Now there is a pretty, slightly grey lady with silver hair, ragged clothes, and a very, very ugly baby, also here! She doesn't know where she is but fortunately she can read minds.

He demands to know what she's doing in his apartment. Loudly.

He is terrified of anyone hostile enough to break in and capable of getting in by magic, but maybe shouting at her angrily will hide that, and either way he's ready to turn her into a statue if necessary.

WOW she doesn't want to be a statue! Suppose she starts singing a pretty lullaby. It's so soothing. Soooooo sooooooothing. She doesn't know exactly how she got here either so she can hardly calm him down with her perfectly rational explanation.

...Okay... a bad thing is happening and he's finding it hard to care... that should be concerning but what if he sits back down anyway...

Is this some kind of sleep thing? That's almost definitely illegal but that's the least important implication here...

Right, threatening stranger, very important, he cared about that a minute ago and he's going to care again in another minute. "Explain yourself or leave."

She tries the door, stil singing. It's pretty, she's got a great voice. The ugly baby is falling asleep on her shoulder where she has a waterfall of circular brands pouring down her arm.

The door locks from the inside but this is the inside. It's also held in place by magic but her host unsticks it with a thought as soon as it's obvious she's going to leave.

Outside is a hallway. The hallway has nothing to recommend it except the lack of shouting people and not being Angband. There are several other doors, and there are stairs both up and down.

She doesn't think to close the door. Her voice drops to just a hum as she tries the stairs down.

The next floor down has another hallway with more doors and different decor. The one below it has a door that leads out of the building. Heading up the stairs, meanwhile, is a very large cat with unnaturally colored fur and what might be described as a messenger bag. The cat assumes Beka is an especially unusual member of a local species and wonders if she's just moved here.

What an interesting sort of person! Hi! I'm new here. I don't live in this building.

The cat is briefly alarmed, then concludes Beka is just an illusion mage and not some kind of alien with alien telepathy magic. If she's telling people she's new to Thelm Ret, she's probably looking for information. (It has not occurred to the cat that she's new to the Empire, let alone the entire universe. She must mean this town.)

"Well, for a few rings I can answer a few questions."

Rings?

Oh, probably Hari isn't her first language.

"Rings. You know, the things you give people in exchange for food or an apartment. They change color." The imperial currency of the Hari Empire. The cat's mental picture looks a bit like the necklaces of coins that were in that tiny apartment. That Beka might not know what rings are does not occur to them.

Oh. Uh, no thanks. She will just keep going down the stairs and try to figure out what she needs to know by reading thoughts instead.

There's no one else perceptible to osanwe in the building, but outside the city's full of people running errands. Some large fraction of them are imperceptible to osanwe but that still leaves lots of thoughts.

Someone thinks it's a ripoff how expensive fish is this far inland; someone is thinking about the preservation spells they're taking off fruits as they sell them; someone is annoyed about how many people in the city speak Hari and vaguely wants to strangle that guy in the free language lesson; multiple different people are vaguely uneasy about the big cats; this snake wants to hire someone with hands to carry some things...

Huh! She has hands. She goes up to the snake and has them in front of it, baby stuffed into her shirt and peeking out the neckline. Seems like people here don't have osanwë usually and might like orcs not like the reminder so she'll see if that'll do.

Then the snake will offer her a job moving these items into a building and if she does that she can take these rings with her afterward. It's not a big job and not worth a lot of rings but it's enough that she could get some fruit or something.

She will haul the items into the building and take the rings! She has pockets and puts them in the one that doesn't have holes. The baby's not too hungry yet. She strikes off down the street with a bounce in her step, listening to everybody she can, looking at all the bright pretty things.

Relative to what she's used to there are a lot of bright and pretty things indeed. There's a whole open-air market where she could buy fruits (these ones are imported from the south over the mountains) or meat or blood or honey (these tiny birds selling the honey it made it themselves) or slaves or jewelry (enchanted or blank), or hire a mage to do a spell (they're the ones displaying the symbols for different kinds of magic, all the passers-by know which symbols mean what). Most people here are less devoted to being art than Beka but a lot of them have changed their fur color or are wearing colorful symbols or jewelry.

There's someone hoping no one will bother to wonder what kind of mage he is if he just never mentions it; there's someone heading down to the park over that way; someone for sale is crushingly afraid; a child wearing gold bracelets and skipping is happy it's a sunny day.

The person whose apartment she appeared in is watching her and not trying to hide it. That's a rude thing to do here, but then, so is trespassing.

She tries to figure out the symbols. She can read Quenya but that's all. It seems like it will be useful to pick things up here. Why is the person from the apartment watching her?

She can catch someone thinking about how this is the symbol for the kind of magic that transmutes elements and that's the symbol for illusions and this one is for scrying and finding things out...

The person from the apartment is pretty angry about being put under some kind of mind-altering spell and has thought about reporting her but since it involved alien magic and wasn't in public where it'd be easy to scry they might not believe him. Maybe if she's provoked in public they'll do something. Or maybe she's just going to go about her business and not hurt anyone else, which would be good but he's not counting on it. And if the imperial government doesn't end up getting involved, then he's not sure how to make sure she doesn't think she can get away with this. He wants to know what she's up to and wants her to know someone is watching her. Also, she's definitely some kind of alien, and he's curious about her alien magic and where she's from.

I didn't hurt you at all! You were going to turn me into a statue.

How the fuck does she know... oh, she's telepathic, that's bad but he can probably ward against it, he'll try that in a minute.

But first: What do you want? Can you understand me asking like this?

I understand you. I dunno the language here but I can read you. I won't be able to talk to you if you do the thing though. I just wanna not be where I came from and keep my baby.

Well, you're not where you came from, and it sure looks like you have a baby. And it would be a lot less conspicuous if she'd put bracelets on the baby. And if the baby didn't look like that.  Does anyone else know you can read minds?

He's wondering whether to offer her a job. He hasn't decided whether that seems like a safe idea or how he'd use a mind-reader if he had one but there's probably something she can do...

Everybody where I came from? And you? What are bracelets for?

They're just a convenient thing to attach command magic to. You know, to keep the baby safe. Safe for other people; he's thinking about how many horrific accidents he's personally seen averted by small children not being free to use their magic. He assumes aliens either use different jewelry or put the spells directly on the kids. I'm sure it's fine but it'd reassure people.

She doesn't have any magic till she's old enough to sing. She might not even like to sing, a lot of orcs don't.

There's probably a way he could keep someone from singing but he's not thinking of it yet. Not that he has any immediate plans to! Wow, this is tremendously awkward.

That sounds very convenient. And... safe. And reassuring. If he just keeps coming up with more adjectives he will not think about anything else, right?

You were maybe going to give me a job? That seems important in case the wilderness doesn't have enough to eat, I don't know how hard it is to live out there like Elves do.

