She arrives on a pleasant sandy beach.

The rising slope of the sand blocks her view inland, but off to her right along the curve of the shore she can see some crudely made wooden huts, thatched with gradually disintegrating grass. In and around the huts, some people of a largely Elf-like body plan but few other resemblances to Elves are preparing to go out fishing, in small boats much prettier than the houses they live in.

She sighs deeply and strides hutward, listening.

The language they're speaking bears no resemblance to any she's heard before. It's approximately aesthetically acceptable, but clearly not designed with beauty in mind.

As she approaches, more of the village is revealed behind a low ridge; the huts are clustered around the mouth of a river, and the buildings get nicer as they get farther from the sea, although none reach the point of being something an Elf would admit to having constructed.

Someone spots her and calls a greeting. Busy not-elves have a brief, friendly argument over who should go see what she wants; then the youngest person there, a small boy, volunteers himself and darts off toward her.

She tries the languages she knows without much optimism.

The boy disclaims knowledge of any of these, then attempts to introduce himself as Kioh and invite her into the prettier and less busy section of the village.

She introduces herself back and follows him.

He retrieves a woman from the second-prettiest dwelling available.

The woman is - old, and not old like an Elf where mostly what you see is mannerisms indicating experience and maturity. She has those too, but she's... withered. Her curly black hair is fading to white; her medium-brown skin is wrinkled and papery. (The hair is wrapped up in a scarf, but from beneath the scarf it falls loose down her back.)

The small boy chatters at both of them, and the old woman smiles and pats his shoulder and introduces herself as Viasarae, then attempts to inquire (supplementing her incomprehensible words with mime and gesture) where Ambela is from and how she came to be here instead of there.

Ambela tries not to be too visibly freaked out by a person who looks like an abandoned eggplant on Endorë. She indicates as best she can that she does not know how she got here and that she is from another planet.

...the 'another planet' part seems to be unduly puzzling. Viasarae sends Kioh to retrieve a map from inside her house, and indicates that the village is right here on the coast, at the end of an unmarked offshoot of this particular river on the map's sole (large, blobby, unrecognizable) continent.

(Rather inexplicably, the map has a single city with no surrounding landmass marked a considerable distance away from the main continent. It almost looks like, rather than 'this city is right here in the middle of the ocean', the map is trying to say 'this city is somewhere but your guess is as good as mine about the specifics'. The dot and the handwriting that labels it are both fancier than any other city on the map. The alphabet, of course, is totally indecipherable.)

Ambela looks at the map, nods at the pointing, and then mimes drawing in case they have paper to spare.

This occasions another errand for Kioh. He comes back with some low-quality handmade paper, a stick of charcoal, and a rough wooden board to flatten the paper on.

Ambela spreads out the paper and draws the continents of Valinor.

Viasarae frowns thoughtfully at them. The frown causes unsettling variations in the topography of her abandoned-eggplant face.

She attempts to ask what these places are called and which if any of them Ambela came from.

Ambela names places. She lives here in Valimar.

With reference to objects in the environment, Viasarae is able to not only name some local landmarks but also translate the names: the big river is the Rocky River, the offshoot is the Pebbled River, the village is Pebbled Shore, and the fancy city in the middle of the ocean is Skygarden.

She tries to ask after the spatial relationship between Valimar and this here continent.

Ambela points at the sky.

...Viasarae shakes her head. She points at Skygarden on the map, and out at the sky over the ocean.

Ambela draws two suns with rays and a planet with Valian continents and a moon orbiting it.

She points at the sky.

Viasarae is perplexed. She attempts to confirm the identities of these various objects, incidentally providing Ambela with local vocabulary for 'sun' and 'moon' and 'dawn' and 'dusk' and 'day' and 'night'.

Kioh, meanwhile, fetches chairs for them to sit on (Ambela would be a little tall to fit inside one of the houses) and a sun-shade to set up over them, and two empty wooden cups. When he hands one to Viasarae, it fills itself with water, and she holds the other one out to Ambela with a little motion as though to offer her the same service.

She is startled, but nods.

Cupful of inexplicably appearing water! It's very pure, picking up only the barest hint of flavour from the clean wood of the cup.

