"...Great. Okay. I haven't decided if you're both making this all up yet but am leaning towards 'why would you go through all the effort, probably no'. Anyway, yes, I'll watch out for strange things."

"… I would offer to show something but the main thing I can do on such short notice is fire, so, like, no. And it's not like a good luck charm has many visible effects."

"The wind is proof enough for now. It could be some artifact of technology, but if you can also produce light objects and metal... It'd be awfully flexible for a piece of lost technology."

"Perhaps we stumbled onto a motherlode and just happened to find ourselves alone on that island at an inconvenient time."

"Found a cache of tech here in the central bands, somehow lost your ship through hilarious misfortune, decided to lie about it all for some reason? Eh. I've heard stories with farther-fetched plans that worked out. They're terribly unrealistic stories."

"I mean, it sounds like it's probably… more probable than a world with weird creatures and magic? From your standpoint?" She shrugs.

"Who knows what's possible. Maybe Earth has magic and we all forgot. Can't rule it out. Wait and see."

Smile. "I'll be back in a minute – didn't actually eat anything."

Scribble scribble in the navigation charts.

Interesting day. Does it really matter if they're from another world or pretending? (Does one or the other make them more likely to double-cross him? Pretending probably does.)

Hm.

And then Akien is back!

"Do you mind if I look around for Chi again?"

"It's passive, just looking, yes?"

"Yeah – the only visible thing is my eyes going blue."

"Then be my guest, and thanks for asking."

So he gets the bracelet out of his bag again and his eyes flash blue.

"This place definitely has far less Chi than I'm used to."

"Perhaps it will spread from you. Or perhaps this place... Cannot support it. In the latter case you should probably use what chi you have left sparingly."

He looks down at his chest. "Seems like I'm still producing it just fine? But – oh, I guess if we're the only ones producing it then it'd make sense the area's less saturated."

"More data needed, I think."

"Time will tell." Sigh.

Evara returns.

"I don't suppose you have any books? On local culture, I mean."

"Not on local culture specifically. I've got books, but I'm no anthropologist or librarian or anything."

"What sorts of stuff do you have? If you don't mind me asking."

"Hm. Farming techniques, navigational books. An encyclopedia of critters. One on commodity prices. Construction and engineering. Various stuff like that, nonfiction. A few novels."

"The construction and engineering stuff could be interesting – you're probably more advanced than we are, at least without magic, since you have these airships?"

"Oh, mine's unique, I'm a genius, built it myself." He doesn't even look like he's joking. "There are others. Maybe we are. Or possibly we just specialize differently. Different environments make different technologies useful."

"Our constructions are – well, mainly large walls and small buildings within these, nowadays. There are some older areas with larger ones…"