I have no clue what an elf is or what your species can eat (and he probably shouldn't start thinking about local plants and their nutritional value and he definitely shouldn't start free-associating on the topic of things he doesn't want to think about right now) but yeah, I'm wondering if I have a good use for a mind-reader. If nothing else, I could find a way to use you to win bets or something. And eventually when he has an entire city to rule he could really use help with law enforcement but that's a problem for the future.

Why shouldn't you think about plants?

Well, it might be useful to sell you information about them later. I mean, just about anyone else could think about them where you can hear, but you'd probably rather I put everything I know together in some kind of order and answer questions. Or maybe plants aren't what you eat, the species you look most like is herbivorous but maybe that's misleading.

He feels vaguely homesick for the land of herbivorous pointy-eared humanoids now, actually.

I don't have a lot of the rings.

Not yet you don't. She could barter, or she could wind up in debt. Is her species one of the ones where they care about paying people back? No easy way to tell, other than by asking and then she could just lie. Either way he really needs to figure out what he can do with telepathy that could possibly be useful, there just has to be something. Maybe blackmail. Maybe helping his current boss talk people into funding their research. Once she's doing something useful she can pay in rings or in kind.

I'm not really a species.

He doesn't even have a guess as to what that means.

Um, Elves are a species, and my parents were those, and orcs are a species, and my baby's that, and I'm in between, not a species.

Some kind of genetic engineering project or something. That sounds inconvenient for you.

It's not great.

Maybe she'll know something about how it's done and it'll be useful for different biology, though. That might be a long shot but... I think I know what you should do while you're here. You should help with the research I'm doing, by talking about what you know about genetic engineering or by reading the minds of people who are considering whether to invest in our work and letting me know how to convince them.

I don't know what genetic engineering is.

Well, that'll limit how much she can usefully tell them about it. He tries to think the whole concept at her, though, maybe she'll recognize it. But you can still help convince investors, I think?

I'm pretty sure they didn't do that thing to make me.

What did they do? And is it something she can do that might be useful? Or it might be relevant to her health, that could also matter, who knows what her lifespan is going to be or whether she's sick somehow...

What's a lifespan?

He can think about this concept for her in great detail and with lots of technical specifics. Getting rid of that is what the research I'm helping with is for. And it's not going that well and he kind of expects to be fired at some point.

I don't know if I'm very good at convincing people of things even though I can read their minds.

You can tell me about their thoughts and I can figure out how to convince them. Or we can target, uh, people with trade secrets instead?

He has by this point stopped visibly watching her and is thinking vaguely about lunch but only vaguely since the conversation is taking up most of his attention.

And you'd give me rings for that?

Yes.

Might make sense to arrange it so she gets a cut of the profits, rather than a flat fee, which wouldn't guarantee her anything, but he expects that if this works out he will end up paying her. And if he has to pay her some in advance so she doesn't starve before she can do anything, he's willing to consider that. He's trying not to think about how much he's willing to offer but he has a feeling he won't be able to haggle her down past the highest amount he can accept. Telepathy sucks.

Okay. At least for now. I only have a little for helping the snake.

Yeah, we should figure out how to keep you fed and sheltered in the immediate future. I don't have a spare room to put you in and I don't know if I could buy you lunch or if you eat, I don't know, flying worms that only live on the dark side of the moon. Wouldn't be the most specific diet he's heard of but it'd be the most inconvenient.

I can eat lots of things. Most of the food being sold around here looks like I could eat it. What's a moon?

She can have the concept of a moon, and also a planet and a star, although he's kind of confused about stars.

I can treat you to lunch but I'm not sure how to do that in a way that won't make people wonder why I'm suddenly giving you things. Maybe if you want to meet me back at my place and I'll bring things?

Okay. Why do people wonder about that?

Well, people pay attention to their surroundings and the people around them, just in general, so they know about threats or opportunities or interesting things. It wouldn't normally be something to worry about but I'm worried they'd eventually manage to infer that you're telepathic, because once that's common knowledge you won't be able to read anyone's thoughts anymore and they might get mad at you for having done it already. Especially if you use what you learn to profit at their expense.

Don't you want me to do that?

Yes? Do people where you're from not do things that other people would be angry about?

Yeah but it's kind of stupid to if you can avoid it.

You're not wrong but if I never did anything that would make anyone else angry I'd still be a slave. If you don't want to do things like that, then... I can't really hide from you that all the uses I can think of for your magic are adversarial. You'll have to figure something out for yourself.

He thinks very briefly about shielding himself but waits for a response first.

I can do not magic things like carrying stuff for snakes.

You can. If you know useful things about science and technology you could also tell people things. I'd consider paying for information but I don't need an extra pair of hands.

I don't really wanna get in the way of whatever you have going on that makes people mad. She resumes strolling through the city, trying to figure it out, attentive for more snakes or other persons in need of non-adversarial assistance.

At some point someone unshielded and in range reads a noticeboard with several ads on it. There are people hiring (mostly people with specific skills or local magic, but someone wants several hours of help rearranging furniture and someone wants a person to test spells on and doesn't care about many specific traits of the person) and people looking for work (someone can teach this local language, someone can treat these diseases) and people with things to sell (nothing in Beka's budget).

She can probably rearrange furniture! Where does she go about that?

A house a short walk away from the market, where lives a small furry creature who has hands but just isn't that strong.

The orf is much stronger! She can put her baby in her shirt on her back and haul stuff however the furry creature wishes.

Then afterward she will have enough rings to afford to stay a night in one of the cheapest rooms in town if she's planning to sleep tonight. Or enough to feed a human for a day. Definitely not both.

The furry creature will pay one more ring to know where she's from.

You just want to know what it's called?

"...If the answer is more complicated than naming a town I'll pay more than one ring for it." He's kind of expecting the answer to involve genetic engineering experiments up north somewhere but he's not very confident of that and gets even less so at the idea that there's more to it than the name of a place or a researcher.

The place is called Angband and I think it must be on a whole different planet or something 'cause we don't have a sun there. I walked into a magic monster's mouth and wound up here and I don't know why there's a monster that works that way.

Yep, that's worth more than one ring. He pays.

"...One more to tell me how you're doing that thing where you talk silently?"

It's called osanwë! My parents' species can do it.

"It must make having a shared language much less important."

He pays her one last ring. He's totally planning to hire a knowledge mage to take a look at her later and see if they can figure out exactly what osanwe does, but he doesn't strongly expect that to work.

Thanks!

She will go looking for a hotel now, having gotten the idea. And something to eat for her and the baby. She could really go for crickets right now but she'd take whatever.

The places closest to the market are all out of her price range but she can find a place at the edge of town where the rooms make the place she saw before look positively spacious and are not really marketed toward people as big as orfs but which she and the baby could just fit inside without anyone being crushed. Someone looking at such a room thinks about the fact that the alternative is sleeping in the park in the open where anyone can see you, which they find obviously horrifying.

