Instead, they're on top of a bright, spacious roof! They can see other similar roofs, with something grass-like covering the roofs all around them. A quick look around reveals that they're extremely high up, but it doesn't reveal any way to get up where they are. Or any way of getting down, either.

Liron is a bit too out of it to do anything much besides flinch away from the sudden brightness.

Auria manages to hold him steady, but she is not exactly any less confused.

Esdras holds his nephew closer to his chest, but he is the only one capable of standing up, so he does so. Where are them? Are there any people?

After a minute or so, someone walks out from a hidden trapdoor in the grass, a girl with what looks like a gecko wrapped around her left arm. She looks at them in confusion. "Can you tell me what you're doing on the roof?" Her eyes move to the child with silver-blue scales.

"I don't understand what you said," Esdras says.

The scaly baby isn't the only sight to behold. Esdras himself is dark-blue with bright yellow eyes, albeit otherwise humanoid. His nephew is a metallic copper tone.

Auria's skin tone is also metallic, albeit dark silver with scales in patterns around her arms and shoulder. The scales are more reflective and almost shiny in this light.

And Liron has deep-red skin, which currently help disguise the many cuts all over his face, chest and arms.

The girl with the gecko doesn't understand anything that's in the reply! She has no idea of how to proceed. She takes a phone from her pockets, and shows them a picture of  2 adults and 2 children, all 4 of them clearly happy being with each other. "Family", she says, pointing to the picture and then the group of strangers on the roof.

The strangers will be very nonplussed by this device. Esdras approaches - his nephew still in his arms - and takes a closer look. "Family?" He repeats the word.

(Oh, he only now registered the gecko, it looks... normal enough, he supposes.)

She nods, and points to the group of them again. "Family!" She runs down the stairs again, before returning some 15 minutes later. She motions for them to join her down the stairs, as the first few raindrops hit the roof. She leads them into a corridor, and opens a door leading into an huge open room. She smiles and waits for them inside, motioning for them to enter. There are a few toys and dolls, lined along the walls.

They spend this time trying to coax Liron into a form that hasn't been harmed. He doesn't have enough presence of mind to inform them that there isn't one.

When they hear the first raindrop, they actually bolt down the stairs. And close the trapdoor like there is some kind of monster on the other side. Liron has trouble walking, but that seems to be mostly a matter of balance.

Once they are in the room, Auria points at her husband's injuries and mimes, wiping her arm.

The girl looks at Auria solemnly. She runs off into one of the bathrooms adjacent to the main room, and returns with a well-stocked first aid kit. She rapidly begins cleaning off and disinfecting Liron, before applying some bandages. The she puts a clip on his finger and sprays a drop from what looks like a perfume bottle into his nostrils, and things stop feeling painful immediately.

Liron takes a sharp breath and blinks. "Have we been rescued?" He manages to ask.

Auria caresses his face. "That didn't even occur to me. And I don't know. We just showed up somewhere else. And she started to help." She smiles at the girl.

"Do you think you can shift something unharmed?"

"They were... thorough, with all my forms. But didn't lose any."

Auria hugs him (very carefully, he isn't actually healed, just bandaged).

The girl smiles, even though she doesn't understand what they're saying. Then, reading their body language, she motions to show that she wants to give everyone in the family a hug.

Aww, she is a sweet. Auria does hug her. "You should lay down, Liron. Come here, Esdras."

Okay, they will hug the strange surprisingly-welcoming-and-helpful girl. This is a bit hard with two babies, but not infeasible.

Hug.

(Esdras is keeping a careful eye on the gecko).

A careful eye on the gecko reveals that it's a realistic plastic toy gecko. She gladly hugs them back, and walks out into a side room before returning with a crib for each of the 2 babies. She takes her phone out again, showing them pictures and trying to explain things. "I am Candace. You are parents. They are babies. We care for and help parents and babies."

Wow, Esdras feels silly now.

They aren't sure they got everything about that explanation (?) right, but none of it is shaped like "and we will throw you in a dungeon", that is good enough.

Auria takes turns pointing and saying names. Auria, Esdras, Liron.

