"Can you do things we can't?"

"Maybe. Did not understand all the kinds of magic."

"I can answer questions later. I have to go to work but tomorrow you'll know more Hari. You can ask things then."

"Yeah. Thank you. Maybe bad if I just went outside. Oh, is there-" She gestures at her stomach.

He uncovers a bag of nuts that was hiding under the quilt.

"I'll get more tomorrow. Didn't know I'd have someone else to feed. You probably don't know enough yet to keep people from taking advantage of you somehow. And you don't know what the laws are yet."

"In my government - don't attack people, don't destroy things, don't take things, is good to walk around." Shrug. "I need more words. I stay."

"Those are laws here too, and there are places you can't go without permission and other things. I'll get you a copy of the imperial laws when I get food. I'll be back tonight but too late to do any of that. Anything else before I go?"

"I listen and do magic and wait! Goodbye!"

While he's gone there's an episode about the water cycle with an aerial view of the northern coast. There's an episode about formal logic. There's an episode about game theory. Did she know that the major function of government is to keep people from eating their neighbors? Sure, you might think you'd be better off if you could eat your neighbor, but really your neighbor could eat you instead! This is why the rule of law is good.

She gets bored somewhere in the middle of formal logic and starts assembling some household constructs - hotbox and coldbox, calculator, clock - from memory with most of her attention, glowing softly and appropriately color-coded.

(It's probably good that this takes a lot of focus; It helps her not freak out about being very lost.)

That's kind of... Pragmatic of the government, but with tigers and who knows what else, maybe they need it this way.

The next episode is about slavery. Some people can't just participate freely in society because they keep breaking laws or don't understand the law! Sucks to be the wrong kind of disabled here. Or a criminal. Or a child.

Slavery can be enforced by using command magic. Since not everyone is a command mage there are enchanted items you can use to enslave someone! Look at all these examples of enchanted gold bracelets on slaves.

"...That bitch."

It's a punch to the gut. She - she trusted a stranger, and look what happened. Valanda was acting nice. She was a friend in the middle of a hostile and confusing and incredibly fucked-up day.

And now Waltana is a slave. Because she accepted a damn pair of bracelets without thinking. It's a punch to the gut, a hot cinder of shame/anger/betrayal/despair. She wants to cry. She wants to break something. She wants to hurt Valanda.

She tries to leave the room. She can't. She can open the door, but then just - stops. She tries to pry off the bracelets. She can't. Obvious. She tries to open the window - she can open it, but it's too narrow even before she finds she can't even attempt to push herself through.

She throws the language-lesson illusion against the far wall and screams in frustration and tries to destroy her fucking owner's stuff, but it's all invulnerable or something. The best she can do is throw whatever's accessible into the hallway. She can't even shout or rave, unless she shuts the door and convinces herself very hard that she's only yelling to herself.

She calms down after a few minutes. She can send a construct to scoop up the stuff she threw, put it back in its place. Concealing the sheer rage she's feeling right now is probably going to be the hardest she's ever acted in her life. But if it keeps Valanda complacent until she can think of something - it'll be worth it.

It's a while before he comes back. Mahan blithely names objects the whole time.

But eventually Valanda shows up.

She smiles blithely. She doesn't trust herself to do anything else quite yet.

"I lock the door with magic at night. Do you need to go to the bathroom again before I do that?"

"That's! Probably a good idea! Thanks!"

"You remember everything? Or do you need me to show you again?"

"Yes, I remember things."

(Gaaaah she is a terrible actress.)

Yeah he'd be annoyed too in her shoes. He'll wait for her.

Okay, plan 'hide your resentment' has apparently failed, she can see it in her (HATE) owner's face.

...Unless she thinks that her annoyance is about the door? Could be a second chance.

She goes and returns silently.

When she's back he locks the door with magic and curls up on the floor to sleep.

She double-checks that she's made all her utility constructs unusable but trivially repairable and then tries to also sleep.

He wakes up early and makes sure she does too! "I have work soon. You should use the bathroom now if you're going to need it any time in the next few hours."

"Y-Yeah. I probably should."

Calm. Unsuspecting. She can do that. Right?

He is going to make such use of her. He's going to get so rich from her magic and maybe rule someplace.