"Your predecessors didn't play more with it, leave notes?"

"We don't all work the same way. My great-aunt said she could detect lies, but at greater range. I don't know if she was lying about it only being detecting lies but the range part seems to have been true. I don't have any notes from her father."

"How exactly does it pass down the generations?"

"In Welce people identify with one of five elemental personality clusters, and can detect them in each other from a ways off better than chance, though I don't know how much of that is people conforming to cosmetic stereotypes after the fact and how much if any is magic. To inherit the primacy, you have to be related to the prime, but not in any specific way, and you have to be the correct elemental personality type - so I was a candidate, because I was the previous prime's grand-niece, and I'm sweela, while my brothers are torz and elay so they couldn't have been prime. It's also a clue that the random blessings I got as a baby," she has a hair clip; she unclips it to point them out, "include two sweela blessings and power, which is categorized as hunti but a suitable blessing for any prime."

"Huh. Interesting." He nods. "I think I got enough vocab from you, now, so is there anything you want or need?"

"I don't think I need anything you wouldn't expect - place to sleep, change of clothes, three meals a day. A way home if you can get me that."

"Way home should be possible, we have someone we arrested a few years ago who created a portal to another Earth—that's the name of this planet—he might be able to do that for you. Will you need any specific accommodations in your place due to the mindreading or is a door sufficient isolation?"

"Door should do it if it doesn't have a gap under it and isn't made of paper."

"Can do. Let me, ah, tell people about all of this so they can arrange you a room and stuff."

"Thank you."

He talks in his language to the armored man, who asks a few questions. After a bit of this the armored man nods and leaves. "Just a few minutes."

"I appreciate that." Sigh.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing besides being stranded on the wrong planet."

"...right. I'm sorry that happened."

"It's not your fault," she sighs.

He nods.

Wait wait wait and then there's a knock and the armored man is back. He says something and Harold says, "Okay, we have a place for you! And they'll see what they can do about translation, but while we don't have anything sorted out I can hang around if you'd like."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Okay! Let's go see your room, then," he says, standing up to follow the armored man.

Kiri follows at a safe distance.

They take the elevator again, and armored man says something to Harold before they board then stalks off.

"What'd he say?"

"Told me which number was your room, and that if I needed him I could get the comm."

"Comm?"

"It's a technological device that lets people communicate at a distance that's more specialized than mobile phones." He gestures at his phone to indicate what he means.