The children either don't have names yet, or she declined to give them to her.

Candace nods. She takes the three of them to a few of the side rooms, revealing the compact bedrooms where they'll be sleeping. She also shows off the bath, which is essentially a bathhouse fit for a dozen people. There's a big pool for playing in, as well as quite a places with shower heads to rinse off. There's a beautiful, abstract mosaic above the main pool.

Auria isn't complaining, but this is to the point where they wonder if somehow Candance confused them for foreign royals or something.

(She still doesn't let go of her daughter, and is always keeping her son in her sight.)

The three adults are far, far more mesmerized by the pool than the mosaic. This isn't the largest amount of bath water they have seen, but it is a lot for strangers.

She grabs her phone and shows them pictures of all sorts of food. She mimes eating, and tries to get them to realize that she wants to know if they're hungry.

The haven't eaten in a while and would accept food. Liron isn't feeling like eating, but he probably should.

He definitely should.

Esdras tries to mime the concept of "people" in particular, if there are other people around.

The girl doesn't understand what Esdras could mean.

He means "people", but for what reason or in what context, she can't find out. She chooses to order soy-sauce chicken, consistently ranked the most universally-enjoyed food in the world, and waits until the cargo robot, with vinyl decals to give the impression of it being a waiter, arrives with 4 huge portions of food, all kept in strangely light metal boxes with rounded edges. She carries one of the boxes into the adults' dining room, waiting for the 3 other adults to also bring a box of food from the robot. The aroma of the soy-sauce chicken fills the air, as she opens her metal box, illustrating that the boxes have food for them to eat.

Okay, this place is full of the weirdest contraptions, but they can roll with it. Auria will try to coax her husband to eat something-

-he jumps and takes a step back as soon as someone is holding a knife.

Auria steps back startled, which startles her daughter that starts crying.

Esdras was about to try communication again, but... well, that takes precedence. He tries to calm Liron down.

The girl is weirded out for a minute, before digging into her food. Thomassian food comes in absolutely huge portions, as they usually only eat twice a day. She savors the tender chicken and perfectly-fried rice, which taste absolutely fantastic together with the soy sauce and vegetable mix. She is very deliberate about achieving the perfect combination of chicken and rice in each bite, and takes her time with the huge meal.

They are not in a position to pay a lot of attention to their host!

Liron isn't actually that hard to calm down.

(Is it weird that a baby crying is helping? It's probably a sign he is a bad father, like everyone would expect him to be).

Liron doesn't voice that, but eventually they manage to quiet down the baby.

And sit down to eat, angling so Liron doesn't have to directly see anyone holding a knife.

Eventually, she manages to finish the meal, before placing the metal box on a counter, next to the microwave. She walks out into the main room, where she turns on a hidden projector that displays an image of a happy family in front of a crudely drawn house on one of the walls of the room. Then she flips through her phone, before ending up on a language program for toddlers learning to speak and read. It begins playing, showing a mother playing with her child, pointing at toys and animals, and saying what they're named. Then the mom points at herself, and the baby says "mama".

"You learn to understand me!" the girl says, watching the language learning program next to the strangers.

It takes a moment before they realize that this isn't some kind of two-way communication and start paying attention. They aren't sure what Candance just said, but figure that it is about the light projection thing.

They all pay attention. Esdras even has the idea to repeat the words to his nephew as a way to memorize them.

By the end of the video, they know the names of all sorts of animals, how to tell someone that you feel hungry or cold, how to introduce yourself and tell people your name, and how to ask to be allowed to play with other kids. "Can you tell me your name?" the girl asks and looks at the adults, before glancing over to the babies.

They can tell their names, yes.

Except the babies, they are too young, so they are referred to just "baby", "daughter" or "son".

It's bad luck to do it before a week, and they had enough bad luck.

Eventually, tries to work to teach Candance that not only are they called such, their family name is Blacksword. Auria is a "Mama", Liron is a "Papa", their children are their son and daughter, because they have the same parents, and so on. And also Esdra is Auria's brother. They are family. Then pointing at Candance he makes inquiring sounds. "Candance family here?"

