Something about this nature of this place is attuned to the wind, however, because the wind doesn't flutter meekly about her skirts, and it doesn't die down. Instead it curls around her in a tight spiral, and then turns and races outward across the grass, vanishing into the distance.

POM

Other than wind, the things that stand out about this place are: bright, noon-time sunlight; an endless sea of rich green grass; a complete lack of trees and other structures;

POM

... and a deep, slow thumping that seems to rattle the earth.

She looks around curiously. A part of her was expecting to arrive near people but she's up for a bit of a walk. The thrumming is a bit more of a concern. She's also not sure if the wind was a dramatic part of her arrival or something about this place.

She has powers though she wants to experience those. She closes her eyes for a moment and her attention turns to her new inner world. She's standing on a wooden dock looking out at a lake and a distant shore. Over to the side she can see a rope swing hanging from a massive tree and behind her there's a cozy little house nestled among more trees. There's a kayak on one side of the dock that she could put in the water if she wanted.

Opening her eyes again, she looks down at her dress and it changes colors ane patterns a few times there's a white design with pink flowers, a swirly design with turquoise and light blues, a deep black with the sparkles like stars and then she returns to her original dark blue. The design shifts to, she ends with a strapless number that fits better than any strapless dress she's tried before. Clothing magic is wonderful.

What else to try... Oh right kid mode. It takes a few seconds to think in the right direction but she shrinks down to the size and shape of a child. She does a little spin with her new smaller shape.

And then returns to her adult form.

As a final test she sings a little in keys higher and lower than she could have ever reached before. That's a nice bonus. Her soundtrack kicks in to give her an instrumental accompaniment only she can hear.

Having these powers is fantastic.

And her soundtrack is supposed to be able to predict things just a little. She tries walking a few places in a few different directions to see if there's a hint in the music that one of the directions is better to walk in than another.

Yes, actually. If she goes too far in the direction of the sun, the strings pick up a subtle tension, as though building up to a dramatic crescendo. Stepping back away from the sun makes them resolve it back into a pleasant pastoral melody. Walking too far in that direction makes the music die down and become less lively. Walking perpendicular to the direction of the sun doesn't appear to have a detectable effect.

POM

Also, the thumping seems to be setting the tempo. And it's ... possibly a bit louder?

Well that's a pretty strong signal that the story is to be found by walking towards the sun. Is she ready to start the story?

Well if she's walking straight into the sun she'll want something to help with that. She manifests a small ring that gives her the benefits of a sun visor and sunglasses. She relaxes a bit now that she doesn't need to worry about the glare.

The tension does have her a little worried. She could try to make herself some sort of armor but without knowing more it might not work. She'll trust in the music there's tension there but it doesn't sound ominous.

Off to the next chapter in her story.

The grassland is ... repetitive. There are hills, but mostly there is grass.

As her path takes her around the base of one hill, however, she abruptly spots an explanation for the thumping: a giant turtle, perhaps a mile across, back encrusted with buildings. Brightly colored ropes dangle from the edge of its shell to brush along the grass. It's a little hard to judge its precise size and speed without some better reference, but it's path is easier to divine.

It's headed right toward her.

She just stares for a long moment. A city on the back of a turtle. That's both incredible and also a little intimidating.

Well it seems like the story wants her to get on the turtle. Can she see any ladders or similar signs of a way to do that? She can pull some binoculars from a previously non-existent pocket if she needs to.

Also is the thumping getting stronger? Does it seem like it's going to knock her off her feet?

It is getting stronger (and sending waves of motion through the grass), but the thumping is regular enough that it's a bit like having sea-legs: after a period of adjustment she should be fine.

The binoculars reveal that the ropes hanging from the shell are knotted around regularly-spaced wooden crosspieces, which seems to suggest that people can be expected to climb on as the turtle is in mid-stride.

Well... Hollow Legs is supposed to make her as athletic as a normal person can be when she needs it. She can at least try it.

She manifests a second ring to give herself at least some protection from a bad fall. Enough to hopefully avoid any broken bones or a concussion. And then she steels herself and makes for the nearest rope.

As she gets closer to the turtle, two facts become apparent. One, that it is only moving at a fast jog, so she can, with some effort, get out of its path and circle around to one of the ladders. And two, that it's big.

"City on the back of a turtle" doesn't really do a good job of conveying the visceral sense of scale one gets from being loomed over by a creature that has districts.

The most difficult part of climbing the ladder proves just to be catching it — maintaining an equal pace while running alongside the creature, and then jumping for one of the ropes. Once she's done that, it's more or less a normal rope ladder, although a bit wobbly. And whisking her over the tops of the grasses at a fast jog.

