They're in the middle of one of the walking portions. She walks, steadily.

She walks, and occasionally skips, and all of a sudden stops in the middle and looks around, at the sky and into various portions of distance.

"Something is about to happen."

She stops as well, hand starting automatically toward her sword.

"...What kind of something?"

"I'm not sure! Hit one of my alert types. Weird something." She puts up extra shielding and tries to locate more hints of a something.

The planet zooms in with a blur, and Kakara follows the pull down to a pair of people walking through a field. She's going fast, far too fast for the human eye to begin to track, and less than a second after coming into view of the planet she's arrived at the mind of the focus of the pull. She starts to look around the mindscape-

And shifts into her human masque, losing the tail.

Someone is in her head. That's sure weird. Not doing the kind of thing a mage does, even if a mage was around and could just go do it to her. And she doesn't think they're a mage. Which is also pretty unexpected.

(She's not really worried, the kind of lack of worry of someone who's lived their whole life with casual great power and not much vulnerability.)

She relays this to Genea. Hi! she says to the someone

Genea is kind of more worried than that. Still has a hand on her sword, not that that's likely to do any good.

This mindscape is interesting. The terrain is unusual, but not really alien, which makes sense; they might not have grown up on Garenhuld, but they’re still human. 

“Hello! I’m Karen. Sorry about coming into your mind uninvited, I can’t aim that precisely. Don’t mind the lizard; he’s not very nice, but he’s harmless at the moment.”

The lizard in question snorts. It’s probably not particularly impressive, given his small size. He doesn’t seem interested enough to comment.

There is someone with languageless telepathy in her head, and also a lizard that is apparently sometimes not harmless! Definitely unexpected.

Hi! I feel like we haven't met. If you were trying to pick a head to come into uninvited mine's a pretty good one. She puts up more wards on Genea and refrains from making threats about not doing it to her friend to people she doesn't actually know well. Or, at all.

What's that about aiming?

"My transportation method isn't the most exact, so it's hard to get it to take me exactly where I want; it's more like a feeling than a direction."

That definitely did not explain what she was trying to ask about.

So you were trying to get somewhere and landed in my head? What's this transportation method?

"I'm a shade, right now. It's kind of hard to explain, but... I can feel a sort of pull towards a - concept - and when I I pull on it I Move there."

...I'm going to take a guess here you're from a different world and not the kind with no magic around. Wards, wards. 

Where were you going for?

"Yeah, I'm actually from a long way away. I was looking for new friends."

The dragon on her shoulder smirks. 

"You had all the universe to choose from, and this is what you decided to pick? At least it wasn't a slug."

Well she supposes that's not too different from what she did.

So is your next plan to go off wherever you were pulling and find some friends, or would this be your 'want to be friends?'?

Kakara has been having a really shitty day, but she's really good at this and talking with Grandpa helped her mental state a lot. None of her inner turmoil shows, in her appearance or her telepathy, and she smiles sunnily.

”The second one. I don’t pick the targets, but I‘m pretty sure I didn’t miss. Like I said, I’m Karen Marsden, and I’m from Aramaia. It’s nice to meet you!”

On a private channel to Dazarel, she continues,

“Try to keep control of yourself.”

His telepathy in return is, if anything, even more precise; he’s a psychic dragon. With it comes tone, even more clearly than through hers, and it’s obvious to her that he’s amused.

“As you wish, ape princess.”

Well there's a something.

I'm Aye! Not information she expect to be a problem to say even if this Karen Marsden turns out to be in fact unfriendly. Nice to meet you too! That true's, this being altogether a pretty interesting thing happening. 

Do you have a not in my head version around here? Or is this how it works for your people?

“I can go outside your head, but most people can’t see shades, which makes it harder to talk with them. I also have a - normal body - but it’s not available at the moment.”

Can I help with the seeing? She wiggles her fingers in a 'magic!' gesture. (There may be some times she wouldn't want to reveal that to random passerby, but it hasn't occurred to her that someone who got into her head and talks about the sort of things this person does might not have already noticed.) Or with the 'not available' part I guess; not sure how that works for you.

Karen’s eyes glow white, and she Looks past the mind itself to the person she’s in, and the magic they possess.

“I didn’t realize you were a mage. That’s convenient; Mages, Psions, and Seers can all see shades naturally.”