"Yes, Candace family here. Candace big family here! But we fear you making us sick, so wait. And clean."

"Sick?" Was that in the light projection thing? "Clean? Ah, clean." he mimes scrubbing his arms.

"Yes, everyone clean! Big bath!" She walks into the bath, gleeful at having the whole thing to herself. She sits down in the main pool and waits for the water level to slowly rise. "Everyone bath!" she says.

He chuckles. Sometimes he worries she is secretly an adult, but sometimes she clearly not.

They follow her.

Undressing while holding a baby isn't easy.

One might notice that Auria has not, in fact, let anyone hold her daughter in a while. Even while she was also holding her son.

Liron will help regardless. Liron will need to take a while rising everything off.

None of them have any taboos regarding nudity and undress without any shame. They also don't expect any from their host.

She just left all her clothes outside the entrance to the bath, wanting to not get them wet. She looks at Auria for a moment before splashing in the water, and grabbing a bar of soap. There's a stack of bars in one corner of the room, in various different colors, all packaged individually, thinner than unusual. They're designed to just barely last long enough for one particularly indulgent shower. She has a purple one and rubs it all over herself, producing a delightful aroma of grapes, as she enjoys bathing with the strangers. She ducks her head under the water once or twice, casually holding her breath for 3 or so minutes before resurfacing.

Aw, what a sweetie. Auria grabs a bar and mimics her cleaning process on herself.

"Is the water safe for her to breath?" Esdras asks Liron.

"I am not sure about the soap, but she can breathe water already, yes."

Liron feels clean enough to take a deep and then soak in.

Esdras nods, he hands over his nephew for Liron to hold, while he does the process of soaping.

Then to his sister. "We should at least rinse all of our forms, do you think you will be able to put her down?"

She sighs. "I know I am being silly. Just give me another moment to relax."

"Alright, I will change now. I want to groom my wings."

He excuses himself to look for a private nook, or somewhere he can shed his skin without being seen.

Esdras will return a minute later with his skin a pale gray-ish beige and dark gray wings sprouting from his back.

The girl in the bath looks at Esdras, stunned. She doesn't know what to say, so chooses to just be silent and collect her thoughts, as she enjoys the warmth of the water in the bath. She even swims around a bit in the water.

Weird. They don't have Ventari forms here?

Esdras rinses himself again before getting in the water again.

Liron watches her wistfully, but he is not ready to shift Voragera, yet.

Auria leans her hand on him. This place is so rich. Maybe this is what random peasant get. If so, she can't picture what the ruler's palace looks like.

Candace keeps her eyes on Esdras, wanting to understand how his magic works. She has rinsed herself off well enough, and is now swimming back and forth in her end of the pool, letting the water seep into her skin and enjoying the warmth.

Esdras isn't sure how to interpret those looks. He opts to make his wings look smaller? Holding them closer to his body.

He doesn't show any other overt sign of magical power.

Liron declines to change for now.

Auria procrastinates about it, but eventually decides to stop being a coward and just go and change. It's a just minute.

She returns also be-winged.

"Cool!" Candace blurts out. She wants to ask them about how that's possible, but the language barrier remains for everything but the most basic of communication. She thinks about whether she wants to try touching the wings, but ultimately decides against it, instead sitting back and seeing if anything else new and surprising happens.

Auria can at least notice the mildly exciting tone. And - quite opposite to her brother - will instead offer a wing in case Candace wants to touch it.

Candace gently touches the wing, thinking that it could be a trick of some kind from these mysterious people. She still hasn't managed to think about anything more to say than "wow, are you magic?", but she keeps the thoughts to herself as she pats the wing.

The language barrier is still there. But the feathers are nice and soft. "You guys don't have Ventari forms here?"

Candace doesn't understand Auria's words, but just enjoys the soft feathers. "No magic", Candace says, trying to explain that humans don't have the ability to shapeshift! But she suspects that they're quite far from having learned enough to understand what she's trying to communicate.

They haven't even figured out the complete absence of magic! Given how everything here is sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from it to them.

