"Did you walk through a portal of some kind?"

"I don't think so," he says, then decides he should probably elaborate. "Not unless the portal moved through me or I was more off-balance than I thought, or… something?"

"Hm. That's confusing. I'll probably have to make you a new gate to get you home. What orders are you under about your name and food and such?"

"Not to tell anyone else my name, not to eat if he's not here, not to drink the lake water… uh, I'm allowed to drink water in the pitcher? If I'm thirsty." He thinks those are the relevant ones? "I don't know– how any of this works."

He's trying not to seem– whatever he wasn't supposed to. He's a bit confused. Or something.

Well, technically he only can't look at Yellow that way. "Do you have any mortal food with you?"

Technically! But he's not sure how much that actually applies and how much is the intent or anything, because he didn't realize orders like this were a thing and so he's a little frightened.

"… Uh, yes? I think. In my bag," he says, indicating his shoulderbag.

"Okay. I can get us both out, but you need to do what I say."

"I think– I think I have to anyway? I was told to cooperate with you."

"Yeah, Yellow isn't very smart, but you will have to continue to do what I say even after that order is out of the picture, can you do that, can I trust you?"

"I think so? What do you mean– out of the picture, right, you seem to be talking about this like I'm supposed to just know that orders are a thing."

"...right. Sorry. What's confusing you?"

"I appeared– wherever this is after looking in a lake and a person found out my name and apparently he can order me? What can he order me to do, how precise are these orders, does it matter how I interpret them if I interpret them wrong, can I order myself because I know my name, I haven't tried that, what's the food thing, does it act differently, I don't know anything about this."

Breathe. He should probably– breathe.

"He can order you to do whatever he likes. Wording matters, so does what he means, so does what you interpret, the latter two only to a point. You can't order yourself. The food thing works similarly to names but not exactly."

"What happens if I can't do what he says? And when you say whatever he likes, uh, could he make me hurt myself too, because–" he shudders a bit. "And is the food-versus-name thing at all easy to explain or… not…?"

"If you can't, you don't. Yes he could, although Yellow in particular usually doesn't. Food doesn't work in an existing master/vassal relationship - if you slipped Yellow something it wouldn't vassalize him to you - and it doesn't have the option of forgetting like names do, and in some situations food claims are unreliable."

"Unreliable meaning unlikely to actually let you order someone, or unreliable meaning the orders are weaker, or you can only do certain orders, or whether you can do it fluctuates with time…?"

"First thing, but this usually only comes up when a fairy is trying a food claim on another fairy, doesn't apply to you."

"Okay," he says, then thinks that through a bit.

Breathe. "Okay," he repeats. "Um, what do you want me to do and what are we actually– doing?"

"I am under orders from a previous, smarter master that mean I can't currently help you out here, but I can take some of your mortal food, let you rescind all my orders, get your name through some non-'telling' mechanism - write it down maybe - and then rescind your orders and get you out of here and make you a gate."

"Gate?" he asks. "And you can just– take the orders at literal face value and exploit them like that, you don't have to assume it's whatever they meant instead, or something like that?"

He opens his bag and looks around for some food while she answers.

"Yep. If somebody is bad at orders they usually don't hold vassals for very long. A gate from here to the mortal world."

"… Is this some weird magic world, like, I know you have orders and that's pretty creepy but– do you have other magic?"

He in fact does have some food! He gets it out of his bag. A packet of chips, yum.

"This is Fairyland, and I am a sorcerer. I'm not allowed to take the food, you're going to have to feed it to me, I can eat it out of your hand."

"… Okay," he says, opening the packet and getting one out and holding it out to her.

He'll wait until she's done eating before he asks her another question. … After he rescinds her orders.

Munch munch.