At that, Karen vanishes, and an eyeblink later stands next to them. She looks maybe fourteen years old, ish; long, straight blond hair, going on yellow, eyes glowing white, skin pale, and wearing some sort of fighting Gi. On her shoulder is a tiny little black dragon, who doesn’t look nearly as pleased to meet them.

“Seers are a type of Psychic. They can both see shades for the same reason.”

She could probably try to do something about that if she wanted to but decides that she currently doesn't.

And, apparently Karen hadn't already noticed her mageness. That might be a problem, though at least it seems less likely this Karen'd be able to pull off going and telling some Helas on them even she actually wanted to. And it's not like she could probably manage more of the conversation without revealing it (and if Karen'd tried that Look she just did for any other reason apparently it'd either show her or else she'd notice Aye trying blocking it.)

She's not completely sure if this means they're talking out loud now, and also if they're going to need some translation. Relays to Genea so she won't be surprised at her talking out loud, then tries,

"Think I might be some other kind of mage from what you're talking about, because I have no idea what those other two things are. I can see you though."

Nothing visibly changes in Kakara’s appearance, but she powers up, her mind speeding into overdrive. She’s shocked at Dazarel’s remark, but it surprises her for less than a thousandth of a second. Dazarel can’t maintain this kind of power himself, not after being sealed, so an impossibly quick conversation is out of the question. Still, she has been prepared to carry on multiple conversations at once, and she can get a lot out of latency.

“The sight is a psychic ability?”

"Now perhaps you understand its rarity. Psychic abilities come in many forms, innate to the individuals gifted with them. My gifts are telekinesis and external mental effects, and both in grand quantities. Some have internal mental gifts. Some stop time. And others...See."

"So that's why Grandpa Gohan ordered you to help me. He knew that you were a psychic, so you could teach me the basics!"

She cannot, unfortunately, understand these words. 

"I can't actually understand what you're saying when you speak out loud. I think I can probably pick it up faster than normal, but I can't speak it yet."

Telepathy is significantly harder when only one person can project, but not outright impossible, and even within her Masque Karen has power to burn. The fact that they're close by doesn't hurt, either; fraying can still happen, but it's hardly a major downside.

If she could hear that conversation she would have no idea what they were talking about, but as it is she just has no idea it happened at all.

Aye can in fact project just fine (someone being in her head is apparently also enough to start that off.)

Oh, sorry about that, wasn't sure which way it worked. I said, I think I might be some other kind of mage from what you're talking about, because I have no idea what those other two things are. I can see you though. 

Don't think my friend can though; should I be doing something about that?

And meanwhile she'll check if she can do translation with whatever Karen is.

Karen wasn’t including Genea by default, but once she left Aye’s head and became visible she started including them. Picking things up from them is a harder problem, much like it would be without Aye’s spell, but it’s not in principle completely unmanagable. If Aye tries to translate to any of Karen’s languages, she’ll find they share no roots with anything on the planet, but are clearly somewhat interrelated amongst themselves, even if they are split into groups.

“I can receive, sorta, but not easily and its easy to not get anything if its done wrong. If you had a spell that would make hearing from her significantly more convenient.”

“Indeed he did, and so I plan to do. After that, it will be on you develop your own gift, since I can’t be of much use to you there. I studied with the Kanassans in my youth, but despite my skill with my own gifts, I was unable to pick up anything in Sight. Usually, I can get a bit of use from other abilities, even if they remain impractical; I can produce ice, for example, although not in useful amounts.”

“That’s more than I thought I’d get.”

The wards she's put on Genea are definitely not allowing Karen to either talk in her head or project to her. 

Speaking of wards, Karen appears to have some of her own, so translation is in fact not going to work out.

Sorry, I'm not opposed to you talking to my friend directly in principle, but I don't really know you yet and here that's the kind of thing that can be used for some unpleasantness. 

I can probably do a spell? Haven't done anything like it before but I bet I can figure it out. Alternatively or in the meanwhile can just relay. Can also try a spell for her seeing you, if you don't mind? 

“It’s actually not that hard to make a sheild that can let through  Ki telepathy while still blocking other attacks, but I wouldn’t want to try it myself under less than ideal conditions, either, especially after the day I had. 

“If you had a spell, that’d be convenient.”

She does not point out that if she doesn't trust someone, trusting them to make a shield against the thing she doesn't trust would be pretty silly.

I can try! 

The seeing might be easier.

Now, or are you gonna be bored if I dive into magic-trying? 

