Neighboring farms, mostly not magic. This one is the only one to have sprinklers. Neighboring farmhouses, mostly with a little bit of magic - a necklace, a stovetop, a hairpiece. 

And none of it is at all familiar, certainly nothing that hints at a direction home. Which he isn't expecting, at this point. There's also no sign of ambient energy to draw on. However, at least he can confirm that there's no hostile magic nearby. 

Leareth lays a quick perimeter of his own magical wards around the farmhouse, just out of habit – low-power, they won't be visible or do anything to people crossing, but they'll warn him of approaching magic, or if anyone other than the family enters the house. Then he goes to sleep. He'll probably sleep for at least eight hours unless anyone disturbs him first. 

They don't disturb him. When he wakes, the light in the sky is a soft silver, sort of like moonlight but brighter. They are out in the fields harvesting their squashes.

It's probably polite to ask if they would like a bit of help, before heads off for the city and whatever is going on there. 

Sure! They are going to harvest these three rows and then when a person with a wagon comes by they will put the squashes in the wagon to take to Tirion. 

Leareth helps with those rows, it won't cost him much time. How fast will the wagon be traveling to Tirion, relative to riding a borrowed horse? 

It'll go slower than a horse but get there before the next Mingling.

Not much delay, and it seems worth it for the chance to talk to the cart-owner and learn more about this world before he reaches the city. Are they willing to give him a ride? 

Delighted to, once she arrives! The cart-owner piles in the squashes and offers various other goods from her carts in exchange; apples, tomatoes, eggs, fish, steak. Then she sets off again, the cart under its own power.

Leareth will use his senses to check if the cart is magical, first, and then ask her about it. 

The cart is magical. 

Yes, it is! We used to have it drawn by horses but it added a lot of logistical complications and I think the horses find the route boring at this point.

:This does seem more convenient. Where did you obtain it?:

In the city! Someone thought of me for one of the first self-moving carts because I make this run so reliably. 

:That's very helpful of them. Do you happen to know how they're made?: Leareth, fairly comfortable that the cart-owner has no hostile intent (the priors on any of the rural Quendi intending him harm are dropping lower and lower), is doing his best to not actually look at the unshielded but intended-to-be-private thoughts. 

I think someone tried to show me the spell but it was four hundred pages. Movement's hard for artifacts. I know that the magic part moves a gear and then the rest's just mechanical.

:Fascinating. What kinds of thing are easy for your magic? Also, I am curious how it is written down. Is there a language for conveying it?:

Light's pretty easy, I think. Uh, when you're encoding the artifact you're just encoding a rise or a fall, at each spot, so it's a two-character language. Horizontal and vertical lines, usually. I think during the planning stages people use various abstractions that are written with normal characters.

:How strange – to me, that is, I am sure it is not at all strange to you. My world's magic is very different. Though light is also easy: He demonstrates. 

Huh! Where are you from?

:A world called Velgarth. I seem to have ended up here by accident – I was attempting to travel somewhere else in my own world:

Were you injured in the accident? It'd be rude to bring up directly but Quendi don't usually wear their hair that short unless it got caught in a wheel or something.

:No – I was rather exhausted from it yesterday but I have slept since then. Why do you ask?" She's thinking something about hair, which is very confusing, but he's not going to let on that he's reading her private thoughts:

Quendi don't cut our hair that short - or at all, usually - unless something awful happened to it. It'd be painful to have it that short.

:This does not hurt me: Leareth promises. :I suppose my people are different. How is it painful for your people - does your hair have sensation in it?:

For whatever reason she looks very slightly embarrassed. Not - directly the hair, but the scalp, yes. That's - also why we don't wear it loose.