"I might try to find my way there. Perhaps I can find a demesne while it is connected."

"How does... being a you... work?" he wonders. "You go places differently than I go places."

"Are you not able to step between demesnes?"

"I don't know what that means or how to do it."

"Interesting. This is a demesne. The world as I know it is made of demesnes, some of which are connected, most of which are not. The demesnes - and I presume that strange world the rude person was from - make up the Is. Between and without the demesnes is the Not. I can step into the Not. From the Not, I can enter any demesne from which I am not banned, or I can shape new Is."

"...I wouldn't even know how to try to do that."

He pauses thoughtfully.

"...but making new places sounds like fun."

"I have never taught it before, but I know it can be learned. New Lords do not start with full knowledge."

"Well now I really want to learn it!"

Ze makes a considering noise. "If you do not know if you can enter the Not, the safer option might be attempting to alter this demesne. It is unclaimed. But even for the very young, it is much easier to form a demesne anew."

"Well - how?"

"I do not know how to explain the entering. But usually new Lords are taken with another, their first trip, to give the feel for it. The forming is - the Not is empty except for what our minds hallucinate into it. And our minds do not like the Not, so they often do. But things hallucinated into the Not become the Is by the act of being perceived. It is brief, fleeting, normally, but there is an act of will, a visualization, that can be done to anchor the Is and spool it out. And once you have your demesne, changing it is as simple as wishing so, and imagining what it shall become."

"Perhaps swords have an easier time imagining what another's demesne could be. It is not easy, for Lords. We cannot feel them."

If all it takes is imagining things, and wanting what you imagine...

He tries imagining the walls of this room covered in black glass.

The walls are possibly a bit shinier and darker? But they're not what he imagined.

Hey. He told them what to do. They should hurry up and do it already.

They're pretty sure they're supposed to follow the bird theme.

Well they are wrong about that.

He applies more concentration, more detail, more willpower. Black glass walls, accented in red and gold, and a red tile floor with gold-filigree detailing. His surroundings should be at least as pretty as he is, that's just sense.

Nature-y bird theme in black, red, and gold, and that's their final offer.

Is it.

They are fully willing to back entirely out of this negotiation.

If what this place wants is to keep changes within its theme then he's pretty sure he has better ideas of how to do that.

Dark glossy green-black leaves and feather-edged red-gold flowers; tree-trunk columns with vaulting branches, haloed in glittering golden specks that suggest fairies or fireflies. Swirling lines and flowing contours, touched by soft silver-grey streaks like wisps of veiling mist.

It considers that offer then reluctantly changes, details rippling away from him, overcoming the abstract-forest swirls of blue-green-brown.

Ha.

"Impressive. Most have more difficulty than that."

He grins.

"Do you wish to attempt forming the Is directly, or are you claiming this demesne?"