And I'm sorry about your day.

She doesn’t know what happened; her comment is social niceness without detail. Still, it is nice to hear, to an actually surprising extent.

”Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

“So, what were you saying about psychics?”

Dazarel looks faintly disinterested in the proceedings of both conversations.

“Very well.”

“Psychics are people who are blessed with the ability to rewrite the universe with naught but willpower. Through concentration, focus, and mental effort, we will it to be, and it is so. There are, naturally, vast and varied differences  between impeding one’s opponents subtly enough that they cannot notice it and, say, something as simple as lifting a stone... but the underlying principle does not change. You will already be somewhat familiar with this process, since you use it every time you have a vision, so there isn’t any need to cover it in depth. Instead, we’ll have to deal with your particular gifts.”

“Gifts? As in, plural? I have others?”

“I doubt it. The Sight of the Kanassans was always a jealous gift. Most psychics can hope for two or three gifts, but almost without exception it consumes the whole of a person’s potential. What it is not, however, is a waste of time.”

Well, in that case!

She relays to Genea some more and then dives into magic.

She's got some blank metal coin-like things to burn signs into. She plays with one while her mind goes off to the not so physical. Seeing, seeing. Well, this has some overlap with the wall wards that do Beast warnings, and she's sure got in some practice with those. Piece one, find Karen, piece two, hand over information to Genea (note to piece two, in the visual sense and not just in the 'she's over there' sense would be nice.)

She checks in for permission from Genea and works. 

“And where would we be starting?”

“Naturally, it’s only convenient that we begin with my own.”

She glares at him.

“You want me to try and mind control people?”

“Only to test if you have the gift for external mental effects. There’s no reason to worry. You’ll have no practice with it, even if you do have the gift, so you won’t achieve much. Besides, it would hardly be smart to do it on a mage. There’s no reason for you to need to practice on your new friend.” 

The glare intensifies.

“Very well, then.”

There’s the mental version of a sigh.

“We shall begin with simple sensing, once you get near to other people.”

“Better.”

She continues to have no access to this conversation!

Seeing, seeing. Conveniently Genea is right there for her to check if it's working. Which, after a bit of time, it is.

She tosses Genea the blank.

And, now she can consistently see Karen. 

"Hello."

Alright, seeing's a check! Figuring out the mind talking side's going to take me longer but I can relay meanwhile.

And she relays Genea's greeting.

"Hello!"

Then, to Aye more directly, "I'll try and pick up the language, but unless translation is hard you'll probably get done well before I do. In terms of stuff that I should ask... what's this planet like? It doesn't look like you have much contact with the rest of the galaxy, so I guess you don't really have a convenient list of differences, but I don't actually know anything about this place so most information would probably be helpful."

Relay.

Translation's not really hard when I can do it but you've got the mind wards all over, I'm not getting anything. How do you pick up a language, should I talk while I do this?

I had no idea what that was until you said it! 

She consults with Genea about potential reasons not to give an overview.

...If she's - something like a mage, she probably won't just think it's alright, what we do?

And she didn't ask you to kneel before her insubstantial feet or something, or act like you're obviously mine.

And it's not like she can't just go ask someone else all about it if she feels like. Well, not anyone else, depends on what exactly she can do, but.

Alright.

She pulls up an illusion map, a forked river dividing a land area into three.

Sounds like you have a bunch of other things wherever you're from, but here we have mages and not mages. 

She indicates one area of the map. That's Tscher. (She's using Genea's language, in as much as she's using language). Mages are in charge, pretty much enslave everyone else. Live in towers sometimes. 

Next area. Sovereign Crossing, by one name. Non-mages enslave all the mages, go kind of harder on the enslaving, tend to torture them a lot.

Third one. Kashjar. I hear they don't actually enslave anyone and also that they have some kind of complicated internal kind-of-war, but it's hard to know much because they don't let anyone in. Or scry them.

“Talking will help, yes. I have a good memory and I learn quickly.”

Karen blinks. “How well is your planet doing on astronomy?”

The next bit takes a bit longer to digest, but not so much so that it comes close to surpassing her ability to accelerate. She knows she has good instincts for this, and they’re telling her that these aren’t bad people, and she doesn’t think the sight would lead her astray like that either.

“We have mages back home, but they aren’t that common; maybe 10,000 worldwide who practice, and only a bit  more than that in potential mages. Slavery is illegal in all the countries, though, including by mages and of mages. We’ve got a lot more than 3 countries too.”

