"Um, thank you for doin' this," Liya said. The Cynn put his hand up to a tall, thin lamp that was sitting above the desk, a jumping greenish light gathering in his palm. The lamp blazed up brighter, illuminating the workbench and the items on it--various jars, and a strange snake-like object that had a magnifying glass for a head--more clearly.

"You came at the right time," he said shortly. The lamp bent itself around of its own accord to follow him, as he perused the shelves of thin books on the shelf beneath it. He selected one pale book and pulled it free. "If I didn't already have the spell written--well, I'd have done it anyway, just not tonight. I do have a soft spot for Yoshi."

He folded the book open; the lamp creaked obligingly as it followed him back to the workbench. Liya was not looking at this, but instead looking curiously at the rest of the room. It was in darkness, and plain, and clean: an unlit hearth, a shuttered bed, a cabinet with a mirror set into it.

"Why's that?" she asked.

"Oh," the Cynn said, "I've known her since she was very small. I was her immigration sponsor, in fact."

"Whoa, really? She's never said!!"

The Cynn sat down at the workbench, the notebook folded over in front of him to a certain page. He tracked something on it with one finger while selecting a small jar and a pointed awl-shaped thing with the other. "I doubt she remembers," he said. "Her probation period was very short, entering Aetheri so young."

Liya looked back around at him as he shook the little jar briskly. "But why...you?"

"How much do you know about where Yoshi is from?"

"Uh." Liya frowned. "I know she's from Earth. Her mom left her at a daycare an' never came back. That's all I know, though."

The Cynn opened one of the drawers, which was full of neatly stacked sheafs of paper, a small tray of round multicolored stones, and more small jars. He pulled out a pair of brassy goggles with dark lenses, and put them on. "Naturally there is more to it than that," he replied.