"But that doesn't make sense! You could do a lot of different codes of law and there's no principle there to pick one!"

"I don't think I'm explaining it right. It's like the part of law that doesn't need people to be there. It's just how the rules of the universe are if no one does anything. Like how with gravity, things fall down- unless you're on a plane or a part of one where they don't. Or like how people look like their live parents. Or, uh, how when you look at something far away it looks smaller."

"But then that's just like the material plane. It has the rules of the universe if no one does anything, and those rules made people evolve, but the people evolving don't have to be lawful necessarily."

"Um. What's 'evolving' mean?"

"Oh! Uh, on a planet where there's only gravity and stuff and no magic or anything, you can get all the species diversity just by some families of plants and animals and stuff having more babies than others, and there being some variation in how all those babies turn out. So if you're a plant where it's a good idea to be tall, then the plants that grow tallest will drop the most seeds, and their tallest descendants will do best, and like you said people look like their parents and so do trees, so you get trees that are as tall as it's a good idea to be. And if you're a bird and it's a good idea to be fast, your fastest babies will have the most eggs, and so on. And you can get people this way, by having a species in a niche in the environment where it's a good idea to be smart - the smartest kids have the most kids of their own. Amentans use castes to do more of this on purpose! People who are good at doing their caste's specific thing, yellow stuff or orange stuff or whatever, will make more money and have more kids because they can buy more child credits - in credit countries like mine, some countries do it differently."

"Oh. Um, some species were made by gods, and some believe they were, which- is kind of the same thing here, not like in Amenta, if enough people do it? You can't change the past by believing, but- even if their gods didn't make the dwarves, the dwarves think they did and so do their gods. I don't think they evolved. But humans and halflings might have evolved. I guess no one knows about that yet, or at least, not when my adoptive parents died. That could be really important, you should tell someone older than us who can get a message back to the Prime Material. You also said- the people evolving wouldn't need to be lawful, but people who start on an Outer Plane have to be whatever that plane is, they're different than people like us who were born on the Prime Material."

"But that's an additional law on top of the stuff that's like gravity! How does it work? Does it kill all the least lawful babies of a species that's getting smarter?"

"No, they just- are born aligned with the plane and never grow out of that. I guess if they left, maybe they could change? Actually, yeah, I've heard stories about that happening to some angels. But not if they stay."

"That doesn't make sense," she grumbles, "but I guess it's not very pertinent to how I will do things here in Arcadia. Okay, so we're not in Heliopolis, we are in some - suburb of Heliopolis? Let's go to Heliopolis and find a priest to explain about gods."

-nod. He's certainly not going to ask what a suburb is, because it's probably not important.

"Okay. Do you need anything else before we go? My parents will want to escort us there but I can convince them not to if you want."

"I don't really have very much stuff. I'm not sure about bringing your parents? It's safe without them, right, because the whole plane is aligned with law and good, so what would happen."

"Daaae! We're supposed to spend time with the baby."

"You don't even like babies," he says to his sister.

"You're right, Lintalai, and that's what I'm gonna tell my parents. I just wanted to make sure you didn't want them around because they might know things I don't from living on the Prime Material. I read more than they do though."

"I have to talk to lots of different people and your parents seem nice but they also seem like they might have different ideas for what you should be doing than helping me and if you want to help me I want you to do that. Anyway, I'm in Arcadia, knowing things about the Prime Material would be nice but it is not the most relevant."

Nod nod.

"Yeah, I want to help you because you seem smart and interesting and know things I don't. I don't know if I know enough to help you with everything but I can learn faster than you for some things because I already know the- parts you need to know to understand harder things. Okay. Um, to go through a portal we mostly just need to go through it, but we shouldn't go through a window because we'll probably still fall? I don't actually know if they all let out of windows in the second layer or if they're just windows on this side. Anyway, we can just use the doors inside."

"Okay! Do you know which one will let out close to a good place?"

"Both of the doors that have portals go to Neselthia's district, because she's the most welcoming god in Heliopolis, but one of them goes to an inn and one of them goes to a market. I think inn makes more sense because we can get a room first."

"Okay. - do I need money for rooms? I'm not clear on what I need money for here and what I don't. I should find a way to pay here if I need to."

"Um, right now you don't need money for anything because you're new and don't belong anywhere and anything that would need money, I can pay for. Right now, your only laws are the Kingdoms' international laws. If you join a kingdom or start one you will need money. Sometimes you can give gifts instead of use money, like here, but money is better and more places use it."

"Okay. Maybe I'll be able to get paying with my everything to work and then my dads will be able to send me money. I'm not sure if that will work though, there's some reasons it might not." She stretches and heads for the portals indoors.

Daenir stops to say goodbye to his parents. He tells them that he loves them very much (true), that he'll talk to them frequently (true, if he can manage), and he will miss them terribly (false, he thinks guiltily, although maybe he'll start to when he leaves).

And then they can go through the portal to the inn.

As they step through the portal, they exit on the other side through a side door into a large, relatively empty room. There are wooden tables and chairs at the center, a bar to their right, a small elevated area to the left with a short staircase leading to it, and a proper staircase across the room from them, leading upstairs.

"Is this an inn or more like a - station?"

"I'm not sure really. I haven't been here since I was a little kid. There should be someone here, if it's an inn..."

Daernir goes to investigate if the bar is hiding anyone behind it.

She comes along. (She takes a picture of the place for her next email.)