He is, like, three moves off from this absurdly clever play that Iobel will admire and Cricket will probably hiss at. But it's not as if he'll forget it. "Sure, we'll hear him."

So they go see the petitioner, who is an older fellow, no easily recognizable ethnicity, doesn't even speak Marlese because he's from the far south and is pleased to hear he doesn't need to wait for a translator -

- clarifies that he's not actually from the far south, he's from another world, he usually doesn't tell people this because nobody believes him but they say the monarchs of Marlatia get their strange powers from afar -

"Can you describe the world you're from?"

He can! It has humans, but... differently. He was alarmed when he got here to learn that humans breed the way animals do; in his world it's different. There are two big continents and servantmakers and then there was this... snake thing... which is not normally a feature of his native world... he probably sounds crazy.

"No, not particularly," Iobel assures him.

"And you arrived here? When was this?"

"Sixty... ish... years ago?" he says. "I think days are shorter here, I'm not sure exactly... it was a long time ago..."

"Do you want to go back?" 'this person's native dimension' should be enough targeting for Loki's spell...

"I have a home here, now, but I would like to see the place again and know what became of it..."

Allspeak off. "...think we should just head over, or should we call one of your less squishable alts?" he murmurs to the Queen.

"Place sounds safe, but maybe the snake monster heralded an apocalypse, probably better to send Cam."

Allspeak back on. "Please stay for lunch while we do some magic to determine if it's safe to go visit your world," he says, and then writes 'attn.: Cam, we have an accidental interdimensional visitor from another human planet, weird one, come say hi' on a piece of paper, and then has some people bring them all lunch.

Cam shows up mid-lunchtime. "Accidental? Like Elspeth?"

"Not quite. Unprecedented snake monster, showed up, portaled him to Hex, he heard we had strange powers and came to see if we could let him visit the place. Decades ago."

"Also, on his home world, babies appear in the wild and starve to death unless storks fetch them."

"Storks? You've got to be fucking with me."

Allspeak back on - "Sir, can you explain to Cam about the storks?"

"Storks are a kind of servant, I don't remember which kind, it was so long ago. They're hollow, and they go around looking for babies and putting them in their hollows and bringing them to creches."

"...I suppose this isn't literally more of a coincidence than vampires," Cam mutters. "Okay, can you describe the place you were when you got snake monstered? I'll go check it out, make sure it's all right to bring people there."

And eventually Cam has enough to go on, and he (in a snazzy leather coat so he will merely look outlandishly dressed, not outlandishly appendaged) goes.

It's... a town. With little robots running around, but otherwise not too high-tech. Somebody is riding an ostrich.

There are beautifully painted signs advertising "This way to Little Valinor" and informational flyers under them about Our Friends The Elves and what the fuck.

Cam strolls towards Little Valinor, reading one of the infosheets.

Little Valinor: very pretty! The little robots running around are also pretty! There is an Elf at the elaborate gates of the entrance who tells him the visitor's fee in local currency.

"How," says Cam in Quenya, "did there come to be a Little Valinor here?"

"...Akibel? I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you!" It's definitely Akibel, he's just older - "are the portals open again?"

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about and my name is Cam."

He blinks. "Um. Welcome to Little Valinor! Sixty years ago, the Valar opened this portal between our world and theirs, so that Elves and humans could live together and help each other! Elves can't servantmake, so humans make them shines and automata and golems, and Elves produce chassis for public health projects and restaurants so no one goes hungry and try to raise enough money to fund all the storks so babies stop dying, because to Elven cultural sensitivities babies starving in the wild is very upsetting! Ten years later the Valar had to close the portals, but some of us stayed, and we've carried on the same mission.

And you look exactly like Akibel, the human who spearheaded the whole project and who chose to stay in Valinor when the portals were closed."

"I see. It's very nice to meet you," says Cam, "and I would like to meet him too - he's still in Large Valinor? Why did the portals close?"

"The Enemy smuggled human babies through them to use as servantmakers in his war with Valinor. Didn't seem safe for either world to leave them open."

"...ah. And you haven't heard back since?"