Yeah that's huge, especially with the music to emphasize the experience she has to just pause a little to process. But then she refocuses.

She hasn't run seriously in years but jogging she can manage she might even have been able to manage it without powers. She's a little surprised the ladder isn't swinging more but she doesn't spend much time focusing on how fortunate that is. She climbs.

The top of the ladder lets out at a sort of set of docks built along the edge of the shell. While the place is fairly empty at the moment, there are clear places for cargo to be stacked, and some manually driven cargo-cranes with thick ropes.

There is also a wall between her and the city proper, albeit one with a lot of doors. A sign on the wall points to the one open door, in which a bored-looking young man in neat blue clothing lounges while reading a book.

Beyond the wall, the buildings of the city rise with the turtle's shell, the sounds of industry and the smell of strange markets mixing and floating to her on the constant breeze.

She smiles, people and bureaucracy may not be quite the same everywhere but they rhyme. She probably doesn't speak the local language but that's what Omniglot is for.

"Hello." She doesn't wave but a closed mouth smile is probably going to convey friendliness.

He carefully marks his place in his book and looks up at her. He smiles a customer-service smile.

"Hello," he echos.

"You to Terrance what today brings?"

That's a more open question than she was hoping for.

"I," she gestures to herself, "Terrance today see," she gestures to her eye. "I to Terrance today bring."

... right.

He switches languages.

"? You more comfortably speak the-language-of-the-water-walkers?"

It's good that he speaks multiple languages but that's going to make this harder.

Maybe she can cludge something together though.

"You. You." She uses both languages words for you to attempt to demonstrate an understanding of what they mean she also gestures in his direction.

"You to more comfortably speak I today brings." She still doesn't have a first person pronoun so she uses English for that and again gestures to herself as she says it.

He blinks at her.

He knows the words of the forest because he's human. He knows the language of the water walkers because it's a lingua franca for traders. But he's not some endless repository of languages who is going to be able to guess what weird thing she speaks. He can't even wind-whistle and he lives on a turtle.

"So only Forest the-langugae-of-the-water-walkers and I speak. Either of those you can pick, my boss who could help I call you can wait or."

Oh good a first person pronoun.

"I could speak. You, you boss or could help."

"You could speak? You right-now can't speak but?"

He squints at her.

"Language-learning your special-talent is?"

Something about the grammar clicks for her.

"Should I just try to ask my questions, and you'll pick things up as I go?"

She smiles wider "Language-learning is my special talent," she confirms. It's not precisely accurate but it's close enough. "I pick up things as you go."

"Okay! So my first question was: what brings you to Terrance. And what I really need to know by that is: are you here for a specific purpose, such as trading or accessing our library, or are you wandering?"

As he speaks, he reaches around the side of the door and comes back with a two-inch-square bamboo token.

"I am wandering. I did not know about the library before. I want to access the library now that I know. I like libraries."

He nods.

"It's a good library! We're proud of it."

He mentally works through his flowchart.

"Are you carrying any incendiaries, magical artifacts, or trade goods with a value exceeding 10,000 resh?"

She's not sure how to answer that. She's not carrying incendiaries and she can't share her cosmetic equipment so it might not count. She isn't currently carrying anything that valuable but she does have Pocket Dimension so she could easily change that.

"I'm not carrying incendiaries. I can't say a thing that isn't yes or no. I don't know the value of 10,000 resh."

He'll answer the easier question first.

"10,000 resh would buy about 300 tael of silver."

He holds his hands about ten centimeters apart and mimes a cube.

"Or forty pounds of merfolk tears. Or, like, my weight in bread."

Merfolk tears being available in large amounts is a bit concerning.

The question is whether she wants to tell them about Pocket Dimension. She settles on something that's not quite explaining but will hopefully answer the question.

"I could have more but I will trade less."

Argh. This is going to be one of the complicated cases.

"It's not about how much you want to trade, it's about how much you're carrying. Terrance is a reputable trading hub — the merchant's association carries a limited amount of theft insurance in the name of promoting trade. If you want to enter with more than 10,000 resh of trade goods, you either need to buy supplemental theft insurance or waive your right to make claims against the merchant association's policy."

He leans in a little.

"I recommend the supplemental insurance. I won't tell anyone you're carrying that much, but you're, uh."

He glances at her sundress.

"Clearly traveling light. So whatever you have must be small and valuable, which means easily stolen."

She giggles at that. "I am hard to steal from. I have magic for that. I can maybe pay insurance anyway but I don't know the value of what I carry."

