"She said she was researching magic in different worlds. Everyone seems very surprised when I say that. What's surprising about it, exactly?"

"Well," says Kaylo, "there's been nothing published about it whatsoever, which kind of screams 'secret project'."

"Well," says Matilda, "they didn't tell me it was a secret project."

"Why would they? If they summoned you they expected to be able to control where you went, and now they can't, and if they say 'by the way don't do that' they don't get to look all friendly."

"...hmm," she says. "I see what you mean... and Thiies, the vampire who works in Parliament, seemed sort of alarmed when I told him I'd been summoned by Linnipese researchers..."

"Well, yeah. Esmaar is completely demilitarized. If you can get around wizard wards and they can teach their soldiers to do it we'd be very easy to conquer."

"Well, easy to check. Go in the hall and then try to get into this room, I'll put the ward up."

"Oh dear is right," says Kaylo. "Now, it is not totally impossible that you were summoned by independently wealthy nice research wizards with the best of intentions and no connection to Mystic Forces, and it's possible that you have equipped an invasion force."

"If I've equipped an invasion force I am going to be annoyed."

"That would be a natural reaction, yeah. But we haven't been invaded yet, and apparently Parliament has been warned. They might yoink you themselves any tick now and have questions."

"I might like people to stop being able to do that," she says. "I might also like to read Terali's research notes. Maybe I will ask her for them next time I see her."

"I wouldn't bet on her handing them over."

"We'll see."

"Do you want help? It would be very inconvenient for me personally if Linnip took over the world or made it difficult for you to collaborate on research projects."

"Yes, I would like help."

"Okay. What's the story, here? If you're not in Mystic Forces proper, if they contracted it out, I might be able to figure out more about what you're going to run into."

"I appeared in a summoning circle and there were two Linnipese women there and they asked me things like my name and whether I was a human and if my world had any magic, and when I asked if there was any magic here I could learn they said they could find a witch to teach me witchcraft, and they did - her name is Raha and she works just down the hall from where they summoned me. I don't know what she does exactly when she's not teaching me witchcraft. When I said people can catch ialdae, they got a bunch more people that they said were volunteers from a girls' school to come and sit in a room so I could float them, and two of those caught ialdae, and I've been teaching those two some ialdae things. How do I tell whether it's Mystic Forces proper or not?"

"Volunteers from a girls' school, that's hilarious," (Kaylo doesn't sound like he thinks it's hilarious), "I bet they thought ialdae might have learned how to do lie detection - that's probably what the questions about your species and so on were, figuring out if you were secretly something else and maybe dangerous, only they got you way, way wrong. What are the wizards' names? Last names if you know them would be better. I wouldn't know the witch."

"Terali's last name is Agiluta, I think. The other one's first name was Kerah but if she ever told me her last name I forgot it. She hasn't been around nearly as much since the first few times they summoned me."

"Neither one sounds immediately familiar -" Kaylo casts a spell. Books totally fail to fly off of his shelf and into his hand. "Okay, nothing I own, I can check the library... What's the place look like?"

"Sort of school-ish, I guess. Raha has a nice witchcraft lab, and there are rooms with books and desks and things, and boring hallways. I haven't seen anyone walking around with obvious military uniforms on..."

"Have you caught anybody referring to anybody else with honorifics?"

"No, not that I remember... I'm sure I would've noticed if I'd heard any military ones since I picked up Draconic."