So's this one.

Wait, Merrin also has a much greater ability to remember names and faces one day later than the median dath ilani, right?  Actually that's just Pilar Pineda, Asmodia, and Ione Sala.  Merrin can totally recognize them, right, that's a thing Merrin can just... do, somehow.

Merrin can just do this! She's slightly iffier on matching the correct names to faces, for the two who aren't the highly memorable Pilar, but after ten seconds of thinking about it, she's fairly sure which one is Ione and which one is Asmodia. Maybe not sure enough to address them by name until it happens to come up in conversation and she gets confirmation. 

She walks over. "Good morning!" ...Oh, wait, can they understand her? She waits a moment to see if they answer or just look confused. 

"Good morning!"  These Baseline words enabled by a light arm-bracer are spoken by Ione Sala, who, it has been determined, is the best of the three Ostenso students at sounding genuinely cheerful given some rigorous training and drilling overnight, with a Nap Stack to enable her to have spells for the day.

She's having her thoughts read at every second.

She's in a Telepathic Bond with a seventh-circle wizard who in turn has a Telepathic Bond to the Queen of Cheliax.

She is, for the most part, putting everything away, putting away the terror and horror and certainty of her failure and horrendously painful death and probable damnation, putting away almost her entire self, not thinking anything about anything, trying to be only the parts of herself that are required to do this job.

Merrin might conceivably have noticed something slightly off, here, if she had a lot more cultural context on Cheliax, or if she were expecting and on the lookout for someone who might have been pressured or even coerced into pretending to be cheerful and happy to talk to her. Why would that be a thing that happened. (Also, if a dath ilani were for some reason in that situation - well, for one it probably wouldn't work, and two, it would be so incredibly obvious.) 

She smiles brightly at probably-Ione. "- Oh, neat, they sorted out translation for you!" She sits down with her food. "I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on Baseline as a language, once you've, um, actually spoken enough of it to me to notice patterns. Also I had a ridiculous day yesterday, if you want to hear about that?" 

"I mean, yes, and then I want to hear about the day before yesterday, and everything there is to know about the world you're from, and everything your world knows that ours doesn't, and any ideas you have about how you got here, or about how I could go visit your world."

Ione is apparently very good at making this particular line of patter sound like she's genuinely enthusiastic and not at all like she's probing Merrin for secrets for Cheliax's benefit, according to her trainer.

"I...am slightly nervous about telling you literally everything dath ilan knows that Cheliax doesn't," for reasons related to one of the ways in which yesterday was ridiculous, "also I - don't incredibly know where to start with just that prompt, but I'll try my best."

Unfortunately her sketchy theories for how she got here are kind of infohazard-flavored, in a way where maybe it's fine but Merrin is not a Keeper and doesn't know and for various reasons feels much better about telling Albe than telling students who are years younger than her. (Merrin's thoughts, if anyone is watching, blur out again here.) 

Oh well. It's probably safe for her to tell them about her Exception Handling work, and how dath ilan Governance is set up and some things about their tech level and how day to day life looks different from Cheliax, and Merrin is pretty sure that by itself would take several days to fully explore.

And...if she's wrong in an actually-very-dangerous way then maybe her new goddess-employer will do something to warn her? Merrin should absolutely not count on that, though, it's probably very expensive for Erecura to even pay attention to her on an ongoing basis, let alone intervene about it. 

"Anyway! The thing that happened at the end of yesterday is that I tried contacting all the gods I'd heard about so far to see if anyone of them were interested in offering me the 'cleric' thing - I was absolutely not expecting this to work but the cleric of Asmodeus I spoke to said it wouldn't hurt to try, and it was an interesting mental exercise in its own right - and now I'm a cleric of Erecura! Which means I have my own version of the translation magic. I think! I have three spells that are probably that but I don't actually know how to distinguish spells from each other very well without casting them, yet." 

"I didn't even know Erecura had clerics!  Why did you choose Her?  And who is Merrin that she would be chosen of Her, wow that sounds so much less poetic in Baseline.  Oh, does the translation spell look anything like you'd cast it with your hands starting like -"

Ione puts her hands into the starting position for the arcane version of Comprehend Languages, which is different from the divine version, but not so different that the starting gestures aren't the same.

"I didn't try for her first! She was actually almost last on my list, the only one after her was Gorum, um, the banking one who also sort of runs a country like Asmodeus runs Cheliax? I tried Asmodeus first and then -" damn it the unnamed one is kind of secret, oh well she'll leave it out for now, "- then Urgathoa, Pharasma, Desna, and Zon-Kuthon, in that order." Presumably she doesn't need to explain the gods' alignments and domains to Golarion natives. "I'm - honestly not sure why she picked me, they did explain that she doesn't normally work with mortal clerics, but it seemed worth trying for completeness. I'm really curious! My - best guess is that it's related to the fact that I had been thinking I needed to - try to become something like a Keeper in my world. Which I'll explain in a moment, unless the translation covers some of that? And both secret-keeping and making accurate predictions are going to be incredibly important for that." 

