That evening they find a second book next to the one they brought - a different one from the one she was reading. It's heavily worn, bound in thick paper with a faded picture on the front, and the language and alphabet are completely unfamiliar.

...for the first time they are confused.

Some people who find languages delightful are delegated to decipher it.

It's the sort of twenty-year-old third-string science fiction that makes it into the quarter bin at used book stores, improbable space fights and all.

They are so, so confused as progress at deciphering is made. 

They continue bringing meals.

She slowly calms down about them seeing her up and about. She does wonder vaguely if she's going to be getting her book back - the idea was that they'd recognize the language and bring books in it, if they wanted to bring books at all - but she's only vaguely curious, not upset or surprised; there's a reason she gave them that one rather than any of the others she has with her.

Once they've made a copy they give it back, but it takes a while. 

By then she's surprised to get it back, but she tucks it away carefully anyway. She's surprised she still has her pack at all, for that matter, for all that she keeps it carefully hidden.

By that point she's... settled in, sort of. She's still confused and scared and frequently overwhelmed, and she sleeps a lot, but she's... okay, more or less. She's not going to leave, but aside from that she's not going to provoke them, and that seems to be sufficient to avoid anything very bad happening; it's not an equilibrium that she trusts, by any means, but while it holds she can take advantage of it. She reads. She draws, a little bit, abstract doodles slowly filling the remaining space in the sketchbook she keeps hidden. She examines her hiding spot over and over in the vain hope that there's an electrical outlet someplace that she just hasn't managed to notice yet, so that she can recharge her tablet. She spends hours running her fingers over the detail work of the stone that walls her in. She doesn't sing, doesn't talk, doesn't braid her hair, doesn't make eye contact.

Eventually they leave a note, in English and handwritten but done to look like it was typed. Can you read this?

She seriously considers not responding, but they have seen her with books.

Yes.

Do you want to communicate this way?

...If she tells them what she wants, they know what to do when they want to hurt her. And if they're asking...

She spends a couple days curled up in a tight quiet ball, panicking and considering and panicking some more. She's oddly calm, even during the panicky bits; she knew this was coming, it's going to be awful, that's just reality. She'll survive it or she won't; it'll break her or it won't; there's nothing she can do, so there's no point in worrying, or fighting, or anything but surrender; the panic is just a thing that's happening.

They continue to bring food. They don't bring more notes.

She slowly calms back down, but she doesn't move.

A while later, another note: what about something we couldn't take away later, like an explanation of where you are now?

...they're trying to get her to trust them. Well, that's safe enough to play along with.

Yes. Please.

This city is called Tirion, and the continent is called Valinor. We don't know how you got here, we've been trying to figure it out. Most of the people here came from the Outer Lands, and some of us were prisoners in Utumno. They have been advising us on how to avoid harming you further, because your reactions remind them of their reactions when they were freed. There is enough of everything for everyone here, so you can just take any things you'd like to have.

I think a tinker trap put me here.

Is the sky the same in the Outer Lands?

In the Outer Lands it's always dark except the stars. A tinker trap?

Maybe you call them something different here. Tinkers are the people with powers to make things.

As far as we know anyone here can make things.

Tinkers are parahumans.

Parahumans are

Parahumans are people with superpowers.

I don't think there are any of those here. Maybe you're from farther away than we realized, or maybe they were breeding for powers somehow in Utumno.

I think I'm from far away. I don't know about Utumno.

Okay. Were there other things you wanted to know?

What are you planning to do with me?