Thank you. Hopefully someday soon we'll surpass it.

Leareth nods, and asks for directions out and then follows them. Once he's in the streets of Tirion he has no particular destination; he looks around for food, and opens his senses to magic and nearby thoughts. 

The palace is at the center of the city, with streets stretching out from it radially; the storefronts offer clothes and glassware and artwork and bread and cheese and jewelry. Most street corners have carts with food! Meat pies and pastries and kabobs and dumplings and sticky desserts! 

Kebabs seem good, for the protein. Leareth goes up to the stall. :I would like one of those, please: He's unsure if they're going to expect payment – if they do, he can offer some use of his magic, maybe. :Also, I am seeking a woman named Yávië, who is studying biology here – daughter of Tehlan and Wilindë, who were very kind to me before I came to the city. Do you know her, or who I might ask to find her?: 

The vendor hands him one and doesn't say anything about payment.  I don't know her but the school of biology is down the High Street, the big tower covered with moss.

:Thank you: Leareth takes the kebab and wanders down the street following the vendor's directions, nabbing a bit of magic from any artifact he passes – he's curious whether some feel different than others, and how much the power in them varies.

Possibly he ought to pick up some clothes soon. And ask about bathing. He's still presentable but that won't last forever. 

...Actually, hmm, that reminds him of something he'd wanted to test. Are there any side streets or alcoves where he would be out of sight of people? 

Some of the side streets are empty this time of day; there aren't alleyways like there'd be in a human city of this size.

Leareth slips down an empty street, and when he's sure there are no minds near enough to see him, he covers himself with a simple illusion and adds a layer to his personal shielding – one that ought to make him invisible to osanwë, though it wouldn't quite be sufficient against Velgarth Thoughtsensing. (It won't be for long, and if anyone does try to reach him, well, they know about his privacy-shield ability, he can say that he wanted a bit of time to think out loud to himself.)

He stretches out his senses, waits for a random passerby to come near; he's hoping for someone in no particular hurry. 

This person is thinking through the details of a mathematical proof and absentmindedly eating a pastry.

Test it with something very small, harmless and neutral. Leareth is going to tell them, with magic, that they don't want the rest of that pastry. He reaches out, places the probe 'above' their mind, not touching yet, just....there. Lets the mage-compulsion fall into place. 

Do they notice anything out of the ordinary? 

They wrap up the pastry in a napkin and put it in a pouch in their bag, still thinking about the proof. They're sure this part of it fits together but not like that...

Leareth, undetectable, watches their thoughts a few seconds longer before backing off, trying to check if his compulsion somehow messed with their thinking about math – it shouldn't have, it's in an unrelated place. 

Nope, still thinking along the same lines as before they bumped into him.

Leareth stops watching, heads toward the other end of the side street, checks no one is paying attention to him or too close before slowly removing his shield as he moves forward, so that no one will notice him appearing suddenly. He drops the illusion as he comes back out onto the main street, and resumes his path toward the school of biology, smiling slightly to himself. 

The school of biology is a tower draped with plants of all kinds, and a ring of attached buildings also draped with plants of all kinds, and a magnificent birdbath in the center of them with a few dozen different species of birds hanging around it. There are people standing around singing and reading and writing and talking to each other.

Leareth goes up to a group of people talking and asks if any of them know a woman called Yávië who studies here. 

They do! She's in one of the greenhouses; they can point out which one.

Leareth thanks them and heads off to look for her. 

She's sitting on a tree branch inside her greenhouse, measuring leaves with calipers. "...can I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Leareth." He can say all of that in Quenya now. "I am of another world." And that's about the extent of his fluency, he has more vocabulary but it's not comfortable or easy yet. :I met your parents, when I first arrived here. I was very disoriented and they were kind to me. They mentioned you – they suggested I ask you about the politics here, that you were more abreast of matters than them:

(He's been wanting a perspective on it from outside the leadership, and Yavië seemed like as good a candidate for it as anyone.) 

Oh! I mean, more than them, because they're squash farmers, but not especially, for anyone in the city. You probably want to talk to the King or something. She hops down from the tree branch. I didn't know there were other worlds. Are the plants familiar?

:I did speak to the King. However, kings cannot always see everything; sometimes a different angle is helpful: He smiles. :It was also surprising news for me, that there exist other worlds. And your plants are not quite familiar, no – they fall into similar categories, grasses and shrubs and trees and such, but not identical: 

Wow. Do we know how to get back and forth? Have you got people signed up for ecological surveys?

Leareth chuckles. :You have among the most sensible priorities of anybody I have met. I believe that I ought to be able to travel back at will, because the type of magical transport that led to my accidental arrival also works here – however, the spell is very tiring, and I have been busy so have not yet tested it. If I do find a way to transport people back and forth, I will make sure to tell you: 

Wow. Thank you! We should make copies of our books you can take back with you and trade for copies of yours, too.