She frowns. "Also she gave me the 'channeling positive energy' ability, which is apparently extremely rare and expensive for gods to give out, and I'm really confused. I don't actually have a good theory for that yet. The cleric who came and confirmed I'd gotten cleric magic said that it's probably not because there's about to be an enormous disaster where Cheliax desperately needs more efficient healing, because even gods aren't that accurate at predicting exact futures, but - I guess I'm not sure it isn't that, since Erecura's domain is predictions." 

Merrin consults her internal sense of spell-casting hand gestures - does Ione's match with the three copies of the same spell she has for 1st-circle? 

Almost!

"Yeah, that looks like it! I have three of them and I think they last twenty minutes each, so it won't cover me for the entire day or anything but I'm hoping it'll help a lot with the thing where sometimes concepts translate incredibly confusingly into Baseline. ...Actually, hmm, how - much context does the translation magic give you, if it's a concept that your native language doesn't actually have a word for? I remember some of the people talking to me before were occasionally using words and then...noticing that they weren't entirely sure what they'd just said." 

She's watching all three of the students closely, mainly trying to gauge their reactions to last night's events; it seems like helpful data on exactly how weird this is, and therefore how significant of an update she should expect to make once she has a clearer idea what that update is. 

Actually Asmodia is an impersonator today!  The real Asmodia fell behind Ione in acting quality, got punished accordingly, and apparently is one of those fucking kids whose acting quality goes down further after she's punished for failing.  How she managed to last this long through Ostenso wizard academy is a mystery, maybe the headmaster there is going lax.

Anyways, 'Asmodia' is going to be mostly serious and dispassionate as a cover for her fascination, because she thinks that's more dignified, and isn't going to be very forwards about interacting with Merrin this morning.

Pilar is an innately cheerful sort of girl, tends to come across as rather sardonic when she speaks to anyone who isn't a teacher, and has a hell of a Resting Bitch Face that in practice is probably 70% of why she continues to be mostly considered a proper scary Asmodean given her actual behavior patterns.

Pilar was also not as good an actress as Ione.  And was punished accordingly, of course, so it's fine now, given that apparently Pilar's natural personality was judged suitable to do an acceptable job.

And she's on a Telepathic Bond to a seventh-circle wizard who is on a Telepathic Bond to the Queen of Cheliax which is... actually a bit more awesomeness than Pilar can really handle.  She's trying not to think about it.

Ione looks appropriately fascinated by all the weirdness!

"Ooh, I want to try that.  Do you know what words triggered that?  'Magic'.  'Magic'.  I can tell it doesn't mean Taldane 'magic' but I can't tell exactly what it does mean.  You're right, that's fascinating!  I don't think I've ever heard any really unfamiliar concepts from Comprehend Languages but I'll prepare that spell today and I'll tell you how it compares to hear a weird word from you using that spell instead of my speaking it with an item of Tongues!  Oh, I'll probably get even less information, though, Tongues is a more powerful spell than Comprehend Languages, third-degree-of-economagical-complexity instead of first-degree-of-economagical-complexity.  'Complexity.'  'Complexity.'  Why does that sound like it means math I don't know?"

Merrin is noticing that Asmodia is quiet, but it's not like she had much of a chance to interact with Asmodia yesterday. Probably Asmodia is just a very quiet person. Merrin will think more about whether to try to include her more in the conversation, versus inferring that her quietness means she would rather not be bothered and then leaving her alone.

"Huh. I'll try to remember what the words were that tripped people up, before. Mostly I'm remembering that the way Tongues tried to translate 'Chaotic' at first was really confusing and misleading. Complexity is - um, it's the quantity of how complicated something is?  Measured in bits? I guess that's math."

Merrin feels like it's a very borderline case of actual math. There are nuances, of course, but the basic concept isn't even the first five minutes of a lesson, it's the first thirty seconds, and she's having trouble remembering far enough back to recall a time when she didn't know the basic concept. 

"I've never heard of things being like, numbers complicated, instead of just more or less complicated.  'Bits' sounds like math I don't know too!"

........Wow. Just when Merrin thought she was maybe getting a handle on all of the problems with Golarion... This particular one is confusing. It makes sense that the broader education system would cover less math, but it seems like it has to be relevant for wizard magic - and wizards are smart, they're selected heavily for that, and wizards can increase their intelligence. 

"Um. I think I should explain that, but it might be helpful if you can tell me what math you do know - and maybe what math you haven't fully learned yet but expect to later in your studies? - so I can figure out what prerequisites if any need explaining first rather than repeatedly trying to say something where you don't know the terminology yet. ...Also I'm going to register a prediction that Baseline will be a much better language for talking about math and you'll have some opportunities to notice the translation weirdness." 