Observes this. "Huh, I think I will change again to Adamet, to see her reaction." He does that.

He sheds his skin in the same spot. Placing the Ventari one over the discarded (and already dissolving) Umbra form.

Once he returns, Esdras is now metallic. A cooper-silver midpoint between his nephew and sister.

Candace looks at Esdras, wide eyes full of curiosity. "That's so cool! Do you think you could teach me?"

Esdras smiles, but isn't sure what she said. He starts points. "Adamet shape." Then to his sister. "Ventari shape." He does the same for Voragera (his niece) and Aestes (Liron's). He tries very slowly. "Auria was in Adamet. Then Ventari. Adamet shift Ventari. Candance shift?" He tries to make the last bit to sound like a question.

"She is too young."

"I am trying to see if they have the concept."

Candace thinks for a few seconds. She says no in thomassian, before repeating the word Esdras used between Adamet and Ventari and repeated in an asking way about her. She tilts her head at Esdras.

Esdras thinks for about a second. Makes a sort of 'wait here' gesture, then goes to retrieve a piece of his skin.

His Umbra skin has deteriorated enough that he can't bring a large enough piece, but there is still an arm from his Ventari form. He brings it back - hopefully not startling the girl too much - and mimes the skin falling off his arm. "Shift."

Candace shakes her head. "Magic!" she says. It's not too many more language videos before wizards and knights and castles and magic shows up...

Esdras still tries to ask, "Candace-Mama shift? Candace-Papa shift?"

Candace just keeps shaking her head. "Impossible..." she mumbles.

Well, the adults all react to this as something very distressing.

Candace is not only too young to shift, she is unable to, how does someone live like that?

This translates as them being somewhat on a sadder mood, but their baseline wasn't that high given recent incidents.

Candace doesn't pay much attention to them, leaning back in the pool and seeping in the water for a bit more. Eventually, she walks out of the pool, revealing a well-hidden closet filled with towels against one wall of the baths. She dries herself off with one of them, before changing into a blue skirt together with a black shirt over it. She wants to understand the situation that these people came from; she tries to mime a teacher in a classroom, writing things on a blackboard with chalk and lecturing to students. Then she turns on the projector, playing a video explaining the basics of reading the thomassian writing system.

Sure, they can dry themselves and follow her. They lack a change of clothing, but don't mind putting back their previous set.

Esdras pays attention, trying not to was the time of the poor mortal girl to learn the writing system. Memorization is one of his strengths.

The video then moves on to reading the simplest texts, including a children's book about a child who randomly wakes up in another main room every day, after falling asleep in his bed. Making for a very good excuse to learn about seasons and geographical features. This one's right near a beach! This one's next to a river! Candace then begins another video explaining tenses and questions in thomassian. It explains how to ask questions like, "What did you do today?" Then she begins a game of charades, starting by pretending to be a dog, one of the animals that they learned the name of in a previous video.

Then she looks at Esdras and asks, "What did you do today?"

Okay, he will give it a try. Speaking slowly, he says: "We enter the roof garden. We met Candace. You. You helped us to not wet with rain." He lacks the vocabulary for "escape". "And you clean the hurt in Liron. We ate food. We batheted..?" He isn't sure that last one is the correct word.

Candace looks at them, smiling and nodding. "I'm so happy you're happy! But how did you get on roof?"

Auria squeezes her husband.

"Hm." Esdras mutters while thinking, they don't actually know, but it was probably some way to get rid of them. But that requires context. Or maybe not? Actually, he can just say that. "Not know. We in small room." He mimes being inside a small box. "Small small bad room."

Candace nods, but it's clear that she's confused. "Baby is cute. Can I hold?"

Sure, Esdras will hand over his nephew veeery carefully.

Auria keeps holding her daughter, thank you.

Candace holds and rocks and Esdras' nephew, as similarly to Esdras as she can manage, as the projector gently introduces the thomassian writing system.

Eventually, it shows a small group of children, all of them playing under the watchful eye of one childcare worker. After watching some more of the educational videos, Candace yawns, before nodding and walking off to one of the available bedrooms. "Getting sleepy. Wake me if you need."