Viasarae regards Ambela thoughtfully.

What interesting pure water this is. Sip. She doesn't have the vocabulary to solicit an explanation, but she can point at things and try to find out what they are called later. Anyway, yes, those are suns, two of them, and a planet and a moon.

The question of how that planet managed to end up with double the ordinary number of suns is beyond their mutual vocabulary at present. Viasarae decides instead to focus on the journey: did you fly here or arrive by some other means? Do you have a way to get back?

Other means, and no.

She says something that is probably an expression of sympathy, then conveys an offer for Ambela to stay in the village for now if she likes, and a suggestion that if she'd rather take her chances elsewhere there are some larger settlements upriver, although she'll have to go quite a ways to get to one that's important enough to be marked on the map of the continent.

She would love to stay here and learn the language.

In that case, Viasarae is happy to welcome her to the village!

And teach her words?

Certainly! She seems delighted and fascinated by how quickly Ambela picks up the language.

Oh good.

Water, wood, clouds, sea, house, door, roof, chair, human...

She takes the opportunity to ask if Ambela is a human or is instead some other thing.

"I am an Elf."

"And what is an Elf?"

"We are a kind of person from Endorë and Valinor."

"...Endorë?"

"Another planet."

"Where did all these planets come from?" she mutters, half to herself. "Was one flying city not enough?"

"Planets are like what we are standing on that the flying city flies over. There are many. Most have no one there."

"What magic do they have there? Is it the same as ours?" she asks, and then takes a brief vocabulary detour to explain that magic is the thing she is doing when she makes water appear from thin air or manipulates it once it exists, or when Kioh lights a bit of paper on fire by pointing at it, or when the farmers in the village upriver make plants grow more vigorously than they otherwise would have, or when the Emperor builds a flying city.

"Elves have no magic. There are people called Maiar and Valar who have magic, but not like yours."

"No magic at all?" she says, amazed. "Poor things, how do you get by?"

"The Maiar and Valar help, and we have made many things that are not magic that I think are more helpful than your not-magic things."

"Hmm," she says. "Well, as long as it works for you. What are the Maiar and Valar like?"

"They are very different. They want to be good but had to learn how."

"Very different from what?"

"From all the other kinds of people. There are Elves and Dwarves and orcs on Endorë."

"There are only humans here." And, wryly, "Must be nice, having all the people with magic want to be good."

"Oh?"

"I like it here. But, well, the Emperor is the Emperor."

"We have kings in Valinor who are the three who led our people there from Endorë. They are good."

"The Emperor... could be worse," she says consideringly.

"Oh?"

"He made Skygarden. He does helpful magic sometimes. But it's usually a bad idea to come to his attention. He—" (she really has not established sufficient vocabulary to explain the details) "—hurts people."

"Why?"

"...why does he hurt people? I don't know, I've never met the man."

"...when, who?"

"...people near him, whenever he likes. Well, not just anyone, that's one of the ways he could be worse. If you mind your own business and stay out of trouble, he won't bother you. But people who get in his way, or annoy him..." She shrugs and shakes her head. "And he's not very nice to his slaves, either."

"...it'd be a shame if you went up to Skygarden to bother him about it and he didn't like being bothered."

"What things annoy him?"

"I wouldn't know the details. Though I do know he doesn't like it when someone makes a mess of his empire. If I started walking up the river and flooding cities, he'd come down and stop me as soon as he heard."

"I suppose that's good."

"As I said," shrug, "he could be worse."

"Is there anyone he listens to?"

"I wouldn't know." She regards Ambela thoughtfully. "Are you going to go bother him?"

"I will try not to bother him."

"Hm."

Perhaps some vocabulary lessons on happier subjects.

(Kioh comes by with food for both of them and compliments Ambela on how fast she's learning the language - "you must be so smart!")

"I have a lot of things to help my memory."

"What kinds of things?"

"I don't have the words. We say 'blessings'."

"Well, are they magic?" he asks next.

"No - not really."

"Hmm." He squints doubtfully up at her, then scampers off and leaves them to food and vocabulary. (Fish! Delicious!)

Delicious fish!

