Observes this. "Huh, I think I will change again to Adamet, to see her reaction." He does that.

He sheds his skin in the same spot. Placing the Ventari one over the discarded (and already dissolving) Umbra form.

Once he returns, Esdras is now metallic. A cooper-silver midpoint between his nephew and sister.

Candace looks at Esdras, wide eyes full of curiosity. "That's so cool! Do you think you could teach me?"

Esdras smiles, but isn't sure what she said. He starts points. "Adamet shape." Then to his sister. "Ventari shape." He does the same for Voragera (his niece) and Aestes (Liron's). He tries very slowly. "Auria was in Adamet. Then Ventari. Adamet shift Ventari. Candance shift?" He tries to make the last bit to sound like a question.

"She is too young."

"I am trying to see if they have the concept."

Candace thinks for a few seconds. She says no in thomassian, before repeating the word Esdras used between Adamet and Ventari and repeated in an asking way about her. She tilts her head at Esdras.

Esdras thinks for about a second. Makes a sort of 'wait here' gesture, then goes to retrieve a piece of his skin.

His Umbra skin has deteriorated enough that he can't bring a large enough piece, but there is still an arm from his Ventari form. He brings it back - hopefully not startling the girl too much - and mimes the skin falling off his arm. "Shift."

Candace shakes her head. "Magic!" she says. It's not too many more language videos before wizards and knights and castles and magic shows up...

Esdras still tries to ask, "Candace-Mama shift? Candace-Papa shift?"

Candace just keeps shaking her head. "Impossible..." she mumbles.

Well, the adults all react to this as something very distressing.

Candace is not only too young to shift, she is unable to, how does someone live like that?

This translates as them being somewhat on a sadder mood, but their baseline wasn't that high given recent incidents.

Candace doesn't pay much attention to them, leaning back in the pool and seeping in the water for a bit more. Eventually, she walks out of the pool, revealing a well-hidden closet filled with towels against one wall of the baths. She dries herself off with one of them, before changing into a blue skirt together with a black shirt over it. She wants to understand the situation that these people came from; she tries to mime a teacher in a classroom, writing things on a blackboard with chalk and lecturing to students. Then she turns on the projector, playing a video explaining the basics of reading the thomassian writing system.

Sure, they can dry themselves and follow her. They lack a change of clothing, but don't mind putting back their previous set.

Esdras pays attention, trying not to was the time of the poor mortal girl to learn the writing system. Memorization is one of his strengths.

The video then moves on to reading the simplest texts, including a children's book about a child who randomly wakes up in another main room every day, after falling asleep in his bed. Making for a very good excuse to learn about seasons and geographical features. This one's right near a beach! This one's next to a river! Candace then begins another video explaining tenses and questions in thomassian. It explains how to ask questions like, "What did you do today?" Then she begins a game of charades, starting by pretending to be a dog, one of the animals that they learned the name of in a previous video.

Then she looks at Esdras and asks, "What did you do today?"

Okay, he will give it a try. Speaking slowly, he says: "We enter the roof garden. We met Candace. You. You helped us to not wet with rain." He lacks the vocabulary for "escape". "And you clean the hurt in Liron. We ate food. We batheted..?" He isn't sure that last one is the correct word.

Candace looks at them, smiling and nodding. "I'm so happy you're happy! But how did you get on roof?"

Auria squeezes her husband.

"Hm." Esdras mutters while thinking, they don't actually know, but it was probably some way to get rid of them. But that requires context. Or maybe not? Actually, he can just say that. "Not know. We in small room." He mimes being inside a small box. "Small small bad room."

Candace nods, but it's clear that she's confused. "Baby is cute. Can I hold?"

Sure, Esdras will hand over his nephew veeery carefully.

Auria keeps holding her daughter, thank you.

Candace holds and rocks and Esdras' nephew, as similarly to Esdras as she can manage, as the projector gently introduces the thomassian writing system.

Eventually, it shows a small group of children, all of them playing under the watchful eye of one childcare worker. After watching some more of the educational videos, Candace yawns, before nodding and walking off to one of the available bedrooms. "Getting sleepy. Wake me if you need."

Esdras pays a lot of attention to the thomassian writing system. Does Candace provide any sort of writing implements before going to sleep? Esdras wants to make some notes.