"Sorry to spring this all on you first day."

"Might as well be now, if it was going to happen anyway."

"True! And it's good to know what you're getting into, though I promise I'm not usually so boring."

"I'm more willing to believe you're a lawyer now, anyway."

Laugh. "No one ever believes me! I have no idea why!"

"It might be the guitar."

"Ah, yes, the violin is a far more lawyer-y instrument, that's true."

"I was thinking more a harmonica. Fits in a briefcase."

"Not very refined! But you could certainly sneak it into court..."

"Perfect for a surprise attack."

Giggle. "Excuse me, your honor, I have a very important interruption..."

Terrible fake harmonica noises.

She laughs.

"Or something to that effect, anyway."

"Any judge would acquit."

"Of course."

Fond smile. "Now I'm tempted to actually do that..."

"Make sure the stenographer gets it down accurately."

"Of course!"

Smile.

The next little while goes well. Villanelle works with Ellie on figuring out her existing spells, initially, and teaches her the history and theory and uses of those spells. She teaches her about the ship - how to identify when there's problems, how to navigate, how to help with repairs. She teaches her the broad swathes of what planes are important, and what the many peoples of the planes are like. She focuses, some, on dragons and their history, and helps Ellie figure out which type of dragon might be in her bloodline. So far the miscellaneous other things are a small share of it all, though Villanelle hardly neglects anything. Villanelle also has her help look up laws for her work, and teaches her how to use magic for chores.

The first port's close enough to Earth that Ellie gets to stretch her legs after only a bit over a week, and then Villanelle's steering them toward the first of the historical sites she wants to investigate (the site of an old military installation, destroyed and rendered mostly useless in one of Aitania's ancient wars).

"Seems like people would have picked over the site already."

"There'd been dangerous magical energies up until recently, and really intensely when it was still a remembered site; some of it's still enough of a problem I'll be running the helm constantly. I'm also not really counting on finding much more than a few clues..."

"Ah."

"Still - it's a good point that other scavengers might've gotten here before us, or might even still be here."