Eventually the boats start coming back in, and Viasarae introduces Ambela to the rest of the village. It's a really small village. Most of them are kind of confused by this pointy-eared stranger, and content to let her stay Viasarae's problem, but a handful of Viasarae's children and grandchildren take an interest and join in the language lessons as afternoon wears on into evening.

Then Ambela will be quite conversant by nightfall.

Everyone is very impressed.

They do not have an entire extra house for her and it'll be a bit cramped if she tries to fit into one of theirs, but there's a couple of spare beds she can put together and a tent to put up over them in case of rain, and if she really wants a roof over her head then she can probably find a spot on Viasarae's floor with room for her to curl up in.

Or she could just not sleep tonight.

...she can do that? Well, all right, if she likes. None of the villagers are staying up, though.

Do they have any books? She can try to teach herself to read.

Viasarae lends her a small stack and introduces her to the fairly straightforward alphabet. There's a recipe book with illustrations, a longish history of the empire, a short book about magic, and a book of nature-focused poetry.

That should keep her occupied.

Yep! And here's a little magical lamp to read by!

Some of the recipes are a little baffling; others sound delicious. The poetry is hard to decipher, but rewardingly pleasant to read aloud even when the meanings continue to elude her. The history of the empire is mostly kind of samey, although if she reads closely enough there's an unsettling implication that everyone (with the exception of the Emperor) just dies eventually and then is never heard from again.

Magic seems kind of complicated, and she might have to get someone more interrogable than a book to re-explain the basics in the morning.

She makes a mental note to do so! And murmurs poems and songs softly to herself.

The night goes by quietly. She does not get rained on. The moon spends half the night hiding behind clouds, but is very pretty when she finally gets a chance to see it. The sunrise is spectacular, and is also when the villagers start waking up again.

Good morning villagers.

Good morning Ambela!

Kioh wants to know if she enjoyed the books and whether she really didn't sleep all night and, if so, whether this is a teachable trick.

"I enjoyed the books! I really didn't sleep but it's an Elf thing."

"Oh," he says, disappointed. "Oh well."

"I'm sorry."

"Maybe I'll dedicate Life when I grow up," he says. "Do you know about dedication yet?"

"Not really, will you tell me about it?"

"Okay!" he says. "So there's three ways to get magic - do you know the nine elements? Life and Death are the first tier, and Land and Sea and Sky are the second tier, and Fire and Ice and Light and Shadow are the third tier. Some people are born with a little bit of magic in some of the elements, and the day you're born someone can pick you up and dedicate you to some elements and you'll get a little more magic than that, and the day you turn sixteen you can dedicate yourself to some elements and get a lot of magic. But dedication is more dangerous the more elements you're trying for, especially if you already have some of them. Like Grandmama, she was born Sea and dedicated Sea as a baby and then again on her sixteenth birthday, and that's really dangerous and she could've died but she didn't. I was born Fire, that's why I can light fires by magic. And I want to dedicate Sea like Grandmama but sometimes I think I want other elements too, like Life so I can learn how to not sleep."

"How dangerous?"

"We dedicate all our babies Sea and every few generations somebody's kid dies. And most people who self-dedicate anything die, but for self-dedication it matters how good you are at it and I think I'd be good, and Grandmama thinks so too and she'd know."

"Good at what?"

"Self-dedication is like - like sailing in a storm, but maybe you've never done that. I dunno. You could ask Grandmama."

"Ask me what?" says Viasarae, passing by.

"What you need to be good at for self-dedication."

"Pain tolerance, tenacity. Going without sleep, if it's a long one. And something physical - dancing, fighting, sailing. When I took Sea it was four hours of feeling like I was drowning, on fire, and wrestling a bear, all at the same time."

"...on fire, for Sea?"

"It shifted. Sometimes fire, sometimes ice, sometimes - things I have no name for. 'Wrestling a bear' is likewise an oversimplification. But there is a kind of fight, and you die if you lose it."

"How many people die of those who try?"

"Most. More than nine in ten. Shorter is easier - third-tier elements only take an hour each, it's safest to stick to those."

"And of those, how many?"

"I don't know exactly. Something like half."

"Goodness."

"I don't recommend anyone try it unless I think they'll be good enough to be one of the ones who lives."