She switches to saying anything she's transmitting out loud as well, and starts relaying responses to Genea so she's not being left with half a conversation.

"I think I've heard of that! Tscher doesn't have that so much; some mages look at stars but it's because they think they look nice or something. Couldn't tell you what Kashjar has." She checks with Genea about Sovereign Crossing. 

There are people who map stars. Study how they move. Mostly from bigger cities I think.

She relays that.

and,

"That's a lot of mages! ...How many not mages do you have?" The concept behind 'country' is a bit weird. "Not sure we have any countries actually, I think we have a different thing."

"That's really good news," Genea says about the slavery comment, when it's relayed. If it's true.

Yeah...

(She agrees, and relays.)

“Well, it turns out that stars are all suns, just very far away. Groups of these suns, billions and billions of them, are called Galaxies. Most of them don’t have planets at all, or not ones that people can live on, but plenty of them are inhabited.

“My home has 4 Billion people, but we’re fairly isolationist and there are plenty that have bigger populations. I’m not getting a good read in generally how advanced your planet’s knowledge is, but that does make sense; nations in the modern sense are a fairly recent development.”

“Really. No mage governments do slavery, none at all?”

“Dandeer isn’t a legitimate ruler, and won’t be remaining de facto in charge either for long.”

There is the mental equivalent of a glare.

"Spirits," she says at the number.

She has a pretty similar sentiment!

"We do not have anywhere near that many people, wow. ...Way more mages per people though.

Not sure what you're meaning by 'advanced' here."

“It turns out, that even if cities and libraries get sacked, humanity as a whole still learns things faster than it forgets them - or at least, that’s how it worked back home.” 

She neglects to mention that the real reason she thinks this is unrelated; Garenhuld’s development was hopelessly confounded by Saiyan Hybrids. Instead, she’s drawing conclusions from Earth’s development, and hoping is all applies.

”Once that starts to happen in earnest, knowledge doesn’t ever really cease expanding. It can slow to a crawl or outright stop, temporarily, but as long as you get there and if spreads, even a population that hates new things as much as home does will keep advancing the frontier of knowledge to new ground.”

"Well that definitely sounds pretty awesome, but possibly could you be also more specific?" Knowledge expanding and spreading is a pretty great image all around (well, with a few exceptions, but there it is) but she's not really sure what 'things' and 'knowledge' actually map to here.

(She is also confused, possibly more so.)

“Knowledge about how the universe works, like why things fall to the ground when dropped or how to determine how much space there is under a curve or how people get sick. All knowledge is interconnected, so the more you know the more you can learn.”

She had not thought about those things before (well, of two of them) and is now interested in them!

"...I don't think we know that..." she says, to 'all knowledge is interconnected'.

“Everything complicated is made up of simpler things arranged in patterns; Economics is applied psychology is applied biology is applied chemistry is applied physics. It’s like... a plant implies the existence of a sun, because without a sun plans wouldn’t have leaves, and flowers imply animals exist to be attracted to them, and roots imply the soil.”

This is kind of complicated to relay; she's getting wordless concepts but can't quite send them like she gets them, tries to translate ('studying - trade and money and stuff - they have a word for that'. 'studying - really small things everything is made of? That too'). 

"I think we have... some of those? Kind of." and,

"...why wouldn't plants have leaves without a sun?" (This is not, it occurs to her, actually particularly an important question here. But she's not sure she has anywhere near enough to ask the ones that would be or, figure out what they are.) 

“Plants use leaves to catch sunlight, which is then used to make food for the plant to grow. That’s why leaves are so wide and flat; it maximizes how much sunlight they can catch per volume.”

Well that's interesting! (She says so). "Does us not knowing all this answer that thing you weren't sure of earlier, or do you need to actually ask us something?"

(She more or less knew this about plants, in a sort of implicit way, and is trying to think to what she knows and follow through the logic with this - approaching it rather differently. Isn't doing it outloud, in any of the available senses.)

”It gives a pretty good estimate, at least, and I can infer a bit more from the roads and your clothes. It seems like you’re millenia behind back home, but considering how much advancement has accelerated recently that might be variable; it’s at least several centuries back.”

(This makes more immediate sense to Aye, who has previously encountered the concept of 'X has a technology Y doesn't have, because they invented it'.)

