"No. Merely that America is rich, and China - the China we know of - is poor. But I think it's not the same place; America has no ghosts, or supernatural dangers, or cultivators, and yesterday morning I would have said no monsters either. Nor does it have rumors of those existing anywhere else. And if there were sects on the coast near the port cities where steamships dock, we would definitely have heard rumors."

"There are places where the supernatural is suppressed, but even if you'd been in one you'd have heard about magic from migrants.  Also, the snake monster wouldn't have been able to attack you."

She hums, still not quite understanding what happened.  It seems like a problem for scholars, not a guard.

"What is a steamship like?"

"A steam engine burns fuel, usually coal, to heat water, turn it to steam, and use that to spin a turbine, which turns to other motion by gears and pulleys. A steamship is a very large sailing ship, usually four masts, that propels itself with steam engines, through a pair of large underwater propellers at the rear. They make much better speed than wind power, and in any direction. Most still have sails as secondary power. I forget the time to cross the great ocean but I think it was about forty days by sail and twenty by steam."

"We only have sails, oars, and talismans to power ships.  I've never heard of anyone crossing the ocean without magic."

"It took careful charting of the winds based on latitude, and good clocks to calculate longitude when out of sight from shore, before anyone could made the crossing, and I think several attempts which failed and turned back with improved charts. It's a very, very large ocean. ...Also maybe yours has monsters in it? Ours only has whales and sharks which are too small to attack sailing ships."

"Ah.  I'd originally thought you meant that we were a second place named China on the same world, but you're implying more that the world you came from and this one are like... two woodcut prints which have since been separately written on?  Possibly printed onto two different materials - as far as I'm aware, monsters and such have been in the world as long or longer than people have."

"Yes. You look Chinese, the town looks like pictures I've seen of Chinese architecture, the main coasts are in the right place. And we know pretty much all of the globe, if not well; there's nowhere for a second one to hide, let alone one with bizarre similarities. Not that the alternative isn't bizarre too. ...Actually, come to think of it, the language is odd. You speak English?"

"Is that what you call the language we're speaking?  We call it Mandarin."

"I think that's what the other China calls what we call Chinese? I can't understand it but it didn't sound like this."

"An extremely polite mirror-faced snake monster, then. I'll take it, I guess, no need for tourist's charades."

"We do have translation talismans, but they'd be costly and inconvenient."

Incidentally, does it seem like the saddlebags are about ready to go?

Yeah, they got distracted talking but got them ready to carry.

"I think we'd manage to pay it back, but better not to need the debt up front. We can head down when you're ready."

"It wouldn't have been too bad five years ago but talisman ink has gone up in price quite a bit recently.  It's definitely best that the whole thing can be avoided."

They can start walking.

"Given that you're not from somewhere easily reached, what do you intend to do?  Will you try to find your way to the nearest geographical location, hire a cultivation sect to try to find a way to return you to your original world, or take up a new residence somewhere here?  The Jiang sect is currently recruiting - most of the recruits are either children or are already cultivators, but if you have skills that you think would earn you a spot you can petition Sect Leader Jiang to make an exception."

Either way, they'll have to go around Lotus Pier, since both the town and the main entrance to Lotus Pier are on the other side of it.  They get a closer look at the ships bringing in building materials, and then the series of docks attached to the place between Lotus Pier and the town which double as a market.  Spring is typically the quietest part of the year, but at the moment its as bustling as it ever gets.  Stalls sell food, interesting trinkets and charms, various curiosities.  Many sell directly from boats.

"I don't know. We have responsibilities there, so we at least ought to see how difficult it might be to return."

"We're both gleamfighters, which makes us among the most deadly of people in America at home. So we may have skills even apart from our knowledge."

"What is a gleamfighter?"

"Gunfighter who can use a particular smoked chemical to slow their perception of time and fire a whole volley in a couple seconds. Guns are... they hit much harder than crossbows, fire faster than longbows, even without gleamdust assistance, and fire much farther than either."

"That could be useful as a guard somewhere.  Possibly also for night hunting - for fighting monsters as a cultivator - though we would have to know more about guns to tell.  Do your abilities only work with that specific use or could you, say, paint a picture in those few seconds instead?"

"Perhaps a very small one. Theo can draw a knife-sized gun from specially-made chest holsters without straining his hands dangerously, but that's the largest movement anyone's ever managed. Slight adjustments of your eyes, or to your aim, and the small motion to pull the trigger? Easy. Turning your head? Nearly impossible."

"Ah, so it's perception but not movement?"

That sounds useful when combined with cultivation, particularly for crafting or medicine, but she doesn't want to come across as pushy by saying so.  Either that they ought to join or ought to sell them the secret of their... sect?

"How do gleamfighters organize themselves?  Are you part of a larger organization?"

You do it, Tish.

Yeah this's gotta be careful.

"Military lines, primarily. If they're organized at all. Shortly after it was discovered as a possibility, our part of the continent organized the Miner's Brigades, and Theo was commissioned as a captain in them. The other side of the war relies on the Federal Marshals, who are also military in practice though they're nominally a law enforcement organization."

"Government military?  I don't know much about those; cultivators tend to have little to do with ours.

"Cultivator sects are centered around a large extended family.  A majority of us are raised from birth in one, or are accepted to be disciples as children since cultivators tend not to have as many children as the mundane do."

"One group I know of was never government but patterned themselves off other units that were - paramilitary. And smaller groups that are basically just petty criminals happen all over. But yes, that's how they all formed."

(This is all true except by omission, if someone happens to be able to read lies or intent.)

"Cultivation is heritable? Our talent isn't, beyond any ordinary skill, as far as we know."