The library charges.

The clinic has a death mage on duty at all times. Treatment is free for rabies, distemper, caralendar pox, white death, a couple of other highly contagious diseases. A structure mage is on duty from noon to eight in the evening, appointments preferred but an attempt will be made to find time for walk-ins.

Useful to know. Does it note what kinds of thing the structure mage does?

Charges to walk in or to read or to borrow or?

Doesn't say what the structure mage does. It does say the clinic can offer "nonmagical expert advice" but doesn't explain what that is either.

The library charges to read and charges more to borrow.

Well, if they don't charge to walk in and look around she'll do that.

It's a small library. It's brighter than a lot of nearby shops. They've clearly invented the codex but more than nine tenths of the library books are scrolls.

A small bookshelf has codices titled Three-Dimensional Geometry; Native Plants of Anavel Sani and Southern Rasa; Milocri and Seihra-Gara: Eyewitnesses of the Middle Warring States Period, 144 - 90 Before Unification; Twelve Twelves: Surprising Tips For All Twelve; and Architecture for Caralendri and Beluli.

There are a few dozen scrolls with titles like Known Dietary Needs of Eight Peoples; Twelve Jobs You Can Do as a Non-Force Mage Who Can't Walk or Fly; Architecture for Essi; Efficient Farming Techniques; World Almanac 432; World Almanac 433; How Government Works; Prehistoric Ehima; Rain, Sun, and Other Influences on Agriculture in Ehima.

Every single book is in Hari.

How are the books made, hand-copied or something else?

Is the Twelves one about magic, from what she can see without reading?

How much is reading?

The writing might be illusioned onto the pages.

It's probably about magic.

She can afford maybe a quarter of an hour of reading anything they have, if she haggles the price down as far as it goes and spends everything she has.

She'll go look around some more and if she hasn't found anything more useful to buy she'll come back and take it.

Back outside. So - sectors and areas of town? More and less expensive areas? Also, can she spot any law enforcement? 

Zoning's fairly mixed. A number of buildings have businesses on their lower floors and residences above. There are apartments around the market and on the way to the airport.

No one is obviously law enforcement.

She's not going too far today, so she'll try to figure out more about different areas another day.

Meanwhile, how do people in the street tend to treat each other? Can she see a lot of slaves? How do they act? How common are injuries? How violent do people get with slaves in public?

People tend to ignore each other if they're not obviously together or doing business. Looks like at least four out of five people are free, but not nine out of ten. A lot of the slaves seem to be working.

There are visibly injured people, most of them slaves. It's not a majority of slaves but it's definitely a significant minority. Less than half of people she sees have visible scars but there are certainly some who do. Someone drags a slave who seems to be refusing to go somewhere. Nothing more violent than that happens while she watches but the slave being dragged has some claw marks. Injuries and scars are unevenly distributed: it's noticeable how many people have either a lot or none at all, more often none.

And how about if they are together or doing business? What kinds of work are the slaves doing? (What kinds of work are people in general doing, aside from selling things?)

Uh-hm.

Some people are discussing things or haggling or asking questions about goods and services for sale. Some people are carrying things for other people. The people having things carried for them are disproportionately likely to be snakes.

There's an illusion mage changing the color of people's fur or belongings. There's someone talking to the illusion mage with the noticeboard about listing street cleaning dates for the sake of people who are forgetful or new in town.

She could infer things about what else people do. Someone, several someones, made Hari is the Language of the Empire. Someone is farming all the food for sale. There must be people construction workers and plumbers and smiths, but there aren't electricians or computer programmers.

What kinds of things do they ask (that she can overhear without seeming to spy, and understand)? What kinds of things are people carrying?

Any indication of how they get their street cleaning done? Also, can she tell who's talking to the mage about it; is it a government official, an altruistic civilian...

Indeed. But at the moment she's looking at what she can see. Menial labor? Anyone hiring for it?

They ask if food for sale has had a death mage see to it already. They ask about businesses' open hours. They ask about people's credentials and training. They ask all kinds of things.

People are carrying rings, groceries, that kind of thing, mostly.

There is no evidence that anything is being done by altruistic civilians.

A snake tries to talk to her in a language that isn't Hari, but she may not recognize this as a job offer if she doesn't speak North Essi.

Credentials and training? (What kinds get mentioned? What kinds seem desirable?) What kinds of hours do businesses tend to have? How do people seem to be keeping time?

Well, it wasn't that likely people would describe the street cleaning. What are the dates, so she can just look then? And, what can help her identify this person as government? Do they do anything else?

"I'm sorry, I only speak Hari," she says, in what seems to be a neutral polite tone from what she's been overhearing.

There are twenty-four hours in a day and there seem to be things in the genre of sundials. Businesses that rely on being open during their customers' free time have more variable hours but a lot of people seem to work on the same schedule as Valanda, a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening.

The notice, which says it's there by order of the mayor's office, says it'll next happen in a few days.

Illusion letters appear that spell out CARRY THINGS FOR ME AND I TEACH YOU TO UNDERSTAND SOME THINGS ESSI SAY? in Hari.

Good to know. She notes to herself to ask Valanda if they have better clocks. (Maybe knowledge mages fill in?) Also if she can remember anything about clock-making, in case.

She notes that too.

That seems like something it would be useful to try. Possibly would have been better to wait, but she can't assume she'll always get offers. What things, and where, and for how long, she asks. (Good to be clear with these things.)

His groceries and anything else he happens to want to buy or sell or transport. Where he wants them, definitely not outside the city at any rate. Probably not for more than a couple hours.

She will carry things she is safely able to carry, places where it is safe for her to go, for a couple of hours or less, and that is agreeable to her.

(Valanda may have a different opinion on if she should try this, but she needs information, and in fact information on what happens if Valanda doesn't like something she does is also rather important.)

Then she can end up carrying things to places. A couple hours ends up being an overestimate, he doesn't need her that long.

He teaches her to recognize some words in North Essi. Yes, no, the numbers one through twelve, here, there, rings, deal.

Useful. Any new to her places? What are they like?

He wants some things taken back to his apartment in a different building. It's a lot like Valanda's, but one of the floors has lower ceilings, paler colors and more windows.

She observes and so on.

The snake doesn't want anything else from her.