Shrug. "Agerah not name. Agerah not want? Want from Agreah not- Aagh, this is frustrating."

He points at her illusion. "Illusion. Illusion of an agerah. You are an illusion mage. You didn't teleport by yourself. Who sent you here to me?"

"...I touch illusion-" she touches hers, "poof," she moves it sharply and mimes confusion, "I teleport. I touch again, poof, illusion teleport." Shrug.

What a weird coincidence. "Where are you from?"

"Where? From?" Shrug, confusion. She snaps her fingers, sighs. "It's hot in here."

She sketches a sort of chair out of her light, makes it absorb a low-to-medium amount of heat, and stands up long enough to sit on it. "I don't know. I can leave if you want..."

He pokes the illusion.

Oh.

"You stay here a while. I have some offers to make when we can talk more."

He gestures for her to stay where she is and mimes barter again. He puts on his necklaces and motions again for her to stay. "I'll be back with things!"

She'd much rather take construct-notes on everything she's seen so far in the safety of a stranger's apartment than wander where there might be big cats(!) walking around and she doesn't know the language at all.

He comes back wearing less jewelry than he left with. He has presents for her! A pair of gold bracelets and a metal rectangle with sight and sound illusions that shows one of those big cats giving a language lesson.

Huh. That can't be a construct. She takes the metal rectangle and touches it. Nope, not a construct. So they have some other kind of magic. Weird. Well - if there's two kinds of magic, constructs and teleporting tangles, a third isn't that surprising.

...And the cats can talk. Weirder. And slightly scary. But actually, talking cats is less scary than loose wild cats. And this is presumably some sort of educational material.

She takes the bracelets, which are presumably magic in addition to shiny, and clicks them on and pays attention to the language lesson.

They sure are magic, not that she'll have any reason to notice yet.

Valanda chatters a little. There's no way she'll understand him yet and he's not making any effort to mime, just talking in a pleasant nonthreatening voice. "Don't try to convince anyone to help you get those off, don't leave this room without my permission, don't try to communicate anything to anyone besides me without permission..."

The bracelets come with some instructions enforced by default, but not enough, in his experience.

The video shows some people bracelets that look like the ones he just gave her but no attention is drawn to them.

Look at her, so studious! Taking notes in not-illusion!

There's plenty to take notes on and plenty of need to take notes on it because it isn't designed to be memorable. There's conveniently an episode about different kinds of magic known here.

"...I'm Mahan and I will be teaching you Hari," says the show's host. "Today we'll talk about magic. This is Ariu. Ariu is an illusion mage. Ariu will show us illusion magic now." There's a good view of a bare patch of ground between them. And then projected on that patch of ground are twelve symbols. "This is an illusion of magic. We call it that because there are twelve kinds." ("Magic" and "twelve" are the same word in Hari.) "You are watching Hari is the Language of the Empire on an enchanted object. It is enchanted with illusion magic. This is the symbol for illusion magic." He points to it with his tail. "I am a void mage. Using void magic is against the law. Do not use void magic. This is the symbol for void magic."

A snake slithers into view. "This is Agi. Agi is a force mage. This is the symbol for force magic. Agi will do some force magic." Agi levitates. "Agi is levitating by using force magic."

Agi slithers off, to be replaced by another furry creature who does sun magic. The furry creature transmutes elements. The symbol for sun magic looks like a sun.

Other kinds of magic are explained, but not clearly enough for someone with no experience with local magic and no knowledge of Hari to understand.

The next episode probably goes mostly over her head. It includes the word for blood! And war! It's some kind of history lesson.

They cover common materials. (This is coal, coal is the sixth element, this is wood, wood's not an element, this is a candle, the candle is on fire, the fire is using vital air, vital air is the eighth element. This is steel, steel can't be made by a sun mage but can be made by a structure mage. This is silver, silver is the forty-seventh element, it can be made by sun mages...) They cover common activities like eating, sleeping, going to work, going to buy things. They demonstrate questions and answers. They name foods. (Apple, peach, pecan, mutton, snapper...) They demonstrate the local currency, which is what Valanda's necklaces are for.

In one episode Mahan has a large box and narrates where he is in relation to it. "I am getting into the box. I am in the box. I am sitting in the box. I am getting out of the box. I am beside the box. I am outside the box. I am in front of the box. I am still outside the box. I am beside the box again. I am on the opposite side of the box now. I am turning the box upside-down. I am on top on the box..."

Twelve kinds of magic. Fourteen, really. Interesting. And no clear clues what the bracelets do, but that can wait. Her notes get kind of big, but she can stack them.

...After a while she asks, "Stop the illusion? Where is... Toilet?"

"It doesn't stop but it loops, if you miss some it'll come around again. I'll show you to the bathroom, it's down the hall."

He opens the door.

Out she goes. "Thank you for showing me words illusion."

"The words illusion's name is Hari is the Language of the Empire. 'Language' is all of the words, 'Empire' is the biggest government."

The facilities down the hall are functional for humans but not really designed specifically for humans. They have soap and water to wash with afterward.

"This water is also safe to drink." Valanda demonstrates that.

She nods. "Good." She looks expectantly and waits for Valanda to leave the room.

He draws her attention to the curtains and demonstrates how to use them to hide herself. And then he goes to wait in the hall just to be doubly polite about it.

Good.

Well, that's over with. "What next? After learn Hari language? I want to- Look at places illusion?"

"You want to see illusions of places in the Hari Empire? Is that what you're asking?"

"...Not enough words yet." Shrug.

"You're learning fast already. You can just keep watching that for a while."

And back to Valanda's room. The video's still playing.

Before too long she finds the words. Or something closer at least.

"...I want to go back to my government. But maybe I can't. Maybe this is a different... Place."

"Yeah, I think you're not from this continent. When you have more Hari I want to ask you about your magic, it's different than what we have here."

"Yes! Constructs. Can do many things. Force and illusion and some other things."