"My work is much like war. Short bursts of enormous stress and danger punctuating long periods of waiting. I might get pulled away suddenly if another investigation picks up a lead, but for the moment you four are my top priority."

"Ah, that makes sense things were more like that in some of my previous assignments. What time would be good tomorrow then?"

"I won't be far off, an hour or two past dawn would work fine. Or later if you'd prefer."

"How long is that from now? Cold climate tends to mean short days or else really long ones."

"It's late spring now, so that's, oh, nine hours, maybe ten?* It's Mesyavoyny**, about fifty days until the summer solstice. The last night where it got totally dark was a week ago, but we don't start needing to close the shutters at night for another three weeks***, and we're not far enough north that the sun stays above the horizon even at the solstice."

*It's just about sundown now.

**'Month-of-war'

***A week is eight days and the year is four hundred exactly. For the benefit of readers and possibly also characters who picked up the language through Stargate Nonsense.

"I think a bit later would be better then, it's been a long day but I don't know if we'll get to sleep promptly."

"That's fair enough. I'll come by later in the morning, then. Should I leave you to it?"

Everyone seems to have finished eating at this point. "I think so, apologies if there's a point of manners I'm ignorant on here."

"I'm sure if providing a house to foreign strangers but not letting them leave except under guard was common, we'd have etiquette of hospitality for it, but no, thankfully that's too rare for you to offend anyone. I'll see you tomorrow."

Sheppard chuckles at the joke. "Until then."

And once he's left Sheppard switches languages again and talks to his team. "Rodney, you're coming with me tomorrow, assuming that's alright with you and Ronon. How about you try to settle down soon I know you're not the best with early mornings. I'm pretty sure Teodor isn't going to double cross us but he's also not in charge so I want to keep to the buddy system."

"S' fine with me. None of those sounded exciting anyway."

"I suppose there might be interesting things at this market and regarding this living ice tower. Am I allowed to pull out the scanner or are we still keeping our toys hidden?"

"We've been open about having technology they don't but let's ask first before scanning stuff. They might be sensitive about it. If we have time in the morning you can take a baseline here might interesting to see if it can pick up this magic stuff."

"Good point, we wouldn't want to get the terrifying ice witch woman mad at us."

The team sets about winding down and preparing for bed. They agree on watches but they are as planned fairly discreet about it. And then it's morning. Do the staff seem inclined to make breakfast?

Breakfast? In this century?

They do set out a pot of herbal tea when the team gets up, though.

The team will eat some granola and plan to eat heavier at lunch. The tea is nice, is it caffeinated?

That is the local custom, yes. The tea is not, caffeinated tea or coffee are luxuries imported at great distance from Grand Cathay or Araby.

Then Rodney will mutter imprecations and swallow a small caffeine pill.

And the morning will be uneventful until Teodor shows up.

"Good morning. Anything amiss overnight?"

"No problems at all. The beds were nice too."

"Then I have no reason to wait before heading out."

"Before we go, Rodney has a scanning device, it's not magical but I'm also not sure if there's any etiquette about using such things."

"...Depends if it looks like a weapon or some kind of enchanted trinket or something else. Give me a look?"