It transpires that no one selling food in this town was expecting anyone to want crickets. There could conceivably be worms in some of the discounted fruits which are the cheapest foods for sale. If she's after protein specifically the meat is pricey but there are also nuts.

She will get some nuts and some of whatever's cheap that her baby can clutch in her little hands, and call it good. The baby gnaws with her little teeth. Is sleeping in the park horrifying because people will be mad or because it just is disagreeable to this individual specifically?

It is widely considered horrifying to have to sleep where people can see you, but it is not widely considered horrifying to see someone else sleeping. It's vulnerable. People here dislike the idea of being vulnerable, maybe for reasons not totally unrelated to how lots of their neighbors think doing things that make other people angry is a good strategy.

Hmm. She doesn't really have to sleep right now. Maybe once it's dark she will see if she can find the edge of the city and locate a less obtrusive place to sleep.

Several minutes' walk from the market on one side of the city are orchards, open meadows, and animals being raised for their meat; on the opposite side there's some scrubby woodland, and then farther away there are mountains.

The scrubby woodland is the nicest darn place she has ever been! She lies down in the scrubby woodland and looks at the stars, baby asleep on top of her.

There sure are stars, different from Arda's stars, and a tiny sliver of moon.

After not too long, someone comes by and watches her, wondering if where she's from it's more polite to interrupt someone sleeping in the open to offer them shelter or if it's more polite to leave people who are resting alone. He's aware that she's probably an alien and would really like to avoid antagonizing her and ideally they'd have caught up to her earlier.

She will continue to pretend she's sleeping and listen to him thinking for a bit longer before deciding what to do about that!

He's pretty nervous about this. Nearly all of the scenarios he's worrying about are tame compared to what she's used to, and the worst he thinks could possibly happen to him is probably nothing that hasn't happened to her a time or several, but even so he's afraid of what happens if this goes badly. The people he works for back in the capital want him to talk to her and be reassuring and unthreatening and convince her to go talk to them. What if he mangles it badly enough to get fired? What if she's hostile and attacks him? He has backup in case of this eventuality but what if somehow they fail to subdue her if necessary? What if they're about to get lots of immigrants who are mostly hostile? Okay, he's going to go ahead and count to twelve and then try to get her attention.

She turns her head when he gets to eleven.

Of course she does. Terrifying mind-reading alien. This is why he doesn't know anything he doesn't need to about this mission, which is not comforting.

He's one of the small furry ones, same species as the one who wanted help with furniture. "Hello. I'm with the imperial government. Welcome to Har."

Thank you.

Maybe this is going well? But it could still go badly.

"We thought we might offer you somewhere private and safe to sleep tonight. And after that your presence in the capital to answer some questions would be appreciated. You would of course be compensated for your time."

This is something the imperial government has done before and he doesn't have any reason to think it's a trap but if it were he definitely wouldn't know.

And then what?

"You'd be flown back here at no cost to you if you wanted, or you could stay in Mar Geru. It's not impossible that they'd have a job offer for you, I guess."

And they're not gonna try to steal my baby or anything?

He's vaguely baffled that this is a salient possibility when obviously they wouldn't have the first idea what to do with a baby of this species. Maybe there's a reason they should, and he hasn't thought of it? Maybe there's a reason and it's terrible and he should be more worried.

"I don't think so. They will probably want to ask you questions about her."

I don't think you have a reason to steal her but I left where I was from 'cause they did there.

"In the Hari Empire, we respect people's rights to their own property. Theft is illegal here. The full set of laws is available for free at any government office."

I can't read Hari.

"You can have them read to you." They'll probably make him do it, since she's already had a chance to learn all his secrets. "There's also an illusion show for learning Hari that you can have a free copy of." And it's kind of terrible and not how he learned but it's free. Is it bad if he thinks things like that? Is he going to turn her against the empire? This is so stressful.

She sits up and puts the baby back in her shirt. Are a lotta people against the empire?

Gah! He's making things worse!

"No, the empire is a very good place to live." It's not his job to have all the statistics about mortality and so on memorized, he's not who they'd have picked for this job if not knowing anything useful weren't a constraint. So he's short on evidence for this. "It's nicer than everywhere that came before it. But even if someone did try to fight, it wouldn't matter, because the empire is the most powerful polity ever to exist in this world." ...But if other people from her world are going to start showing up they could be more powerful and that might be very bad.

Where do you want me to go?

"Tonight we can pay for any room available in the city you were in earlier." Unless she likes sleeping in public? Is that a thing in other worlds? "Tomorrow morning we'd like you to visit the capitol building in Mar Geru, which is north of here. We can fly you there. Would that work for you?"

How do you fly people around?

"One of the local types of magic can lift things. We use this to transport people and cargo."

Okay. She stands up.

Then they'll do just what they said they would. Nothing else eventful will happen during the night unless Beka does something.

She naps, a little, in the room, but not much.

In the morning there's a flight to Mar Geru. It's a nice city, albeit not really designed for humanoids at all and certainly not for orfs.

The building where they want her to go is large and designed to seem imposing to most locals. There's a lobby where she could read the laws (if she could read) or get a copy of a language lesson illusion show or talk to a receptionist. To get to the person who wants to question her she'll have to pass through a maze of illusions, but that's what the extremely nervous guide is for.

If there is time she will try the language lesson illusion show!

It has more than seventy hours of content but she can have a copy to watch later, and a magically soundproofed box to keep it in when she's not watching so she doesn't have to hear carefully enunciated Hari sentences at all times. It's free; the imperial government has a vested interest in everyone understanding Hari.

She atttempts to cram the box in her holey pocket.

The box does not object to this.

Her guide glances at a picture on the wall that shows the current angle of the sun, then asks if she's ready.

Sure.

Through the maze, then. It's under an illusion to look like a completely different maze, but it's probably less disorienting with the ability to read the thoughts of someone who knows the way.

At the end of the maze is a room with a dais that appears at a glance to have a person on it (one of the big cats, like the one at the apartment but with less colorful fur), although that could easily be an illusion. They're not perceptible to osanwe. The guide hangs around to handle translation; incidentally, he's terrified of this person, less because they're a predator and more because they're very important.

"Welcome," says the very important person on the dais. "I hope you have found our empire safe and pleasant so far."

It seems nice.

"I'm glad to hear that. Do you know how you came to be here?"

There was a thing that looked like this snake with a mirror for a face! and I went through the mirror and wound up in the city.

"Had you heard of anything like that happening before?"

She shakes her head.

"Do you have any reason to think anyone might follow you here?"

Not if they haven't yet.

"Thank you. If anyone did follow you, for example because of a similar accident, would you expect that to cause problems?"

It'd really depend who. Somebody who looks like the same kinda thing as my baby wouldn't be a big deal. His Lordship you don't want around for sure.

