[Skunkworks] Something about wireless

Hey geeks, I have a question. There is something that I do not understand about how wireless technology works. I have an iPad and a laptop with me. I have setup an ad hoc wireless network/hotspot so that I can access the web using the iPad. The wireless adapter's IP address is 192.168.0.1, while the one for the iPad is 169.254.x.x What I seek to understand is how these two devices are able to communicate while being in different subnets - that is, how is the routing between 192.168.0.0/24 and 169.254.0.0/16 done? Curious me.