Dolen rubs his forehead. So she either has magic artifacts or is a wizard.

"... right. Are you a wizard?"

He's not technically supposed to ask that, but if she is then he might be able to avoid the whole artifact-registration thing.

"I'm not a wizard but I have other magic in me. If I met a wizard I could learn to be a wizard." Maybe she's disclosing too much but she doesn't want to go around with careful lies or omissions.

"... are you human?"

He's not supposed to ask that either, but that is ... not a thing that humans can do. Unless she "language learning" is hilariously underselling the power of her special talent.

"Uh, not that there's a problem if you're a shapeshifter," he quickly backpedals. "Terrance welcomes all species except dragons and water-walkers, the latter because they're at too much risk of falling off and the former because they're too heavy. If you're a dragon you should probably go talk to him about it, honestly."

So the giant turtle is a person. This reminds her of the beehive thing.

"I'm a human who has been changed by something more than a dragon. I can shapeshift some."

At this point he should really summon his boss to sort this all out because this is clearly above his paygrade even if she's not exactly a wizard. But his boss is a stickler, and she probably wouldn't make it into the city without filling in about fifty forms.

"Okay. So do you want me to try and do an appraisal of whatever you're carrying, for insurance purposes, or do you want to waive your right to make a theft insurance claim in light of being hard to steal from?"

His tone of voice expresses a certain amount of hope that she's going to pick the second option, if only because if he has to appraise a "maybe magical artifact" he will definitely have to summon his boss.

"I'll waive my right." Having something stolen mostly doesn't matter. It might matter for sentimental things but the money won't matter in that case.

He makes a note on a clipboard hanging by the door.

"Okay — that just leaves the matter of magical artifacts. Are you carrying any? Where, for the purpose of this question a 'magic artifact' is any item which, if someone else came into possession of it, would allow them to cause a magical effect?"

Oh that's works. "No. I'm not carrying anything like that."

Dolen sighs in relief. Either that was remarkably straightforward or she's started lying, and in neither case is it his problem.

"Great."

He hands her the bamboo token.

"Space on Terrance is limited, so he imposes a per-head tax of 100 resh per week. In the name of trade, the merchant's association has graciously agreed to waive the first week's tax for new arrivals to the city. Keep this token with you. If you lose it, you can inquire at the clerk's office about a replacement. If you leave before a week is up, you can just hand the token to one of the guards on the way out. If you leave after a week, they'll calculate the number of partial weeks you stayed past your arrival and tax you on exit. If you decide to become a permanent resident of Terrance, you'll need to provide this token to the city clerk along with your application."

He says this with the practiced cadence of a man who has said this multiple times a day for a year and a half.

"Water is currently being rationed until Terrance reaches the next lake, so please be mindful of your use. We should have plenty, but nobody likes the price spikes if we have to import rainclouds."

"Fire magic, weather magic, and necromancy involving non-relatives are all strictly prohibited within city limits. As are theft, murder, and a list of other crimes which you may view upon request in the city clerk's office. Knowing the law is your responsibility. Thank you for visiting Terrance, and I hope you enjoy your stay. Can I give you directions to anywhere to help you on your way?"

"The city clerk's office. Also directions to the library and somewhere to stay if the clerk office won't give those."

"The city clerk's office is about 500 meters headward of here and 100 meters hubward."

He points down a broad road running along the inside of the wall.

"It's the big green building with the horn in the bellfry. And the clerk's office will certainly give you more directions, but the library is at the highest point of Terrance's shell, and there are many fine inns and boarding establishments throughout the city."

And he's not allowed to recommend any of them since the boss started cracking down on bribery.

"Thanks. I appreciate all the help you gave me." She puts the token in her pocket and if he's watching very closely he might notice that there's no outline of it visible. Then she steps through the door and into Terrance proper. She starts walking towards the clerk's office. If she's supposed to follow the laws she wants to know what they are.

The majority of people here are human. But 'the majority' is far from 'all', and even among the humans there's a certain amount of variety. As she walks along the street, she sees people wearing trim linen clothes fastened with wooden buttons, people wearing long coats made from wool, people wearing crop-tops and loose cotton pants, and one person who is completely obscured by fog. She passes what appears to be a miniature sky-scraper full of people with wings about three inches high. She sees a long, narrow silver fish swimming over the rooftops, apparently pulling a train of clouds behind it.

It's a bit hard to tell what area of the city this is, the architecture being a weird mix of warehouses and shops. There are no street vendors, but there are colorful wooden signs with pictorial representations hanging above the shops. In most cases, it's easy to figure out what a place is selling, but a few of the pictures, such as a circle covered in eyes, are a bit more puzzling.