"How would we recognize His Lordship and what sort of threat would he pose?"

I dunno if you could, he's good at illusions. He's kinda just in general a threatening guy. If you haven't seen any orcs around besides the baby I don't think he's coming? He probably would have thrown some orcs in first if he was thinking about it.

"I see. What are your intentions now that you're here?"

I don't have anything real specific planned? I wanna raise the baby.

"Of course. How long do you expect it to take her to grow up?"

Like thirteen or fourteen years?

"Second slowest in the empire, assuming similar year length. Well, welcome. If you see any sign of anyone else from your world, I'm sure we would all be in your debt if you'd let someone know as soon as possible."

What, just anyone?

"Ideally a representative of the imperial government or any state government. But in a pinch you can go anywhere not hidden by any illusions and say, out loud, in Hari, 'I need to report a crime' and the police will scry whatever you say next."

Is... existing and being from my world... a crime?

"No, but it's what they're already listening for. We tried to change the phrase to 'I need to alert the police' for exactly this reason years ago but it went poorly."

?

"Because the public service announcements failed to reach a lot of the most isolated people, because people who need police attention are especially likely to be in a bad state of mind to stop and remember the change, because a rumor started that the response time was worse for the new phrase and people responded by sticking to the old one and after years of that they genuinely did start scrying it less frequently and that eventually made the rumor true. Is that not the sort of thing that would happen where you're from?"

People don't usually try to get attention from the higher-ups there.

"No? What happens if you have a murder or something?"

Like, one orc murdering another orc? I don't think that happens that much unless his lordship's ordering them to because he's bored.

Her guide thinks that sounds horrifying and uncivilized.

"What do you do to avoid that sort of thing?" asks the cat.

...to avoid his lordship? We, uh, can't.

"No, how do you keep your murder rate down without the help of your government?"

I... don't know? It never really occurred to me as a problem we were avoiding. People beat me up all the time but they didn't try to make me actually die of it.

"...I think maybe I would like you to explain to me how your society works."

...there's a lot of orcs and also me and everybody in Angband has to do whatever Melkor says but mostly he delegates to the Maiar and the only one who does a lot with that is his lordship except if they're commanding campaigns outside against the Elves or something.

"How do Melkor and the Maiar enforce obedience?"

Oh, uh, everybody has to swear an oath, soon as they can talk.

"...What?"

They have to swear to be orcs and seek orc greatness and serve Melkor and stuff? But the baby hasn't, she's too little, and I'm not an orc.

"Why does this have observable results?"

...'cause of being an oath.

"Can you explain this concept?"

Do you not have those? Wow. Uh if we swear to do a thing then we do that thing, or if we swear something's true then it is - or, like, we think it is anyway, you can't find out stuff you don't know like that.

"That sounds like it would explain a lot. What have you sworn to do?"

I dunno. Not the same thing, like, I couldn't swear to be an orc.

"You don't know?"

(Her guide is working through the possible implications of this and, as usual, is terrified of all of them.)

Yeah they had to torture the oaths out of me and I get really spacey when I'm being tortured so I dunno.

The guide is kind of wondering if maybe it's not safe to have her free. Maybe some magically-enforced slavery would help this situation.

"Do you think it's likely that you'd be forced to pose any danger to anyone here or break any of our laws?" asks the cat.

No. - well I haven't read the laws yet but I don't know what I swore so it doesn't work regardless.

"It only works if you know? And you couldn't deduce what it would have been from what you were expected to do?"

Yeah it doesn't work if you don't know the language I think for the same reason. And I'm the only orf around so I don't know what they have orfs swear.

"...If any of the possibilities would be tremendously inconvenient if you remembered them, a command mage might be able to prevent you from being forced to carry them out, but it's up to you. I'd like to hear more about your world's magic."

It works by singing! Also there's a way to make magic stuff out of metal but I don't know how to do that one.

"How do you do magic by singing?"

...you sing a magical song? I can compose them too but that takes a long time.

"Can anyone sing a magical song or only certain people?"

You have to be good at singing.

"What do the magical songs you know do?"

I know one that makes me look like an orc, and one to put the baby to sleep, and a healing song, and one for walking on water and one for running through treebranches.

"Tell me about the healing song."

Elves wrote it, I think? It doesn't work on scars, that's why I have art to pretty those up instead.

"What does it work on?"

...things that need healing? Just like, not well enough that you don't get scars.

"Injuries? Infections? Organ failure? Hunger?"

I don't think it helps with hunger.

"If it helps with all the other things, I'll mention you to the right people and they'll have a job for you. Some of the local diseases are hard to fix with our magic."

I don't know if it'll work well but I can try it. Or write a new song maybe.

"We'll let them know that, then. What sorts of things is it possible to compose songs to do?"

...most things, I think? Uh, like, only to stuff that can hear you sing - it doesn't have to have ears but it has to be there, not far away.

"How close does it have to be?"

...it depends how loud you are!

The cat has many more technical questions about magic music and possible defenses against it.

She is not especially well educated. As far as she knows you can fight song with song and win by singing better.

Eventually the cat asks whether she'd be comfortable swearing that what she's said so far in this conversation has been true, since she has this convenient magic for it.

It only works out loud and you don't know the languages I do.

"We can handle translation - it's the same magic as scrying - or you can use your mind-reading to confirm you're not being lied to about the meaning if you want me to give you a wording in Hari."

"I am pretty sure I have not lied to you I so swear."

The cat thanks her.

Her guide wonders if this means the rumors that the imperial government has secret lie-detecting magic aren't true after all. That's disappointing, he totally believed those rumors.

A string of coins appears from apparently nowhere for her, and the cat lets her know she can take them and leave unless she has anything she'd like to say while she's here.

Is there anything else I'm supposed to do here or are you done with me? she asks, taking them and stringing her other rings onto the string and tying it all around her neck as a necklace. The baby chews the nearest bit of the necklace.

"Here in this room, no. Here in this city, someone from the local medical center will probably be waiting outside the maze to talk to you, but you don't have to talk to them if you'd prefer not to. It's a few hours before the next flight back to where you were yesterday, though, assuming you want to take it."

I wasn't attached to the place. It was pretty but here is pretty too.

They're glad she likes their aesthetics.

Whenever she's ready the guide can show her the way back out of the maze.

She follows him agreeably.

As promised there's someone waiting to ask if she'd be interested in testing her healing song and maybe working at the Mar Geru Medical Center depending on how well the song works.

"Sure."

Then they can show her the way to the medical center and while they walk they can explain how they handle patient privacy here and check that she can understand that concept and is willing to work with it.

It is totally new to her and they might have to explain it very slowly.

That's not too surprising for an alien.

"...Okay, so, sometimes people here have secrets. Is that something that happens where you're from?"

...I can read minds, she points out. So can the Maiar.

"And there's no way to hide anything from you or the Maiar with your local magic?"