Ione Sala knows incredibly-elementary-algebra-your-parents-teach-you-before-you-start-school and ridiculously-basic-topology-for-nine-year-olds!  She's good at it too, in terms of Ostenso wizard academy class rankings!

...wow this language seems to have some pretty precise terms to describe exactly which math Ione knows, if she's not just imagining that.

....Wow. 

It does have that! How are you supposed to talk about math ever if your language doesn't have that? 

Flaming bird poop that list didn't include probability, how is she supposed to explain complexity without that. Pr...obably the students have an intuitive concept of that math, at least, even if it wasn't considered relevant for wizard studies at their level. Merrin is not sure how you exist in the world without knowing basic probability theory. 

"So, um, I am - starting to suspect it's going to be impossible to properly explain without an entire lesson that goes back to the basics. And I'm not super up for giving an entire lesson right now because I'm bad at math and school was a decade ago. ...Um, I'm bad at math by dath ilan standards. One of the things we pieced together yesterday is that dath ilan has a much higher median thinkoomph - uh, that probably covers what you call Wisdom and Intelligence plus possibly a lot of other elements that you don't have spells for measuring - I'm below average there but it's becoming increasingly clear that that is incredibly not true here." 

She spends a moment considering how to explain it in a way that is both comprehensible at all and doesn't rely hugely on other math that she will then get stuck having to explain as well. 

"So - in general how complicated something is, is - something you can measure by how long it would take you to describe exactly that thing, without any ambiguity over which particular thing it is. You...can sort of imagine it as, you're writing out a description of an entire spell - imagine you have really precise words to describe all the features of it, that distinguish it from other spells, I don't know if your language actually has that - and how long the description is, corresponds to how complex the spell is. The message length is measured in bits, where - one bit is the amount of information you would need to pick between two possible options that seemed equally probable before you included that information - um, there's an entire field of math about how probable things are, that's also very precise. So if we were talking about an imaginary toy universe where there were only two possible configurations for economicmagic spells to be in, you would have a complexity - a description length - of one bit. Obviously there are a lot more than two ways that magic can be configured! But you can still think of it as the number of bits you need to single out the precise words and then you use the very precise words to describe the spell. The 1st-circle spells are more complex than the 0th-circle spells, which in this case just means that you would need a longer description, as measured in bits, if you wanted to convey everything about them in words to someone else. Does that make sense?" 

"It does!  Though economagical-degree-of-complexity usually just goes by the maximum number of topological-loops in the spell - okay I can say that just fine!  So why does first-economagical-degree-of-complexity come out as that in Tongues, and not as 'economagic with up to one topological-loop' since that's what it means?"

"I don't actually know anything about how Tongues picks out what word to give you as a translation! It seems to get it wrong sometimes! But, um, one hypothesis is that Tongues assumes you would rather use fewer and shorter words, unless you're going into it determined to be really maximally precise? ...I might have better theories about this once I've tried it from my end." 

"Or the average person in Golarion speaking Taldane, my native language, doesn't know about topological-loops, and thinks that 'circle' means Taldane 'complexity' that translates closest to Baseline 'complexity', and Tongues wants the Taldane concept for 'first-circle' to translate into the same Baseline word any time somebody talks about it, so it goes by the average meaning of the word I'm thinking and not the concept I'm thinking?"

"...Nah, I like your explanation better."

"Hmm, so another thing I was thinking is that - talking about degrees of complexity is more general than talking about the number of topological loops? As in, you could imagine there being a lot of different possible magic systems that had discrete measurable degrees of complexity, not just the ones like Golarion magic. I'm not sure it's actually useful for Tongues to be suggesting the most generic translation but - I can imagine that being the least complex way to implement the spell? ...Maybe. I am not actually an expert in programming complex algorithms, which is the analogy I'm using right now for Golarion spells that seem to contain a lot of intelligence and sophisticated information-processing." 

Pause. 

"- My prediction is that I just said several words that translate weirdly and I'm curious to hear what you heard and understood?" 

"I - heard you say you weren't an expert in something that I didn't understand at all, and then you talked about Golarion spells that contain a lot of intelligence and - sophisticated something else, that sounded vaguely like the first thing and also like spells that can have complicated conditions built into them, or 'complexconditionalspells*' in Taldane."

(*) Three syllables.

"...Huh."

"...That's - it's really interesting that it seems like your language has a short or common word for that? Um, in the world I know, it's - you can't just call on some intelligence outside yourself and outside Civilization, in order to do anything sophisticated? It's possible to build things that do some amount of - making decisions based on observations, and having judgement - but that relies on someone having built the system? And....it sounds like Golarion magic just - includes calling a function to some outside force that has intelligence and can do complex decisionmaking and output reasonable results?" 

Which is honestly kind of terrifying! 

"- Um, unless I'm completely misunderstanding how spells are developed."