Genea looks down at her clothes (she's in some light armor, leather with metal plates sewn on).

Imagine if some tower mages in the middle of nowhere wouldn't let their people learn metalworking, wouldn't have any people who already knew it, so they'd definitely never get blood iron. They wouldn't have metal plates on their armor, if they had any? And if they all got moved to some other world like Settlers, minus the mages, and hadn't figured it out again yet, they still wouldn't.

It's like that. I think.

She nods.

(...It's odd, to think about things that way, as something you wouldn't have anymore if people didn't teach it to each other, could start having by figuring it out. Not just - the way of the world you lived in (she's a guard not a scholar, had never known any scholars. A blacksmith wasn't a scholar). Odder, to think about how many things were like that, if she considers it.)

"...So I figure you have better things to do than tell me all about that curve thing you said, but actually I don't know what your plans are at all?"

“That one requires some advanced math; I know enough to teach it if it’s critical, but unless your planet has significantly more math than it looks like, that would be years of study back home to get to that level, and focusing solely on that would only help so much.

“I don’t really have much in the way of plans at the moment. I hadn’t planned to go heading off at all, and my first choice in destination wasn’t an option. I’d like to get stronger, but for the most part I’d need my body back for that if I wanted to train anything other than techniques or psychic powers.

“Besides that, I like helping people, but I’m not sure how far I’d be able to help you skip ahead in the time I have, so that might have to stick to things I can do with my other skills.”

She is pretty much not familiar with the concept behind 'advanced math' (and can't say it's the easier to understand, even with telepathy).

"I'd be pretty surprised if it was critical but I don't actually even know what it is so you'd probably be a better judge! Not that I'm set on that or anything, just grabbed it as one of the things you said. 

...So is that normal where you're from, not planning and then heading off and destination vetoing running around? Because I think most people here would think that was a problem.

Could I help with the body?" (She's not saying she will help until she knows more, but.)

"...What kind of helping people? And how much time would that be?"

“No, it’s not normal. I think I might be the first person to do this in centuries, possibly ever, depending on how you classify it. As for a body... I know none of the mages back home could have done it, not even Dandeer, but our magic is somewhat monofocused on sealing which isn’t directly applicable. My only hope until now was to get my old one back or head to New Namek-”

“Not the slugs.” There’s revulsion and distaste in Dazarel’s mental tone.

“What is your problem with the Namekians?”

“-but before that, Jiji said I needed to find some kind of anchor to keep myself tied to until then. 

“As for helping... normally I’d say I could help with anything, and probably start with the hardest problems, but I’m kind of limited with what I can do at the moment, especially when it comes to combat. I have psychic powers, I’m good at politics, and I can supercharge spells - if you have a Champion, I might be able to do a Ki transfer to temporarily lend them my strength, but I didn’t sense anyone on that level when I arrived so it doesn’t seem all that likely.”

"I'm sorry," she says, to the 'no it's not normal'.

"I have no idea what sealing is, so I don't think our magic's focused on that! I've never actually tried making a body, but I could make my own body just fine so clearly there's some body making potential in there. Could try, if you wanted.

Don't know what a Champion is either. But we don't really have a combat problem." - and if we did I could probably fight it, we more have the problem where can fight things too much than the opposite problem, she is going to say, but cuts herself off.

"...Do you have some way of credibly confirming that if we tell you things like our plans, you won't go do something unpleasant with knowing?

I usually have a way to check, but it won't work with your wards and I wouldn't want to do it without asking anyway."

The only other kinds of magic the exiles are familiar with are the legendary sorcerer Babidi and the nigh omnipotent wishdragons, Porunga and Shenron, and Kakara isn’t super informed on the limits of her own people’s school of magic; she has no context to determine whether or not this is a reasonable assumption or working of magic.

“Champions are pretty rare in general; I’m not surprised that you don’t have any, or haven’t identified them if they do. It’s a catch-all term for people who are extremely powerful Ki fighters.

“Back home, I could just give my word, but you don’t have any kind of independent verification of that. There’s not much evidence-as-a-tool-for-distinguishing-possibilities I could offer that someone dedicated couldn’t fake. 

...

“I am a seer, though, and that makes me kind of a huge infohazaed issue. I won’t spy on you, but you still have only my word on that anyway.”

"Don't know what a Ki fighter is either!

Is your word magic there or is that a they-trust-you thing?"