There is but the orcs don't know how to do it.

"Hm. Why don't they?"

So the Maiar can read their minds.

"And it would... weaken the Maiar's power, if they could keep secrets?"

I guess. I know Melkor can read minds even if people are doing the thing that lets them have private thoughts, anyway.

Well, that's horrible news.

"Does knowing that make people afraid of him?"

Uh, I don't think that's the main reason?

"Oh?"

Yeah I think mostly people are scared of him 'cause of all the torture and murder and stuff.

"Okay, I am going to guess that Melkor is in charge of either all of your planet, or a sizable fraction of your planet, entirely through his own strength and not because a lot of people think he makes good decisions and like having him in charge. Is that right?"

He's so glad he lives in a democracy.

Right.

"Things are different here. Here, it's hard for people to be in charge of huge areas solely on the basis of how strong they personally are, because most people are very powerful. To really rule a large area, you need lots of allies, and you need to offer them something to make it worth their while. For instance, our government pays for certain kinds of medical care. And, basically, the less power you have by yourself, the more you need to get what you want by making deals and helping people. Does that make sense so far?"

I think before Melkor came back that's how orc villages worked.

Came back? Nah, not going to ask about that, that's a digression.

"So maybe not all of this will be completely unfamiliar. In our context, sometimes knowledge can be a kind of strength, especially knowing about other people's weaknesses, like illnesses and injuries. So people are sometimes reluctant to get help, because they don't want to show anyone that anything's wrong. Does that make sense so far?"

If the help is good then there isn't an injury to know about anymore, is there?

"There are some things we can fix that completely but there are others we can't. So far. It might turn out you can do better, but with only our magic a lot of injuries leave scars and a lot of illnesses either leave scars or keep coming back over and over again every time they're treated. That especially happens if we can treat the superficial symptoms but can't fix the root cause."

Are scars secrets?

"Not inherently but some people have scars they prefer to hide." And now he's thinking about someone he knows who wears an illusion over a missing eye. Oops. That's technically already scryable, but it's the principle of the thing. "Especially if they still cause pain or limit range of motion, or if the reason for them is a secret, or that kind of thing. It depends on the person and what they're comfortable with people knowing."

Okay. So, I'm not supposed to talk about who I sing to.

"Right. Is that something you're willing to do if you work for us?"

Is it hard? Are people gonna like, hurt me to get me to say stuff?

"Actually torturing you for the information would be very unusual but I guess I can't guarantee it would definitely never happen. It's much more likely you'd have people trying to intimidate you but unable to follow through, or people trying to trick you into saying something, or trying to get information without you quite having to say it - like if they ask about several people at different times and you say 'no, I didn't sing to Ariu, no, I didn't sing to Seihra, I'm not allowed to tell you whether I sang to Gema' then it's obvious. Or you could have someone try to bribe you, but sometimes those people are actually hired by employers to get you in trouble. But on the whole I wouldn't worry about it, it's pretty unlikely that anything would happen that would seriously harm you."

But if it does happen is the rule that I still can't tell, because I don't know if I want to sing to anybody if I have to do it like that.

"Yes, that's the rule. It might still be worth experimenting with whether you can heal people if they're magically hidden from you, or if recordings work." And nothing bad is likely to happen to her if she wants to work freelance and not be subject to these rules but he's not going to suggest that except for how he just did by thinking of it. Well, she'll have a harder time getting clients that way. But if they can make this work without her knowing anything, and make it very clear she doesn't know anything...

What's a recording?

"A combination of illusion and knowledge magics can show you something that happened in the past or is happening far away. It's how the copies of the laws work; they're all just displaying copies of the real code of laws, so any changes show up immediately." He assumes with as scared as she is of doing anything anyone might disapprove of that she probably looked those up first thing after coming here.

She isn't about to correct him, though probably she should actually get one of those soon. I have no idea if that would work for a song.

"We can experiment with recordings, then." If that works well it could be very disruptive but they won't be able to prevent that by not testing it.

Will that make it hard for me to get a job?

"For some jobs, probably. But if it's not worthwhile to hire you to stand around singing all day it might be worthwhile to hire you to design new songs, if that's how your magic works. And any you haven't sung in public yet you can sell people the chance to record."

I guess. I don't have a lot of magic ones and they take a long time to write.

Wouldn't make any sense for the healing song since it's not worth much if it can't be sung to arbitrary people, but possibly the others she could make not sharing them a condition of learning them. He would maybe not want to mention this if he had a choice about it but here she is reading his mind.

"How long a time?"

Years and years.

"That'd take some very careful budgeting at best. But we don't even know that recordings work."

Maybe she could just sing to deaf people - actually, what if the sound can reach other parts of their body but not their ears? What if they're unconscious? Maybe there's a workable plan there somewhere and maybe he should stop figuring it out for her for free.

I don't know if people here are good enough at singing anyway.

"We can find out. You're still interested in testing it, right, even if you don't expect to want any jobs where you could learn confidential information?"

Yeah!

Then they can do that.

The medical building has areas that are nearly impossible to learn anything about from the outside, and osanwe doesn't work in most of it for mysterious magical reasons. None of the medical professionals who work there can be mind-read. The person handling talking to her tells someone else a few things in Hari and then shows her to the room where they want to do the tests. A very fake-looking illusion of a forest hides one side of the room from view. They want to try various things - what happens if sound is allowed to pass freely through the room? What if no one on either side of the illusion can hear anything from the other side? What if the person on the other side is deaf? What if an illusion of silence has been cast right around their ears? And what about trying all that with a recording? What exactly is the effect on these half dozen illnesses or injuries that will not be described to Beka for patient privacy reasons? What happens if she doesn't know how many people are on the other side of the illusion?

She sings and sings and sings! The song helps slowly but noticeably for the entire time she sings as long as sound reaches the sick or injured person. If the illusion blocks it, it doesn't work. It works fine on a deaf person, or if the illusion of silence is ears-only. The recording works. She can't customize the song and it works worse but still at all when she doesn't know what's wrong. If there are lots of people it works on all of them but best for anyone she's aiming at.

They'd like to make a deal where they use recordings of her singing and she doesn't teach anyone else (or sing healing songs to herself in public where they could be overheard or scried on), and in exchange they'd pay her an amount of rings every month, until the secret leaks or either party wants to end the deal.

Is it... a lot of rings?

The person whose mind she can read on the topic thinks it's not a livable income but since it involves no effort on her part and she wasn't exactly interested in working in medicine it's probably a net positive for her. Some practices would probably pay more than others, and they're probably up there; they're bigger than most, and in a central location where all the complicated intractable cases go, so the song is worth more here than for the average small town medical practice. It's possible she could get a better deal in Elit City or something?

Normally they'd have made a worse opening offer but since she can tell how much they think is fair they just went ahead and offered that much.

Yeah, okay, deal.

