It only takes another few words of discussion before the next message is written. "As the only known person capable of making or using crafting material, you will naturally be among the first to learn what our experimenters discover. Generic crafting material will suffice for investigation into its interactions with spiritual energy, though the executives are uncertain as to whether this will be enough to ascertain the specifics of what mechanism ansibles function by. Signboards will suffice, though in that case we may request some additional hot-cold markers, preferably at least one for each half-ansible."

He can do a bunch of hot-cold markers, yeah. (He begins crafting up the first ansible-pair-to-be.) He's not sure what they're expecting to figure out about how ansibles work; they aren't machines with internal parts, they're fundamentally their own thing.

That prompts another short discussion before an explanation is written. "We will not be studying the ansibles as machines, but similar to as if they were smoke-constructs. We will be seeking to understand what causes ansibles behave like ansibles, rather than like things that are not ansibles."

Well, if they think they can get somewhere with that he won't stop them.

He's got the first writing board ready and shows it to them for their approval; it's fairly small, and thin enough to look flimsy even though it's not, and it's a pale grey with black markings when he demonstrates with the attached marking pen. (He can just add a slot for the pen to clip into if they prefer not to have it attached, but without crafting that's much less secure.)

The executives and flow-mages both inspect the signboard-ansible, and everyone seems satisfied. "These will work for our purposes," is written a moment later.

He'll copy the board-and-pen half a dozen times, then, and then split each of those into a pair of ansibles and add pens and connecting lines to the second ansible of each pair; if the connector was included in the ansible, he explains, then both pens would move whenever someone on one side used one, and there'd be a high chance of the other one getting tangled in something and making the whole setup unusable until it was untangled.

There's a look of understanding on the flow-mages, and the three executives nod. Assuming he sends them over the table, the flow-mages will be ready to accept eleven of the twelve ansible-halves.

Well, he does want to know what the plan is for him getting what he needs, somewhere in here.

There is some discussion at that, longer than the last couple but still not exceedingly long, before the reply is written. "If you have specifications as to what the desired qualities of the food animals or seedstock, we can receive those now or you can share them via the ansible or by getting in contact with a civil servant in person and will do our best to find and deliver them to you or your last known location. In absence of specifications, we will bring you a small representative set of the varieties of food animals which seem amenable to your lifestyle, as well as larger selection of our food crops. In the former case, a precise time estimate can't be given as some specifications may take more time to fulfill than others, but in the latter case, it is expected that the animals and seeds, along with further mass for conversion, will be delivered within six days*. A vine hat can be procured tonight and delivered the following morning."

There's a pause without further discussion for a moment before a small addition is made. "Given you do not have spiritual energy, your thoughts already cannot be read. This will likely remain the case as long as you continue to eat food that also does not have spiritual energy."

Yeah, he doesn't want to assume he can keep his spiritual energy intake down to zero, though.

In terms of food animals he's most familiar with chickens, and a flock of fourteen or sixteen hens and a rooster should keep him and his dog going indefinitely; if he's going to be traveling by land he's going to need a couple more dogs and he'll want about a dozen hens per dog if he can't hunt for their meat but he'd rather hunt if possible. He can do other small meat or egglaying animals if they don't have chickens or can't spare that many but he doesn't know how many he'd need off the top of his head; the dogs might be harder to substitute but he's willing to try other animals that are good with taking instruction and he can do without if he really needs to. In terms of food plants he'd like a variety of local staples, he can presumably manage on whatever sorts of things they usually eat.

Another very brief discussion precedes the next response. "Hunting may be somewhat troublesome, as it will need communication with the wildlife and nature preservation administration in whatever province you're in at the time. Ecological repairs from the damage done by the Kings remain in progress even after all this time, and while it seems unlikely that a single human and small pack of dogs hunting for supplemental protein will be unduly disruptive to the repair efforts, it is not the specialty of any of us here to know the dangers involved. Accepting that, three dozen and six hens, a rooster, two good working dogs, and a selection of local staple-crops can all certainly be acquired within the same previously stated six day time-span."

One of the flow-mages has a thought at this point and discusses briefly with the executives, before an addition is made. "Our working dogs will be trained to respond to verbal commands, however. They might require additional training to respond well to your communication. Also, do you have any known food allergies? Particularly, if you know any specific constituent substances that make up food that you have an allergy to, we can avoid crops that contain that substance."

That sounds fine; he doesn't have any food allergies and he's prepared to train the dogs for what he'll want them to do. He's also going to need meat or eggs to keep his dog fed while he's waiting for the chickens.

There's just another few words of discussion before a response is mad. "Dog-appropriate food can be brought with the hat. It might not contain eggs and very likely will not include meat. Meat or eggs can be acquired in specific, if you believe them to be necessary."

...well if they've figured out how to keep dogs healthy without meat or eggs that's fine, he guesses.

The representative of the five flow-mages nods, before a further explanation is written. "The Kings fashioned many strange things as they sought to supply themselves with plentiful and spiritually rich human flesh. We have mostly transitioned back to more traditional foodstuffs for human food, but some of them remain in common use for non-herbivorous animal food, as a way of minimizing the need for animal slaughter."

That's reasonable; it's the same reason eggs are so popular back home.

More nods from all the flow-mages, though there's no further messages written at the moment.

He slides the stack of ansibles over to their side of the table and spends another moment considering the situation.

It seems like they're still nervous of him, is there anything about that that might be productive to try to discuss?

There is more discussion, a pretty long one, as the three executives seem to take some time to seriously consider the question. Eventually, much of the main signboard is cleared and a new message is written.

"Our anxiety is mostly a matter of uncertainty regarding the future. It is difficult to predict how the rest of the executive chiefs, the federal legislature, the public at large, the White Matron, or the Coalition's various people of great importance will react to this situation. Many things could happen, and many of them are bad. We have already shared what information we can at this time, and hopefully inspired a wise caution with regards to potential capture by Coalition agents. There is not much more that can be done with words, we expect."

Yeah, he can't do very much about what other people are going to do.

If that's the situation, he's going to focus on rebuilding his personal holdings for now - he went into the storm on his end to escape a forest fire and had to leave a lot of things behind, so he's got a lot of that to do. If they have more things for him to convert he'd appreciate that but he can manage with frozen water if that's inconvenient for them.

The response is quick, and made without further conversation, perhaps at the flow-mages' own recognizance. "It would be something of a hassle to bring large masses from the city to this location, and the strangeness of the activity, on top of what was brought to you already earlier today, might draw the attention of Coalition spies. It's not strictly infeasible but it is strongly dispreferred for now."

Frozen water it is, then. He'll set up a doorbell up here before he goes inside to get started with that, in case they need to get his attention for anything.

They'll a quick "Thank you" to the signboard, then he doesn't think of anything more he'd like to communicate at the moment, they'll gather up the ansibles, float them into the opened vine-box as the three executives walk back in as well, close it up, and then lift off with both boxes in tow.

Now it's just him, his dog, his ship, and the couple dozen flow-mages circling over head.

He mounts the promised doorbell into the transparent divider and takes the book printer and tea plant downstairs with him. The ship rocks oddly a couple times a bit later, and there are periods of regular disturbances of the water as he takes it in to convert, but other than that the process isn't visible from the outside at all.

No one comes to investigate the mysterious rocking. Presumably they either trust him enough to not worry, or fear him enough to not bother. Possibly both. It'd be hard to believe they're not taking note, though.

If he happens to be looking skyward at the right time, he'll catch one team of five flow-mages leaving the circle as another joins. Perhaps changing shifts.