"Well. Maybe the crown will fund an expedition to Ibyabek to learn."

"How would you get there without a ship?"

Sigh. "With magic."

Well, he got here somehow. He has no idea how though.

"Are there things your world has invented that mine has not that you do know from scratch? Even if they're things that are trivial to your people they might be very impressive here."

"I... know how to make bricks?"

"That one I think we know."

"Modern technology is more complicated than bricks."

"Cheliax is the greatest country in the world and we have the most people in - jobs that require you to be very smart - and if anyone can figure it out I bet we can."

"I'm not an engineer, though." And even if he were he wouldn't go around telling strange planets beholden to alien genetic engineers how to build spaceships.

"What do engineers study?"

"...engineering. Physics and materials science, I suppose."

And probably he wasn't tracked for those. "Okay. I guess we can put it together ourselves, or go there and see it and learn from your people."

"I would appreciate the ride home if the... magic... works that way." Assuming being ?drugged? by aliens isn't the sort of thing you have to go to the hospital about but it's never come up and there's no sense borrowing trouble expecting it.

"If they can do it with a Gate it'll be open for a couple minutes and if it takes an Interplanetary Teleport they'll probably do enough of them you can arrange to be on one of them. I think. Needs of the Crown first, of course."

"That makes sense."

"Do you have questions about this place?"

Lots. "Some. I remember you mentioned 'paladins'?"

"Yes. They are - soldier orders. Specifically Lawful Good ones, if you're Lawful but not Good you become a Hellknight instead."

"...if you're lawful but not good?"

"The gods see things in terms of Law and Chaos and Good and Evil. They're - the fundamental kinds of choice that there are, I think. Law is about order and keeping your promises and doing your duty. Chaos is about doing whatever you feel like and not having responsibilities. Evil is about having goals and being willing to achieve your goals even if there's a cost. Good is about - doing things narrowly and properly and very carefully and never stepping off that path. You get different afterlives, depending."

He is about to comment that this sounds very weird in Ibyabekan, which is when he notices that he has not been speaking Ibyabekan all day. Which, now that he thinks of it, she totally told him, but he ignored her because magic is imaginary, except he is pretty sure drugs cannot make you speak entire languages suddenly? That's very strange. He thinks he's... lawful... good...? except these seem to be made-up categories. That were in fact by her own admission literally invented by aliens! So categorizing himself is a silly impulse.

"When you're powerful enough, people can read it off you, and so it's useful for knowing what people are about. Most people don't know for sure until they die, though."

That part still sounds very fake, magic is one (very big) thing but souls and an afterlife is obvious nonsense, but he isn't going to harp on it. "All right."

She waits to see if he comes up with more questions.