She hasn't heard that name yet. "A friend of yours?" she asks, taking the rod from him and turning it over in her hands, her brow furrowed while she examines it. Not that... that reveals very much to her, since it just looks like a completely ordinary crystalline rod in her eyes.

In fact, the whole explanation really isn't helping her to make something of this. Power sources... "And what kind of project is this?" It must require a lot of power, she assumes? If he's creating something with so many of these rods.