Then they'll give her an enchanted item she can use to let them know when she has an address they can send rings to, and half the first month's payment in advance, and then they're done with her for now.

She will go out and buy some food and see about the laws thing, they seem big on laws.

This place has a selection of foods which suggests that they have even more carnivores here. Still no crickets, but there's a small selection of greens and grains near the fruits.

They are big on laws! The laws are available in writing which she could hire someone to read to her. People waiting in the lobby of the government building also occasionally check them or reread them while waiting for appointments, if she waits and listens long enough. The imperial government enforces laws against attacking other people, setting slaves free who can't be expected to understand the law or follow it, trespassing, stealing or damaging other people's belongings, lying in court about whether someone committed a crime, keeping free people out of public places, breaking contracts, and refusing to pay taxes. Each state has other laws, generally about things like the use of public forests and parks or how to build in ways that minimize the risk of fire; people who don't want to follow those are encouraged to find a different state or go somewhere no state has claimed.

What... is a taxes.

Someone nearby is vaguely annoyed that the fisheries tax is so high because this somehow causes fish to be more expensive.

If she asks about it she can find out that at least one person understands taxes to be money you pay to the government when you do things they would kind of rather you didn't do very much of, that they use to pay for public works.

How do you know when you have to pay a tax?

"There are lists of them you can read, like the laws. And you'll get a reminder if you forget."

Oh, okay. That doesn't sound too hard. Now, how does the bunch of rings she has compare to the price of a place to sleep?

It'll do for tonight.

What if she is interested in renting during daylight hours instead?

There's about the same selection and price range during the day. Sometimes literally the exact same selection.

She will sleep during the day if it's at least not more expensive, and then go prowling about for more work. Snakes who want things carried, for instance.

There are snakes, but fewer of them are actively trying to flag down help carrying things. There's a noticeboard with ads on it where the letters glow as if they're warm. One of the ad writers is looking for people to do a lot of calculations; another wants a babysitter who's good with humans.

People are mildly (but only mildly) surprised to see someone her shape out at this hour. Someone who has heard rumors of a mind-reading alien and is looking for an illusion mage to hide their thoughts very briefly wonders if that's her and then instead determinedly wonders about the answers to single-digit addition problems. Someone else notices she doesn't quite look local and wonders if she's in costume for one of those shows all the bipeds like where everyone pretends to be someone they're not.

She has no idea if she is good with human babies. Orc babies are much easier than Elf babies and perhaps human babies are difficult too.

She chases the person wondering about the shows a bit. What kind of show is that exactly -

Answering their thoughts is alarming, they're alarmed.

"...Did you say something?"

Yeah I wanted to know about that kind of show you were thinking of.

Well, that's not any less alarming! Can they even ask for a ring for the answer? Probably not if she can just read the answer in their mind. But they don't really know anything everyone else doesn't, anyway: there are big productions, mostly made down south, where a bunch of people play pretend for an audience, and then lots of people watch the recordings and pretend to believe them. If she's looking for someone who likes those she's in the wrong place at the wrong time, the species that are into that kind of thing mostly live on the other side of the mountains and mostly sleep at night.

This person has a convenient mental map of where on the continent most of those shows are made.

Thanks! How would I get there?

...Flying, probably? From the airport? They're going to go find an illusion mage now.

Thanks again! She goes and checks out the airport situation. Can she afford a trip?

She can!

Then she will go to the faraway land where people do PERFORMANCE ART.

She will!

There's an amount of overlap between people whose thoughts she can read and people who are thinking about how the place they're going is famous for its illusion shows. The airport they land in is in the city where Adamantite Productions is headquartered.

Anavel Sani City, where they land, has somewhat less happening late at night than the capital: more businesses are closed and fewer people are on the streets, and the few places that are open are kept artificially bright. A lot of the people there look a bit like elves - tall, bipedal, pointy-eared, with hands and without fur or fangs.

The baby doesn't like all the brightness but needs must, baby. Where's Adamanite Productions, that sounds promising.

Probably it's at this location at the edge of town with the big metal sign saying "Adamantite Productions" at the front entrance. Most of the area is very hidden but even those parts that aren't appear dark and deserted during the night. They post information about casting calls on the outside wall of one of the buildings; the sky will be getting light before anyone happens to want to come read it, though.

She picks through what she can; she's been soaking up the language for a while now and did go through her language lesson on the flight.

It's... complete gibberish?

It turns out they speak a different language in the south. Or, more accurately, it turns out they speak different languages in communities with different common mouth shapes.

Well that's annoying. She goes for a wander and tries to learn this one.

There are conversations to eavesdrop on. At night some people deal with minor emergencies and some of them talk to each other while doing that, and someone has a conversation with an illusion voice about how peaceful it feels and what the weather will be like tomorrow. In the early morning people start setting up various businesses for the day and talk to each other about that; then people start visiting stores and haggling. There's an illusion mage who's kept busy with people asking for protection from mind-readers just in case certain rumors are true. There's a lot of data to learn from.

Oh good. But is anyone reading the casting calls after she's gotten some breakfast for her and the baby?

Yes! Several people want to read them, in fact.

They're looking for a large number of extras for a crowd of all species but especially the snakes, for a movie set during the warring states period. They're looking for a female caralendar (the vaguely elvish species), preferably between a hundred twenty and a hundred forty years old, for a character who's angry at the world and full of grief. They're looking for a human who speaks fluent Lexori. They're looking for people with experience with interstate commerce to interview for a documentary.

There's one movie looking for people of almost any species to play aliens. They want some extras; they also want a lead who can sound like a female caralendar when speaking, for a character who's full of determination and hope but can be intimidating when necessary.

People can audition somewhere scryable and say the right words to draw the attention of the people who scry for messages to Adamantite Productions, or record their auditions and put copies of them in a specific location to be sorted through later.

She wants to be an alien! She will try something else when she knows the language better. ...she doesn't know the language well enough to complete the audition process. Does anyone around here seem helpful?

Lots of people are willing to be helpful if paid. Some people are willing to consider being helpful for free in case having an alien with alien magic who owes them a favor might come in handy later.

She will owe someone a favor if they seem nice! Or horny!

The intersection of "wants to have sex with her" and "knows things about auditioning for illusion shows" totally contains this guy over here who is weirdly desperate for alien biology reasons but assumes she's not likely to be into random alien guys.

Hi, can you help me figure out how to audition? I'm new and don't know the language but I was thinking I'd audition to be an alien so it won't matter, at first, except for the audition part.

Is she reading his mind? Does she know he got kicked out of - wait, he wants to not think about that if she's reading his mind.

"Uh, I can talk you through it, how much are you offering? - Is this the right way to say that? Do I need to think it at you instead?"

I can read you thinking while you talk! I don't know if they'll hire me so I don't want to run down all my rings right now, do you want to fuck instead?

