Outside this window there is - well, what might be considered either no sun at all, or countless suns, depending on the knowledge base of the viewer. Countless stars are visible in the deep void of space outside, erupting one after the other into glorious explosions, the cosmos' answer to every fireworks display from the beginning of time to the end.

Away from the window, Syl's village has also been replaced. Rather than whatever they had been expecting to see, they find themselves standing in a strange room, tables and chairs spread across the floor in front of them, booths towards the edges, a grand fireplace taking up one whole wall with cozy couches festooned with decorative pillows and blankets. Speaking of festooning, intricately cut paper snowflakes hang down from the ceiling, and branches of holly curl over the walls, the berries so vibrantly red they might be alive. A dusting of something white and powdery, snow-like but for its unmelting state, scatters slightly under their footsteps, sticking briefly to their legs before falling back to the floor.

At the other end of the room from the door they came in through, a long bartop stretches across the space, stools positioned along it at staggered intervals.

Sitting on one of those stools is a person, albeit of an unfamiliar kind to Syl. Not too tall, two arms and two legs, two eyes and two small round ears on either side of their head, pale brown skin, with long, thin black fibers draping down from their head, dressed in patchy and thick dark brown fabric over lighter pale cloth. They seem to be alternatively writing and reading small notes as they sip on a viscous white beverage, evidently not noticing Syl's entrance.

"Hello there, Do you understand me?"

The persons starts, though not enough to spill their drink which they clutch protectively. "Oh, hello! I didn't see you there. Yes, I can understand you." They turn around on their stool, and now viewing Syl stare with unmitigated fascination. "Ooh, I've never seen someone quite like you! Are you like-- ah, are you something other than human?"

"I've never heard of Humans! I'm a Hearthian, there used to be another sapient species called the Nomai in our solar system but we've only found their bones in our exploration. You don't look like one of them."

"I was talking about solar systems with Bar a little while ago! It's a such a fascinating and beautiful concept. I'd heard a bit about that sort of thing from my mother and grandmother but there's so much more to than the stories said. What is yours like, other than not having Nomai anymore? And, if you've found bones but there aren't any of them around, does that mean you don't have a way to bring people back to life? I know that things used to be like for my mom and grandmother before they came to the Pines. What do you do when someone dies?" The person, who is giving off a great deal of excited energy, takes a sip of their drink, perhaps to wet their throat, but also tamping down their phrenesis. "Mm, I wish we had eggnog back home. Uh. I'm Ira, by the way. Who are you?"

"You can bring people back from the dead? That's amazing!! As for what we do... we usually bury their body in the ground. And we have a party celebrating their life."

Ira nods. "I think that's what some people did where my mom and grandma came from, and, If we bring some proof of them having existed, the Hearth can bring people back if we wish for it on Wishing Night. Usually, at least. It can't bring my mom back for some reason, probably because of how she died. And, uh, sorry if me asking who you are was bad." She takes another sip of eggnog.

"Oh, I'm Sylvite, but most people just call me Syl. What do you mean by proof?"

"It's good to meet you, Syl." Ira gives a smile and welcoming nod. "And, some sort of remnant or piece of them usually, or at least that's what we use when we bring the chickens back. I think that a picture or diary or something like that might work too though, but we've never had the chance to test it."

"Well, bones are something we have plenty of for the Nomai... it's like they just left people where they died even if they were in the way... or like they all died at once. I don't really know that people would want to dig up the graveyard... we Hearthians live good long lives and generally people've made their peace with things before the end."

Expressions of fascination and concern briefly war on Ira's face. "I guess you don't know what happened to them? Which makes sense I suppose, if there aren't left to talk about it. Did they leave any writing behind?"

"Oh lots, that's my main project aside from Astronaut training. We're trying to make something that can translate their writing. We can do it manually ourselves but it takes forever. Most of the samples we're using are from what seems to be the school they had on Brittle Hollow."

"Astronaut training..." Ira repeats breathily, clearly tantalized. "Have you gone flying, or into space? Or are you not that far in your training? And, what do you know about the Nomai from what you've translated so far?"

"I've tagged along in Gabbro and Chert's ships for some short flights, mine is under construction. I've gone flying a bunch around Timber Hearth with my Jetpack and also practiced a bunch in the zero-g cave."

