"You cannot cause a body to produce different gametes." Turns out Hari has a word for gametes, who knew. "You cannot cause someone to be able to carry a pregnancy. You can cause your 'hormone balance' to change." If Hari has a word for hormones it's not one Iri and Valanda know. "We cannot cause someone to be able to carry a pregnancy. We cannot cause a body to produce different gametes. We cannot cause a 'hormone balance' to change. Caralendri don't cause it. The body produces different gametes. They can carry a pregnancy. The 'hormone balance' changes. No person causes it." Shrug. "Tell me more about causing these things tomorrow. I have to go to work in the morning. I'm going to sleep now. I'm going to lock the door in a way you can't unlock. If you want to go sleep in the hallway, leave now. Otherwise the door doesn't open till morning."

Acknowledging of the new information.

If she's worried someone will assault her or the like, the hallway clearly gives more people the opportunity. If she's worried he'll assault her, being in the hallway is not actually particularly likely to protect her.

"I would prefer to stay here, if that's alright?" May she make a final trip to the restroom and such?

She can do that.

"If I left it so you could open it, a force mage could open it from the outside," he says.

That is useful to know. (She says so.)

"Is that a common problem?"

Is anyone else in the bathroom? Does it have stalls or the like?

"No, because it's hard to do and illegal."

There's more than one! None of them are human. None of them try to talk to her. It has curtains that reach from almost the ceiling all the way down to the floor.

She can observe herself to have manifested a desire to hide behind a curtain when undressing. That - will need to be dealt with. Cannot really be dealt with right now, and there's not benefit to potentially causing trouble for herself without need. She hides behind a curtain.

No one seems to think there's anything unusual about wanting to hide behind a curtain.

As soon as she gets back Valanda locks the door and curls up on the floor to sleep.

Will it bother him if she watches the not-video some more? Can she do that in the dark?

It's not like she can make it stop playing. In the dark it's weird, too visible for the amount of ambient light but it doesn't work as well at illuminating things around it as it should for how bright it is.

Aaaaaand he's Mahan and he'll be teaching Hari! This episode is about the water cycle. There is a cloud up there. This is water. This is the ocean. This is a river. This is a river delta. The episode is filmed while flying, she can get a good bird's-eye view of part of the continent. It makes pointing at a whole river more convenient. Water evaporates, it goes up, it goes from the ocean to the cloud. Then there is rain, the water goes down, it goes to the river. Then the river goes to the ocean...

She wonders idly if they planed some of these episodes by taking submissions.

She continues with learning strategies.

Then, careful to give her host his space as best as she can given what is available, she also sleeps.

Valanda gets up very early. He makes sure she's also awake and lets her know he's leaving. Iri goes with him.

The show is still playing. The next episode is about formal logic.

She wakes up when he does.

She plans to sleep more at some point, but vocabulary for formal logic is of interest. She listens.

Then she can learn how they say because, therefore, imply, premise, conclusion...

The second half of the episode seems to be about probability.

The next episode is about... she won't have heard the name of the subject in Hari before, but it's another one with diagrams.

Useful words.

She'll listen to that one too.

It's about game theory. It's also propaganda. This is the prisoner's dilemma! It works like this! The government's job is to force everyone to cooperate! It's true that if not for the government you could kill or eat or kill and then eat your neighbors but actually they would probably beat you to it and you'd be sad. And dead. And tasty.

This is a stag hunt. This is cake-cutting. This is chicken. The Hari names might be different than she's used to but if she's familiar with the concepts they're pretty similar.

Completely absent: any mention of altruism in experimental results. Maybe they just didn't think it was interesting to talk about? It's kind of a long episode even without any speculation about that.

Useful episode.

She's familiar with the concepts, and as attentive to localizations as she can be given her vocabulary level.

Lack of discussion of altruism will not actually be something she finds unusual, given where she herself first learned the concepts - it is not as though her parents sold her into slavery for being a Protector because it was high status.

But it is notable to her that this is the approach in an educational dissemination apparently made generally available. As well as that game theory is included in it to begin with (and used as a propaganda tool, apparently, here.) (Back home, of course, game theory is certainly curriculumized for Alphas, but not generally otherwise.)

The next episode is about slavery. Some people can't just participate freely in society because they keep breaking laws or don't understand the law. Such people need to be enslaved or else their neighbors are in danger. You can only become a slave after committing certain crimes, usually more than once, or being too disabled to understand the law or being born. Not being born to enslaved parents, just being born.

Slavery can be enforced by using command magic. Oh look it's the bracelets. Command magic can keep people from doing things but not make people do things.

Make sure you don't free any slaves who aren't allowed to be free! If you buy a criminal you can't just dump them where they could commit more crimes. If you have a disabled child you don't want to take care of don't worry, you can get help getting rid of them!

Ah, good. She pays attention.

...She sees. That - certainly explains the ability of a common person to own a slave. And likely connects to the explanation of slavery Valanda had given being 'responsibility' focused as it was.

Is it said how one frees a slave? Is it said how people generally stop being slaves, given the 'born' form?

Charming. (...do people in general in this world tend psychologically/sociologically Alpha-like?)

She files information as informative about the world, and about people and situations she may encounter. As well as into the 'problems of the world she is aware of' category.

It's mentioned that you're allowed to free them if they're able to follow the law. There's no more detail than that.

People in general in this world show few signs of being held back by moral concerns. The slavery episode, for instance, includes no rhetoric about it being for the slaves' own good.

The sky brightens. There are some simpler episodes where Mahan just points to things and names them. Some of them overlap with previous episodes. It's hours before Valanda comes back.

She would not expect such rhetoric particularly, but she will notice the pattern.

Such episodes, and overlap, are useful.

She watches episodes, and practices vocabulary, and practices putting together communication. She takes breaks for cognitive reasons as well as for exercise, water, and restroom use (she uses the curtain). She continues, for now, to avoid being out of the apartment except when necessary.

Eventually he does come back with a platter of dried fruits and bag of nuts. He sits down and sets them down in front of him.

"Have some if you're hungry," he says. He has some of the fruit. "How's your Hari now?"

She is hungry, and has some fruit and nuts. (Her caloric and nutritional needs are really not being sufficiently met, but she is used to that kind of thing and is not planning on commenting on it without further information, yet.)

Her Hari is improving. She can demonstrate. 

"That's great progress, you're very fast. I think we can try asking you some questions." At least she won't have to answer in Hari, they have Iri. "Tell me what you know about biology."

"Thank you.

Could I first ask you about some laws?"

"Yes, ask."