"Maybe I should ask him for one of those little scribbled notes," he laughs.  "But I'm not going to mind explaining, either."

"Besides that, I'd like something useful to do around here."  He touches his necklace.  "Disaster relief, probably?  Do you know who I talk to about that?"  Assuming they're hiring, or at least taking volunteers, but he'd be surprised if they weren't.

"Oh, sure," he says. "What's your name and where are you staying? I can get you on the list for anything that needs Fire and Land. I'll warn you right now, it doesn't pay well. You'd do better clearing land for construction or something like that, if you could find anyone who's hiring - ask around by the docks, maybe."

"Imar of Red Mountain, but I have no idea where I'm staying, that was going to be next on my list. Any tips on where to look? I don't need much. Near here would be good." He wonders if people are terrified enough of the Emperor to make it cheaper to live next to the palace.

"Well," he says, "if you don't mind a tiny room in a building full of tiny rooms with young clerks living in them, I can recommend a place just down the street. I can't put you down on the list until you have an address, though."

"I'll take a tiny room!  I like being around people. Maybe I'll end up wanting something else eventually, but for now that'll be perfect."  He will get directions and go secure himself a tiny room, then.

Tiny rooms are available for a price that is pretty damn cheap by Skygarden standards, though Skygarden standards may be different from what he's used to.

They are, but two self-dedications are enough to be able to make decent money while traveling just by asking what people need done.  He can afford a tiny room for a while, and will see how things go with money over here in the longer term, but he's not at all worried.

He gets his things (not that he has many, it's an easy enough bag to carry, just not the sort of thing to take into the palace, so he found a place in the port that would store luggage for a fee), buys some street food on the way.  Generally looks around the city more than he managed earlier this morning.  But it still doesn't take him long to get back to the palace to be put on the list.  (By standing in line in the big public room like the first time around, he supposes, although he does wonder if he needs to do that every time he wants to be let in or if they have another solution. He can ask them that too.)

The line is longer this time around, but it's going faster because that person who was hogging an entire receptionist has finally left.

"Hello again!"  If it's the same man as last time.  "I'm told there's a list for helping out with disasters and the like?"

"Ah, yeah, name and address?" He squints at Imar's necklace. "That's Fire and Land, right?"

"Yes."  He gives his name and new address, and considers whether there's anything else important.  ...Probably they would know better than he does.  "Is the address for where you'll look for me in an emergency, or is there a better system for getting people here than sending runners to look for them?"

"You might get a runner if something urgent comes up before you've met anyone from the department, but most likely someone will come by to say hello in the next few days and leave a note if you're not home, and then they'll sort out who you should be in contact with and what you should be called on for."

"Oh! That makes sense."  Yes, all right, these people are on top of things and he should let them do their jobs.

Scribble scribble. "Anything else?"

"I'm guessing that if I want to get into the other" useless, contributes his brain amusedly, but it probably wouldn't be as funny to most people and it's not true, "half of the palace again, I should tell someone further in instead of standing in this line every time?"  Although if they insist on standing in the line until he has an entire collection of Officially Allowed To Talk to Sekar notes, it'll be pretty funny.

"For now you should keep standing in line. We'll figure out a more sensible system than that at some point."

"I should, really?  All right."  He's not annoyed, just surprised.  Well, something to complain to Sekar about, although he is definitely not telling this poor random receptionist that.  "All right, can I have a pass to visit the Emperor, and then I'll be out of your way."

The receptionist scribbles him a quick note and waves him on.

Great!  He thanks the receptionist, and goes in to show his note to whoever he was directed to for that.  "I think I can find my way in, but I'm getting the impression that's against the rules?"