Oooh, huh. (Another walnut?)

Yum! They share little nibbles all around.

Have you all learned to read?

I can't yet says the little one.

I can, says the older one.

The rats want to know about what they all do together and what their favorite foods are and what they're scared of and will squeak along to a song or two, trying to be musical even if their voiceboxes aren't really meant for it and mostly very high pitched.

The kiddos will try to teach them to sing! It's sad that they can't sing properly! And they will answer their questions.

And eventually their visit will conclude and the rats will get back to politely enjoying their escort's hospitality and building a small tunnelwarren out of whatever is loose and available to feel safer.

Back in Goldvalley, a man comes into one of the stores, ragged hair and beard and middle aged, wearing clothing of a very fancy for the tech level style with lots of geometric patterning and heavy boots, odd items like rag dolls and dreamcatcher-style arrangements of thread and glass vials full of powder tied to himself with string, carrying a big elaborately carved staff with a small burning coal in a brazier type thing in the top. He looks around at everything silently.

The envoys are mostly keeping to the shop and its immediate environs, collecting stories and handing out merchandise, but he does get a second look if he approaches the store.

He watches the exchanging for a bit, then patiently waits in line.

"I am a shaman. I can speak with spirits and beasts. I have come to see what has caused the great uproar here, but I find myself still confused."

"Oh!" says Cassiel. "I'm delighted to hear that, we weren't sure how to talk to the spirits. Beasts we figured out, one of our colleagues adopted a swarm of rats, but spirits seem harder to find. Unless they're the same thing as ghosts."

"Ghosts are scars in the world. I do not think they can truly change or feel anymore. It is often difficult to resolve their complaints, but also possible to forcibly disperse them if they're dangerous, as some are. A rat swarm? They can be quite personable, yes. But what is all this? I have heard the most wild tales on my way into the city."

Cassiel repeats the standard spiel on Vanda Nossëo.

"So you need to speak with the spirits? Wise. Many forget that humanity is not the only thinking thing on the planet. The shining glory of progress throws off a blinding glare. What do you know of spirits so far?" He starts gathering bags of spices after closely examining several. "Do you have a large measure of salt? Quite useful for rituals, salt. I'll give you advice and stories until all this is earned."

They can scoop out a sack of salt for him. "Just what we've picked up from dragons, so far," Cassiel says. "Not us personally, but our colleagues who go talk to them."

He freezes. "You've spoken to dragons? Amazing. But I don't know what they would have said, never having met one myself. Well, one that wasn't hunting cows at the time."

"That's all right, I'm curious what you're here to tell us."

"There are many different sorts of spirit. From vast and ponderous to the point where they hardly notice us, to ones so small as to seem childlike. The vast ones are not a concern unless you intend to raze forests or level mountains, but their revenge and death-throes can be painful indeed. But the lighter spirits, those that form around points of natural order or accumulated ritual, those can be spoken to if you have the practice and talent. It requires understanding your emotions, empathy and - attunement, I would phrase it, to what a spirit is, and a clear, focused intent to listen and speak with your mind. As an example, one of the brooks that feed this valley's river holds a playful water-spirit, which is largely unconcerned with anything that happens to it. It spoke to me at length about how it is flowing water, and thus will never be destroyed. Flowing around rocks and condensing if boiled, released when consumed and eventually melting when frozen. It knew no fear and no hunger or want. It remembers me, but only as a once-visitor invited to swim and play again."

"Aww, cute. We're trying to find a member of a similar class of thing from another world who can come meet yours, in case that helps bridge communication gaps."

"Spirits war with each other sometimes..." He says dubiously.

"...well, we wouldn't bring a warlike one."

He nods. "Well, I hope that will go fine. Hmm, what next... Oh yes, the Four. Four great spirits, or four archetypes of lesser spirits perhaps. Fire, water, earth, air. While the material world is made of dozens and more different things, the spirit world's fundamental blocks are those four pieces. Achieving an understanding and intuitive feeling with one of the Four can grant you powers great and small," he gestures to the coal. "This little bit of showmanship for instance. A proper lesson on them can take a while, but briefly, fire is pride, desire, strength, glory. Water- empathy, flexibility, reaction. Earth, stubbornness and patience and calm. Air, curiosity, freedom, exuberance."

"Huh! Can you explain how you developed that understanding?"

"From my master, from his master before him, and so on. Confirmed as best I can tell in my wanderings and observations. Many of the lesser spirits conform strongly to one of the Four, and will teach you about it - whether they answer your questions or just by observing their actions. There are more spirits, of course. Hybrids of the four, and more complex arrangements. A storm spirit is fire and air. Dragons hold all four within their hearts, quite powerfully."

"Are dragons just a kind of spirit, or more complicated?"

"Dragons are a unique case. Maybe they are spirit bound to flesh. Maybe they're the ultimate form of animal spirits. Maybe they're the fathers of all spirits. Guesses. I don't know. I've never even spoken to one."

"Are animal spirits like the rat swarm?"