Nod. "When the population pressure started to get bad there was an empire here who conquered everybody he wanted or who wasn't being strict enough about laws about children. When he died Anitam got free and built our own country."

"Your country is so big. It's hard to imagine somebody conquering it."

"The wars at the time of the Oahk Empire were very terrible, tens of millions of people dying. And when the Empire won they had soldiers take all the blues in a line and go down the line killing one in three, that was nearly a million people dead that way."

She shivers.

"Done now. We have peace."

"Good."

He nods fervently. 

"Are other countries excited about us being here too?"

"They are! They have been calling our government to say how did the aliens get here can they meet you can they take you home if there are worlds they should get a world first because their children are hungry, that kind of thing. The government has been saying wait and give the aliens time to learn things."

"If people's children are hungry why don't they have fewer children, since you can do that?"

"A good government figures out how many children there will be food for and allows not quite that many children, so if there is a disaster or famine there is still enough food for all the children. But some governments guess not quite well enough, or people break the rule and have not-allowed children."

"I don't have to eat," says Penumbra. "If you need the food."

"That is very kind of you but Anitam does not have hungry children and has rules about how to help other countries in need because we don't want - countries to be irresponsible on purpose knowing the responsible ones will fix it. That sounds very unkind but - it is worse next year if we are thoughtless this year."

"...yeah, makes sense."

"The government is not sure how to - let you meet everyone you want but not let you be manipulated by a country that will lie or think you haven't thought of the responsible-next-year problem. That's why they are saying wait until you have learned more. You can say no, I want to meet everyone now, if you think they are deciding wrong."

"It's probably a good idea to wait. I'm not sure how long. It's tempting to say until I can read Anitami all right but that could take a long time."

"All the other countries have some people who can speak Anitami so at least you would not have to learn other things too. I think it is reasonable to take your time."

"Thanks."

"Of course!"

"If at some point I no longer require translation maybe Penumbra will teach you more languages."

"Oooooh! You speak more languages?" he says to Penumbra.

Penumbra nods.

"When elementals coalesce they know all the languages spoken anywhere in the world at that time," Maurabel says.

His eyes rather pop. "That's amazing!"

...giggle. "We started talking to them more because we invented writing, and new ones knew about that and told the others, and they came to see what was going on!"

" - wow!"