"As you say, good sir. I take it my crate of stuff will be guarded here while I'm gone? Will I have to pay a storage fee?"

"Yeah, you should rent some space in a tent, we've got some of them partitioned for that. Talk to Ahgari about it."

"Very well. I'll take the cash infusion but I do want to spend my days tinkering away once I have a nest egg. Two last things, do I get any of my pay up front, and how often and for how much will flights back to the mainland be for now?"

"Flight prices are gonna depend on when you want to leave and how comfortable you want to be, could be anywhere from thirty-two to two hundred eighty-eight. How does half up front sound?"

"Well, that's cheaper than a flight on a jetliner would be. Half up front is fine."

It's convient how he's taken to carrying some grosses and four hundred thirty-twos lately, otherwise this would be much more tedious. "Shall I expect not to see you for a week?"

"Most likely. I might be able to squeeze it down to four, five days."

And off he goes to rent storage space and gather paper and gear, and then set off... North, to the coast. As good a starting place as any.

Fjords! Looks like this planet is in an interglacial period. There are picturesque snowy cliffs to fall off of and die. The ocean isn't frozen this far north, but it's not exactly balmy.

Untouched wilderness, or close enough. Very nice.

He runs along the coast and inland a ways and starts mapping. He roughly sketches the fjords, notes elevation and sandy beaches and paths to the shore and takes occasional soil samples to see about arability and takes notes on flora and wildlife and permafrost and swamps and so on. He works his way east, running and sketching the whole way.

His breath almost sings with the freedom of it. He's no Lewis and Clark, but a whole new world, indeed.

He digs a snow-hole to sleep in a few hours after dark and gets up and does it some more.

Around noon the next day he gets close to the camp again and goes out of his way to deliver the first section of his exploration map to Valanda, covering the northeast. It's a very nice map, all told, detailed compared to the first one and with lots of little color overlays and symbols of points of interest - from 'fresh water/harbor- possibly city site' to 'fertile soil' to 'unusual and interesting animals here'.

"Oh, very nice, I'll have an illusion mage copy it. That coast is so strange, isn't it? We still can't figure out why it's like that."

"What, the fjords? Thick masses of ice millions and millions of years ago make fjords like that. Valleys that got covered up when it all melted and the ocean rose."

"Wow! You know a lot, maybe when you're less busy we should have you teach people geology."

"Product of being ninety six years old and a curious soul and my civilization having figured a lot of stuff out."

"You don't look ninety-six! How do you age so well?"

"...Ah. Be a vampire. We don't age so far as I can tell."

"How do you think becoming a vampire would interact with my command ward?"

"I have no idea, they're two totally separate things. Also I am reluctant to create new vampires willy-nilly."

"Yeah, it's something to worry about. But if you ever change your mind I know of someone who'd pay a lot if you made him and the rest of his species immortal."

"Is this person a human? Because vampirism is also untested on non-human sentients. My species is convenient some ways but really not in a lot of other ways."

"He's not a human, but he already drinks blood, they all do."

"Oh, the Erel, huh? Well, I'll ask the crystal ball about it some time and if there's no dire warnings maybe find a consenting informed volunteer, all that jazz."

"Yeah, probably a good idea to ask it first. You'll also have to learn to understand ereli if you want to make deals with them. Or hire a translator." Shrug. "It might not be the best thing you can do but I thought you'd rather know than not know."

"I'm going to finish your survey commission for now. And then make a calculator. And then I have ideas about heat mages and engines and maybe shipbuilding, that'll be fun. Any critique on the map, by the way?"

"Not unless it turns out it's wrong somehow! I'm happy with it so far."

"Grand. Shall I continue on, then?"