"Are you better than fifty-fifty at guessing?"

"Hard to say. I've only suggested it to one person before Kioh. She did live, though."

Nod.

"The Emperor took all nine elements," she adds. "Forty-eight hours in total. That's where he got the power to build a flying city."

"It does seem like it might be difficult."

"No one else in the world can do anything like it. No one else has ever survived that strong a self-dedication."

"I'm not surprised given your description. About how many humans are there?"

"...I don't know. I'm sure someone does; you could ask after census records if you do end up visiting Skygarden."

"More like tens of thousands, or millions?"

"I don't know. Millions? But that's just a guess."

"All right."

"I'm sorry I can't be more helpful about some of these things," she adds. "We're fairly isolated here, and we prefer it that way, but it does make us a poorer introduction to the rest of the world than you'd get from somewhere more cosmopolitan."

"That's all right. Is this language spoken everywhere?"

"Yes. You might find a few places where they speak something else too, but none where they don't speak this one."

"Convenient."

She nods.

"I might travel once I have more of a handle on the language."

"You really are learning it astonishingly fast."

"Thank you."

Smile. "I'm afraid there aren't very many more books, if you've finished with those ones already."

"I am. Oh well."

"I'll see what else I can find."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"How do people get to Skygarden, if it flies? Can you only live there if you can fly?"

"There are flying ships. They build them in the big port cities. The nearest one is Southport, north of here by the mouth of the Rocky River."

"Are they magic?"

"Yes, of course."

"Of course."

"...is it possible to build flying ships without magic? How?"

"You need a lot of things I think this world has not invented yet."

"Well, that explains it, I suppose."

"Yes. It could have been that those inventions just weren't available here, though."

"Yes, I see. Well, instead it turns out that the answer is magic."

"How much of what kinds do you need?"

"I'm not sure, never having built one myself. Sky and the full third tier are probably best for it, but I don't know if you need both, or whether you need to have most of them self-dedicated or only a few or maybe even none. It might depend on whether you're trying to build the flying ship by yourself."

"That makes sense."

She nods. "—oh, in case no one's explained, the elements don't stay strictly inside their own domains; there are combinations that give you a little extra. Fire and Ice add up to something with motion and lightning included, Light and Shadow together give you more things to do with the senses, and if you have the whole third tier you can enchant objects. Completing the first or second tier has similar benefits but it's harder to explain what they are, since I imagine it won't mean much to you if I say that it gives you a more complete command of that tier's domain."

"Yes, I'm not sure what that means."

She shrugs. "Land and Sea and Sky all together are... the world as a physical thing? And Life and Death together are... all the same things they are by themselves, but with fewer gaps in between."

"Hmm. Does Life and Death allow you to bring dead people to life again?"

"Not that I've ever heard of. But it's very rare to have one of those at the self-dedication level, let alone both, and I can't imagine you could do it with any less."

"The Valar bring dead Elves and orcs to life. It doesn't work for Dwarves because they don't have the same kind of soul, but they want to figure it out one day."

"Lucky Elves and orcs. When humans die we stay that way."

"Maybe the Valar can figure you out one day too.

In the books it sounded like humans die for no reason."

She raises her eyebrows. "What do you think of as a good reason to die?"

"Falling from a height?"

"That'll do it, yes. What do you think of as not a good reason to die?"

"Time elapsing."

"...oh. Do Elves and orcs and so on not have old age?"

"No, because it is a stupid idea."

"...what would it matter how nice of an idea it was? Do all your animals live forever too?"

"Only on Valinor, not Endorë."

"Well, all the creatures of this world age and die, humans included. Though some humans can get around it. I'm a few hundred years old myself."

"I am also a few hundred years old."

"Well. In case you were wondering," she gestures at her abandoned-eggplant self, "this is what an elderly human looks like."

"I see."

"And it doesn't matter a bit how stupid an idea it is, because humans weren't anyone's idea in the first place, we just happened. As far as I've ever heard, anyway."

"Elves were invented by Eru, who is like Valar but bigger, and orcs and Dwarves were invented by two different Valar."

"Sounds uncomfortable. But maybe some people would like having someone to blame."

