"I - have tried ways to get around it. Mental exercises don't seem to work. Nothing I've tried as medication has helped. I'd be the only volunteer if Amentans were to research this."

"Are you the one who exploded an MRI, because otherwise that would be my suggestion..."

"...Yes." Sigh. "I hate accidentally breaking things, and yet. It was like a dozen slimy loud blinding itches all at once."

"...My attitude towards the gods is something I try to keep to myself. Few would agree."

"Oh, I'm not going to tell anyone, although I'm curious why you're so different?"

"I'm pretty stubborn." Shrug. "I'll stop taking up your time now, thank you."

"You're welcome, anytime!"

Stoneheart assesses the Amentans' camp for how disruptive it is out of sheer habit but keeps her thoughts to herself. She talks briefly to a couple different archaeologists about some of the wall art, then heads out into the desert to think. About the gods, about her library, about the future. She's pretty sure she's already made up her mind, and is just afraid. Which is stupid of her, almost as stupid as the writing thing.

While wandering she notices how a lot of small animals and insects seem attracted to the lights, which has in turn attracted small predators and scavengers. Might attract more dangerous wildlife in time. She warns the perimeter greys about this, then yoinks a few with telekinesis and cooks and eats them. She feels much better after that. Killing and eating something is just soothing to some deep part of the Dwellin mind. Thank you, Hessen, she supposes.

The next day she works up the courage to actually go inside, and walks up to the big door to stare at it in awe.

"It's amazing, isn't it? We're pretty sure we can pry it open but we're trying to go cautiously."

"Yes, amazing... It's the same as the explorer said, I can't sense or affect it with my magic at all. And yet I can see all the colors." And shapes, it's better if she thinks of them as meaningless shapes. "Caution is probably good here."

"Do you see anything our magic grey didn't see?"

"I don't think so. Though it occurs to me that if it's some sort of puzzle lock, two or maybe more might be required to unlock it. How is - translation going?"

"Slowly - we have basically no context, there's no illustrations, the structural features are reasonably discernible but I couldn't tell you what any of it means."

A slow nod.

"The highest level of secrecy," she slowly says to Kiki Sunatami, "Is when one hides that there is any secret to be kept at all. I would-" Pause. "Sorry, I said that wrong. I want to tell you, the Amentan archaeological community, something useful, but it must absolutely not be connected with me."

"- hm. Would you like to... say it into an audio recording, and I can leak it anonymously online...?"

"Possibly..." Sigh. "Overcomplicated. And if I wanted absolute secrecy mentioning this to you defeats the point anyway, you'd guess when it comes out. I don't actually need nobody to have any way to connect it to me, simply no other members of my species. The more obscure the better. Perhaps I can simply tell you and ask you to wait a week or two and find a plausible reason before acting on it?"

"I think I can do that? Probably, depending upon... what... it is."

"A - location to investigate. It will be well worth the effort."

"All right."

She clearly enunciates a set of coordinates that indicate an unremarkable hill on a sparsely populated island.

"I'm not sure what would be a good reason to investigate there..."

"It doesn't look odd to satellites, like this place does? Hmm. Perhaps a geological survey could include the island. Perhaps you overheard a rumor that a great battle occurred there and want to look for arrowheads. Noone will be surprised or suspicious about rumors of great battles in odd places."

"I can tell someone I heard there might have been a great battle over an interesting village or something there, that works."

"If you get close the ground scanner thing should tell you where to dig." She takes a deep breath. "Perhaps I'll build the courage to say more, later. I think I'll stay for a few days and appreciate and discuss the art regardless. Fascinating place."

"It really is, I'm having an amazing time figuring it out."

She has a lot to say about the art- This depicts the story archetype of Kanku's Scorn (trying for a child and failing), that's an especially clever sneaky magic-animal with telekinesis, that's a weird depiction of Elbon as a somehow-living skeleton, she thinks this bit is supposed to be a tragic hero who did everything right and lost anyway-

She goes back to work on the resort city a few days later, feeling much better.