If they're neither searching the riverbed until lower tide, nor yet do they know whether Esta gets spells, then Esta does not see all that much to plan, though he will obviously participate in planning sessions if Merrin's greater knowledge of the exoplanet leads her to see more opportunity for planning.

Esta's own instinctive use for cognition will be to ponder the implications of recent events, and what they say about how much overdetermining-god-optimization Y̷̼̚o̷̪͒g̵͚̋-̴͕͠S̸͚̀ǫ̵͆t̸̥̾h̵̺̋o̴̜̕t̴͚͝ĥ̵̟ has exerted over their setup, and to what visible or guessable ends.  Esta also remembers the advice of Cultural Adaptation to occasionally show what he is feeling on his face, else Merrin find it suspicious otherwise.

He looks quite grim.

If they're neither searching the riverbed until lower tide, nor yet do they know whether Esta gets spells, then Esta does not see all that much to plan?  Though he will obviously participate in planning sessions, if Merrin's greater knowledge of the exoplanet leads her to see more opportunity for planning.

Esta's own instinctive use for cognition will be to ponder the implications of recent events, and what they say about how much overdetermining-god-optimization Y̷̼̚o̷̪͒g̵͚̋-̴͕͠S̸͚̀ǫ̵͆t̸̥̾h̵̺̋o̴̜̕t̴͚͝ĥ̵̟ has exerted over their setup, and to what visible or guessable ends.  Esta also remembers the advice of Cultural Adaptation to occasionally show what he is feeling on his face, else Merrin find it suspicious otherwise.

He looks quite grim.