Then soon they will be on the train and Isabella can talk to the translation computer some more. "What's the deal with the theology that thinks I'm not a person, anyway?"

"Theology is the study of the ultimate purpose of humans and the will of the gods. Theology has been consistent in revealing over the centuries that populations which become impure and inhuman are doomed."

"Could... you elaborate on that?"

"Purity is an ontological state, by which I mean that it has no observable effects on the world. Impurity is transmitted by death, and broadly speaking people are made worse-off by uncleanliness. Only the Radch itself is pure but purity is still of significance to people living outside of it. Alterations to the human body are impure."

"And the doom thing?"

"People modify their descendents based on their individual incentives until they have a population that is not actually sustainable as a society and then it collapses."

"Magical girl alterations aren't heritable, although getting magic runs in families a little bit. Also if we alter ourselves too much we lose our minds and run off into the wilderness."

"Wings seem less objectionable than most of the genetically engineered modifications I am aware of."

"I thought they were my best option. Some people who are also practically minded do four arms. Or both, you can get both under the safety threshold."

"There are planets of beings with additional limbs. The Radch does not recognize them but you could travel there if you preferred to live there."

"I am accustomed to most of the people around me not having additional limbs."

The train zips past farms. Up ahead of them a toddler complains very loudly about his video not playing. The translation tablet prods her for vocabulary for 'expecting something good to happen' and 'expecting something bad to happen' and 'refraining from comment for politeness's sake' and 'pretending to have goals less ambitious than one truly has' and 'an intimate relationship with a social superior' and 'the discomfort of awakening in a cold bed after excessive sleep'.

"We don't have dedicated words for all those things. Uh, expecting good things is generally 'excitement' and expecting bad things is 'fear' or possibly 'dread' depending on nuance and there isn't a specific word for not commenting on things to be polite... false humility, maybe, for the ambitions one, but it's not a dead-on translation... no dedicated words for the last two although if by intimate you mean sexual it's frowned on in our culture where there's a power dynamic going on there."

The tablet will throw unlikely vocabulary at her as long as she'll answer it.

"As it happens we do have a word for throwing something out a window, it's 'defenestrate'."

Happy music. 

"Awwww."

A ceremony marking the beginning of the term of office of a new city mayor? A new system governor? Dissatisfaction at the omens of the day? A television show broadcast during work hours and catering largely to the unemployed and unemployable, widely disdained? A positively-connotated word for the addition of new territory to an empire? A negatively-connotated one?

"I guess that would be swearing in but it's not specific to mayors and we don't have system governors since everybody lives on Earth. We don't really do omens. Daytime television. Uh, annexation isn't really positively connoted, it could be neutral or negative, I'm not sure we have a positive one..."

Eventually they reach the larger city. It's much nicer. The roads are full of pedestrians and the buildings look less like they're crumbling and no industrial infrastructure towers over the city and it's a short, pleasant walk from the station to the spaceport. People seem to stare less, too.

Great. She and her wings and her brother make their way to the port, asking directions through the tablet as necessary.

The last leg of the trip takes only twenty minutes; they strap in, take off, get five minutes of weightlessness, and then descend into an even bigger city. 

"Keen. Zero G."

"Stations and ships have artificial gravity," says the tablet. 

"Probably the best in the long run."