The government mostly didn't pay the church, just... Refrained from taxing it as much. They get a lot of private donations. They have one church in New Dover, and might build some in other places eventually, if there's interest.

"Oh! Oh, you're a mutual assistance association. Okay. How is it, running one of those?"

"I find it deeply fulfilling. It is my purpose in life. I have helped so many people find peace and safety. Even as nature took them all from me again. I want to keep doing this until the day I die."

"But how do you recruit, how do you distribute what you get, what do you do if people try to scam you..."

Recruiting is mostly about talking to people who come to them, trying to preach to random people on the street is intrusive and tends to make them resent or dismiss you. They try to stick to directly helping people - giving them a place to sleep, giving them food - and not giving them money. People who scam them will be gradually offered less and less (the chance to sleep in the pews and dry bread, not a proper bed and warm soup), and like, very solicitously offered heeey here's a job you could do it's not that hard it's satisfying to do something for yourself isn't it?

"What do you do if there isn't a job they can do?"

"There's almost always some job one can learn to do. There was... A child, injured in the head, left on our doorstep one day. A sad case, but we cared for him, and he could not learn very easily, and so easily grew upset. We kept trying until we found that he can work with animals without growing distressed, and found him a position caring for horses and dogs under the authority of a kind woman I knew. So, I suppose I would keep trying to find one. If someone were truly, totally incapable... That would not be a happy existence, I would think... I would have to judge it based on the particular situation."

"So you help people find jobs, huh? I've been looking to hire some mages soon, I could take a look at people you recommend, no promises that I'd end up hiring them."

"I'll be glad to discuss what kind of worker you're looking for in more detail! Making beneficial connections for people is always worthwhile. It's not really germane to the social topic, though."

"Yeah, maybe after," says Nimo.

"So are you going to use command magic for anything now that it's available?" asks Valanda.

"I know that one person - who I think would want to remain anonymous - asked to be commanded to never smoke tobacco for one year, to force themselves to break the habit. I might refer people who want something similar to a command mage, but I don't think I will encourage such things."

"Yeah, it has costs to do it that way. We're pretty sure if we didn't bind kids the survivors would learn to be careful with magic a lot faster, it's just obviously not worth it. Speaking of which, do you know yet if your kids have magic?"

"We've tried it on a few of them born recently, and none of them seem to. We plan to keep checking for a while, in case it's conception in this world, or having at least one parent from this world - though I don't know that there are any couples like that, actually."

"I hope one of those turns out to work," he says

"Be better for your slavery plans if it doesn't," says Nimo.

"Nah, we can find a way to do limited bindings or something. - Have you got a plan for that yet, beyond checking the babies? Know who you'd get to do the bindings if you had to?"

Katherine speaks up, "One couple adopted a belul and had him bound in Anavel Sani. We'd probably contract someone to come out and do it, paid for by the communal money, if we're going to need it done regularly."

"I know someone I'd recommend for a job like that," says Sonir. "The clans don't like strict bindings for children either, we have practice making them safe and loose at the same time."

"That will be good to have - who is it?"

"Isaldev Marenvoru. Lives north of Lanbari, but there aren't any other command mages named Isaldev Marenvoru, you shouldn't have a problem finding the right person."

She writes that down.

The social continues. Katherine is quietly smug - connections made, understandings reached, impressions improved. A good day's work.

Eventually it starts to wind down.

And ends. Valanda stops Nimo to ask her one last thing. Once Sonir leaves and lets the door shut behind him it's just the two of them and Katherine.

A moment later Nimo opens the door and it doesn't lead anywhere in Ira Sani.

"How much to let you in?" she asks, smirking.

"My continued good opinion of you," Katherine deadpans. "That door could have been any of us, no?"

Nimo stands aside and lets them both in.

The bar is fairly busy! About a dozen human-shaped people in various conversations, one astonishingly pale, one who seems to have a black cloud for legs, one with blue skin and tentacles for a beard, and one talking horse.

"Have you heard all the details and features of Milliways, Nimo? Or just that it's a very interesting place to go?"

"Probably not everything." She hesitates with her hand on her rings, not sure if they're still trading information for information now that the meeting's over.

"Oh, no need for those. Hm. There are laws here that boil down to no nudity or fighting in the main bar area or any of the side rooms. Security is, apparently, guaranteed to always be up to containing whoever is present by time magic of some kind. The bar is a person, and female. She can change rings for just about anyone else's currency. She can sell or show you any book from any world - and non-magical things from those worlds, too. I'm going to be shopping, certainly. She won't help you become ridiculously rich through arbitrage, alas. There is an infirmary which usually has someone with healing magic and a bathroom, both free. There are rooms available for rent upstairs. Time runs a bit funny, you can spend half an hour in the back yard and find it's only been a few seconds in here. Any questions?"