The green follows her, curious what she will do if not interrupted.

Glance back, flick an ear, and say, "Hoh. Green is studiers, yes? I have my duty first, then I would like to talk." And go back to walking straight down the street.

"All right!" replies the green cheerily, trotting after her.

When she gets to the next park with a Well, she closes her eyes and walks slowly around it, then touches the roots, trunk, and several spots of leaves on the Well tree, lingering a bit. She carefully takes a tiny sliver of trunk, an insect analogue from the branches, a small amount of dirt, and a single leaf, into separate glass vials that go into a messenger bag before moving on.

Follow follow. Is it the same with all of them?

Yep. Plus an annoyed headshake at one of them.

"I need to check again tonight, and tomorrow. And do some other work. But not now. Hello, so you're an Amentan, mrr? Karakan." The name means Stoneheart. "You?"

"Sata Pon. It's nice to meet you."

"Interesting at least. Would you like to bring me somewhere we can have a lengthy discussion? I think we both have questions."

"Would you like to see our building? The first floor is habitable enough now, they're still finishing the upstairs."

"Yes, that sounds good! I imagine your blue will wish to speak to me as well?"

"Maybe! Is there a specific thing you need him for?"

"I'd like to get a feel for Amentans. I certainly can't travel there right now like I hear some people discussing, too many obligations, but another planet? With yet more possible? That's important."

"Yeah, we're excited about it too. I can ask him to come over later, I think he's in a meeting right now. So what do you do with the Well trees?"

"They're particular. Not frail exactly, but there is a lot you can know about a single tree. Most places know how to care for them through accumulated common knowledge, but a careful eye looking for any abnormalities never hurts. They're our permanence, so they're vitally important. Likely the most important thing on the planet."

"Yes, it's really fascinating, we don't have anything like it ourselves. Do you know how they work at all?"

"Suggestive observations that don't form a full explanation, hunches... Perhaps it's folly to try to understand the work of a god but I'm a fool, then."

"Ooh, can you tell me your observations?"

"That would take weeks," she makes a cheerful noise. "Let's get to that building you mentioned first."

"Okay!" Pon leads her back to the Amentans' building. Some purples are swarming the scaffolding around it, putting down tiles and doing electrical work and such, but the first floor is basically finished, if undecorated, and all the construction dust in it has been vacuumed up. Pon snags them a small conference room.

As soon as she crosses the threshold, the flame above her head winks out. "I almost can't tell what materials went into building this place... Masterfully refined, all of it."

"We have a few hundred years on the local tech level! Plus, uh, nature on Amenta doesn't try to kill us nearly as much, so we can experiment some more. Is the fire thing something you got from eating one of those - animal crystals?"

"It is part of my salk, yes, though the exact details of one's salk can be a deeply personal thing. It's also a symbol- Firnu's flame, as eternal as the sun."

"Stars last a long time!" says Pon agreeably.

"Yes, it's admirable."

"Wait. What do you know about stars - they're the same as the sun after all - you said a long time. Not forever?"

"- no, not forever. Billions of years! But not forever."