"No you bloody well can't," says Lertwee's boss, interrupting her call, "you are not in fact allowed, I don't care who you are!"

He spreads his hands placatingly. "That's why I was asking."

"Yeah, don't come here," says Lertwee, as his boss resumes talking to her brother. "Probably I'll bring you to meet her brother, whatshisname -"

"George."

"George, by the border of where I'm allowed, and he'll take it from there and can maybe get you to the spa Tuesday if you want."

He nods. "All right. Herefordshire, you said?"

"Yup. That's just this week, I have a bunch I like."

"All right," he nods. "I'll be there if I can."

He waits out the rest of the phone call quietly.

Eventually she hangs up and tells Lertwee where to haul Raafi.

"You ready to go?" Lertwee asks.

He checks that his pack is secure on his shoulders. "Mmhmm."

The door opens; out they whoosh. Lertwee and Raafi meet, at a gate over a trail leading into the forest, the journalist and another fairy.

"Hop him over," the journalist tells his fairy, and she does. "Hi there! I'm George Fanshawe."

"Raafi, cleric of Fharlanghn," he replies, and then turns to thank Lertwee before he goes. "Did you have any questions to start with?"

"How d'you spell that?" he asks, gesturing at his fairy, who lofts them all into the air.

"It might not translate well if our writing systems are too different - I'm using magic for it, I don't actually speak your language. But I'd write it F-h-a-r-l-a-n-g-h-n."

"Huh. How's the magic for it work?"

"The translation? I have a necklace for it -" he fishes it out of his shirt, a golden chain with a round blue jade pendant. "I don't know how to make them myself, though that is one of the spells I can get. But I can only do a certain amount of magic per day, and it'd be expensive to cast my own translations all the time."

"When we get to my office may I borrow it?"

"I'd rather cast my own translation on you, if that's all right. I can prepare one tomorrow."

"Prepare one?"

He nods. "I mentioned I get a certain amount of magic per day; I choose which magic I get when I do my morning devotions. I wasn't expecting to need to cast a translation today, so I didn't prepare one."

"Huh! So this is all attached to a religion. Can you tell me about that?" They're approaching an office building; the fairy throws open the window. In they go. "And what can I get you for breakfast?"

"I'm not picky - something iconic, if that's easy. Or I can conjure food. Religion - Fharlanghn is a pretty informal god, we don't have much in the way of organized worship or church hierarchy. Most of us just do whatever work we find ourselves in place to help with. He doesn't have many specific teachings, either - we're supposed to learn by doing, by exploring and seeing for ourselves what things are like and how to best work with them. All he says is, don't stop, there's always more to discover."

"Easy enough." He doesn't appear to do anything, but says, "That'll be cooked up for us in ten." (The fairy has by now let herself out.) "Go ahead and have a seat. So my sister says you appeared in this world a few days ago?"

"Mmhmm. In a sort of place that my language doesn't have a word for - mostly metal, very high in the sky. It was abandoned when I got there."

"A space station? Yeah, there are lots of those abandoned. How'd you get down?"

"I found the emergency summoning supplies and worked out how to summon a fairy."

"Sensible of you. And then you landed in the forest?"