"I don't think the leaders in my nation have led from the front for a long time more than a hundred years. It doesn't make sense with the sort of wars we've fought. I do as the leader of the military for the Atlantis Expedition but it's a much smaller group and communication is harder to maintain so it makes more sense."

"I suppose if your cannons have advanced as much as your guns, let alone anything else, that would change a lot. ...Are your democratic not-kings still military men? I've heard that's true down in Tilea, that it's mostly successful mercenary generals who are chosen for leadership."

"It used to be, they haven't been lately though. War hasn't come to our shores... well at least not as far as the public knows, so it's not something they prioritize."

"It's come to your shores in secret? From where?"

"When we first started travelling through the gates. We got into conflict with a nasty group of people called the Goa'uld System Lords. For the most part our fight with them has been on other worlds but twice now they've sent ships to attack us. I don't really understand how we kept that secret, and I don't really agree with the decision, but we managed it."

"The Empire keeps a bigger one. I mentioned Skaven? In the Empire they don't believe they exist. Deliberately, as I understand."

"Is there a goal behind that strategy?"

"The Skaven are very proud, and very fractious. So long as the Empire believes they don't exist, they feel very superior to them, and do not need to prove it with constant attacks on the largest of the human nations, and so will instead fight each other. And a small number of people in approximately my profession still know, and can keep an eye out for any large movements and draft in others as needed."

"That's at least a better reason than I feel like the people back home have."

"It amazes me that it works but given that it does I cannot fault them for continuing it. Ourselves, we have the second-largest Skaven settlement to our north just across Troll Country, and no one bothers to pretend Skaven don't exist while Hell Pit's fumes can be seen from Praag on a clear day."

"How does that work when they come to trade here then? I guess most people aren't traders but I'd expect there to be enough."

"'Ignorant backwater merchants, they're as superstitious as peasants, would you believe they think there are talking rats in the sewers!', more or less."

"Ah, yes. That's part of how we keep things secret back home too."

"Well, if it works twice, it must not be a fluke. I still suspect that whoever got the thing started was a grandmaster wizard of the Lore of Shadows, which is all about deception, manipulating perceptions, smoke and mist and shadow. One of their emperors a few centuries before Kislev was Mandred Skavenslayer, and they forgot all about it anyway."

"Thousands of years ago the System Lords ruled our world until... we're not actually sure quite how they got thrown off. The ancients might have been involved, but the records don't seem to have survived. There's legends about them though, the system lords I mean, or maybe legends that they took advantage of there's some debate about that. But nothing as explicit as a famous person being named after leading the rebellion or anything."

"Hmm. Not that long, to forget everything, but I suppose parchment decays, if no one calls it worth copying ...You know, we haven't checked, are your years and days the same as ours? Four hundred days, twenty-four hours, it's been about an hour since we set out?"

Rodney checks a small device on his wrist. "That's at least close on the hour. We can check more exactly if we need to. And 24 hours to the day is what we had on our world. Atlantis has a bit more than 27. The years on our world were around 365 and a quarter days."

"Close but not very. 'And a quarter', really? What, do you roll a die to start New Year's or do it again?" 

"We add a day every fourth year in one of our months. Well actually it's a lot more complicated than that but the more complicated bits only come up every hundred years or so."

"That's surely more sensible than my way but I think I'm still glad we don't have to bother with it. Twelve months, 33 days each except the starts of the season which take an extra day, fifty weeks nice and even and every Shoika Day and equinox is Nachaloned*."

*Start-of-Week, more or less 'Monday'.

These guys seem distracted with nonsense! Let's try to pick the soft-looking outsider's pockets!

What the hell is this metal blocking the pocket? Shit, did my nails clink against it?

Sheppard turns his hand at the pistol holster at his side. "I understand that my friend may look like a tempting target but I'd advise you to look elsewhere."

"Really?" Rodney asks Sheppard.

Teodor and his assistant just straight draw their guns. (It's possible they waited on purpose to see what Sheppard would do.)

"Run away, street cat.* These two and their friends with the same style are witchy business."

*You don't call them street rats. The position is taken.

Sheppard nods blithely. So it would have been okay if he drew his weapon he'll keep that in mind.