Huaisang wants to point out that pole are often used in survey-ing fields, but somehow he doesn't think that's what she meant. Blinking in confusion as she goes on, he finally understands what she's describing. "Oh! A census. I think that is very clever, and easy to do. The communications through our wrist watch--only we new neighbors seem to have them, not the locals. You can send out your communications through the magical network and find out what answers you get."

His conversations and observations so far hadn't gotten any leads in any common threads of people arriving here, but he hoped she had better luck with it.