"Of course I could, but there's a chance a judge would decide that was assault. I wouldn't know how to help you figure out if our sun is like yours, I never learned any science. What kind of mage are you?"

And even if a judge would accept her testimony that she permitted it, she presumes he cannot trust that she would give it.

Inconvenient. (She does not like that he might have to worry about her all night.)

"I do not think I am a mage. You?" (Not very much point to try to keep this secret, she thinks. If it will cause problems, then such it will.)

It will definitely cause problems!

Valanda squeaks. He flaps his hands almost like he's trying to fling something away. "No no no no no no no, I thought, I, I thought it was a, a person, I, I, I, Iri did you know it wasn't a person, did you know and not tell me, it's, it's, it looks, it's, no no no no no no no..."

"She's not less of a person than I am," says Iri.

"You're, you're, that's different, thwilit are people, you're not this, you're not an animal, you don't look like you're whole, you, you, no no no no no, it's a, it's, no no no no no, I, I, I talked to it, I talked to it, I thought, I thought..."

Valanda backs up as far away from her as he can. He stares at her straight on for the first time.

"Do you, is there, is there something wrong with just you or, or, or does your entire world just not have any people, there's no, there's no magic, there's no people..."

Yes, this is a problem.

She is very much not sure how to attempt to solve this problem.

"I'm very sorry to distress you. Is there - something particular you're worried about? Have people without your kinds of magic caused some kind of problem?"

"Our kinds? Do you have some other kind of magic?"

"We don't use the word magic for anything we have, but I'm not sure what decides what is magic and what is not? Some people in history used to say that rain came by magic, or birds used magic to navigate, or people with a stronger discerning-sense were magic, or people who could do a lot of math in their heads were magic. Yours seems different than that, but I do not know enough about it right now." (This is not how she would by default have talked about this, but he seems very upset and she is very uncertain of what exactly might talk him down.)

Iri translates "discerning-sense" as "knowledge magic specializing in people's health and other personal information" and Valanda's too desperate to be suspicious that Iri might be phrasing it that way deliberately to calm him down.

"Everyone has discerning-sense?" he asks, borrowing the Capital word. "That's, that's something you can do that animals can't? It not like, not like us, we don't all have the same magic. I think maybe it's a translation problem. It's a translation problem, it's Iri's fault, it's, it's, you have a similar word that doesn't mean the same thing, 'magic'" (in Capital) "doesn't mean magic, it's, it's... unexplained things or something, you just all have an, an unusual type of knowledge magic, and it's all the same so you don't need a word for the whole category, that's all, that's all, you're not, not, not some kind of thing that looks like a person and talks like a person and, okay, you're a knowledge mage and you don't have twelve kinds, that explains a lot, you just have one kind of magic but you have it, because you're people, of course you're people."

Valanda takes several deep breaths.

"I'm so sorry."

...Sure. 

'Somewhat lying' is not the most stable of solution mechanisms, but Iri seems to be going along with this one, and she has not currently thought of another one, and he was very very upset (and Iri was not, so this is not just an interworld issue). And this could possibly cause some problem if and when more interworld contact occurs - certainly scientists are still studying discernment-scence, but she's not expecting the answer they produce to be 'magic' any more than she's expecting the answer to 'why is there more matter than antimatter' to be 'magic'.

But if contact occurs she predicts plenty of scientists will promptly insist that the local phenomena clearly has a physical explanation somewhere, and if needed she does not think it will do much harm for her to pretend to be the kind of person who would find 'maybe the answer is magic!' to be an appealing hypothesis.

"We have our discerning-sense and animals do not, yes." (This is clearly not the time to discuss that people with impaired discernment-sense are also people, nor any theories on animals).

"Please don't blame Iri - you are correct, where I am from in the current time "magic" (the Capital word) is only used to mean things that do not happen in our world. If I had read a story about your world it would have called your 'magic' (the Hari word) "magic", so I borrowed the world, and Iri translated what I meant. I did not know there were other concerns, or I would have chosen better words. It is entirely my mistake, and I apologize.

We do not have twelve kinds, though some people can do things with discerning-sense that others can't.

We are definitely people, yes. 

It is very alright. It would be odder, I think, if sudden contact between different words never caused such misunderstandings. Even meetings between different cultures in the same world often do. But we are certainly people.

You do not have discerning-sense? That must have been difficult for your ancestors."

More deep breaths.