"The orcs were uncomfortable for a while. The other Valar fixed it."

"...fixed what?"

"The same thing that lets Elves have blessings also let us, and orcs, who have a similar thing, make promises we could not break. The orcs were all made to promise as small children that they would serve their inventor, who was evil. Now oaths don't work that way any more, and only let us swear to being honest and things like that."

She looks very unsettled. "That's much more uncomfortable than I was thinking."

"Also orcs used to be in constant pain for no reason and the first batch were made by torturing Elf parents for a couple generations."

"..."

"The other fourteen Valar have locked up that one."

"Good for them," she says firmly.

"Yes."

"The Emperor may be unpleasant but he's never done anything like that."

"Good."

"I have heard that he tortures people," she clarifies, "but - one at a time, and he doesn't bring their kids into it. Doesn't hurt kids at all, actually, that I know of."

"Better than Melkor, at any rate."

"Being better than Melkor is not very impressive."

"It's really not."

"Do you mean to go and talk to him?"

"I'm thinking about it."

"Well. Good luck. Try not to provoke him into torturing you."

"I will certainly try. I can die any time I want, there's that."

Snort. "And then I guess you'll find out whether he can bring people back to life."

"I suppose. I'd be easier than a Dwarf, and I suspect you work similarly."

"For all I know he can stop you from dying in the first place. It's usually not wise to bet on the Emperor not being able to do things."

"I might try anyway."

Shrug. "I'll not try to stop you."

"I will be very careful and see if anyone has advice before I approach."

Nod.

"Do you have any?"

"Hmm. ...if you do get advice closer to the source, pay attention to who you get it from. It could be in some people's interest to mislead you."

"That's good to know, thank you."

"You're welcome."

She thinks for a moment, then adds: "I do think he cares something for the peace and safety of his empire. If there was some unfathomable disaster threatening my village that I couldn't face on my own, something that seemed likely to roll over us and keep going if no one stopped it, I'd send for the Emperor and expect him to make it better rather than worse."

"That's reassuring."

Nod.

"What is the best way to get to a port city, should I just walk?"

"You could. Or someone could take you there, it's much faster by sea."

"A ride would be lovely."

"Do you know when you'd like to leave?"

"Whenever is convenient is fine."

"I'll ask who'd like to take you to Southport. I'm sure it won't take more than a few days to arrange."

"That will be lovely, thank you."

"Getting from Southport to Skygarden may be a little harder, but I'm sure you can find something you're willing to sell to someone."

"I don't need all of my jewelry."

"Give up one or two of those to the right buyer," she says, nodding at Ambela's rings, "and you'll have not only passage to Skygarden but enough left over to buy a house when you get there. The right buyer might be more trouble than they're worth to find, though. I don't deal in that sort of thing often enough to know."

"Well, I can look for someone who sells jewelry - how much are you imagining, I don't know this currency and a ballpark figure would be useful."

She guesses a range between one largish number and another, much bigger number. "On the low end you might have trouble affording the house."

"If I cannot afford a house perhaps I will sleep in a tree. Thank you."

She laughs. "Welcome."

And now it has been too long since she sang. She sits outside and sings.

...she may attract a bit of a crowd, doing that.

Oh! Well, all right, they're welcome.

It seems like she may be a top contender for the most amazing thing any of them has ever heard.

Goodness. Well, she can sing all day.

Eventually many of them have to do things other than listen to her sing. Reluctantly.

It's a pity she can't leave them a recording.

Isn't it just?

No one comes up with magical recording mechanisms. When evening arrives, Kioh brings her dinner and tells her that Grandmama says that if she sings like that she should have no trouble making money.

"All right, maybe I'll keep the jewelry. I'm not very good for an Elf."

"If that's not very good, what does good sound like?" he asks incredulously.

"I can't show you! I don't have a player!"

"I can't imagine it." He shakes his head. "Anyway, Mama can take you to Southport tomorrow morning."

"That's very kind of her."

"I'll tell her you said thank you! Enjoy your dinner!" Off he scampers.

Mmm dinner.

It's tasty dinner.

The next morning, Kioh's mother has a boat and two friends all ready to take Ambela to Southport. They would be delighted if she'd sing a little along the way.

