And soon enough, they're at the diplomatic reception area. It's nice, simply and elegantly appointed, and there's offers of refreshments and other courtesies.

Their guests are accordingly impressed and thankful. The nobles eat polite amounts. Various servants and experts have varied levels of courtesy (but are quietly oriented).

Sasuke does make clear he's primarily the welcoming committee - somewhere between an heir, a second-in-command, and a general. His main concerns here are making sure everything goes smoothly for the full diplomatic get-together. Security, formalities between heads of state - he'd like to get the head of his daimyo's guard properly liasioned with the head of their guard, for instance.

Their head of guard is of similar mind then. She was briefed on the general capabilities of the local magic, but does not have as much information as she would like.

The head of the daimyo's guard is a woman in late middle age, hair steel grey and eyes hard, dressed in sleek armor.

The most likely problems would involve assorted means of stealth and self-enhancement, which are easier to run down - stealth tends to be a combination of using chakra to silence movements, using illusions on guards, using a chameleon technique to visually blend in, taking atypical routes like 'crawling on the ceiling', and of course infiltration. The most common infiltration technique is the transformation - it's easier to spot mistakes and incongruities than to see through it for most people, though he can demonstrate it and walk the guards through the minuscule tells even a professional will leave. If someone's voice, diction, personal grooming, uniform, or what-have-you is even slightly off, get a ninja to check them for transformations. You can disrupt most illusions on yourself or others with a chakra pulse, which fortunately is an easy technique to learn - the main issue is noticing you're in an illusion. Pain tends to also disrupt most illusions. 

If it comes down to a fight, most ninja self-enhance in the direction of 'speed', while samurai tend to favor 'strength', but both will be moving faster and hitting harder than someone unenhanced. A thing to watch for with bladed weapons is invisible edge techniques, where a weapon's actual edge extends past the metal. Assassins are usually ninja.

There's no one openly opposed to contact, and no active terrorist cells in the country, so assassins are unlikely and would probably be aimed at the daimyo or Sasuke himself, in which case they'd rather be left to their own guard procedures rather than receive help, to reduce chances of miscommunication between the groups. 

Procedures of relevance for if there's an open attack or natural disaster focus on evacuating persons of interest; the paths and destinations (and pass-codes) are as follows...

Their head of guard nods and makes comments. They have some people that can sense life directly, and they would expect it to trump illusions and disguises. Of course, it's worth checking if they can. Is the extended blade some kind of telekinesis or illusion? Does anyone here knows it so they can test how it interacts with elemental weakness? Are the procedures such that they should avoid going back to their world? They really don't have anything to gain from attacking their hosts, but it is reasonable to want people to stick around for further investigation. Not to mention the possibility of attackers infiltrating Actana that way.

That'd be good to test, yes.

The extended blade is usually wind manipulation - wind-natured chakra forms cutting edges easily.

The procedures are mostly for short-distance evacuation, so they can work into getting the Actana people back to their own world if something happens here.

Good, they can schedule that test.

Invisible blades sound sufficiently magical that it might be worth testing them on a dragon or part-dragon, luckily they have those around. Since it's wind they might also test it against a Thunderbird, either later or by sending someone to Actana for that purpose.

The guards will diligently familiarize with the procedures and teach them to whoever needs teaching.

Magical interaction tests can be scheduled for all of the security-related concerns. Illusions are more common, so more urgent... And of course it's best to get these out of the way before the daimyo's procession arrives...

Of course, Temperance will definitely be interested in magical testing of any sort. They can get (the head of guard looks to confirm the gender today) him easily enough. And Leon is their designated life-sensor for the trip.

The the daimyo's head guard and Sasuke's second can arrange most of the testing, while Sasuke attends to diplomacy until they need him for illusion testing.

Perfect, Temperance is on board with it.

Temperance isn't harmed by wind blades, but is affected by illusions. The person who can sense life, Leon, is capable of noticing and easily dismissing any illusion Sasuke can cast.

Ooh, fascinating. Temperance (predictable) wants to figure out a way to deal with illusions, but the head of guard quietly guides him out of the way to do that away from people practicing politics.

And, soon enough, the local daimyo's procession arrives. She's not much older than Sasuke, dressed relatively modestly for someone of her position, and she moves like someone who's at least been trained in combat. 

The Actana contingent assumes a formal stand to receive the Daimyo. Both Queen Hermalita and Yonno observe the way she moves and make mental notes about it. They wait until the formally polite moment to acknowledge and thank her.

"It is our pleasure to receive you. Come, let us retire somewhere more suitable for speaking."

"Of course, our honorable host." Queen Hermalita says.

They follow.

The stateroom is as grand as before. She's exceptionally polite, more indirect than Sasuke (who'd often been blunt), and otherwise a delightful host. Just funny enough, just friendly enough, just clever enough - quickly adjusting past any social misses.

The queen quickly falls in a rhythm with her, similarly appropriate levels of humor and friendliness. Yonno requires some slightly smoothing from both of them, but only things that stand out because Hermalita and Kyoku are there for contrast.

Good; they're off to a good start for negotiations, at least.

Negotiations, they were concerned with the matter of logistics of transporting and housing people.

Another concern is a matter of law, they can hardly say that they deserve the loyalty of their people if they simply eschewed their responsibility as rulers.

(Which is just a veiled way of saying that Queen Hermalita would rather still be some kind of nobility by the end of the day. Yoono, appears to be more genuinely concerned with actual order.)

There's unclaimed lands to the north, if they don't mind being cold, but the lands are unclaimed because they're poor even as pasture-land. The Mountain's Graveyard is also unclaimed, and temperate, though she has no guarantee it isn't haunted. Kyoku has the right to set them up as nobility if they wish to stay within this nation, and is willing to negotiate that.

Queen Hermalita is interested in the details of being nobility, succession, tributes and what have you. Yonno is also curious, though he asks more questions about the northern lands.

Those are easy enough details to provide. (They haven't done a thorough survey of every nook and cranny of the northern continent, but she can talk about the two nations - Iron and Snow - and the nationless nomads who wander through some parts.)

Nobility have some privileges but not a ton. The court system's different, is the big thing, though because they're a modern nation with equity of law this mostly means the nobles get judges with more time on their hands to look at the case. You have to inform the daimyo who your successor is but individual noble houses can set their own rules for who succeeds whom. There's one noble house that works purely on adopting meritorious orphans into their line of succession. They have taxes, which nobles aren't exempt from, though unlike farmers or artisans nobles get to choose how to defray their taxes - military service of themselves or a representative, monetary support...

Most farmers own their own land, by the way. That's been a very important part of reconstruction. So mostly their nobility has ended up as hereditary bureaucrats and warriors (which is why some houses are moving to non-hereditary systems), not as landlords or such.