"Oh. It sounds like normal magic doesn't happen in your world, so you were right to use that word for it. And Iri knew what you were talking about, so that was right, too. The definition of our word 'magic' is anything that some but not all people of every species and no animals can do. All people can talk in some kind of language, so that's not magic. Animals can walk, so that's not magic. A twelfth of our population could learn to do what your discerning-sense does. I'm not sure if it's more difficult for us not having it but I doubt it's more difficult than not having death magic."

"I do not think we have what you have, no. 

That makes sense." What an interesting - and potentially... problem-involving... concept. "Where I am from, we only have one sentient species, so we may not have had the same concerns.

Are there animals here who don't have magic but will try to learn your language and talk to you like a person would?" (Best find out, if there are - dynamics such as that, present.)

"Yes, having death magic sounds like it could have helped our ancestors.

As it is, discerning-sense is what people use to keep from accidentally begetting a child, and to know if someone is carrying a disease before they have outward symptoms, and to help the sick and injured, especially when there is not technology. So we are fortunate to have had it.

Those are the knowledge mages?" (And, has any of the language she's learned or episodes she's watched tell her anything about this world and strata, or gender?) 

"Knowledge mages can do all that. We do have talking animals, they're" a species name she won't have heard yet. "They're black birds bigger than Iri, they eat already dead meat and whatever else they can scavenge. They usually just say 'ah! ah!' but you can catch one and teach it to say 'food' or 'water' when it's hungry or thirsty. I don't think they can use sentences but I think they understand the words they say. Do they have those where you're from?"

"We have birds that can be taught words and phrases, but no animals that could carry on a conversation the way I have.

Do knowledge mages read strata for you, then? Or do you not use those at all; I did not see signs in the episodes. And how do most people tell the genders of those they interact with, then?" (The language she'd heard didn't seem to have the words or grammar for it, but that they clearly have - Valanda's is as clear to her as anyone's at home would be, and Iri's was clear if not something she'd encountered before. Which, while she would not find the converse surprising either, should not be surprising, for another species.)

Iri attempts translations. "Awareness of your sex" comes across, with caveats. The other thing is harder. Iri spends a while trying to explain what they're getting.

"Thank you, Iri. Okay, no, I think only Iri's species has strata, if we understand what that is. With some species you can tell sex by looking. For instance, caralendri women are larger than caralendri men."

Iri interrupts. "Not sex. Them knowing their sex."

"Oh! You can read minds? But only to tell what someone else believes their sex is? How can you tell the difference between that and being able to tell what sex they are? Are people wrong about that a lot?"

This is such an uncomfortable topic for Valanda. He didn't really need to have to think about someone looking at him and thinking about him being a woman. Looking at him and thinking that's something important to know. Oh, and the mind-reading. That's also bad.

The complexity of translation is at least a strong suggestion that something is different. She listens for words she knows and such.

She considers the implications of a society mostly without strata (not, of course, that she is likely to be able to accurately project-imagine. Though fortunately she in this case will not need to.) 

Nod. "That would be a great difference from the Empire I am from, then, if you do not have strata." 

She tries to understand the rest of what he's saying. Since he said 'with some species' it seems to be about the gender part of what she asked rather than the strata part. 'With some species you can tell __ by looking. For instance, caralendri ___ are larger than caralendri ____'. Given the topic she might assume those should be 'gender' and some genders, but given the rest of the phrases that's blatantly nonsensical. As would 'Not __. Them knowing their __' be, in that case.

She attempts to generate possibilities; considers them with models of a world in which people don't have a discerning-sense...

"...People in your world guess people's genders by looking at them? ...That sounds like it would be distressing for a lot of people!" (...Mental shuddering is not to be allocated space in her active mind right now; that space is needed and being used.) 

"Does your society use 'gender' to decide how to treat people? In that case I will pay you one ring if at the end of a month you've acted as if you believe I'm male. Does that sound good? ...Do you understand what I'm offering?"

"...we use it to decide what pronouns and words and inflections to use when we talk? Hari has seemed not to have those. Is that what you do? ...that also seems as though it would be distressing to many people.

I'm sorry, I don't know a core word, there. You're offering to pay me to act as though I believe you're... something? Is that a gender-category here? ...Have I been using the wrong one for you? I am so very sorry if so. My discerning-sense has been saying you're male, but perhaps it doesn't read accurately given a different world. I'm very sorry; of course I'll change that immediately, if you let me know what I should use." (If this is the case she needs to apologize and such further of course, but confirming the problem is first, there.)

Iri is able to translate that very straightforwardly.