But of course.

Her singing is lovely and the ocean is also lovely and all in all it's a pretty good trip. They arrive around midday, and the three villagers point her in the direction of the airship docks.

She thanks them, strolls that way to look at airships, and then finds somewhere to busk.

The people of Southport manage not to completely block the street listening to her, but it's a near thing. She will have no trouble affording a ride to Skygarden.

And she gets to keep her jewelry! ...can she get an adequately pretty change of clothes and a way to wash what she's got?

...an adequately pretty change of clothes, maybe, if she busks for a while and then shops around.

She's not in such urgent need that she can't shop around for something nice and maybe a sewing kit to tailor the prettiest thing to fit if it doesn't already.

Then she will be able to acquire an outfit she would not be ashamed to walk around Valinor in!

Good. Trip to Skygarden?

Trip to Skygarden: absolutely affordable! The airship captain has heard of her and would be thrilled to have her aboard, especially if she plans to sing.

She will sing them all the way there if they like.

Crew and passengers are so pleased by this outcome!

Oh good.

The city of Skygarden is beautiful.

Oh, it's clear enough that Elves don't live there - a lot of things are dirty or in poor repair, there's litter and so on - but underneath the wear and tear of use, most of the architecture would hold its own in a Valian design contest. The gardens visible along the sides of the island are gorgeous. The palace in the middle is huge and sprawling and exquisitely lovely, made all of stone that rises from the ground in a single seamless piece, with courtyards and fountains and greenhouses and ivy-clad towers and a low outer wall to mark out its territory.

Oh good! So good.

The airship comes in to land at the western docks. The captain recommends Ambela a good hotel nearby.

She appreciates that. How affordable is it?

Not trivial, unless busking is even more lucrative up here, which it might be. But she could definitely stay there and have some money left over to save up and buy more pretty clothes with.

She gets a room. She finds a garden to sing in.

Passersby are super impressed. She attracts a crowd pretty quickly.

Hurrah.

She will have no trouble affording her hotel room!

...she might have some trouble keeping a low profile, if that is a goal of hers.

Not necessarily.

She does listen for and ask questions during any conversations in which the Emperor is mentioned.

Inconveniently, people within human hearing range of her singing mostly don't talk. But when she listens farther away than that, or spends time not singing, she can overhear Emperor-related gossip such as:

• remember that time he threw somebody off the palace roof a few years ago? Working at the palace must be terrifying!
  
• they finally tore down my old neighbourhood and the Emperor came in and built new houses overnight and they're all gorgeous
  
• my friend's cousin's husband sold one of his maids last year and the Emperor bought her, poor girl
  
• it's been a while since the Emperor added new land to the island, I wonder where he'll put it on next?
  
• I was at a party last month, more upscale than I usually go to, and the Emperor showed up, but people mostly weren't frightened - maybe you get used to it, if you run in the sort of social circle where the Emperor shows up to parties - anyway I left early and I'm not accepting any more invitations from that household, maybe some people can get used to socializing with the Emperor but I'm not cut out for it
  
• my uncle's girlfriend's sister is a palace secretary and she says it's just like any other job really, but she doesn't dare go near the Emperor's personal wing because she took a shortcut right past it once and she could hear the girls screaming, which doesn't sound much like any other job to me
  
• my ex-landlord's family fell on hard times and had to sell his niece, and he ran into her in the market and she said it was so awful she'd rather belong to the Emperor, I'm sure she didn't mean it but can you imagine—!

Hm.

She goes for a meandering walk that takes her past the palace twice. She listens.

Assorted governmental sounds from the more public sections. From the Emperor's quarters - it doesn't sound like he's home right now, but there are a handful of women in his section of the palace, and two of them are crying while the third quietly eats lunch.

Hmm.

She busks on a daily basis but at different times, and takes walks past the palace every day, at different times.

The Emperor is, variously: out, napping, napping, torturing someone, out, out, descending from the sky on huge grey owl's wings and landing on a balcony as she watches (and then taking a nap), torturing someone again, and in the public section of the palace having a conversation with some sort of bureaucrat.

"I don't see why you want me involved."

