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[credere]

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[magician_king]

"You sometimes react like I'm going to be mad at you for not already knowing something. Or, like not having been exposed to an idea means you're stupid."

He says, with a frown.

"You know it doesn't, right?"

[credere]

He fidgets.

"Ma always said..."

And of course he isn't really cognisant of how abusive and brutal it is, to be accused of stupidity for lacking an education that his accuser didn't give him.

[magician_king]

"She was wrong."

He says, not good enough at leading an explanation to get him to this realization on his own, just blurting out with it.

"I don't know anything about the bible. Couldn't name the apostles. Does that make me stupid?"

[credere]

"No," Credence says, wide-eyed, "of course not," but he's struggling with attribution bias such that he doesn't really see his point.

[magician_king]

"Exactly."

Says Quentin, anyways.

"But even more so, in your case, because that's a book I should have read by now and haven't- and the things I'm talking about, some haven't been discovered by a single other human being, in your age; they're scientific principles from your future, yet to be discovered."

[credere]

"Oh."

He goes quiet as they bridge the final short distance to the equipment cupboard. One of the things that he's learned about Quentin is that he likes explaining things, and that there's no harm in just....letting him.

[magician_king]

"Exactly."

He says, again, warmly.

"So. Want to stop more for today, or learn about some natural laws, or learn about where magic fits in?"

[credere]

Credence finds a hammer and feels pained. Decisions. He wishes he wasn't chronically uncomfortable with making choices for himself, especially choices that demand other people's time and attention.

"What should come first?"

[magician_king]

"Let's start by explaining one of the natural laws in detail, so you can get a clear idea of the way magic is working. Steam is actually a really convenient place to start, because when we talk about steam we cover a lot of foundational principles."

Says Quentin, easily, as long as the answer is 'let's continue.' Back towards his room they go.

"So, when we talk about the stuff that makes up the world, we normally talk about it as being called 'matter.' Like the matter at hand- but your hands are made of matter, the hammer is made of matter, the air is made of matter- and matter is commonly categorized into having three states. Solid, liquid, and gas."

[credere]

"Like - wood, water and - " He struggles. "Gasoline?"

[magician_king]

"Wood and water, exactly. Gas. that's a similar word, but different ending. Gasoline is a liquid, gaseous matter is a cloud. Air. Steam."

He simplifies, but with a pleased with his progress so far.

"Even though it feels like there's nothing in the air around us, and we talk about a room as being empty, there's actually gasses floating all around us. It's why when you suck the air out of a paper bag it crumples up tight; it was empty, but not actually empty."

[credere]

Credence thinks about this.

"So...when you breathe in, and your chest feels full, that's...the gas?"

[magician_king]

"You've got it."

He says- and he knows how to praise without laying it on too thick. But he's genuinely pleased.

"Now the thing about solids, liquids, and gases is that many of them are the same kind of matter, but in different states. We'll take water, for example. Water is a liquid, and steam is a gas, so the solid version would be?"

[credere]

Credence realises, with some pleasure, that that's easy. Yet he still sounds unsure when he says:

"Ice?"

[magician_king]

"Exactly. And what does that tell you- if ice turning to water turning to steam is a pattern, what does that mean about solids turning to liquids turning to gas?"

He says, leading him on, jogging up the last few steps to their floor.

[credere]

Now, he falters.

"...I don't know."

[magician_king]

"What does it mean when water in a pot starts to steam?"

He asks, holding the door for him.

[credere]

"It means that the matter is...changing states? Because it's been heated up," he volunteers, cautiously.

[magician_king]

"Exactly. And that in their solid states, things tend to be the most cold, but when you heat them, they melt and become liquid, and when you heat them further, the evaporate and become gas."

He says;

"And that is because of energy. Now for this part, we need some nails."

So it's good that they're back at Credence's room, and can start to pull them out of the slats, using the back of the hammer head.

[credere]

Credence frets, suddenly - what if his cabin needs to be sealed somehow? What if taking the boards off the window means all the air leaks out -

But then one of the boards comes away, nothing happens, and he realises that it's no different from being on deck and berates himself.

The glass underneath has been smashed, fairly obviously having had a missile thrown at it at some point.

[magician_king]

"Okay."

Says Quentin, when he's got three nails out, abandoning the work to come use them to demonstrate.

"So the behaviour of matter has to do with energy. When a particle gets energy put into it- in this case in the form of heat, it speeds up." Pinching nails together, he moves them, illustrating little collisions for him. "The space between particles becomes bigger. When a particle loses energy, the agitation slows- and when it's very cold, they can still almost completely, and become very tightly packed."

Bunching the nails into a tight little knot.

"These have gone from gas, to liquid, to solid. Condensed, then solidified."

[credere]

Credence watches that, then looks uncertainty up at Quentin.

"What's a particle?" he asks, preemptively guilty because he assumes that it's so obvious as to preclude an explanation.

[magician_king]

"One of the nails. One of the tiny little bits that make up water, for example. A tiny bit of something."

He says;

"Little specs so small you can't see them, or the spaces between them. I can show you, but we need a teakettle and some sugar."

[credere]

"That's alright," he says, then ventures: "Like when a person's skin all looks the same from a long way away, but when you get close you see all the little holes?"

Pores, he means.

[magician_king]

"But on a much bigger scale."

He agrees, with a nod;

"Think as small a piece of your body as a human is a piece of the world."

Okay, while he turns back to stripping the window down;

"But you can't boil water without outside heat, right? It's a rule about the world that works the same way, every time. There would be no way in the real world to be at a standstill and heat up a cup of coffee."