“Ki fighters are people who use Ki for combat. Ki is a type of energy; everyone has at least some of it, but it varies how much from person to person and from training. My telepathy is actually a Ki technique, but you also get stuff like flying.

”And no, nothing mystical about it; it’s just a combination of personal reputation and culture. It’s expected that any upstanding member of society is honest and good on their word. It’s not really a warriors code, but being if not honorable at least guileless is considered a necessity for anyone in a public facing role.”

She nods understanding.

She considers.

As noted, Karen is pretty obviously magic, which is at least a strong consideration for her not being likely to be a fan of mage slavery. And she's been fine to both herself and Genea, mage and not respectively. 

It'd be kind of really weird for someone to pretend to be obligate disembodied so they could lull her and Genea into a false sense of security and get them to tell them things and then go tell the Helas. That seems like a weird plan, especially when they wouldn't really have a way of knowing that they have a plan to tell the Helas, unless they have some magic way to find thing out, in which case they could just find out the plan.

Is that enough?

She consults with Genea.

...Actually she might just be able to test the disembodied thing. 

"Gimme a sec, I want to try something!" she says to Karen, and then reaches with her magic. She can tell what magic things stuff does sometimes, right? This person has magic; what kinds of things does it do? ('Does it actually let her have a body if she wants to' being of course the most relevant question. Also is she actually a seer like she said.)

Neither she nor Dazarel is a mage, nor are they at all magical themselves. There is something sticking to both of them, though, that's like magic; they're as similar to each other as magic is to them.

Dazarel does have some magic of a more familiar kind stuck to him, though it’s well made and hard to detect.

She has no knowledge or specialized practice in this area but she does have a lot of power.

She's not surprised to find that they're not mages in the mage-spark sense (she wouldn't have been surprised to find that they were either; maybe that works the same wherever they're from, or similarly, but just as much maybe it doesn't). What she wants to know is about what they are. Or have.

Karen has something. She can't get much more on the something, but she's pretty sure Karen cannot make bodies. The other one has something - externally imposed? And can't do much right now? And she's pretty sure also currently can't make bodies.

She pushes more about the seer. ...She thinks that's true. 

She stops reaching. She consults with Genea again.

"Done," she says to Karen.

"So I think we're going to trusting you. In which case I can finish that sentence, which was that if we did have a combat problem I could probably fight it, but we more have the problem where I can fight things too much than the opposite problem.

The problem we're trying to do something about is the mage-enslaving. Which we probably don't really have the best plan for, but we've been kind of short of ideas for better plans."

On Garenhuld, slavery got solved via outside interference; no saiyan had any incentive to support it, and some opposed it on moral grounds. In terms of a prediction of how it would end left to its own devices, it was rather unhelpful. In this case, however, there was also outside interference: them. 

“The main causes of universal emancipation were the spread of democracy and a rise of a capitalist based economy. The latter provided large and international pressure to stop it, and the latter finished it off by making it uneconomical.

”There were some continuing problems with worker exploitation and sexual slavery, but both proved largely amenable to legal pressure and, at least for the former, worker organization.”

"We have democracy? I - don't think it's doing any of that. I don't think I understand the other word very well but I don't see how it would help?"

"Also definitely a problem with worker exploitation - not the mage-slaves, different thing - and legal pressure definitely isn't doing anything about it. Or trying to as far as I can tell. 

Mage-slaves are definitely not allowed to organize, though on the bright side I don't think there's much sexual slavery with that; that would be Tscher."

“The idea of universal suffrage made some strong ideological opponents to slavery, and once they started it spread like wildfire. It was actually a fairly messy situation in places, since seeing it elsewhere lead to large slave revolts and it didn’t tend to end well for the aristocracy. Freedom is a very powerful motivator.

Capitalism is... the idea of the goal of business being profit, and businesses that do better at that could outby their competition? It turns out that once you know what you’re doing, people work harder for money than as serfs for food, and more people with money to spend makes everything there work better. There was still exploitative labor practices, but it’s not institutionalized the same way and it’s easier for workers to organize for unions and voting than it is for slaves.”

"...we don't have aristocracy. Everyone -" she stops. "Everyone we - think is people are citizens, but that - hasn't made anyone against mage slaves."

(She's not sure she understands the capitalism thing but she doesn't think that's the problem.)

"And Helas are definitely not relying on no one thinking of it to avoids slave revolts. 

You said you don't have much mages; why and how was the slavery happening in the first place?"