  "I thought you might like a chance to comment, all things considered."

"He annoys me. I don't have people executed for annoying me."

  "...well..."

"'Well' what? That incorrigible pest from a few years ago? I threw him off a roof; the law of the empire did not at any point get involved."

  "...fair enough."

"I have no idea whether Lord Estulas defrauded all those merchants and no particular urge to find out. Leave me out of it."

  "Very well. And I assume you're equally uninterested in looking over the proposed changes to tax law—"

"Tax law does much better without my input. I'm going to go redesign my bedroom or something. Send for me if you think of anything that could actually benefit from my attention."

And then he does in fact go back to his wing of the palace and reshape a sizeable chunk of it into a new but equally beautiful form.

She sings, and reads books about everything especially magic, and walks past the palace.

And, having seen him land on his balcony that one time, she'll probably recognize him despite the lack of wings when he comes by to listen to her sing.

Nobody else seems to catch on; he doesn't attract any more attention than any other listener approximately that well-dressed. After a few songs, he comes up and drops some very high-denomination coins in her basket.

"Thank you."

"Welcome. Where'd you get a voice like that?"

"It's nothing special where I'm from."

"Oh? And where's that?"

"It's called Valinor. I can't get home; I arrived here by accident."

"Sorry to hear it. You must really be fed up with our idea of music by now."

"It's stylistically novel and some of your people are skilled."

He giggles. "Is that like telling your neighbour that the lime-green curtains have character, or do you actually see some merit in it?"

"It's more like telling a child they have promise. It can be sincere without measuring absolutely."

"Fair enough. I'd better quit taking up your time, people are starting to be annoyed with me."

He tosses another coin in her basket and walks away.

And she sings another song, and walks by the palace.

Torturing somebody again.

Mm-hm.

She waits to see if he comes back the next day.

No, but he's back the day after that. With money again, even.

"Hello again."

"Was I that memorable?"

"I have a very good memory."

"Well, fair enough. What's your name?"

"Mirelótë Ambela."

"That's pretty."

"Thank you."

He smiles, and walks away before people can be annoyed that he interrupted the singing.

She sings. She waits to see if he will come back.

Not that week.

She takes walks and reads books and thinks and listens.

The Emperor lives his life. His life involves naps, the rape and torture of helpless captives, and being out of the house a lot. It does not seem to involve any meaningful interaction with the actual running of the empire.

Hmm.

She looks up the laws on the books about slavery.

There are two ways to become a slave: voluntary sale (with the money usually going to a close friend or family member, although you can have it directed anywhere), or forced sale in case of debt (if you owe so much money that you couldn't possibly pay it all, your creditors get everything you have plus whatever you raise at auction). Attempting to forcibly enslave someone by any other means is very illegal. Once somebody is legally enslaved, though, there is approximately no legal protection of their rights or well-being except very incidentally - if you torture your slaves loudly at all hours you might incur a noise complaint; if you mistreat them grievously and then can't find anyone willing to buy what's left you can't legally collect insurance money for that any more than you could after deliberately burning down your own house.

(If a slave bears children, the children are born free but the mother's owner is responsible for their care. No one under the age of sixteen can be legally enslaved.)

So the explanation for the sold niece...

It's common for a family having serious financial trouble to arrange a voluntary sale or two before the debt gets dangerously large, and people speak in terms of 'the family sold their eldest daughter' even though that's not strictly legally accurate.

Mmhm. How much do slaves usually run?

Depends heavily on the quality of the slave and the context of the market; anywhere from 'a few weeks of her busking income' to 'a mansion in a good neighbourhood'.

Hmm.

Is there anything like a public log of debts?

Not as such, although there are public announcements and subsequently public records of slave sales. If she wants to get to debtors before that point she'll have a harder time of it.

Do they have the concept of buying debt?

They do have that concept!

Do they have somewhere she can advertise?

Word of mouth seems to be most of it, but there are magaziney newspaperish things that sometimes advertise stuff.

She goes looking for concert hall formal arrangements. And in case that doesn't pan out, jewelry stores.

Concert halls are super excited about her. Jewelry stores are pretty excited too.

The jewelry's nonrenewable so it's a second choice but she'd love to make better money than busking permits.

