She takes another moment to pause and consider it, then nods.  

"Is that enough context? For 'a spell is that stuff when a computer program does it'?"

"Yeah.  

"Though, you mentioned that people still need to have a certain linker capacity before they can, hmm.  Your example was use a flight spell with enough power to get over normal gravity, or something like that?  Does that mean the computers can't get mana out of the dimensional sea on their own?  How much of the process is handled by them?"

"Depends on the Device, but barring exceptions, calculation and manifestation placement exclusively. I mean, artificial linker cores exist but they're not something this civilization has the means to manufacture. A lot of Devices have some form of mana storage, but they all have to get it from your respiration or from some other form of storage. Integrating a Device with a mage's linker core is also a very individual process. With the exception of the really basic training Devices that lack most of the important features, every Device is unique, and bespoke, and will be incompatible with a majority of other mages."

"What percentage of people have a Device?"

"Training Devices are issued to anyone who signs up for, er, training. With any vetted education service offering magical instruction. The TSAB subsidizes that. As for proper, Storage, Armed, Intelligent, or even Unison Devices, about eight percent of civilians as well as all non-probationary members of the TSAB."

"I'd be interested in seeing whether my kind of human, ones with daemons, can use one.  Not necessarily right away, since it requires enrolling somewhere, and," she trails off, considering all the steps she'd have to deal with before enrolling in anything.  It's starting to sink in that there is quite a list of things that are going to be different from how they worked on the ships, and even simple things like getting groceries might be confusing for the next few weeks.  She's very tempted to ignore those for now and keep asking questions about mana.

There wouldn't actually be that many steps involved but Eelesia cannot reassure Verity on that point if Verity continues to avoid the subject!

"Given how you, um, half-reacted to soultalk, it is probably impossible, but we can certainly arrange for you to try after you've decided what you want to do on the scale of the next few days."

"Hmm.  I'd also like to see what your science makes of daemons, if there are more advanced tests than the medical scan. 

"Though, I guess the most important thing to handle next would be figuring out essentials, like how houses are assigned and how money works here.  You mentioned I could apply for citizenship earlier?  I know how transfer between ships in the fleet is done, but I don't know how much more complicated it's going to be moving between the fleet and here."

"Citizenship is on the table if you want to settle anywhere in Administrated Space, but you don't have to make any real decision today. If you'd like, I can issue you a visitor's visa right now. Comes with enough money for a two-week stay at a good hotel, and will serve as valid identification for six months, incurring no obligations. If you still want to charter a dimensional cruiser to search for your fleet, citizenship would make that easier, but I've already promised to arrange that for you myself, so."

"We're unlikely to prefer going back to the fleet even after it's been found," Araeneve says, mostly to Verity but intentionally loud enough to be overheard.  That isn't a very high bar, even if there were no mysteries or the promise of actual space to run that isn't orchards and hallways. 

"A visitors visa would make sense, though.  We don't know much about this place other than three buildings."

"That should be easy to remedy with the extranet... which you can't access. Because you can't soultalk. One second, let me look up what we have for that. I'll have to set you up with a non-thaumtronic terminal of some kind."

Araeneve settles down next to Verity's feet as they wait.  

"Will many things be hard to do without mana?"

"I wouldn't think so. Most technology doesn't require you to be a mage. Soultalk is just such a convenient interface medium."

"Ah! This is convenient. So, one option for the visitor visa is a skinprint, a temporary electronic tattoo, that serves as a terminal in addition to being your wallet and your ID."

"Huh, sounds interesting."  She tries to imagine how that would work, having originally pictured something more like a phone.  "Finally something that can access a net that I won't accidentally leave behind half the time.  Are they easier to install than they sound?"

"It looks like just a patch you slap on the back of your hand."

The printer under a desk behind her turns on and starts manufacturing one.

What an impressive printer.

Araeneve scoots out of the way so that Verity can stand up to get the patch once it's finished.

Eelesia pulls it off the printer tray and hands it over.

"Just out of curiosity, have you thought about what you're going to say to your people if we do locate your fleet? I don't go in for religious, um. The only example that the words 'reluctant religious figurehead' bring to mind is Vivio Takamachi from The Saint's Cradle disaster, which... isn't encouraging."

She examines the tattoo.  