Creepy. He hopes she isn't insulted that he thinks she's creepy. It's sort of maybe a hot kind of creepy?

"That sounds good, yeah. Do you have a place or should I show you to mine?"

I don't have one yet.

Then she can visit the place he's renting. It's much bigger and better furnished than the ones she's been in so far - there's a mat for sleeping on, and the plumbing is hidden behind a screen with an elaborately detailed swirly design. It looks like it was designed for a humanoid body plan and takes full advantage of the convenience of being able to expect its occupants to have thumbs. He's slightly embarrassed that it's not nicer.

I like it, she assures him, I'm not used to fancy. She stashes the baby in a corner, taking off her shirt in the process rather than fishing her out separately.

She's pretty and her art is cool. The fact that it's made with actual scars makes her intimidating like some pre-imperial warlord and maybe under other circumstances he'd have a reaction to that other than thinking it's hot.

It will not occur to him without prompting that hurting her is a thing he could do, intentionally or by accident. It totally occurs to him that she is probably physically capable of hurting him, but this is how she's paying him for his help so she shouldn't, right?

If he is not into it she is totally capable of figuring out whatever he is into instead and doing that! She is not going to prompt him to hurt her because why would she do that if it's not already on his mind.

That's a big relief. She seems really nice and he wishes she were a caralendar.

He would kind of like to just rest afterward but now he owes her so instead he asks what exactly she expects to need help with for the audition.

I need to know how to pronounce the words to get them to pay attention and then I guess explain I have to audition in person?

"Why do you have to audition in person?"

So I can talk to them!

"...If you can't speak Ilan, how would you pronounce your character's dialog?"

I can say lines if they give me them, just not have a conversation. I'm gonna audition to be an alien so I thought it'd be okay to have an accent?

"It seems like you could have someone feeding you lines for your audition just as easily."

It also seems like she doesn't know how prickly the clans are about people speaking Ilan properly. Then again that's mostly because they resent the northerners who speak Hari and conquered the continent and keep trying to steal their people. And she's not exactly going to speak anything else. He would be considering whether to warn her but now that he's thought about it at all he figures she knows.

I don't speak Hari very well yet either, I haven't been around long. Do you want to feed me lines for my audition?

"I mean, you did hire me to help, right? I could also try to teach you some Ilan - I'd want that to be a separate deal, though. It probably won't help with this audition but eventually it will."

I'll pick it up if you keep talking anyway. What do people say in auditions here?

He can absolutely answer that question.

And she practices, setting the bounce of the words to a little tune in her head to make them stick, till he thinks she has them right.

Most of the sounds of the language aren't new to her, which will probably help. He coaches her insistently on all the aspects of prosody that non-native speakers tend to get wrong. Especially the ones that Hari speakers get wrong.

Regardless of how well she does she won't get immediate feedback on the audition.

How long do you think I should wait to do the scry thing about the callback -

"Tomorrow and then again in a few days if you don't hear from them the first time."

How expensive is it?

"...Honestly you could afford a few scries for what sex usually costs." That's more often than not an understatement. Maybe if there were a lot of spam to wade through it could end up comparably priced. Maybe. It'd have to be quite a lot.

Oh! Is there a usual price? That sounds like a good career plan if acting doesn't work out.

"There is, yeah. I mean, it does depend on who and when and what exactly you want to do, but yeah, down here it's a common enough service to make some generalizations. You'll make more if you have your own place, I think, probably? I'm not sure, it's not a field I've ever worked in."

She'd have to interact with some state laws about limiting the spread of disease if she wants to advertise, and some people think those are annoying enough to put them off the profession - and some people are just not interested, and female humanoids are a lot rarer than the men, and magic can't substitute at all. He figures she can make a lot more than she'd make doing entry-level magic or professionally having hands.

Neat! I'm not making that much off the healing song license.

"...The what song?"

I do magic with songs instead of whatever people around here are doing and they recorded one of those and are using it in a hospital.

"...You have others you don't have any deals about right now, right? Anything interesting?" If there were more things she could be doing with her magic that were obvious to her he assumes she'd be doing them, but he's not sure she won't have just assumed something that's easy for her is easy for one of the local mage types...

The other ones I know that are magic are for looking like the same species as my baby, that was useful where I used to live sometimes, and one for running through trees and one for walking on water. I can write new ones though! The looking like that species one is mine, I don't know yet what would be most useful here though.

The baby is adopted? That's probably not an important part of it to ask about.

"Tell me about the running through trees and walking on water?" She's probably not going to be able to improve on flying but it's not impossible.

She's not adopted, it's just - it's complicated. She's mine. I've never actually run through a forest or walked on water but I know the songs for them.

"Would you stop being able to do those things as soon as you stopped singing? And how fast can you move while you're doing that?"

The chance the water-walking could help with hurricane prevention or fishing is pretty small, but he'd feel dumb if he didn't at least try to double-check that. He has no idea what exactly the tree one could be useful for but he vaguely thinks maybe a farmer would know.

It's not all that likely that any of these would be the best thing she could do, but everything's worth a look. Especially if there's any chance he can wind up getting a cut of the profits somehow.

I think they only work while you're still singing.

"Sounds pretty limited."

I guess, yeah, but singing is fun!

Music is also a thing there's a market for, even if it's not magical.

The snatches of songs in his mind come from a musical tradition that appeals to caralendri, mostly to the exclusion of other species although there's some notable partial overlap with human taste.

"You could maybe get a job singing but I don't know much about how."

Maybe somebody else will know. I haven't been here very long, it's fine I haven't figured out everything I'll need to know yet.

Scrying reveals that Beka tentatively has a part. They want her to show up shortly before dawn on this specific date for it, and before then at her convenience she should stop by and pick up a copy of the script (shielded from scrying) which she can read from and practice in a hidden location. If the general public becomes aware of the contents of the script because of her they probably won't want to work with her again.

Do they not understand the part where she can't read the local language yet? She will try going to the location and seeing if there is anyone there.

(The scrier thinks they probably expect her to get help secretly, but isn't really sure, they've never worked in show business.)

There is someone there. Their thoughts are hidden.

"Hello," she says. "I'm the orf." This she knows how to say.

She sure is. Here is a script for her.

She's just going to assume they want her to separately hire someone to help her read it. She will go... hang out in a crowded place till someone literate wants money.

This caralendar man is looking for the alien. He's horribly nervous about having his mind read but he thinks he can avoid thinking about the wrong things and he really wants to talk to her. And he's literate.

...What do you want?

Eep!

To know more about your world and your technology and mathematics, in case you've discovered anything we haven't.

He doesn't say, but can't keep himself from thinking, that none of the things he knew existed last week were the opportunity he wants, so all that's left is to investigate something new.

I want somebody to read me this script. Trade you some questions for that?

Yes.

He can set up an illusion for privacy anywhere there's space. He was sort of hoping to have the conversation on the beach but anywhere works.