She looks around in wonder. She tries not to stare at anyone but who exactly is a person isn't clear to her. The eye covered circle is intriguing. Inside her mind, she goes to find some paper and starts drawing a rudimentary map. Juggling the two tasks is a little hard so she pauses a few times somewhere that doesn't seem to be in the way.

A local would tell her that you can usually tell people by the fact that they're wearing clothes and using tools or language. Then again, Terrance himself doesn't wear clothing unless the whole city counts, so it's not a perfect rule.

For her part, she doesn't seem to attract a second glance from anyone except a small ragamuffin child who turns and whistles into a drainpipe when she passes, and a cat who regards her with some mixture of disdain and hunger.

The city clerk's office is right where it is supposed to be. It is almost violently green, presumably in an attempt to stand out from the surroundings because no other nearby building has been quite so bold with its coloration.

Great! Is the entrance obvious? If so she'll go in.

The entrance is fairly obvious: a big set of double doors at the top of some steps.

Inside, the room is divided in two by a long counter, at which three clerks sit. Two are occupied, but the free one waves her over as she comes in.

"Hello — what can I help you with today?" she asks, setting aside a sheet of paper covered in densely-packed numbers.

To the left, a man with a comically large backpack is arguing with the next clerk about the valuation of moleskins.

"I'm a new arrival and the person who welcomed me said I should learn what rules I'm supposed to follow here."

She sits up straighter and then turns to rifle through a stack of documents.

"You would be amazed how many people don't do that," she tells her. "I think you might be the first person to actually come for a reference this month."

She finishes her rummaging and comes up with a pamphlet.

"We have a complementary pamphlet covering the laws that apply to non-residents. If you cannot read, I am prepared to read it to you. If you want access to the full legal archive including case law, there's a 25 resh fee. If you want to speak to a legal professional about your obligations while on Terrance, I can sell you a copy of the merchant association's services directory for 150 resh, to cover copying costs, or recommend that you go to the market and peruse the central directory there."

"If most people manage without the pamphlet I think I'll skip the case law or legal professionals. Also, I don't actually have any resh on me. Is there a reliable way to trade for currency?"

"I can trade for silver or gold at a markup on yesterday's prices, but you can generally get a better rate in the market," Laniel informs her. "I cannot take mole skins as payment for city services at this time."

The man to the left shoots her a glare, but she keeps her eyes fixed on Sapphire with a slight smile.

She smiles a little at that. "I don't mind paying more for the convenience if there's something I need to buy from you. What other sorts of services do you offer?"

"You can convert currency, pay taxes, apply for a residency license, certify a document, or file a complaint," she replies. "I can also do more things for residents of the city, but you probably aren't interested in getting a fire permit. I can also give directions to various places in the city and help you with general questions, but those services are free."

"I think I'm good then. I could probably use directions to that central directory you mentioned. Otherwise I'll go review the pamphlet outside and come back to ask if I have questions I think you might be able to answer."

"It's always so nice to see someone who respects clerks' time," she remarks. "The central directory is posted in the center of the main market square, which is just tailward of the library, near the top of Terrance's shell. Look for the large open space surrounded by tie downs. And I hope you enjoy your stay!"

She feels a little bad for the mole skin guy but she's new enough that helping him isn't an urgent priority. "You're welcome and thanks."

She goes outside and reads through the pamphlet. Are there other things that she needs to know that weren't in the abridged list?

Terrance is the official head of government — which is probably fair, given that she's standing on him — and can theoretically make arbitrary edicts, but in practice mostly doesn't bother. Fraud, including selling certain things as 'authentic' without a license, is prohibited. Assault is fairly broadly defined, but has a component of intentionality. Bumping into people doesn't count. Knowingly walking around in a fairy or pixie plaza without extreme care does. Breeding breezes is illegal without a license, as is the sale of certain classes of magical artifact. There's a whole slew of regulations that only apply to her if she rents a market stall. Other than that, it's the sort of common-sense laws that you get in any civilized place.

So there aren't any sort of rules about what clothing you wear or how much of it you wear? She won't strip naked immediately but it's worth thinking about.

Well with that out of the way she puts the pamphlet in her pocket so it can disappear and starts walking towards the market and the library. It's convenient that those are close together.

As she gets away from the edge, it becomes increasingly apparent that this is because Terrance is densely urbanized. He's large, but cities are pretty large too. Away from the edge of his shell, the crowds become fairly close-packed. The square in front of the library, in particular, is highly trafficked, as people make their way up or down the avenue that runs along Terrance's spine, which splits in two to flow around the library like a stream.

