"Okay, thank you."

He sits... At Cocoa's table.

"Hi. I'm Teddy."

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Alva. Celestial navigator."

"And I'm Avera. Military. I've been wondering when you'd come say hello."

"Be nice, you two. Teddy's kind of skittish."

"Am I ever not nice?"

"Oh, of course." Alva smiles at Teddy shyly. "I promise we aren't bad people. A little strange maybe, but..."

"I am an introvert, yes. But I probably should talk to both of you actually. Because I'm in no way a soldier, and I think I might know more astronomy things. Celestial navigation, huh? Is there no Hymnos GPS, then? Er, GPS is a series of artificial satellites that... Well, long story. But it's an algorithm to tell exactly where you are."

"Oh, there is, but it takes Core Draw. I learned the mundane techniques before I was a rel'he - latitude by double altitudes, lunar distances, and so on."

"Soldiers aren't how wars against the Corruptors are fought. For that, we need agents. And to be blunt, you seem ill-suited. But I'll train you as best I can if you'll let me."

"I am a nerd. All I ever wanted was a nice engineering job. But it's apparently going to be needed."

"You could largely sit out of it and just restore people when we drag them out of the muck. That is an option."

"It would be better for our new shaldea to take an active role, however."

"You two both sound kinda pressurey. Let him make his own decision."

"I'm not even properly an adult by my home's standards yet! It's kind of a lot! But it's not like I can't reconsider, right? Just... However much prep time I lose while dithering. You know, I don't actually know celestial navigation. It's considered outdated for us, because - oh man, how do I even explain smartphones? Pretty much everyone owns a hand sized device that lets them be a rel'he for data purposes. With no core draw limit."

"Jealous."

"... Fascinating. How was such a society possible?"

"We don't have the Hymn. Instead we have calculating machines, and a lot of people doing research and development, and a societal view that there's always way more things to invent, and all that... Builds on top of each other kind of ridiculously. Three hundred years from the steam engine to flying machines. Fifty years from computers the size of rooms that could barely do algebra, to smartphones. Twenty years from our first rel'he'ar for high-end research to basically everyone using it every day. Ah- Sorry for the dramatic ramble. Modern computers are probably one of the hardest things to figure out how to make on my own, though. I can access research from home, but I know the machines that make the machines are hideously expensive and complicated."

"Remarkable. Where would you say we should begin?"

"Um? Maybe the printing press? To make lots of books much faster. Maybe steam engines. Maybe trying to make some semiconductors, the basic building block of computers, since you can create electricity directly. Or maybe more foundational electrical stuff like storages and motion-converters. Batteries and motors."

"I believe our Lin has storages, I'm not sure of what quality they are. If you can precisely specify the structure of a semiconductor or other component, you have the permissions to manufacture it directly through use of the Hymn. It would be best if it were something relatively small, though - manufacture is intensely draining."

"Modern semiconductors are fourteen nanometers across." He grins, then falters. "Ah, but the problem is making manufacturing tools. I could conjure up a smartphone and a little solar panel to charge it but that wouldn't really help you make more since they're so complicated."

"Anything you can make, Rosalie can duplicate. And anything Rosalie can duplicate, other shaldea can too. And the proportion of shaldea to rel'he is about one in one hundred. One hundred spends of let's say five core draw would take roughly... well, it's one hour per full recharge but you can only really fit four of those into one day even with ideal conditions - so let's say two a day. That's two months of manufacture to provide all the rel'he on the planet with one of these things. Would you say that's worth it?"

"Oh, I thought that was a remote admin thing. In that case I should totally make a smartphone. And some other stuff. I don't need to figure out how to make insulin materially for sugar sickness I just need to know what kind's needed, and what diagnostic tools... Hmm. I'm at three already though, I did a virus scan and I went out and did kitchen work. Because, uh, didn't know any better I guess and I'm still kind of at loose ends."

"It's good that you're making yourself useful, at least, even if you are underutilizing your Hymn. Would you like help recharging?~"

"Avera."