The beach is good! The ocean is pretty.

It sure is. He finds them a nice spot.

You know I'm not planning to cheat you, he thinks, bringing to mind his understanding of the value of trustworthiness in iterated games, and I don't know the same about you so you should answer my questions first. Right?

...I guess, okay.

Are there any valuable tools or inventions you know of that you haven't seen since coming here?

Magic songs, apart from the one I sold to the hospital. Also I guess I haven't seen anyone going around with swords and bows and stuff but I figured maybe that was not being at war.

He has seen blades, but not swords, and not bows. They seem sort of unimpressive compared to magic. And you use those for war? How?

I wasn't personally in the army but you stab or slash people with swords and use bows to shoot arrows into people.

He can see how that would be useful, although not game-changing next to what Har has already. What about other fields, like... farming, ocean husbandry, weather control, or anything that makes your homes more comfortable?

I think Elves have farming songs! There weren't any farms where I lived so I don't know any. I could maybe write one if I knew more about farming. Or husbanding the ocean. Or weather. We didn't have that where I lived either.

Didn't have weather, or didn't have weather control?

Farming songs might be useful but not especially useful to him in particular. But maybe if she can write songs for arbitrary magic...? He's not sure if he can pay for songwriting, though.

Didn't have weather. Most of the fortress was underground. It takes a really long time to write a song, I don't want to work on something I don't even care about for a real long time and not have money before that.

Well, this isn't great so far. Still possible she'll know something useful about math but that'll be harder for him to turn into rings.

What about mathematics? Do you have, say, a really precise idea of the ratio of a circle's circumference to its radius?

I don't think I ever really thought about circles very much.

They're actually very interesting and sometimes I work as a math tutor but anyway how do I read you the script? Do I just read it and you read my mind?

Yeah! Out loud please, I need to pronounce it.

He reads. He tries not to get distracted thinking about the scientific plausibility of the planets, but some of them aren't very plausible and he finds this pretty noticeable.

By local standards the plot is dark and brutal, which means as many as five of the characters are implied to have ever been tortured. One of the alien races is notable for not dying of old age, unlike real people.

Huh! She doesn't comment on this but makes thoughtful faces. She repeats the lines, concentrating on which bits it makes sense to emphasize for the feel of the line she's going for.

Eventually it is time for her to go perform.

She shows up bright and early to be costumed and find a box or something to stash the baby in while she works.

They do most of the costuming with illusions, which they scrutinize very carefully.

This guy over here who's doing extremely routine spell adjustments at a not terribly frantic pace behind some soundproofing would really love to watch the baby for her for a minute or several.

Hi there! Want to keep half an eye on my baby? She's super quiet and I think breakfast'll hold her all day, you won't have to do much.

"Absolutely, is she about like other humanoids that size?" He tries to call to mind traits of caralendar and human babies in case that makes any major differences obvious.

Less cranky. She'll make a face like this, she sends a mental image, if she's not comfy, she won't cry unless something's really wrong. She likes to gnaw on things and she has eight teeth.

Yep, he can handle that. He can even find her a chew toy when there's a quieter minute in which to do so.

And then Beka will be very busy acting out several versions of each scene.

She is pretty good at this and has acting experience and also depending on the director's life choices might be able to read their mind for notes!

The director's mind is not readable. It's common knowledge among people whose minds Beka can read that the director wishes she could have actors reading her mind but unfortunately she has secrets to keep.

Then Beka will have to get her notes by reading other people listening to the director since she will not be able to understand her directly. She will still try her best even though she's pretty sure she will not be beaten up for wrecking a hallucination if she flubs a line here.

It does not even cross anyone's mind that beating would be a possible response to flubbing a line.

They take a long break of several hours in the middle of the day and pick up again in the evening. They'll want her back again tomorrow and every day for the next month or so.

Fun! She collects her baby during the break and again when they cut for the day.

Once she speaks the local language fairly well, someone approaches her about the possibility of doing an interview for their news program.

"What's a news program?"

"...You know, an illusion of interesting things you've scried, with people who understand the big picture explaining them and why they're important? Like, what a storm that's coming looks like and someone talking about how much of it they expect the hurricane prevention teams to be able to take care of and when to expect what's left of it to hit the coast."

"I don't know how to change the weather."

"Yes, that's the sort of thing people are interested in hearing about you. Among other things. It's not every day we get immigrants with a thirteenth type of magic."

"Oh. Will you pay me?" She's getting the hang of this "money" thing.

They'll definitely do that.

Then sure, she will go on the program!

They have a lot of questions. Some of them she's answered before, but maybe now people will stop asking the same things as often.

They want to know about her magic, especially lots of details about osanwe. They want to know anything she can tell them about how she got here and her plans now that she's here. They want to know if there's anything she likes about the empire, or especially about Anavel Sani. They want to know if there's anything she misses from her home. They want to know about the species that live there and what sort of sun her planet has (...and if it doesn't, then they'd like to know if she happens to know how there came to be life there). They want to hear what she thinks of the local languages and how she learned Ilan so fast. They're interested to know whether she's noticed the atmosphere or gravity being different, and whether she's noticed any way physics is different here.

They spend more time questioning her than the length of the segment but that's what editing is for.

She can tell them about magic songs and about osanwë! There is a way to keep your thoughts private selectively but it's sort of complicated and you have to practice a lot and nobody could confirm you had it right but her. She is planning to raise her baby, who back home was stolen from her! She likes the idea of money, that's real neat, and how things are sometimes pretty, and her acting job. She misses her family, all sixteen foster siblings and two foster parents of it. There are orcs like her baby and Elves like her birth parents and just the one orf, herself, at this time, and Dwarves also exist she guesses but she doesn't know much about them. Her planet has no sun, she's pretty sure, but she only has this secondhand because she has never seen its sky; reportedly the Elf gods' continent has glowing trees but the regular continents just have stars. She thinks it might be faster to learn languages when you can read minds maybe, it doesn't seem too fast to her. The air smells different but that's probably because they have things like plants and bodies of water around. She thinks gravity and physics are about the same.

Truly a fascinating planet.

"Do you have a mail label for unsolicited messages? Most people who are interested in scrying those look for their full names but I suppose you wouldn't."

"I don't have a mail thing. I don't really know much about how to hire people to do scrying stuff and all that yet? But yeah where I'm from you have to earn a name and I didn't do that."

"What an interesting custom. How did you talk about specific people?"

"We'd keep track of what nicknames everybody had for everybody else, for people we were close to, like I called one of my sisters Teeth but if my brother called her Jaws I knew who he was talking about. Otherwise it'd be like 'my tattoo guy' or 'the lady with the big scar on her eye'."

They have a couple more questions and afterward they pay her for her time and let her know how she can get her own copy of this month's episodes of South Coast News And Weather.

"Thanks!" She will go ahead and get her copy mostly for novelty value.