The library itself is a much flatter building than the others she has seen — equally tall, but with a wider base. It, too, is painted that violent shade of green that seems to stand for officialdom.

Interesting. She'll head for the library first if there's a fee for using it she'd like to know that before starting to sell metal or gems for currency.

The entrance to the library opens into a room with a desk and a prominent sign.

The sign reads:

Welcome to Terrance's Library. You are welcome to read the books within, and so long as no damage comes to them, no damage will come to you. Policy enforced by defenestration.

Donations gratefully accepted.

On the desk is a smaller desk, behind which sits a four-inch tall person with wings and a tight grey bun. They appear to be reading a leaf.

Huh, so no fee. She'll take the opportunity to read a little then.

"Hello. Do you work here?"

Bwittertree glances up from their correspondence.

"Yes — I'm senior librarian Bwittertree. Can I help you find anything?"

"Yes thank you, I'm wondering if there's books about all the kinds of people there are and also if there's maps of the world."

Bwittertree nods.

"Human-scale books are accessible on all the levels with human-scale stairs. Don't try and crawl into the smaller sections; ask a librarian to fetch the relevant books for you. The main reference section is down that hall and to your right, Terrance's left. There should be a set of atlases in the section labeled 'Geography'. For species of the world, you'll want the natural philosophy section, which is one human-scale staircase up from there."

"I'm sure you saw the sign — but please do be careful with the books. If you tear, fold, mutilate, smudge, crinkle, or lose one, we will find out and it will be more pleasant if we find out from you. The choice of which window you leave the library by in that case is up to me. If you fess up and pay for a replacement, I will choose one on the ground floor."

"If you want to borrow any books, I will need some documents and a large deposit, but there are reading rooms at the central area of each floor that you may use so long as you are quiet. Please leave any tamed breezes either outside or bottled. Once you're finished with a book, if you're not certain about where you got it from, put it on a reshelving cart. We would much rather reshelve your books than have to track down a missing one because you put it back in the wrong place."

The defenestration thing is weird. "Don't damage the books got it. Is there any sort of fee I'm supposed to pay before copying one of the books? For that matter is copying things a service that the library would pay for?"

Bwittertree blinks at her.

"Is this your special talent, the application of an artifact, or were you planning to sit in the reading room for six months with a stack of paper and a quill?"

She shakes her head.

"To actually answer your question: there is no fee because it hasn't come up. If you start copying excessively then Terrance will likely look more favorably on it if you also make a donation in kind of some copies to the library. And yes, we would be willing for copies to be made of specific books, provided the copies were accurate."

"It's one of the special talents I have yes." Part of one but the details don't master that much.

That's a very weird answer.

"Well, wizardry is not forbidden in the library," she conceeds. Mostly because Terrance recognizes that he can't reasonably ask the librarians to defenestrate a wizard, but it counts.

"If you give me a few minutes, I can draw up a list of what books we would most appreciate copies of. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I am a little curious what a wizard is I've just started learning this language today so I'm not clear on some of the intricacies. Otherwise no, should I wait here for you?"

"A wizard is someone who can learn general magic beyond their special talent," Bwittertree replies. "If you have learned multiple special talents, you are certainly a wizard. Although if you haven't been to one of the wizard's colleges you may hear people call you a 'hedgewizard', instead."

"And no, there's no need to wait. I'll write up the list and set it aside for you to pick up once you've finished your research," they assure her. It doesn't do to keep wizards waiting.

It's not worth quibbling about how her powers work. She will be able to learn other people's special talents if she wants and whatever being a wizard usually is she can be that too. No wonder the person at the gate was confused.

"Thank you." She goes off towards where the books about types of people are.

The natural philosophy section is ... fairly poor by the standard of a modern library, but opulent by the standard of a place that has not yet invented the printing press. There are three bookshelves full of monographs, treatises, and compilations. There are also a pair of worn leather armchairs and a window to let in some light to read by. One of the chairs is occupied by one of those long silver fish, who is reading a book on a little stand and turning pages with tightly controlled puffs of air.

There is nothing that handily identifies itself as a complete guide to local sentient species, but there are books titled: Beyond the Mountains and Who I Found There, The Historical Populations of Sea-Peoples, The Hypothetical Subterranean People, A Population Census of the Unified Territories, and many more.

Alright, she'll gently pick a book and start reading. She'll try starting with the census. A part of her wants to pick up every book but that would be very marked and she probably wouldn't read most of them. So she'll refrain at least for the moment.