"What? It takes time to process trauma, and we need to know more about his magic and his people now.

Nico, let's get you some food that you like more, okay?" Merta gently tugs him toward the door.

Fiiiiine he will be tugged. He reaches into his pants pocket for his Sparky Rock. It's still there. He feels a bit better. He holds on to it.

"I want to hear things and say things."

It's still a clear moonless night outside. A different subset of houses has small groups of flames by their doors.

"This is the house where Merta and I and Siki and you live. That house is where my friend Talia lives. My friends Meld and Tessidy live in that house." She does not say that they're planning on kittens and that she thinks they have a good chance of a litter but might be biased because she likes them, as that is not appropriate for a kid Nico's age, especially one who's been abused. "Talia works at the mill, same as me. The mill is where I came up to you for the first time. We make steel at the mill. Steel is a metal. A hard thing like rock, but werewolves like Merta can't do magic with it."

"Yesterday, I bought a burger for you from Basilio. He sells burgers. Burgers are a kind of food made from beans and squash. I gave him three money-of-Kef and he gave me a burger. Well, I didn't give him three money-of-Kef. I told him that he had three more and I had three less and he will remember that. He will know that he has three more money-of-Kef. If he wants me to do something for him, maybe dance for him and his friends, he could tell me that I have more money and he has less. Money-of-Kef comes from the Magistrate of Kef. When I work at the mill, I get more money-of-Kef. When I live in a house in Kef, I have less. If I did my work at the mill badly and broke something, I would have less. If I say to Basilio that he has three more money-of-Kef, and he gives me a burger, and then I say he didn't give me a burger and I still have the same amount of money, he and I would go to the Magistrate of Kef and she would say how much money I have and how much money Basilio has."

And here's the cart. "Hello, Paulo!"

   "Back with the human kid, I see."

"He's not actually human! He's a kaleid. I don't know exactly what his magic is. I would like to buy a burger from you, paying you three money-of-Kef."

    "Yep, that's the price."

"I wasn't expecting it to be different, I'm just trying to help him learn the language!"

    "Hah, okay. Hi kid. This here is the best burger cart in all of Kef, you know? Almost tastes like real meat, for only three!"

"How is Basilio?"

    "Pa is fine. Can't shut up about the fancy spices he wants to try importing from Archer's Tabard. How's your little mouseling, Skio was it?

"Siki. He's really busy with his apprenticeship, to a watchmaker but around here that means he makes navigators as much as anything."

"I'd like to get to the courthouse early."

"Alright. Bye Paulo!

Oh yeah, I told Nico you would show him how a water pump works."

Merta finds a rock in a corner and holds it in her hands for a minute while she walks, leading the way past the ramp and along the side of the thick wall.

Is Nico okay with eating while he walks?

The rock slowly deforms for another minute, and then she holds out the pieces for Nico to see. There's a part like a snail and a part like a swirly star. "As this part spins, water comes in the hole in the middle and goes around and goes out."

He is used to walking and eating, and walking and talking, and walking and working. And walking in general. Woodsmen do a lot of walking, and woodsmen's sons follow them all day long.

But: That's not how money works! And he doesn't know how to say what he wants to say. He's tempted to burn the one white that's come back so far on translation, but resists. Saving your magic for when it's most useful is a point belabored to him early and often.

"...There are so many people. So many people say 'Magistrate, Faris take my food so I have some of her money! Magistrate, Suki gave me all his money before he left! Magistrate, I say Faris gave me money and Faris say I not know things I said before much so I have the money.' Money is golden metal or white metal or blue metal."

He does seem interested in the pump model, and will grab it and play with it a bit if permitted. It makes sense, sort of? At least as much as the firespinner does? And it's definitely simpler than a spigot pump connected to something else. "Catfolk are good at spinning things..."

He can play with the pump model as much as he likes.

"Elves can learn from each other's memories, and elves have been around a long time collecting memories, so they know a lot now about how people say things and do things. The Magistrate is an elph - Magistrates are almost always elves in the Allheart Alliance - so if you try to lie and say 'Faris took my food' and Faris says that's wrong, the Magistrate will look at you and look at Faris and know that Faris is telling the truth and you're lying."

"Is there something you want to spin?"

"...White magic can say 'you're lying' too. Big white magic. But many people lying lying lying. So metal is money."

To Calsa: "-I not know. Don't know. There was a thing near home I like. Spinning and bzzzzz-" He holds his hands together and then pulls them apart. "One thing, one one thing. I like the fire spinner, I like the pump."

"A cutting tool? You use it to cut things onto pieces? What kind of things?"

"Rich people - people with a lot of money - and people who go a lot of different places, use metal for money. Or spices or perfumes - things you put on food or on yourself to improve the smell, so you like it more."

If he's part elph, could that explain the translation? Maybe he remembers a language that went on to become both his language and Sotalese. But it sounded like he was saying that white magic is different from elph magic... maybe the translation works on reading thoughts? Not like an undine though, she certainly wasn't thinking about 'green' or 'white' before he said those words. Good thing they haven't lied to him about anything, but it's still kind of uncomfortable to imagine.

Okay, that makes sense, it's more like favors. He nods, accepting it.

"[Logs]! They're, um. Um." He frowns thoughtfully and looks around for any signs of wood. "...Why is it still dark?"

No wood is nearby. The wall looms on one side, scattered houses on the other. Maybe some of the plants in the distant fields have woody bits?

"We haven't walked far enough to see the sun. We would have to walk for, um..."

"About a hundred times as long as it's been since we got out of bed." She counts her fingers. "Ten, and a hundred is ten tens, like if each of my fingers were two hands."

Calsa holds up her hands touching each of Merta's fingers in succession.

"You'd have to sleep three times, if you were walking all the time you were awake. And that just gets you to the storms, where the sun's light is in the sky. To see the sun, you'd have to walk that much again."

She points at the wall. "An equartier can go there and back here twice before sleeping, but they'd be pretty tired. They usually only do it once."

That........ Doesn't make any sense? The sun comes up and down every day.

"...I'm lost."

...Then again, he ran away really really hard.

He kind of misses home now. A little bit. Just a teensy bit. And just mom.

No! He left and he's not going back! He can run away again if he has to.

He noms the remains of the food thoughtfully. "One... Two, three, four, five... [It's going to be cold all the time...] What kind of things do you make Merta? I like making things."