"I'm not sure.  Maybe a request to have my things packed up and shipped to my new address.  I'm not irreplaceable to them, with 9 others with Legendary Daemons, and I was already avoiding most things except holidays and voting.  Hopefully they'll take the opportunity to not have me around and contradicting everything they say.  

"Who was Vivio Takamachi?"

When she peels away the patch, the revealed tattoo is almost invisible. Just a slight darkening of the skin in a geometric pattern extending from a central circle to each of her fingers. Briefly, it lights up, each part of the mark luminescing a different color, then all of them shining a soft white for a moment before fading back to near-invisibility.

"So, what happened was. About a decade ago there was a man who managed to reconstruct a genetic sample belonging to the central figure of worship from the most popular religion in Administrated Space. Vivio Takamachi is a clone born from that sample. Long story short, it turned out that man's motivations had nothing to do with religion. Vivio was the genetic key to the Saint's Cradle, a planet-killing city-ship from the height of the ancient Belkan Empire's reign of terror. Thankfully, the man failed and was arrested, but there Vivio still was, the more-or-less god of the Saint's Church as a living, breathing, ten-year-old girl."

Eelesia pauses.

"And even though Vivio was adopted by two of the most dangerous mages in the known multiverse, who were both already more famous and beloved than she was, even though they convinced the Saint's Church's leadership that it was the Church's pious duty to ensure Vivio got to have as normal a childhood as possible, you still hear about incidents with entitled fanatics trying things on a semi-regular basis."

"I don't usually worry about my safety on the ships," Verity considers.  "People will bother me, but it's always... asking me to foresee their future, or offer them good luck, or get me to start arguing for their favorite political choice.  Or just staring at me or taking pictures.  I think one of the differences is that Legendaries are more expected to be around, and not... singular.  As far as anyone can tell, we've always been about one in one hundred thousand, even if different cultures ascribe different meanings."

"The basics of the religion is: Normal daemons are said to contain a tiny fragment of the Divine Totem that's associated with their species, and that's what causes the form they'll assume during puberty.  They are expected to live up to their totem’s ideals and exalt themselves, so that when they die, their spark will rejoin the totem and empower it.  To perform evil will bring tarnish and weakness into the totem rather than glory.  This is supposed to be important for some Final Battle at the end of the universe.

"Legendaries are said to be outright our totem reborn, bringing their entire personalities and memories condensed into a single person in order to act as leaders and guides of humanity.  Presumably subconsciously, though some claim to actually have knowledge.  They're almost certainly lying, and don't seem to have any more insight into things than anyone else.  Interpreting the dreams of Legendaries is supposed to be important.

"Each daemon is also split into groups associated with their elemental type.  For dual-types, this is the first element only, so Bulbasaur is grass, but not poison.  Each type is supposed to perform certain duties, handing different holidays and stuff.  Also focusing on particular virtues.  As a water-type, we're supposed to be focused on Cleanliness and Health."

Eelesia nods along.

"Yeah those are the kinds of things make up the majority of the incidents for the Takamachis. That's all going to fascinate our anthropologists, though. What are all the types and their duties?"

"For spring, Ground is frugality, Poison is happiness, Water is cleanliness, and Fairy is thankfulness," she recites.  These have a cadence in her native language which may or may not be coming across in translation.  Her family hadn't been especially devout, but there were things that anyone knew well enough to recite.  

"For summer, Fire is productivity, Bug is justice/mercy, Dragon is honesty, Electric is generosity, and Grass is kindness.  For autumn, Flying is courage, Steel is protection, Normal is diligence, and Psychic is temperance.  For winter, Ice is prudence, Dark is cleverness, Fighting is patience, Rock is humility, and Ghost is hope/faith. 

"They each have special holidays every year, focused on them and the virtue.  Traditionally, they'd focus on jobs related to those virtues, too.  Since leaving on the ships, the religious duties of each type have been blurring with the duties to keep the ship running.  Electric types generating electricity, bug types creating cloth, psychic and flying types handling transportation..."

"Nifty."

She shrugs.  "I'd prefer a world where anyone could do any job they wanted, but not everyone can learn every Move and for now we're reliant on them to keep the ships running."

She turns her attention to the tattoo, considering what the controls would be like.  Does anything happen if she starts tapping it in places?