Imrainai can definitely show Mahan to all of the fountains! She knows her way around pretty well.

There are a lot of fountains, so this is probably going to take all day. They can at least hit the ones in this quarter of the city, and then they should eat food and come back to finish the job in the afternoon.

She remains super confused about where Mahan is casting his magic from, he can't have healed everyone with blood pox just from himself, but she's going to put that thought on hold until Peth comes back and reports on whatever she's found.

The fountains are tricky and probably no one here knows enough to appreciate what he's doing.

If he just fixed the water that was coming out of them then a minute later there'd be more tainted water. So he enchants the fountains to sterilize things that pass through them. And then he cleans any water already hanging out in the basins. As long as they don't need to replace anything the water'll be clean. ...The water'll be germ-free, he'll still be thinking about what's probably in it whenever he has to drink any.

He takes a couple minutes per fountain and doesn't seem to be visibly tired afterward.

Welp, hopefully he's not powering this with the souls of newborn babies or something. It doesn't help Imrainai's peace of mind that that isn't a ridiculous material for such a spell to consume, but she doesn't bring it up.

They honestly probably can't hit all of the fountains in one day. Maybe in two. In this half of the city there's a giant open-air market and lots of apartments and various businesses, as well as a section of town where most of the people are giants. It is not noticeably better or worse than the surrounding areas, though their buildings are fewer stories tall. 

Towards the end of the day they'll reach the center of town, where the queen's palace and the king's palace and the central square and the legislative forum are located. There are four fountains in the central square, each of them also a statue that depicts the a different person. There's a woman with a sword, a woman with a hammer, a man with a carved stone tablet, and a man whose hands are open and empty.

So there are other common species, besides humans and the one and only Spite. He's never met any giants before, at some point he'll have to figure out what they're like.

Who are those people, he wants to know. He tries asking Imrainai. "Fountain people?"

She's not sure she can explain this with the words she has, but they've shared a few more today, so she's willing to try!

"Arde, Tare, Cenric, Var," she says, pointing to sword, hammer, tablet, and the one with open hands, in turn. "They made Rainfold, many - " she frowns - "not later is earlier. Much earlier than now."

"Good! Making Rainfold is good." He points to Arde's sword. "What is that?"

"A sword."

"Thank you. What is a sword?"

She raises her eyebrows.

"Sword is - it cuts," she says, miming cutting into her own arm. "Very large knife. Kills people."

He sends Spite images of someone running toward him with a sword and being suddenly dead much farther than a sword's reach away.

"No swords in Har." And clearly no death mages here. Or any of the other kinds of magic that could beat anyone with a sword, no contest. Maybe they only have illusion and knowledge and telepathy.

Spite is still perched on Imrainai's shoulder and is totally unaware that anyone is trying to send him anything.

"None? No killing people, or other killing people?"

"Spite is sleeping?"

"Spite is - man, Spite, you explain yourself, that seems like your job."

She deposits Spite on his shoulder.

Spite nonverbally protests this, but not very hard. He climbs up onto Mahan's head.

Mahan has thoughts now?

Earlier I had thoughts! He repeats them. Spite didn't telepathy earlier. He borrows the Hari word for telepathy since he already taught it to Spite, but besides that he uses Kaltish.

Ah. Sorry. Spite telepathy when - an image of Spite curled up on Imrainai's head, then perched on Peth's shoulder with his head against hers, then curled up on Mahan's head. Not other times. Later Spite telepathy better. He sends the image of a massive dragon, flying through the sky and breathing fire at nothing in particular. Now Spite telepathy on head. Now Mahan wave when Mahan want telepathy. He sends an image of Mahan waving at him. Yes?

Yes. Thank you. Um, one Spite, not many Spite... so how can he know what he'll grow into, Mahan has no idea how to ask. Earlier, many Spite? He pictures a bunch of big dragons and then pictures them all dead and only Spite.

I think so. Other dragons much much earlier than Spite. He sends the image of the people from the fountains, with dragons flying in the sky above them. People scared of dragons, now dragons dead. Spite small now, Spite not scary. Mahan not tell people that Spite is dragon, so people not be scared. And Spite not tell people Mahan is death mage, so people not be scared of Mahan. Yes?

In Har, tell people "Mahan is death mage!" and people are not scared. Death mage is not diseases! He pictures the sign outside his office, people who wear the death magic symbol every day, people in a waiting room because they want to see him. In Har, agerah, he pictures some very big cats, people are agerah food. People are not scared! Agerah are mages. He pictures a human willingly handing over an injured toddler to an agerah force mage who stops the bleeding with magic while the blood that already covers the wound scabs over. He pictures agerah buying meat at a market. Rainfold people scared that dragons? Dragons scary?

Much much earlier dragons killed people. Much much earlier people killed dragons. Rainfold not kill dragons. Arde not kill dragons, Cenric not kill dragons, Var not kill dragons, Tare not kill dragons. Much much earlier, dragons in Rainfold. But now, no dragons. People not understand dragons. People scared when not understand. People not understand death mage. People think -

He sends the image of Mahan exactly where he is now, in the central square of Rainfold with Spite curled up on his head. Imrainai falls to the ground beside him, dead. The other people near them fall, and then people further away. The ones at the edges of the square scream in horror before falling silent and dying themselves, and then the square in the picture is silent, and he and Spite are alone.

So people scared.

Mahan sends him some images. The two of them trying to farm and not doing a great job. The two of them buying food from other humans. Mahan trying and failing to repair a building by himself. Paying someone else to handle upkeep.

Oh, and for good measure, he sends an image of himself singlehandedly clearing all the corpses out of the square. That would take kind of a while.

Sigh. Not tell people dragon, death mage.

Maybe Mahan and Spite tell people later. But not now. Yes?

Not now.

Gotta introduce these people to the concept of cooperation, too. Siiiiigh. At least Imrainai seems like she'll be pleased to find out that it's possible to treat other people as a valuable resource instead of an obstacle you just aren't strong enough to clear out yet.