She's pulled into dock on the edge of the woods. There's no one else there, which isn't too unusual, just the edge of the world behind her, the soaring cliffs before her, and the forest spilling down either side like tumbling locks. It's nighttime, and she takes a moment to look up at the wandering stars. What this island loses on remoteness it makes up for in scenery, and the rooms carved into the cliff face are generally comfortable. And free. A port without fees is always nice.
"How does the crossing-magic work? What would have happened if I just flew into here without your ship?"
"You'd probably get turned around in the mist, and not manage to enter the ley. The crossing magic - reaches out beside itself, in a different direction than we can see. Then it gathers a lot of energy and jumps the ship sort of sideways, into another, adjacent spot. Some spirits can sense that direction, and move along it, so they can travel in the ley without a ship. Humans usually can't, though. The ship helps me sense the added dimensions so I can navigate."
"It is. I had to go to school for a while and learn a lot before I could design my ship."
"I have some paper around here, I could teach you the basic idea? And draw out a simple engine, too."
She fetches paper and pencil.
"For the ley, there's - let's say that you lived in a flat world. You could only go side to side or forward or backward, not up or down. You wouldn't be able to see anything above or below you. There's something like that for us, who have up, down, side to side, and forward and backward. It's really hard to move along that, but some things can."
"For the engine..." She sketches a river, and a wheel sticking into it. The wheel is connected to a rod, and then to another wheel. "This is how a watermill works. You can use it to do things like grind grain. It's a very simple engine. There's also steam engines..." And she sketches a fire under the outline of a boiler, with water and rising steam in it. The steam goes into a pipe, then hits a wheel a lot like a windmill. "The fire heats the water, making steam. The steam enters the pipe and goes to push against the fan blades. The center of the fan is usually connected to a stick, which is connected to a special type of wheel called a gear. Do you have anything like these where you're from?"
"There's a water mill down in Haverstead. But no windmills. So... Hot steam makes wind? Or is wind? And then it works like a little windmill?"
"Yes. Steam likes to go upwards and out, and when it can't escape, it pushes against things. If it's in a small pipe, it pushes very fast."
"Huh. Is that because it's steam or because it's hot? Hot air blows out of a house when you open the door in winter."
"It's because it's hot, yes. Heat is a type of energy, and hot gasses that have a lot of energy like to move fast and get bigger."
"Huh. And sounds like you can make big fancy engines out of it. Like the ones downstairs."
"The one downstairs works a bit different - it uses a combination of magic and magnets to turn the rod, since it's safer and the engine can be smaller that way - but the basic idea's the same, yes."
"Engines are faster than using the wind or rowing. We should tell ship people about this when I go home."
"Yeah!" Lessons are captivating enough that she doesn't want to go explore the ship and play around for at least a couple of hours.
Sarati remembers enough of her early lessons to piece together something age-appropriate, though she occasionally mentions concepts probably past Grenadine's level.
She is a clever, if not brilliant, child. Plenty of it goes over her head but she learns plenty as well.
Sarati occasionally has to get up to check on something in the engines, but is otherwise focused on filling out Grenadine's physics education.
After a few hours, the view outside the port changes as the star-flecks press closer. The low moaning rises to a howling, and the ship starts to shudder. Sarati stands, says to Grenadine, "There's a storm coming, get yourself buckled in," and puts their papers inside the box forming the table.
"A way of securing straps, so you won't fall down if the ship moves too much. Here - " She leads Grenadine over to the side of the ship, and points out the straps. "I'll help you get secured, okay?"