He opens his notebook to a fresh page and shows her how he writes it. It's a simple alphabet. Each letter has a sound and each sound has a letter.

It looks a little different written species with other sorts of hands but it's recognizably the same alphabet regardless.

She takes construct-notes, trying not to let her emotions rise up. "Simpler than mine. No weird sounds. I can learn to read with this."

"Good. You still need a lot more words to understand the law but that's what that show is for. When you know more you can tell me more about constructs and what you can do."

"Yes. You- I-"

No, you do NOT cry. You can't afford to cry. You have to be strong and get out of this.

She screws her face up. "You-"

...She starts crying. Low sobs that she tries, and fails, to turn into deep breaths.

"...Do you want a hug?"

She doesn't seem to respond or acknowledge the question.

No hugs then. Valanda looks out the window. Mahan continues to try to teach Hari.

Eventually she goes from 'quiet sobs' to 'deep breaths' and shakily grabs the Imperial Laws plate.

It's a bit advanced for her level. There seem to be laws against murder and trespassing and theft, among others. Punishments are different depending on how many times you've committed the same crime and what species you are.

She knows three languages already, she's picking up more than one might expect.

What are the laws about slaves? She puts extra effort into picking those apart.

There are no legal protections for slaves. It is illegal to free someone who can't follow the law, which is a category that includes people who've broken the law enough times and children too young to be responsible for their own actions, among others.

Everything is terrible.

She takes as much of a first-pass as she can, then says, "People think better when they're well fed. Thinking is very important for making constructs."

"What kind of food do you need?"

"Fruit, nuts, meat? Coffee. I don't know the Hari word for it. If I don't get any coffee soon I'll get headaches and be very tired and not think as clearly for a few days because my body is used to having it, but that will go away eventually."

Come to think of it, coffee withdrawal isn't the cause of her riotous emotions, but it can't be helping.

"Show me an illusion of coffee?"

"You might not have it. It's a - a thing that's nice to have and not that I need, even at home. I will feel very bad, but not die."

But, hey, something to distract her from the present situation! It's a bean that looks like this, grows on plants that look like that, you dry it and steam it and grind it and pass hot water through it and it's delicious and invigorating.

"I don't recognize that plant. What kind of weather does it like? Cold or hot?"

"Hot. Humans might like it if you can grow some. A lot of people like it in my home."

"I lived in the south for seventeen years. There are a lot of northern plants I don't recognize but not a lot of southern ones. We might not have coffee."

Well, caffeine withdrawal is not any worse than slavery. "Okay, you don't have coffee. Fruit and meat? Do you have bread?" She illusions grain, flour, bread.

"No bread, but the thing you make it from, they have that down south. But not here. We have fruit and meat and nuts and blood and honey. And we can get other plants from the forest if you want any."

"Not blood. Some - hmm. About twice as much fruit or honey as meat and nuts?" That should be about right, if what she remembers of nutrition is correct.

"How much do you eat in a day?"

She figures out how much "about 2000 calories" weighs in local units and says that they should both be eating that much, or it's unhealthy long-term.

"Oh. Thank you, I don't know much about humans. How did you find this out?"