"Maybe those of us relying on translation spells should switch tacks then?"

"That makes sense - I can pick up local languages pretty fast, Annie knows them already, I'm not sure about Rubelite -"

"It will not take me very long especially if Cam can format convert written corpuses into this server we have now for me and Anaander! Don't worry, it's partitioned really well."

"And Cor and Pelape and if he's ever less busy Cam and possibly Bella depending on her priorities can do Promise's thing."

Bells accordingly divide into clumps.

"None of you want magic?"

"Mirelótë'll have a nice Quendi-friendly explanation I can pick up very fast."

"I want magic!"

"Still a no."

"Doesn't really seem like my comparative advantage here."

"Maybe some other time."

Sigh. "Fair enough."

"Is this a surprise? Did you pursue magic before a lot of it fell on your head in the form of a crown?"

"I took classes in it! I admittedly took classes in lots of things, though."

"I didn't acquire any magic on purpose."

"Your magic is kinda horrible."

"That isn't why, though, the university had a requirement that if you wanted to get access to their artifacts you had to let somebody who'd touched the mind-reading one in range."

"Ew."

"Were you doing something you didn't want them to know about?"

"...what? No, why is that your first guess?"

"Why did they even have that policy?"

"They wanted to screen people for intent to steal the artifacts, I think was the ostensible reason? The only reason I could attend the school at all was that the mindreaders couldn't stop shouting curse words at the top of their lungs, it was pretty easy to keep out of their way under normal circumstances."

"There are so many easier ways to stop people stealing things. Unless they're teleportation artifacts, I guess."

"They did have one of those. The side effect was awful though."

"What?"