"I think I'm getting mixed up by how you're presenting this, as a mix of - evidence you've collected, your conclusions and speculations from that evidence, and things I can observe in the modern day which fit or don't fit your model in various ways, and propose that we figure out some less messy structure to get me up to speed."

"Fair enough. That will go much easier if and when I have all of my notes on it available. They are mostly up north." 

"That's reasonable. In the short term it seems like all I need to know is not to wander anywhere obviously god-y, watch out for extremely religious people, temple of Astera in particular is fine?"

"It ought to be though I suppose I am not certain. I think covering all the context right away is not a requirement for your short-term safety in this city in particular, though I will still feel more comfortable if I am nearby." Smile. "Possibly that has as much to do with the fact that I enjoy your company." 

"That's the mind control talking, I'm very tiresome." She takes his hand as they tug the cart out of the dormitory.

Probably they can navigate a heavy-laden cart safely while holding hands, especially with magic and Fetching. "Fortunately I suppose we will never know if I am tiresome, since the mind control would not let you notice either." 

"Are all your employees very intimidated and wouldn't tell you?"

"I hope not all of them are too intimidated - honestly, I hope that Vanyel at least is not too intimidated - but I might not know about that either. I think Nayoki has told me at least five times that I was irritating her, though, so perhaps I am not doomed on this front." 

"He thought it was so funny that you had a 'sweetheart'. Which might not mean specifically that he's intimidated, I guess."

"One might think if he were sufficiently intimidated he would not want to make a comment like that at all." 

"I think I lend you the opposite of consequence."

Chuckle. "Perhaps that will prove helpful!" 

"It might! Which, uh, prompts the question of why exactly this happened to us in the first place, I'm going to want to give all your theology evidence a kinda thorough going-over."

"Very sensible of you. You may well see things I have missed because - already having an interpretation can colour observations and make it difficult to notice other possible interpretations." 

"Yeah, I'm sort of concerned you've gotten wedged into a particular frame. I'll double-check you when you've got your notes."

"All right. It seems likely I ought to Gate back and retrieve them sooner then." 

"Ow," she says preemptively. "Well, needs must."

"Sorry. I will be much quicker this time! Or I suppose you could come too for the duration, it ought take less than an hour." 

"...yeah, I think I'll come."

"Maybe you will help me to be less intimidating to my employees! I suspect I will earn a great many odd looks." 

"I bet. 'Ah, our boss who never makes facial expressions has brought home a girl two orders of magnitude younger than him and I think I saw him smile!'"

"I am fairly sure I make facial expressions! When you are not around, even." 

"The only time I've seen you when you did not know me to be around was when you were staring at Vanyel like a dour painting."

"You will have to find an example of a dour painting to show me so that I can see what you mean." 

"I'll let you know if I run into one."