"Your discerning-sense says I'm male," he says in Hari. (Mind-reading! She can read his mind!) "It has to be reading something about my thoughts or my preferences. I'm..." Valanda grimaces and twitches. "I'm not male, I'm..." (Valanda looks like he's just bitten into a lemon and has to stop and steel himself) "...female, you could tell if I undressed, but I want you to keep acting like I'm male. But that's what your discerning-sense can see, isn't it? You have enough people who are wrong about their sex to know you're looking at people's thoughts and you have a word for the thing that's in people's minds instead of their bodies. Because you can read minds. Can you read minds in any other circumstances? Can you see my memories? My favorite foods?"

"What gender am I?" Iri asks.

She continues to try to put understanding together from what she can gather. ("minds", "bodies", "wrong about", "undressed", the way he flinches and steels himself...). Form a resultant picture. Appropriately take into account 'if something seems rather inconceivable and a skew line, that can be expected of a different world' and 'it is easy to let too little data and an imagination run away with one', knowing she is likely still affected by both biases.

(Will continue to not be allocating space to personal emotional reactions to the forming picture; that is not what she is doing at the moment.)

"If - I am understanding correctly. Your - system - seems very - unfortunately set up, in this regard. And has been - significantly harmful and distressing to you personally, if I am understanding correctly. I'm sorry.

Of course I will keep acting in accordance with your gender.

We - I suppose I would imagine we have some people who are wrong about their gender - people are wrong about all sorts of things, they can be wrong about their favorite color or about if they are in love. It - does not seem often very generally relevant?

I - would have said I do not understand how undressing is relevant, but if I understand correctly your society - guesses gender from what body someone has? Again, I'm very sorry.

...In my society purposely referring to someone as a different gender than they are is understood as psychological torture."

"I - do not think I can read minds? I can sometimes understand what people are thinking from their body language and similar, but it helps to have more background social knowledge than I do here. I - do not know anything of your memories or food preferences."

"Not something I've run into previously," she says to Iri.

"Your 'gender' is something inside your mind? It's... the sex that your mind has?" Valanda uses the Capital word for lack of a Hari word for gender. "Here no one talks about that. My gender is male. Your discerning-sense is correct."

That's all in conveniently short, carefully enunciated sentences so she has a better chance of understanding. He can't quite say everything he wants to that way though.

"What purpose does sorting people by gender serve in your society?"

"Understood. Is there something you would prefer in my actions, that would be affirming here, as you lack it in language?

I - suppose it is in your mind. Most facts about oneself are, are they not.

I'm not certain exactly what 'sex' means, as you use it? It is about bodies? We have [{word for what might be summarized as 'traits that tend to come up in body dysphoria'}], and [{word for 'can you get pregnant or get people pregnant', generally private}]. And [{'reproductive class'; used to talk about animals and plants and such}]. 

Many people in my world prefer it - they find it psychologically salutary when it is correct, and upsetting when it is not, or when it is not acknowledged and they wish it to be. Some people find it an important feature of partner selection. Some people find it pleasant to sometimes be in groups of those similar. Not everyone has such a preference, or cares. But it is very common."

"Sex is the third thing. Sex is" her word for it. "Some people don't care about sex most of the time. Agerah don't care very much. Essi don't care at all. Caralendri care a lot. I think... a lot of male caralendri want to be female. I'm not sure if that's gender. It might be. But they aren't treated like it just because they want to be. Caralendri have to change sex before they can change how people treat them. Does that make sense?"

...She supposes if everyone in one's species were [agender in the 'not experiencing gender' way] and no one had [physical dysphoria] it might - make some sense to use ['reproductive class'] for people? Though clearly there is not a good reason to extend that to people who had those things. Perhaps there was some past power dynamic among species that was responsible for the phenomenon? (Continuation of suppressing shudders and the like.)

"I think so. I'm - very sorry about your society.

Change sex? Is that like [{word for something like ''transition'-related physical change-making things}]."

"Yes. It's that. Caralendri do that. No one else here does that. Where you're from, people change sex?"

"Not like caralendri," says Iri. "On purpose, not by accident. I think they cut off breasts."

Valanda blinks.

"I do not know what caralendri do. We have technology to change some [{'traits that tend to come up in body dysphoria' word}]. Not currently enough to do everything people can want - we cannot currently cause a body to produce different gametes, or let someone become able to carry a pregnancy. Further advances are worked on, and hoped for. But we have various forms of surgery, and can change our hormone balances, and such things."