Esdras pays a lot of attention to the thomassian writing system. Does Candace provide any sort of writing implements before going to sleep? Esdras wants to make some notes.

Liron pays attention to the projector, but after a while he starts to blink.

Auria says good night to Candace and gently coaxes her husband to sleep as well. New parents (and uncle) need to get as much sleep as possible.

Since his nephew also has fallen asleep, Esdras will try to convince Auria to go to bed while Esdras takes a turn-

Okay, he will sleep.

(Distressed is such a weird look in Auria's face.)

Auria will try to gently get her daughter to sleep.

Her daughter is not prone to crying, or being fuzzy, but she doesn't close her eyes. So, Auria will... just rock her gently while walking around the apartment.

Candace didn't leave any writing implements for Esdras, but he can find some in a drawer in the big main room. The thomassian writing system is similar to Korean; very simple shapes, with straight lines and right angles. The video actually shows someone moving their arms to write while keeping the wrist mostly still, creating almost perfectly straight lines.

Auria walks around, revealing that she's in a boarding school of some kind. There are several corridors leading to lines of rooms, each filled with all sorts of books and posters. Opening a door showing a symbol of a mom holding a baby reveals a spacious, bright and well-stocked changing room, with a table and a chair against the wall for the baby.

Finally, walking all the way to the end of one of the hallways reveals a small exercise room: there's a treadmill, a weight set, and a jungle gym, next to a squash court. There's also a bunch of toy weapons, guns and swords both, in a rack next to the door leading in. It's clear that the treadmill doesn't get used much; the toy weapons, on the other hand, clearly show that they're used all the time.

(Ezra writes down some quick notes, mostly in their own language. The writing implements are interesting, he wonders if they work on the same principle as Adam's fountain pen invention.)

Auria is making mental notes of the place as she wanders about. She continues being surprised how casual their health is. Back home, nobles have individual libraries that might be bigger than these, but they wouldn't be a place for kids. Or a place where strangers could just wander about. And similarly, they might have paintings hanging in the walls, but these... some don't even have frames. And their paper looks incredibly fragile despite the quality of the images on them. Do they just don't care?

The exercise room bemuses her, until she notices the toy weapons. People do need to learn to fight anywhere, of course, and keep their bodies strong.

(The treadmill is not approached. Auria doesn't manage to divine its purpose and function, and the lack of use isn't encouraging.)

She approaches a window to observe the sky and their surroundings.

The window reveals that they're far, far up above the ground. The building she can see through the window still has a few stories above hers, however. It's also raining intensely at the moment she's looking out the windows.

Suddenly, a cute chime sounds a for a few seconds. Then the sound of someone knocking on a door leading into the place. A slightly groggy Candace opens the door, revealing a woman wearing some kind of outfit with leggings together with some kind of long-sleeve top that covers every square inch of her body, including a pair of gloves sown onto the sleeves of the outfit. She also has a transparent plastic visor that reveals her entire face. "Hi Candace! I'm Clarissa. I'm wanting to see some of the people you said came from a different dimension and so could be a pandemic risk? Do you know anything else about them?"

Auria doesn't startle, but her reaction to this is to use her wings to cover her daughter. At first, she assumes, this is someone with a very weird form, but then realizes it is just some kind of clothing. For protection?

At least, this makes her wings very obviously real.

The woman puts her hands in the air, trying to reassure Auria. "She can help", Candace says, letting her in. "Is there anyone who needs her?  She can help with language, or the baby, or the hurt man."

The woman's eyes go wide on seeing Auria revealing her wings.

Auria nods. "Friend-Teacher-Nanny?" She isn't sure what those words are the closes (or even if they are the right words, but hopefully her body language will help).

She tentatively relaxes, and let the woman see her daughter. With her adorable fish-like scales.

"All three", the woman replies. The woman then looks at Auria's baby, curious about the scales. "Fish skin how?", she asks. "Want language help?" she continues.

"Baby 'outs' with fish skin?" She isn't sure how to say that her daughter was just born like that. "I want language help." Auria agrees.

