She is slower than the mirror-faced snake, and for some reason it is choosing to chase her, and she is not in dense enough forest to lose it by going up a tree or between a couple too narrowly spaced for it. So it catches her before emergency services can turn up.
And then she is somewhere else, in a not particularly attractive room next to a person who looks sort of off somehow.
"Excuse me," she says, taking a step out of his personal space.
"I've never heard of this planet."
"Which planets have you heard of?"
" - do you want them biggest to smallest, or nearest to farthest, or alphabetically, or..."
" - why does it matter?"
"Because there's six thousand."
" - and you haven't heard of Golarion."
"No."
"Maybe under a different name?"
"I think the magic would have been notable."
"Do you intend any harm to anyone in the palace?"
"I have difficulty predicting the circumstances under which my empire might find itself at war with - Golarion."
" - you gotta give us a yes or a no, to that one."
"Not today."
" - I don't know if that's good enough."
"What will you do if it's not?" she says, amused.
"Not bring you to the pharaoh."
"Does the truth spell apply to you too?"
"Yes. - guess I could be lying about that -"
"You're not, though."
"Could you say 'not this week', at least -"
"Not with this body."
"I don't know if that's good enough, either."
"You could bring me before your pharaoh in chains."
"We don't do that. If you can't be trusted to comport yourself appropriately you can't meet him."
"Seems limiting."
"- yes, it's meant to be."
"For your pharaoh, I mean."
"Can you please say something more specific -"
"I have no grievance with anyone in Golarion. I don't know where Golarion is. I do not know my country to be at war with Golarion. If we were at war with Golarion, I expect I would not personally commit any violence. Until then, I will not harm anyone in Golarion. I also do not presently particularly possess the means to harm anyone in Golarion except maybe very small children."
"The country's called Osirion."
"Well, I'm not going to start a war with the country."
Eventually they finish questioning the new person and bring her in.
She doesn't bow.
He holds up his hand to stop a guard from casting a spell on her. "Are you making a political point here or just looking for a magic demonstration?"
"I guess you could conceive of me as making a political point but I was mostly expecting it to be lost on you."
"Your gods don't sound very frightening, your kings even less so, no one here is my equal, the magic's kind of neat and it'd take a thousand times as much of it to make me bow to you in any meaningful sense, not that this is one."
"I feel like my visitors are getting steadily less agreeable and that gives me some concerns about whoever's next."
"Some light refreshments," he says to an attendant. "And invite the other guests back, too, so we can all unravel this mystery together."
The other guests reappear together when requested. "Different Ardas," Mirelótë says.
"This is Anaander Maitimo, one of the many millions of bodies of the hive-mind consciousness space empress who rules over an empire of thousands of worlds called the Radch. Or so she tells us."
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