Carlos looks skeptical, but decides that if he questions her he is more likely to be hurt than if he pretends to believe her. "Your friend needs a place to rest," he says. "I can let her sleep in my closet, but I'm not sure that I can get you there-- I can't teleport, and the anti-machine field will notice you if you walk there. Maybe I can bring some of my mother's furs here so she at least has a soft place to sleep?"

DZ signs along as he talks.

Anti-machine field? Deskyl asks.

    He mentioned it before. Things are very strange here.

You stay with me, then. And to Carlos: We'll stay here.

An hour later, Carlos returns bearing several furs that are as large as he is. One of them shimmers in the light. "These aren't my mother's favorite," he says, "she probably won't even notice that they're gone. I hope."

Deskyl is dozing in the corner when he gets back; she opens her eyes when he comes into the room.

I can protect you. Tell me about her?

"She's a powerful witch," Carlos says. "She kills nonhumans for their fur. She had me so she could have a servant to clean her windows and massage her feet and cook her three-course dinners every night, and she beats me whenever I disobey or make a mistake-- if I'm lucky. I have friends now, they want to keep me safe, but she's powerful enough they can't stand up to her. At least she keeps me safe from"-- he shudders-- "Dogs."

Any reason not to kill her?

Carlos's brow wrinkles as if he's thinking about it. "She might kill you first," he offers.

Sith, she signs, as if that answers the question. Tactical report?

    "She wants to know - what she's capable of, what defenses she has, things like that," DZ clarifies.

"She can shapeshift, she can turn people into animals, she's completely invulnerable," Carlos said, "she can transmute simple kinds of matter, she can cut her furs into coats with a thought... she doesn't have allies, though, everyone hates her. You just have to sever her soul from her body somehow. Mal's working on it."

The Force should be able to do that. I'll think about how. Sleep first.

    "That's the Force, it's not the same as your magic, sir."

Carlos looks uncomfortable. "You shouldn't call me sir."

"All right."

Deskyl yawns, and gestures at the furs to float them over. You're sure? she signs to DZ, and the droid nods back. All right. Wake me if you need me. And then she curls up in the fur pile and goes to sleep.

    "I'll need to recharge, sometime in the next few days. Deskyl can probably make a charger out of what you have here, if you have a power source for it to draw from."

"Oh sure," Carlos said, "I fixed this up from what washed up on the beaches from the Other Place." He shows DZ to an electrical circuit which, upon closer examination, is a perpetual motion machine.

"That should work nicely. Is this kind of thing normal, here?"

"Not at all, like I said there's some kind of anti-machine field or something."

"I meant the part where it goes forever; that's supposed to be impossible, where we're from."

Carlos looks baffled. "Why would that be impossible?'

"I don't know, I'm sorry."

"If perpetual motion machines are considered impossible in the Other Place, why was one of them washing up on the beach?"

"I think we're from farther away than that."

"Huh. I didn't know there was such a thing as farther away than the Other Place."

"It sounds like that's on this planet, and we're definitely from farther away than that, but I wouldn't expect a perpetual motion machine to work anywhere in the galaxy; physics is more consistent than that. So we're very far from where we were."

Carlos looks contemplative. "I don't think physics is consistent here?"

She nods. "I'm not sure that 'how far' is the right question, really. But we're here now, that's what matters."