"You listed things that were illegal, yesterday.

In my country some other things are illegal - it is illegal to try to overthrow or undermine the government, and to say negative things about important people connected to the government. And there are laws about - social hierarchy, and behavior. Do you have those?"

That seems far beyond her language skills but okay if she wants to try to talk about it now. He tries to explain in short declarative sentences with smallish words.

"You can take over the government by convincing people to vote for you. It is illegal to try to take over the government by killing the people in charge. It is illegal not to follow the law. It is illegal not to pay taxes. You can tell people you don't like the government. If we understand 'social hierarchy' you mean what caralendri and thwilit do. The government does not care about that. Iri says 'behavior' means things you do. All our laws are about things you do. I'm not sure I understand your questions correctly."

Well, it's rather important to know.

"Vote?

I don't know what caralendri and thwilit do. In my country, if I write a paper that says someone in the government is - terrible and incompetent, I can be arrested. If I go to someone of a higher strata and insult them or am rude to them, I can be arrested."

"Voting is... if the Imperial Chief Justice dies, who will be Imperial Chief Justice? Seihra says 'I would be good at it' and Ariu says 'I would be better' and Seihra tells people why she would be the best and Ariu tells people why he would be the best. Then free people say 'I want Seihra' or 'I want Ariu' or both. Then we count how many people want Seihra. We count how many people want Ariu. If more people want Ariu then Ariu is the new Imperial Chief Justice. That is voting. Voting is saying you want Ariu or Seihra.

"It is not illegal to be rude. It's dangerous but it's not illegal."

He's not sure how to explain caralendri. If she spoke Ilan and he felt like spending even more money on her he'd get her a soap opera to watch and figure it out herself. But she doesn't and he doesn't.

"Ah, I see.

We do not do that for the government.

What decides who can say 'I want to do that, vote for me'?

It is dangerous because the person you are rude to might attack you? Is that legal for them to do?"

"It is not legal to attack people but they might be rude to you. They might not want to buy from you or sell to you. They might illegally attack you.

"Saying 'I want to do that, vote for me' is called running for office. The answer depends on the office. It's different for the Imperial Chief Justice than it is for the Governor of Anavel Sani. For every office you have to be free."

Understood.

"How do people become free?"

"Their owners choose to free them. There's a little paperwork, not much. Or sometimes they're free if their owners die."

"I heard in the slavery episode it's different if they're a criminal?"

"Yes. It's illegal to free someone who can't follow the law. I don't know if you're legally allowed to be free here, that's one reason I don't want you going places and talking to people. You could break a law by accident. I don't know if I would be in trouble if you did."

"Why would you be in trouble?"

"I didn't tell anyone that you're here and don't know how to follow our laws. I didn't enslave you, either."

"Is there a law that you should?"

"I don't think there are laws about what to do if someone from another universe gets accidentally teleported to your apartment. I think someone will decide what the laws about that should be after they find out about you. I think it's less likely they'll decide I did anything wrong if you follow our laws."

Nod.

"I want to learn your laws and how to act.

The episode said 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 - is that not entirely the case, then?"

"It's if you can't follow the law. If you're too young to. If you can't understand it for some reason. If no one taught you. Even if there's no reason, if you just clearly don't do it and no one is sure why. Those are just... examples of how you'd tell, I think. And some people are executed instead, for the same crimes, it depends on whether they think it's possible to control you. They'd kill me, for instance."

"I'm sorry. Why?"

"Because they can't use command magic on me. I'm warded."

"You are - defense?"

And - it would be incorrect to do this lightly, and unideal to have her current limits on information sources. But she does have the not-video, which would be hard to fake, and has not been lying as far as she can ascertain. If he wishes her harm he can do her harm. He should not be harmed by her, that is not acceptable.

"If it is so much safer for you, and possibly the law, and you will promise to free me again when I am better oriented, you can go ahead and put those on me."

"You want me to say I'll free you? Is that right? Why?" Maybe there's some additional magic that she didn't realize was magic in her world, something to make promises binding somehow?

She considers whether or not to tell him. Certainly not that she reads lies well; he'd be more careful about it then, if he tried, and she'd have less information. Something partial, maybe.

"If you'd said something like 'why would you need me to promise, don't you trust me' that would be suspicious, and that would be useful information, then.

If there's a way to sign a contract I'd certainly prefer it but I can easily imagine possibilities where that would be impossible or cause too much trouble."

He has no idea whether, in the case where they decide she shouldn't be allowed to be free in the Hari Empire, contracts with her would be valid.

He's pretty tempted but this seems like an obvious trap. He's not sure what kind of trap it is exactly but it's definitely some kind of trap. A really confusing one that might involve otherworldly magic he's not familiar with.

"I don't have to do that if you stay here and read the laws when I bring you a copy."

"I would not want to stay here forever, but I can certainly stay until I have learned enough, and would very much want to read the laws.

You have been very generous to me, and I certainly would not want your life to be in danger over me."

Oh, now he gets it, she cares about fairness like an agerah.

"I'll be back soon. I'm going to bring you laws to read."

"Thank you."