"I've heard of universities, but never of Indryat, or of wizardry except in make-up stories. I'm very, very lost. . . . But I'd like to learn some wizardry, if that's an option." If they're fake and a cult, she can play along long enough to find out where she is and then work on getting a plane ticket home. If they're for real, then learning wizardry is the obvious thing to do.

"I will direct you to the admissions counselor."

"Thank you."

That's the most normal thing she's heard all day. It doesn't really help distinguish between "dropped in a foreign Earth country", "dropped in a weird LARP city", "transported to an alternate dimension", "something something virtual reality", and "absolutely raving nutters in a hospital somewhere", but it's probably good. Also the admissions officer might have a phone she can call her parents with, if this is one of the scenarios that has them accessible. If it doesn't she's going to have to figure out money somehow. Regardless, she'll follow where the butler-type leads her.

The butler-type leads her to an office and knocks on the door. A voice from within says something in what seems to be the local language. The butler-type opens the door and has a brief exchange with the woman inside, after which the woman beckons to Margaret and the butler-type leaves. 

She goes in. "Hello."

The woman holds up a hand, then makes a gesture and says a nonsense syllable. Then she says, "Hello." 

"So, um, before anything else, can I see a map of the world with where I am on it? I'm really lost." That should cover the case of being in the Renaissance Faire Dimension and the case of being in some tiny but decidedly normal country she's going to feel vaguely racist for not having heard of.

"A map of the world? The whole world?" she asks, puzzled. 

"Or just the continent? I was in Massachusetts this morning but this doesn't look like anywhere in the United States, so I'm not sure what size of map I need to be looking at." If she's in an extremely overly detailed LARP town in Massachusetts she'll look really stupid at this juncture, but at least she'll be looking stupid within bus distance of home.

"I have a map of the continent," she agrees, and goes over to a thick leatherbound book on the shelf. 

It turns out to be an atlas, as she pages through maps until she finds one that displays a continent, with various political borders marked out. 

Margaret can't read the script, but that is definitely not North America. Or any other continent on Earth.

Huh. Her brain appears to have run out of room for "what" and is now just rolling with it. Doesn't actually rule out the LARP scenario, but she appears to be LARPing being a functional brain right now anyway.

"Okay, I'm even more lost than I thought, so I'm probably not going home any time soon. Which means I definitely want to learn magic." 

The woman closes the book. "You're from another continent?"

(That doesn't sound like the voice of a RenFaire guide trying to stay in character.)

"Feel free to not believe me--I wouldn't believe me either--but I'm from a planet that doesn't have any continents shaped like that."

She frowns. "Planet? Do you mean plane?"

"I mean the big sphere of mostly rock with oceans and continents on it, but depending on what a plane is I may be from a different one of those too."

"...I don't know where to start asking questions."

"Neither do I, really. I can just . . . start telling you about where I'm from? Or you can start telling me about the world like you were explaining to someone with amnesia?"

"Someone with amnesia would know about magic. And would not know about planets, how do you even figure that out without magic?"

"What about planets are you saying is hard to figure out? Okay, um, back home we know we're on a planet because if you get on a boat, or in a flying machine," (this kind of doesn't look like a context where "airplane" will be immediately understood) "you can go all the way around it, so it's pretty clear how big it is and that it's a sphere. So what's magic like? I guess explain like I'm a kid or something instead of someone with amnesia." 

"It's...magic. It's how you do things bigger than farming or running an inn or making shoes. How do you have flying machines without magic? For that matter, how do you survive boating all the way across? And even if you were, were somehow completely invulnerable without magic, you'd hit a landmass, surely."

"You have to pack a lot of food and maneuver around the landmasses to take a boat around the world, yeah. I know some of how flying machines work without magic but not enough to build one without a lot of experimentation, sorry. Hmm, maybe you could do some magic to demonstrate?"

"...How would that help."

"Well, right now all I know is that it's a way of doing things. But I don't know what that looks like or how I would go about doing any myself. Is there something else you think would help more?"

"...You've already seen spells being cast, and I don't think that did anything for you." 

"Was that the gesture you did when we started talking?"