The door opens, and a slender young woman with golden hair and pointed ears enters. She blinks. "This...is not my bedroom," she observes.

"Don't worry, this place is connected to many worlds which occassionally snatches random doors, time pauses in your world while the door is closed and if you leave it will lead to the normal destination."

"And you know this how?" she asks with interest.

"The Bar told me," Stephen points, "She is alive, female and very helpful."

"Huh." she walks up to the bar and runs a hand over it, just barely not touching the surface. "Well, if she's conventionally alive she doesn't count as a plant or an animal."

I'm not conventionally alive. Would you like a drink? The first one is free, says a napkin.

"No thank you," she says politely. "Mother would justifiably fret if I accepted food or drink from strange magic things."

"Why?"

"Because she's a High Lady and someone might want to target her through me?"

"Ah, so you are some kind of nobility too?"

Stephen himself is dressed very much like a king out of a fantasy movie, complete with a crown made of silver and moonstones.

"Yes. I am Alcallah out of Rannsi of the Deep South. And you?"

"Lord Stephen Grayhunt of the Southern Lakes. It's an honor to meet you."

"Likewise. Are you a mortal?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"No."

He rests his chin on his hand.

"Interesting. Do you mind if I ask what kind of non-mortal are you?"

"I'm a fairy. Why, what other kinds of non-mortals are there?"

He frowns.

"I suppose you could say that spirits and the undead are non-mortals. But I would very much prefer talk about your own kind if it pleases you."

"I suppose I don't mind, although you're going to have to direct the conversation; I don't know enough about mortals to be sure how we're different, aside from the fact that you die."

"I'm very likely to be off-standard from the mortals you know. Do mortals in your world usually have magic?"

"Some of them! Not all."

"Huh, what kind of magic?"

"I don't remember all the details, it never seemed particularly relevant to me. Human magic is more general than fey magic, I remember that much."

Stephen chuckles. "It's alright. If you want to compare, my world have two kinds of magical humans, witches and nobleborn, I'm the later, both have powers like this," He makes a bust sculpture of her. "Stone generation," he adds.

"Wow. There are fairies with stone magic, but they can only shape what already exists, not create it!"

Stephen deposits the statue on the counter and pushes it toward her, invinting her to take it if she wants to.

"I really like this ability, it's the one I got to pick."

"You get to pick? I'm jealous."

"We also can pick the general themes of one of the other powers, and the third - or rather the first - power is determined by time of birth. Also, picking the power actually means making a deal with a spirit so it can live in our shadows and experience some aspect of human life it is curious about."

"Huh. Fairies have a variable number of powers, and they're all determined when you're born."

"What kinds of power? And how they are determined?"

"Loads of kinds, and they're mostly genetic, to at least some extent. I inherited my plant and healing powers from my mother Rannsi."

"Oh, that is where the out of Rannsi comes from? I just assumed it was your birthplace."

"No, the Deep South is my birthplace. And the place my mother is Lady of, which is the important part."

"Forgive me for my assumption," Stepehn nods, "how powerful are your plant and healing powers?"

"Compared to what? I'm a noble fairy, that would give a fairly good idea to anyone at home."

"Well, what can you do?" Stephen says reassuringly, "Could you make a seed grow into a tall tree in a matter of hours? Could you regrow missing limbs? Cure diseases? Are you capable of animating plants so they walk around doing your bidding? Can you change the properties of a plant? In such way that it's seeds will produce altered plants?"

"Oh, that last one's easy," she says merrily. "I can make plants move but I can't make them do it autonomously, I can make seeds sprout quickly but you're going to have to define tall, I don't know what a disease is, and I've never met someone with a missing limb to try re-growing it."

"I might be a bit jealous about your mother's kingdom right now."

"Pff, Mama's not Queen."

"The lands which she is the Lady of," Stephen amends.

"You didn't answer my question, anyway, what is a disease?"

Stephen thinks about it. He never had to describe diseases before.

"It's a kind of problem or defect in the way the body works," he explains solemn "often progressive and contangious. They can permanently harm or even kill."

"...Mortals are more mortal than I had realized."

Stephen considers the wisdom of talking about mortality and decides to divert the topic.

"You've met mortals? Why?"

"I haven't met any, but I've heard about them."

"They live far away?"

"...They don't live in Fairyland."

"Well, no wonder you don't know anything about them."

"I know some things! I know you grow up fast and you die and you have a lot of different countries instead of just one, and you have round ears, and you never have wings and you're only rarely shorter than four feet as adults."

"Forgive me for the wrong assumption. Also, wings?"

"Some of us have wings. Like insects, mostly."

"My eldest can fly, but without wings. Are wings common among your people?"

"Yeah. Not as much among the nobility, but they're pretty common."

"Interesting? Is there a magical reason or... it's just an inherited physical trait?"

"Among fairies, you can't really separate the two!"

"Your world must be endlessly fascinating."

"Both more and less so in the Deep South."

"Fair. What is the Deep South like? In relation to the rest of Fairyland?"

"We live in domed habitats. It's really cold outside."

"Oh my spirits, that is certainly a way to keep oneself warm. How big are the domed habitats?"

"They vary. Miles across, most of them."

Stephen is very impressed.

"I don't think that we could do something like that even we had all nobleborn in the world working together. Even if witches worked with us."

"There was a lot of math involved."

"Any good engineering projects does. Have you ever participated in the construction of one of the domes?"

She shakes her head. "I'm way too young, and none of my powers are especially suited."

"Oh, of course. I forgot that your magic works different from mine and that you don't mature as fast. Which, as a parent, makes me jealous of your mother."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"I am forty-four, and you?"

"...You're younger than me. I'm sixty."

"Yes, I'm definitely jealous of your mother right now. Is there any chance your agelessness can be shared?"

"If there is I don't know it, and Mother doesn't either or she wouldn't be in Fairyland, she'd be in the Mortal Realms saving people."

"The Deep South is lucky to have her."

"Damn straight. The Deep South as a political entity wouldn't exist without Mama. She's the one who got the domes built in the first place."

"Remarkable! Nobleborn are limited to do this sort of thing, but it's appealing."

"She wanted power and didn't want her father to die; rendering a previously unlivable area inhabitable and petitioning for a new Lordship was the obvious answer."

"It's that a common thing for fairy nobility to do? What is your grandfather like?"

"My grandfather is Vraikis, the High Lord of Sarafel."

He looks at her, inviting her to elaborate.

"He's...I've never had to explain him before. He's good at politics? He has a number of political opinions that are highly indicative of his character but which wouldn't make much sense if you don't know fairy politics? He's married? I don't see him very often but whenever I do he has an understated but thoughtful present for me."

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Or if you want to say things that you wouldn't normally say. I won't judge and we might never meet again. Honestly, I'm just curious because I am collecting stories for my youngest."

"I'm pretty sure at this point you're not a ploy by one of Mother's rivals but not sure enough to say anything that could be used against her if you were."

"Wise of you. Is there anything you would like to ask me?"

"So what's it like where you live?"

"The Southern Lakes had always been... self-sustainable, a lot of isolated villages in the lakes away from major conflicts and never experiecing hunger as long they had fishing nets... Okay, since none this is incriminating even in the unlikely event you are part of some mind control spell to take information of me. I am just going to say: my kingdom used to be a large collection of swamps and marshes that was very unruly and disorganized until the last two lords before me started working to improve it from being the backwater part of the empire. Since then we managed major strides on infra-structure, you can guess how my earth generation power is very suited for the creation of roads, bridges and dams."

"Very sensible, yes."