"What do you think you might that we do not have? If this heated pool, far within an icy landscape, is a surprise to you, as it seemed to be, then I think it'd be strange if we didn't have similar wondrous ways of fulfilling any of your other needs. We've never heard of mermaids outside of stories we tell each other! Clearly, you're from someplace we've never looked. You remember your life before you got here, right?"

A few thoughts race through the head of the woman looking at Twintails: where would she want to stay, would she ever want to see the outdoors, how would she be able to move around? All her curiosity directs her to think of inventions for the little mermaid before her; it'll probably be fascinating to find out what she does to navigate this world.

They still don't get it! Possibly she should just let it go

"Even if it turns out you do have some amazing way to get everything I need, it's still weird you didn't ask what I need first. Just to make sure. Because you couldn't know ahead of time. Especially if you've never heard of mermaids."

(Okay, now she'll let it go.)

"…So you're saying this thing is magic?" She looks up at the shiny thing that's been pouring warm water on her. Humans make all kinds of things out of this shiny stuff, but she's pretty sure it isn't magic, the stuff is everywhere when you go on land… Maybe the shiny has nothing to do with magic, maybe that's just what it's made of, and the magic is just making the water come out of it…

"No, not at all! It's just hooked up to the heating system that also keeps this entire lodge nice and warm. But things like these would seem like magic to those who've never seen it and don't understand it, and the end result is much the same, wouldn't you say?"

???

Heating system…? What does that even mean…?

(The only reason she believes them that it isn't magic is because she's spent enough time on land to see a lot of human things that look like they have to be magic, but are way too widespread and openly visible to be magic. Unless every place she's ever been on land happened to be a tribe of Unveiled, which she really doubts.)

(…Maybe now that she can actually talk to humans, she can find out how all that stuff works…?)

"Yeah, it does seem the same… But you keep talking about things that 'seem like magic', or are 'close enough to magic'. What about actual magic? I keep asking that but you keep not telling me…"

"What would make something magic, as opposed to ingenuity? For all we know, we could be doing something that is magic, just not realizing that it was because we had gotten so used to it!"

Blink.

Blink blink.

"I think you'd know if it was magic! It's really different from all the other things people do and all the other things that happen in the world! Haven't you ever heard of magic before? You're Unveiled! Right? Aren't you?"

(Wait, is she dreaming? Is this a dream?)

"Unveiled isn't a word that makes any sense to me in this situation. And yes, we've heard of magic, in stories we tell each other. The issue being, we didn't think it made sense to think of things as magic after we had done them."

They don't… even know what Unveiled means?

And they don't… think of magic as a real thing…? They don't know magic? They haven't seen magic?

But… But… She looks the same… So a god isn't covering for her… And there's nowhere in the world the gods aren't looking, because of the agreement they made… So they have to be Unveiled… But… But if they don't know about magic, they can't be Unveiled, that's logically impossible…

Is everything she was ever taught a lie?

Did Yara lie so that she'd be scared to ever ask humans for help?

No, she… wouldn't… she was useless but she wasn't evil…

Right?

Twintails is not going to cry in front of these people, so she ducks back under the water, where crying isn't a reflex that happens.

They wave at her as she dips under the water. "It looks like you need some time to yourself. Feel free to just... enjoy the warmth and relax."

(Relax? As if!)

Twintails lies at the bottom of the pool and thinks for a little while.

She… supposes it actually could be possible to be Unveiled but not know about magic. For instance, if you were Unveiled but then you lost all your memories, including your memories that magic is real. Would the gods decide that person is Veiled again, or would they still count as Unveiled? She's not sure. But she's heard that some gods steal their clerics' memories sometimes. Maybe some of the time they go around not knowing about magic.

And actually… she's also heard of people who can do enough magic to count as Unveiled, but they haven't discovered their magic.

And she's also heard of mythic creatures where you could be one and not know it, if nobody told you. And those all count as Unveiled.

She doubts all these people are one of those, but… it means it's not literally impossible that they're Unveiled but don't know about magic. Which means maybe she wasn't lied to.

That's all she really needs.

She pokes her head back out of the water. Are the humans still there?

Only the woman, who is sat down, looking around the room and thinking to herself.

"How does the heating thing work?"

"It's electric. We... generate a magnetic field in a gas turbine that produces an electric current that gets sent here which heats up the water you're swimming in via resistive heating."

"I don't know what any of that means."

"I felt like you wouldn't! Unfortunately, there are a lot of things to know before you can understand those things, and I wouldn't do a very good job of explaining them. But... none of those things are what we'd call magic. Not everyone has been told what magic is, you know!"

"I still think you'd know if it was magic. If it doesn't seem different from other stuff you do, except for being more… complicated… it's probably not magic. And… even though I didn't understand what you said, I don't think that's how the explanation would sound if it was magic. So, maybe you really don't have it. But I don't really understand how. Nothing about this situation makes sense."

She sighs. (Blegh.)

"So what happens now?"

"Well, I don't know what you'd want to happen. You seem happy enough in the pool, and I guess you could ask for some food to enjoy, but I don't know what else you might want to be doing now."

"…Wait, so I just live in this thing now? Why was it here? Isn't someone going to want to use it?"

"It was used by one of the men I was with, because baths like this can be fantastic, and they will want to use it, yes. Longer-term, you will want a more permanent place to stay, maybe even with me, but I was thinking more about what you would want to happen now."

"Well, I don't know. I don't know what can happen. I don't know anything about this place. And sometimes, to know what to do now, you need to know what you're doing later. So, what kinds of places can I stay permanently? How do I choose?"

"You can stay in quite a few places, as a matter of fact. If you want to see a few places, I can show you some on my phone, and take you a few places if you want to see them in person. Once you've found someplace you like, I'll walk you through the process of joining the basic income system so you'll be able to afford staying there permanently."