Well, she'd have thought so but apparently it's complicated. Three blinks.

There is a lot of whispering.

"Okay. When people do things for each other, or to each other, one or the other will accumulate debt. Debt entangles you with the other person, and it entitles them to repayment. When you're entangled with people, any misfortune they call on themselves through their conduct will affect you also. Does that make sense?"

...blink blink.

Sigh.

"...when people do things for each other, or to each other, one or the other will accumulate debt. Does that make sense?"

Blink blink blink.

"Okay. Are you confused about the meaning of any of the words that I used?"

Blink blink blink.

Aaaahhh.

There is a lot more whispering.

"Uh, mortals don't track debt among one another, and this doesn't seem to affect them until they meet fairies. Are your people a kind of people who don't track debt among each other?"

....that sounds probably close enough. Blink.

"Okay." Sigh. "Well, here you need to keep track of it or you'll bring horrible misfortune down on everyone you're entangled with.

Which is me. Uh, usually giving someone a drink puts them in your debt a little. In this case it put you in my debt a lot and, more than that, created a - enormous, unprecedented, amount of entanglement without debt which is even worse because it can't be fixed. Do you know why that happened?"

Blink blink blink. Just a guess.

"Well it's - pretty bad. Because it's very bad to be very entangled with someone you know nothing about who doesn't know the rules. And it's bad for my whole court, they might try to figure out how to get themselves loose from me. And then we're on our own and I'm - not smart enough for that to not immediately end really badly.

And this is all your fault."

Look, if you want Promise's intelligent and helpful commentary on this situation you KIND OF HAVE TO LET HER FUCKING TALK.

Well they can have another try at the stupid alphabet board!

Promise gets absolutely nowhere with the stupid alphabet board.

Then they can sit there glaring at each other.

Eventually Promise will start nodding off, when there's no more stressors being piled on to keep her up.

When she wakes up not much has changed. The fairy that is attached to her is still sitting there glumly. She has thought of some more questions.

"Is the problem with the alphabet board that you know a different alphabet?"

Blink blink.

"Is talking against some rule in your society?"

Blink blink.

"Is there a reason you're not just explaining yourself."

Blink. (Bitch.)

"Is it a reason that's going to change eventually if we don't do anything more."

Blink blink!