently it's another piece of Nomai technology.

A fish-like thing that's a bit menacing... apparently found attached to a ship after a scouting run near dark bramble.

An exhibit illustrating the phases of a stars life.

And last but certainly not least a mysterious floating rock that teleports when you're not looking at it. Hornfels seems convinced it's an optical illusion but can't produce any semblance of an explanation for that.

Huh. Nomai technology seems versatile and powerful, to the point where unlike Heathian technology, she could have mistaken it for magic. Marin files that away in case it becomes useful later, especially if it would ever make sense to try to replicate some of those effects with her magic. She can already think of a way to manage the wall-walking; teleportation is much trickier.

Hornfels takes her back along the path over to what appears to be a mine entrance that she passed while walking with Spinel. She'll likely notice that it's now night when it was day just a few minutes ago when she entered the building.

"Hey Gossan, this is... Marin they need to be fitted for a space suit."

"Well I'll be, a genuine alien. It's a pleasure to meet you Marin." They look her up and down and walk around her. "Mostly that should be pretty easy... assuming she can carry the weight, but it looks like she has a few more fingers so the gloves will take longer."

"It's- a pleasure to meet you to, Gossan. Would either of you happen to know how long a typical day is, on Timber Hearth? In my home, they last 24 hours. Your day-night cycle seems noticeably faster than ours."

"The sun is overhead once every six and a half minutes."

"Fascinating. Does your weather change frequently, too? Your world seems surprisingly similar to ours, besides your greater technological development and the incredibly short day."

"What do you mean by frequently? Whether tends to change on the timescale of hours but fairly gradually."

"Ordinarily, there are very minor changes in temperature within a week, but anything bigger than that doesn't change without warning. It sounds broadly similar, anyway. I would not have expected something like this place to exist- the world seems different in some small ways, but Hearthians seem so similar to humans."

"I'm not sure how to explain that... based on their skeletons the Nomai seem to have been fairly similar to us too."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have distracted you. You were going to fit me for a space suit?"

"Ah, yes... we should go back to my workshop." They lead the way out of the cave and back to a small building that Marin and Hornfels passed along the way.

"How exactly do you craft space suits?"

"There's a bunch of pieces... we already have some helmets premade and it looks like your head is about the right size to fit... might have to adjust the padding a bit. Most of the rest is just sewing. I've got a bunch of fabric treated to be airtight. The boots might also be an issue if we don't have a pair that fit you."