"I don't think the cats are people. They don't have fylgja and they still act... Catty. Worth checking, I suppose. Mind talking about what kind of magic you used to have? And I'm wondering how you lost it. I can imagine that happening to one of us but I don't know anyone it's happened to."

"I used to have real combat magic. Now the best I can do is fling heavy things using Levitate. Or use my pistol, of course. It's enchanted, so it's a decent second-best, but..." She frowns. 

"As for how I lost it... It's more like I refined it and stripped it down to reach something that was entirely part of me and would work anywhere."

"Our magic comes from the gods. Freyja and Odin most of all. If yours is innate to your own soul, that is impressive."

"There were gods where I came from too. They gave power to their chosen followers, when they prayed to them and lead their lives in their service. Then there were the people like me, with sorcery inborn, and the ones who earned it the hard way, also me. I had an edge, but I drove it as far as I could. One of my great-grandparents is a dragon. Still drops in sometimes at family gatherings, human-shaped of course. She is so pleased with my particular bit of the family tree."

"I think I'd like to meet a dragon. Maybe once I have a few more of those Ka and sharpen myself up troll-hunting a bit again."

"I hear the words 'I'd like to hunt a dragon' going carefully unsaid there. Some are decent people. Others are right bastards. I ended up hunting one once. Seasoned team of seven, three died, one had their soul trapped and lost. I was lucky. And skilled, I guess. But mostly lucky. We did kill him, though."

She glares, but it's a light thing. "If they're not corrupting and hateful things, that's not actually what I mean. I end trolls' suffering. And giants are the worst sort of trolls. A dragon would definitely qualify. Smart giants are even rarer, thank the gods. I'd rather not fight one. I really did mean meet."

"Some of them deserve 'corrupting and hateful', but I hear you on meaning meet. I could maybe arrange that with my great-grandmother sometime once all the formalities are dealt with."  

"Seems like there's a lot to see out there. Folks here will want to see new places. Are ordinary products of civilization liable to be worth much? Books, tools, clothes, trains, incendiary devices? Unskilled labor? Or skilled in low-tech sorts of things, at any rate. I suppose if you buy grade-A cats for kroner instead of negotiating something else with the academy, you'd have to get the kroner from someone."

"Most unskilled labour is of little interest to the OTC, but it's always seeking more volunteers to bear the costs of sacrificial magics. Pain, most commonly. As for material goods - most things that aren't highly exotic are extremely cheap for the OTC to make."

"Well, at least we have something to offer... Art?"

"Art is generally worth something. It's more unique, per-world."

Marit asks about other worlds and things the OTC sells for a while longer. She asks about Takkarash and predicts it won't be especially popular or unpopular compared to other human worlds. She asks if they'll buy a stack of seals for various purposes off her as samples.

With dinner, arrives a map*. The guard tapes it up to the outside of the quarantine room along with their tracking calendar.

*Author's note: The population figures on the map are altered for this canon. Double Icelandic and Danish numbers and triple all other numbers.

"My," says Thorn. "You really have been beaten back into little corners. So much is lost. It reminds me of the Shadowling campaign." 

She looks up from her reverie. "Ah. And the seals. Yes, I'll buy some. I don't know what a fair price would be, but let's call it 25 OTC each for the first stack? And then once we have a better idea regarding how useful and in demand they are we can negotiate something more equitable."

"It was nothing less than the fall of civilization. Nobody knew what to do until it was too late. And it's not like either of us knows what a fair price is at the moment, so very well."

"Deal. I'd shake your hand, but..." She shrugs. "And no matter how much you've lost, at least you're still around, hey? And now things might get better."

"They just might."

Their conversation winds down soon after that. The remainder of quarantine is still fairly boring, but they'll get Thorn a few more books or board games if she asks. Marit tells scattered stories of her friends and family and travels and solicits the same. Marit carefully scribes about two dozen seals, then stops, saying any more would just be pointlessly subtle variations on ones she's already covered.

They do indeed make Marit wait out the full four weeks of quarantine - she complains about it enough to get the Captain of the military base to come visit in his own biohazard suit; They have a shouting match that shakes out to 'the actual Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian parliaments all said four weeks but I can get you some more money'.

Eighteen days into quarantine, a nurse informs Thorn that her blood test came back as 'immune'. She's not a citizen of any of the five nations which makes the paperwork a bit confusing but they've made an ID card that says "Nationality: N/A" which will confuse bureaucrats but is better than nothing.

