"Allspeak," Loki says. "It can't do that trick in writing, but everybody hears me in their own native language unless I'm turning it off to amuse your father. In writing, though, I can actually control 'who I'm writing to' and get a specific single language that way. Do you understand them or should I write you a phrasebook?"

"There were slaves in Angband who spoke a variant on what they're speaking. I am not fluent but don't expect to need a phrasebook. Where do we stay, or is that yet to be acquired?"

"To be determined." To the Dwarf, "Can you tell me how I go about purchasing or renting quarters for Maitimo here?"

There are people who will do nothing but help them choose between proprietors of rooms, and also everyone reports their prices to a public record that can be found at such and such location and are generally very reliable about pricing as listed so if they're given any trouble they should make it known.

Lovely. "Your brothers are funding this at no marginal cost," she murmurs illusorily in Maitimo's ear, "spare no expense if you see someplace you like."

Regrettably most underground lodgings have in common the features that make them mildly stressful to me. But thank you.

"I can wallpaper it in illusion, no extra charge? Can't do a breeze, but I can do a day cycle and scenery."

"Sure. I'm not particularly attached to the lights in the sky, it's more the feeling of not being in a dungeon."

"I can customize it. Treelights, if you want to osanwë me what those look like. Or stars."

They find a place. Spacious and overlooking, with a guardrail, a steep drop. Maitimo's eyes light up when he sees it. "This one."

"...I'm not sure I'd meet with approval if I wallpaper the pit for you, there's probably other apartments overlooking it. But sure."

"No, leave that. Just the ceiling and opposite wall."

"Thank you."

It's not common but there aren't rules against it. Giving out a new commodity without much knowledge of what price the market will bear for it is a common problem! For a commodity like this with a large possible demand and no marginal cost she might consider pricing it at a cost comparable to these other items, or she can do elaborate things that amount to efforts at price discrimination.

Ooh, benchmarks. She appreciates benchmarks. Are the comparable items such that she will be able to say that she was not flagrantly cheated and also such that she can give out lots of songs before it is no longer plausible that she's doing it to fund Maitimo?

It's hard to predict what Elves across the continent will consider being cheated, but the lowest proposed benchmark is about a fifth the price of the highest proposed benchmark. Maitimo observes that he can probably make use of lots of money if he's going to be building a city, which is what he's going to be doing.

For a new product the usual thing is to give it away to a few people who publish reviews of such things and wait for their reviews. For a new product for forges you'd give it to people who are renowned for their forge work.

All right, where does she find a smith-cum-critic to give a free sample?

Those turn out to pop out of the woodwork quite readily.

Lovely. She picks one at near-random, which is to say based on speed of arrival and charmingness of presentation, and puts a song in his forge. (Her forge? Their forge? She can't actually tell. She's pretty sure she's never heard a Dwarf say 'she' about a Dwarf but her Allspeak instance does have a history of screwing up gender. She will wait until she is better friends with some specific Dwarf and inquire.)

The Dwarf assures her that if it's any good word will spread within a few days.