"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!"

Slightly strained smile.

"Would you like to teach Kefin some languages - he can teach me later -"

"I don't know how to teach," says Penumbra.

"You just talk, and correct him when he tries to say things but gets them wrong, or supply words he's trying to find."

"...I can try," Penumbra says, and she switches languages.

"I think that's Siruscan," says Maurabel.

He echoes her tentatively.

"I don't really know what to talk about," says Penumbra in Siruscan.

"I don't really know what to talk about?"

"I... guess that makes two of us."

"I guess that makes two of us. I guess I don't really know what to talk about? I guess two of us don't really know what to talk about? I guess that makes what?"

She wraps herself in her wings but they are invisible and not very good for hiding behind. She corrects his grammar.

"Am I upsetting her?" he asks his father in Anitami.

      "I think she's just shy. - and expecting us to get pushy on the planets thing."

"Uh huh." And to Penumbra - "I know what to talk about, elementals. Talk about elementals?"

She uses the word from Maurabel's language for them even though it turns out to have a forbidden vowel and a consonant cluster for Siruscan. "There are twelve simple kinds and there could be sixty-six hybrid kinds but we're not sure that all of us actually exist."

"What makes a hybrid kind, if no parents?"

"We just happen. Nobody knows how."

"What is it being an elemental?"

"...what is it like?" she suggests.

"Yes, what is it like?"