Twenty two days into quarantine, a letter from a newspaper journalist arrives with lots of poorly informed questions for her and a request to meet him when the quarantine ends.

And then the quarantine is over and the nurses let them both out.

Does she want to go for a broad-spectrum approach and found an office here, or does she want to start from the top? 

Either way, she would rather have the true story published than a compendium of rumor and hearsay. She writes back, emphasizing the limited footprint the OTC has here right now. 

She goes and meets the reporter. Hopefully no-one chooses to stop her.

Marit gives Thorn a meeting place for after the reporter, then wanders off stack of seals in hand. The reporter has a small office in an out of the way spot - this seems to be a trading hub as well as a military base, with lots of offices and dockyards and cranes and warehouses. Nobody stops her, though several look at her curiously and mutter.

"Hello! I'm Heribor Ivarsson with Sweden Tomorrow newspaper. It is a pleasure to meet you! I still have many questions even after you kindly answered my first set, and an in-person interview is much more convenient. Thank you for coming!"

"Thorn, of course. It's a mononym. It's no trouble coming to meet with you, though I do hope you're not risking any trouble of your own by doing this, what with my being a foreigner and all. But the people of Sweden need to know, yes? I have a lot to say, and perhaps a few demonstrations to give."

"Oh, you've passed quarantine now so the only trouble is the travel fare and lodging. I understand that you represent the Oifeli Trade Company - do I have that spelled right? - That you are a highly trained mage-scout, that we may have exciting technology purchases to make, but that your company largely trades in magic?"

"Consortium, not company. You have it spelled right. I am not only highly trained but somewhat built to purpose - this is why I have immunity paperwork from your government, my body is built to a higher standard than the products of nature are. As for your last two items - the line between magic and technology is blurry for us, because there are many magical products that can be used by non-mages, much like the seals your mages are capable of making. We primarily trade in magic because magic is rare in the multiverse and much more likely to be a "local product", like your Finnish mages."

"Are non-magical things worth anything at all? Sweden does not have many mages and it would sting to be put aside in favor of the Norwegians and Icelanders and Finns, though of course they could use the help more than we. Unless it is terribly difficult to go from world to world I would think opening markets as far as possible would benefit everyone. However, I also think my nation's interest is going to be in purchasing education and manufacturing infrastructure for things. Robotics and computers and all the other infrastructure we lost in the Fall. We are very interested in self-reliance."

"We can offer that at reasonable prices, though you must understand that the only interdimensional link on this entire plane resides in my backpack at the moment; it will take time to build the infrastructure to build the infrastructure to etc. While the technologies you have are centuries out of date compared to ours, there is still some value in crafts practiced well - the invention of the knife as a sharp thing with a handle dates almost to the dawn of humanity, and I carry something that is, for all intents and purposes, a knife. As I do a pistol and a set of camping gear. Much of it is magically improved, but the materials and manufacturing methods are not incomprehensible to you. It's just that mine were in all likelihood assembled in a nanoforge - that is, by a very large number of very small robots. So you have to compete with that, an assembly technology that's better than yours by centuries. It's possible, but very difficult. 

More significant are the opportunities for skilled and unskilled labor, both magical and non-magical. There will be jobs in logistics getting transfers of magical and technological goods sorted out. There will be educational opportunities for people seeking to implement new technologies. There will be hiring offers for the OTC itself as it establishes a transition and liaison team, positions which come with agelessness as part of the standard health package. And I would encourage just about anyone to apply."

The notion of lots of tiny robots is a fascinating one and he asks more about it! And he says Sweden is a good place to find conscientious, diligent, creative, education-seeking people. The transition and liaison team would interact with the government to determine how OTC stands according to local law, it sounds like? Any relevant taxes, border controls, and safety laws or what have you.

One of his Swedish readers wishes to know if trains are common in other worlds, or if they are an impractical form of transit. A Danish reader - they are great students of history - is concerned with the Old World pattern of colonialism and exploitation. Can she offer any reassurances on that front? An Icelandic reader wants to know what gods, if any, she follows, and what the faiths of other worlds are like. A Norwegian reader asks if you can get Takarrash out of pain you were going to experience anyway, like if you got stabbed by a Troll. A Finnish reader asks... He has to read it twice, but, 'Do you properly respect the spirits of animals you eat'? They probably couldn't find many Finns to get a better question, but the Reader Questions bit is a Sweden Tomorrow tradition.