She starts explaining the thomassian language to Auria, beginning by explaining that her job is being a "full-time parent", there so that she'll be able to sleep and relax and avoid being dangerously exhausted by caring for a baby by herself. She continues on to explaining how she is currently in a "parent city", built to be helpful for parents like her. She might want to spend some time outdoors in one of the parks with her daughter, once she's settled in a bit more.

Auria is unclear if being a "full-time parent" is Auria's job or the new woman's job? She is also unclear why all of this or why ask that? Like, she can buy that people can just be nice, but still. "You not many babies?" She asks. Waving vaguely to indicate that the 'you' refers to the people in general.

She thinks for a moment, making it obvious that it's a subtle and complicated situation, before nodding at Auria. "We enough babies, not many. Want baby help?"

Sure! Auria nods. "Baby not sleep." She says doing her best to demonstrate the non-sleepiness of her child.

The woman gestures at receiving the baby in her arm. "I try rocking her", she says, miming rocking a baby in her arms in case Auria hasn't heard the word yet.

Auria tries. Her technique - while not exactly dangerous - might put too much rocking to facilitate sleep. The daughter at least doesn't protest.

Clarissa smiles at Auria. "Babies sleep randomly. We can only be there", she says. "Maybe crib helps?" she suggests.

Auria holds her daughter a bit more tightly. "No." The tone waves between an answer and a question.

"You care for baby. That is good. But rest is good." Clarissa looks at Auria with a friendly smile.

"I not rest." Okay, even she can tell that this is ridiculous. "Wait. Liron rest. Esdras rest. When the two wake-up, I rest."

"Yes, that is right! Always have someone ready. Is there other baby?", she asks, before taking a few steps towards the changing room.

Auria nods and follows. "Son. Sleeping."

Clarissa nods back. After opening the door to the changing room, she finds a measuring tape placed inside of a closet under the changing table. She very slowly and clearly moves to start using it to take the measurements of the baby in Auria's hands. "For baby clothes", she says.

Smile. Of course. Auria cooperates with the process.

Clarissa gets the measurements of Auria's daughter, ensuring she'll have properly fitted diapers and baby clothes. It's incredibly important the heart and breathing sensor is properly positioned in the baby clothes. "Can I measure your sleeping son, too?"

Auria nods. "Measure sleeping son. Please."

Clarissa walks with the measuring tape, very gently getting the measurements of Auria's son, before using her phone to order baby clothes and diapers. They'll probably get there within 30 minutes or so. "Maybe try walking?", Clarissa suggests, starting to take Auria on a route along the floor's corridors.

Auria is pays attention to all of this, even the purchases if Clarissa allows. Auria nods, trying again to rock the baby while walking, also singing a lullaby. It is pretty trivial for her to multitask doing this.

Auria can see the things that Clarissa is buying on her phone! Not much else, though. Clarissa looks over Auria; she wants to see if she's slowing down or otherwise showing signs of being tired, because she has a really strong desire to let her get some rest. She has worked with new moms previously, and knows how tired they can get even given all the support thomassia can muster for them.

Auria is the kind of exhausted one gets when becomes a mother and is arrested by a stupid church that thinks her daughter and husband are corrupted by evil.

By the same token, she is also unwilling to rest just in case someone decides to take away one of her newborns.

Clarissa is forgiven for not being able to get that much detail by just looking.

Auria is clearly on edge. Clarissa chooses to just let her be that way; she will eventually realize that she doesn't need to be so on edge, just as she gets used to being here. "I think your baby is beautiful. She will live a fantastic life here." After perhaps an hour of walking, the delivery robot appears. It brings several sets of magnetically-closed onesies for Clarissa's two babies, together with 2 huge packs of disposable diapers for the two babies. Clarissa takes them and places them into the changing room.

Auria smiles. "They are the most beautiful things," she says in her own language, by the gods motherhood turned her into a softie.

Auria takes a moment inspecting the delivery. Not only the things delivery, but the robot, how Clarissa reacts to it, how she retrieves the things, etc. The onesies are absolutely adorable and the magnets very clever.