Ira's eyes all but sparkle as she envisions Syl's activities just from these brief mentions. "I wish I could see it for myself, it sounds so wonderful." She takes another sip, and seems to consider something. "So, Timber Hearth I guess is your home planet, if yoiu're Hearthian?" She giggles a little."I wonder if the world my mother or grandmother were from were ever called Hum. Or I suppose it might just be one part of the planet? And Brittle Hollow is another planet, or part of a planet? You're Sylvite, and there's also Gabbro and Chert. Is it traditional for Hearthians to be named after types of rock? Do you know any Nomai names? I don't really know what my name means, if it means anything other than just me."

"Plants, the Nomai names we can translate are all plants or plant related. You're right about all your other guesses. Timber Hearth and Brittle Hollow are both planets. Two of the seven if you count the Interloper and Dark Bramble... depends who you talk to whether or not they should."

Ira nods. "My grandma talked about people always arguing about which things exactly were planets or just something like a planet but not enough to count. I guess Timber Hearth probably is forresty. What are the trees like, do they have needles like the ones in the Pines do or do they have big, flat leaves? And, what's Brittle Hollow like, and all your other planets and not-necessarily-planets?"

"I didn't know trees could have needles. That's neat. Timber Hearth is the only planet where you can breathe everywhere instead of just near trees. Maybe that's because there's so many trees on the planet we're not sure. There are trees on other planets too but not nearly as many. We're not really sure what makes trees special. Most of the important stuff on Timber Hearth is in or around the craters. The village is in one, the wandering grove is in another, the main place the Nomai seem to have built is around a crater and a mountain next to it. As for other places, there's our moon the Attlerock, it's the smallest place you can safely visit in the solar system and it has a massive crater in one side where a piece of the planet that used to be where Dark Bramble is crashed into it. Dark Bramble is this really weird plant... as far as we can tell it grew in the middle of the old planet until it broke it apart and flung bits away. That was a really long time ago though... even before the Nomai we think since they left writing talking about Dark Bramble. No Hearthian has ever explored Dark Bramble. It's really intimidating. I already mentioned the Interloper. It has a weird orbit that's super elliptical and it's made almost entirely of ice. We don't know much else about it. Brittle Hollow is the planet we know the most about besides Timber Hearth it's hollow and there's a black hole in the middle. The Nomai built all their stuff hanging upside down from the crust to avoid being sprayed by the hot ash and bits of lava that its moon Hollow's Lantern spits out periodically. And then there's the Hourglass twins. They're like an hourglass for some reason... we don't know why... periodically the sand flows from one to the other and then back. The Nomai built a huge structure all the way around the Ash twin's equator... we think it's related to their teleportation technology but nobody's been able to get it to turn on. The last planet is Giant's Deep it's got a thick green atmosphere so you can't see down into it unless you fly in. There's a big Nomai space station nobody can open in orbit and periodically giant tornados fling the floating islands into space before they fall back down. Hmm, there's also that small Nomai space station in close orbit of the sun... everyone agrees it's too dangerous to get close enough to the sun to visit it though."

Ira nods again. "I think that trees and other plants breath differently from people and animals, so they breath in what we breath out, and breath out the things we need to breath in? Or at least that's how it's supposed to work for humans in the worlds we're from. Hm..." She takes another sip. "I wonder if maybe it's related to the Nomai? If they named themselves after plants it would make sense if they were important to them, so maybe they're involved with trees and all that? Oh, also, sorry if I've been distracting you from getting a drink or something to eat."

"I don't think that's how our trees work... there's air around trees even when we plant them in a vaccum. We haven't found Nomai writing either way... so maybe they made them. It's a mystery. There's food here? I didn't realize... I mean I saw you drinking, you said that was eggnog I think, but I didn't make the connection. What kinds of stuff can you get here?"

"I was snacking on some roasted pine-nuts earlier, but I don't actually know what things Bar has? Or doesn't have. I asked for a suggestion of what do drink and this eggnog was one her ideas and that turned out great, so you can probably ask her to recommend something to eat too?"

"The Bar is a person who can talk? That's fascinating can bars usually talk the translation doesn't make it sound like that's usually something bars can do."

"The stories my grandma tells me where people like Bar exist are usually fictional, but the Hearth can talk on Wishing Night, sort of, so I don't really know? I guess you don't have any people who aren't Hearthians or Nomai in your world?"

"Not that we know of... it's a big universe though. Who knows what's out there. Our ships aren't good enough to make the journey to other star systems yet but with a few more decades I bet we'll have that down. The leading hypothesis is that the Nomai came from another solar system if we can find out how they did it we can do it too."