She can make way better money than busking permits. These concert halls are so excited.

Good.

The Emperor shows up to her third performance. He buys a good seat. No one else recognizes him.

Well, she will hang out receiving admirers after.

When the admirers have thinned out a bit:

"Hello again. Moving up in the world?"

"I decided this would be more efficient."

"I imagine you're right. I'll miss being able to wander by on a whim, though."

"Will you? I'm sorry. Perhaps I'll sometimes sing in the garden anyway, it's a nice garden."

"It is that."

"It's interesting how lovely the buildings and gardens are here when I think otherwise your people care less than mine about everything being beautiful."

"It's easier to be ambitious with the architecture when you can use magic, and a lot of people with powerful magic live in Skygarden. And on top of that, most people putting a building or a garden here will feel the need to compete with the imperial example."

"That makes sense. Many of the nicest buildings in Valinor were put up with magical help."

"Oh? What's magic like in Valinor?"

"My species doesn't have it but our friends the Ainur do. It's very different; it's innately part of them."

"But still good for cheating at architecture, hmm? Just the construction, or can you do impossible things with the end results too?"

"There are a few places where they allowed structures to stand that shouldn't. It's not common unless that's the only way to get an effect, it prevents us from learning more engineering if they do it all the time."

"Well, sure, but building impossible things is fun. —Architecture is something of a hobby of mine, is why I'm curious."

"My world is more technologically advanced than yours, there are things that might look impossible without magic that aren't if you have the right material and process."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Buildings this island could crash into if they stood at sea level."

"You're joking. How?"

"Steel and reinforced concrete frames."

"Huh. Steel buildings, there's a thought."

"The frames. The outsides are usually glass or stone or something pretty like that."

"I usually don't like my buildings to - hide themselves. If I'm building in wood you see wood, if I'm building in stone you see stone. But that doesn't mean I can't put in windows..." he trails off, thinking, and then grins at her again.

"There are skyscrapers whose outsides are all glass."

"Skyscrapers, is that what you call them? What an image. I love it."

"It's an imperfect translation but yes."

He laughs delightedly.

"We don't have a flying city, though."

"So we're winning in at least one respect."

"So you are."

"I'm sorry you're stranded here," he adds. "If someone could find you a way home, would you want it?"

"Oh yes. Especially if it would be possible to go back and forth, that would be amazing. But my husband and friends and parents are surely frantic."

"Well - I wouldn't have the first clue how to do something like that, but there's a lot of magic in Skygarden."

"It's possible the Valar will find a way to fetch me back."

"Hope so. Although I'd miss your singing."

"Well, if there's enough transit you can possibly borrow Macalaurë. He's much better."

He laughs. "I'm not sure I could stand it."

"Really?"

"If I heard someone sing more beautifully than you I think I would cry, and I prefer not to do that in public."

"We have invented devices that will record music and let you play it back anywhere you like."

"Well, then maybe I'd survive."

"What is your name?"

"Sekar."

This is not the Emperor's name; the Emperor's name is Solekaran. But it's not entirely unlike the Emperor's name, either.

She was not expecting the unvarnished truth. "I'm glad you enjoy my singing."

"It's beautiful."

"Thank you. What do you do?"

"Well, I already mentioned architecture. I don't really have a career as such. Don't need one, I've got money regardless."

"In Valinor and some Endorë Elf countries, there's an arrangement where the government gives everyone plenty to live on, funded by taxes on people who choose to work anyway or want scarcer things than necessities."

"Huh. Does it work?"

"Yes. It does mean that we can take time off if we need to, such as when there are children in the house."

"Sounds nice."

"It is!"

"Am I keeping you from anything? I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome."

"I have no plans."

"Well, all right."

"It's convenient that people here like my singing. I could have sold off some of the jewelry, but it's finite and I might be here for a long time, even forever. And there's no basic income and apparently debt is a serious problem if accumulated here."

"...forever?"

"Elves do not die for no reason. A Vala can put us back if we die for a reason, but it's never happened to me. I don't have dangerous hobbies."

"Huh. Lucky Elves. Raising the dead isn't a power I've heard rumoured around here."

"Nor I."