The robot is basically just a box on wheels, rolling around. It has a small dot-matrix display constantly trying to create charming, cute facial expressions, this time having a facial expression that evokes the image of a cat. Clarissa doesn't seem to acknowledge it much, and simply bends over (at the waist) and grabs all the contents of the box of the robot, carrying them all into the changing room and placing the two packages of diapers on top of the very large changing table.

Auria pets the little robot as it goes away.

It finds its way back down, Clarissa opening the elevator doors to let it use them to continue doing its delivery work. "Maybe find where to sleep, in advance? And sit on bed, with baby?"

That sounds like a trap to get her to sleep.

Yawn.

Well, okay, she can find a place. The boys need sleep, and she still wants to stay awake until one of them wakes up. So... somewhere she can chat with Clarissa?

Clarissa notices Auria wanting to talk to her. She feels like it'd be most appropriate to talk in one of the dorms, so she opens one of them and lets Auria enter. "Yes, please talk."

Auria takes her sit. Her feet needed the rest. Her arms need it more, but she is ignoring that for the moment.

"You many babies?"

"We have many babies here. Most places don't have many babies. So for everywhere, we have one baby for each adult. We can give everyone tons of help for their babies here. So many people get babies here."

"My... not here. My place, not do that. People just wait for... help then babies."

She fails to understand Auria. "Wait for help how?" she asks, hoping that Auria can explain things better. It sounded somewhat worrisome, to her ears.

"People work, then when they enough work, they can," she waves, which is hard without free hands, "have people work help them. Or wait family help."

She nods at Auria. "Caring for children is work. You can have other people also caring, there to help. You don't need to work also and care for children." She has a realization. "Actually! Having children is also work. Do you want more?" Auria looked like she loved her children so much - if she can have more, and with all the care thomassia has to offer, that would be a fantastic thing.

Auria smiles and nods. She thought that she would want to have a ton out of spite, but... she finds herself being purely motivated out of love. "Many more. When they grow up more."

"Yes, you should have many and bring much joy to the world!"

It clicks that Fran would fit in so well in this world. Auria doesn't dwell on when she will ever see her again. Or the rest of her family and friends. Sigh. It is overall a miracle they landed here, she dwell on that. "You many babies?"

"I many babies. With other uncles and aunts, yes. We all live together so the babies have enough carers always."

"That is great."

Esdras stumbles half-awake and blinks at the weirdly dressed (?) person (?). "Are you still awake?" He asks Auria in their language. "Hello?" He greets in their language.

The woman waves back at Esdras. "Hello! I'm here, so babies always have mom around. "

Esdras nods. "Thank you." And to Auria. "You really should get some rest."

Sigh. "Just five more minutes?"

"No."

"No? Really?"

Sigh. She stands up, and hands over her daughter.

Esdras quietly takes the baby. "God, she has your stubbornness for staying awake."

"I know, have fun taking care of her, and I will be mad if you fall asleep before her. I will know."

Of course, all of this was done in their language. So she turns and says. "I sleep now." Without the baby she actually lets some of her tiredness show.

Clarissa smiles at Auria. "You sleep well!", she says, before looking to everyone else. "You care for baby?", she asks.

Yeah, Auria will just... act like she doesn't exist and has to deal with reality for a bit.

"I care for baby. I uncle." Pause. "My word... my name is Esdras."

"Esdras, I'm so happy you're here! I'm happy the babies have lots of people for them." She nods at Esdras, and brings the other baby into the classroom. She thinks it'd make sense to have them both be there while the adults are learning her language.

Esdras mostly assumes this is good, so the parents don't wake up. Does this means more language lessons?

Yes, that's what it means! The classes go a bit deeper on grammar; plurals, and also verb conjugation, and a few adjectives. Thomassia has a system where the grammar is kept very separate from nouns, verbs and adjectives, so everything is very consistent, and it makes everything more distinct and unambiguous. It's quite reassuring how every word stands by itself, so to speak. There's a rhythm to the teaching; it makes it very easy to remember the grammar, and makes the thomassian feel really natural and familiar.