"I will have a competent translator brought immediately," says the agerah, apparently standing and disappearing through the wall.

I don't mean to get you in trouble, she tells the incompetent translator, I assume nobody on this entire plane has ever had to translate for a telepath before.

The incompetent translator makes an acknowledging gesture and curls up to wait.

Eventually a human strides into the audience chamber. He's cloaked in roiling shadows and there are swirls of red and dots of light near the corners of his eyes. He wears bracelets in a style that isn't the slave style and he carries a notebook and writing implements.

Well that's a spooky getup. Tell me you worship demons without telling me you worship demons, dude.

The agerah returns and the incompetent translator leaves and the translator who looks like a demon-worshiper greets her.

"I am called Ariu. What does it sound to you like I just said?"

You said you are called Ariu.

"Yes. My professional impression is that you’re not hiding anything I need to know to do my job. That is to say, I can know - " Ariu isn't using a metaphor about any mundane sense, but the Hari word for his kind of magic " - your communicative intent, though it might be easier for me if you also spoke aloud. The imperial minister you're here to meet will not be angry if you read my mind to whatever extent you find helpful, and I will not retaliate." He will however be bitter about it and he's not going to claim he will be chill about it. "What is your understanding of the translation arrangements for this meeting and the expected behavior of the participants in the meeting?"

She starts speaking aloud in Pax since it's apparently helpful. "I am invited to read your mind insofar as that is useful to me. I don't have to drop my shields, just exempt things from them the amount I normally do to communicate telepathically. I don't actually know very much about the expected behavior of participants in the meeting because of how foreign I am so if there are other formalities I'm meant to observe I will need to be told."

"...Fine, that'll do for your shields," the imperial minister says.

"Yes," says Ariu. "What's expected is that you and I will stand within that circle there." Ariu gestures as well as thinking clearly about it. Redundancy is good. "You and Imperial Chief Justice Haria are expected to ask questions and make statements, preferably true statements. You are not expected to need to touch one another's bodies or possessions with a few exceptions - such as money passing into your possession at the end of the meeting. You are not being detained; I don't know if you'd receive a prorated payment if you walked out halfway through."

"She's being paid in government policy concessions," Haria interrupts.

"Ah. Anyway, it would be especially cooperative behavior if you tried to anticipate what Haria will want to know, but it would be surprising for you to consistently succeed at that. This meeting is private from the general public but not, of course, from me, Haria, you, or an unspecified number of government employees, and information about this meeting may be spread by means such as someone present now speaking of it or writing things down about it, or through its effects on government policy, or through its other effects on the future actions of people now present. It might be possible to negotiate confidentiality if need be." But please don't because that might result in Ariu having to go into seclusion or something, he doesn't have a lot of leverage here. "Do you think you understand how this meeting will work?"

"I think so, yes." She will go stand in the location.

Ariu does likewise.

"Welcome to Har," says Haria. "I regret the inconveniences you've experienced so far."

"Well, so far they haven't done me any obviously lasting harm. As you may have already heard I am from another plane; there are several. My guess though I haven't actually asked a knowledge mage directly is that you can't see them and don't have any magic that contacts them."

"Correct. How did you get here?"

"I was exiled. Incompetently, since I was supposed to go to my home country. Having followed all prior directives from the governing entity but having what were in their estimation undesirable social effects, as a species minority of one on that plane."

"What effects did you have there that they found undesirable?"

"They thought I was a bad influence on the - pace - of events in their realm and on their ability to track what was going on. The principal species there are naturally slow-paced and those who governed them even moreso."

"Do you have a guess about whether we will have similar concerns?"

"I wouldn't expect you to. You're clearly accommodating many species including humans."

"Who else is likely to come here?"

"My friends will be looking for me. I don't know how long it will take them. They might not come in person."

"What can you tell me about them?"

"I'd like to know why you want the information."

"I enjoy living in a peaceful, law-abiding, prosperous society. Part of how I am used to achieving this is by knowing what kinds of people live here - what kinds of magic they have, what their species are typically like in both personality and aptitude, and what they're likely to know by the time they're free. It is my job to anticipate potential conflicts and design systems to limit their escalation."

"Oh, they won't live here. They'll hate it more than I do and they'll have a choice in the matter. So you don't need to worry about that."

"Are they likely to try to engage in hostilities, or just to leave?"