"It only does music from my planet. My parents are also on my planet."

People start talking over each other.

The couple who initially approached her begins to run interference, apparently positioning themselves as the proximal adults responsible for talking to Lintalai on behalf of the crowd, since her parents are absent. One of them turns to her, finally, as says, "Could you play the most popular songs for them? We'll let you know which ones we like."

"I can do that." She puts on something of Uncle Makel's. "I was sort of hoping to earn spending money this way."

"Oh, of course!"

The adults discuss amongst themselves the best way to arrange this, and finally, the same couple who has been speaking to her gives her the proposed payment structure: those who dance along to a song pay for it, while those who simply listen will pay a lower amount, because this isn't a live performance.

Lintalai cannot particularly evaluate the specific amounts they are quoting her, but there does seem to be interest in general terms.

She doesn't need a ton, she doesn't think, though she does mentally compare to how much Daernir gave the temple. She can put on especially danceable songs by her uncle.

People seem universally agreed that her uncle's songs are some of the best dance music they've ever heard!

The amounts they've agreed upon seem to be half of what Daernir gave at the temple, for listening, and three times what Daernir gave at the temple for dancing.

That will be satisfactory then. She will hang out while her everything plays and browse the Internet since her dads have not replied yet.

And eventually, these people will move on and Lintalai will have collected an unclear amount of money, most of it in the form of metal coins- although not all, she also appears to have a few crystal coins as well as some made of a red material, possibly stone.

Those are pretty! She'll take a photo of the money to go in her next email. Only two minutes have passed since she sent her last one, probably most of the recipients haven't even read it yet, but she thinks being oriented to sending regular reports will keep her attentive to what Amentan colonists will want when she can haul them here.

When she's tired she gathers up all her coins and goes back to the inn.

Daernir is sitting in the lobby with a piece of parchment. There are a few other people there, this time. He bounds to his feet when he sees her, smiling.

"Lintalai! How did they like the music?"

"It took a while for anyone to pay me but I got some money and people seemed to really like it! I don't actually know how much this is though."

"Oh, okay. I'll count it for you."

He examines the money, frowning slightly.

"I don't recognize this kind," he says pointing at one the red stone coins, "but the crystal coins are Arcadian money and everything else is Prime Material money. Um, in Arcadian money, which is what everyone uses for counting, that's...1 bell, 30 small bells...this adds up to 14 more small bells...1 bell and 44 small bells is 5 bells and 4 small bells. You earned fifty times what a garbage-collector would in a day!"

"Is that a usual benchmark? Garbage collectors?"

"Those, or bricklayers or weavers, yeah, since those can be different. I picked garbage-collectors because their work is like musicians, they don't do it all the time and they need people to want it, like firefighters."

"Okay. Well, I should be able to pay for incidentals for a while and I can do it again later too, it looks like my everything is charging overnight like I expected. Did you find anything out while I was gone?"

"Yes, but nothing that special. I spent the rest of the time trying to take notes on things you told me and things I told you, but I don't know if I remembered everything. I forgot most of the things we talked about before today, I think, so I'm going to take notes from now on. Um, but for the other guests...these are all the ones I thought you might be interested in, but I wrote down lots, so if you ask questions I can tell you more: herbalism, courier services, divination magic, [untranslatable], bread-making, and a bodyguard.

Herbalism because you need healers who aren't magic at the beginning unless you bring those from Amenta right away. Courier services because you might want something in the city that's faster than angels but less money than mages. Divination magic- I don't think you could make them come to your kingdom but they might be able to do magic for us or tell us about it? [Untranslatable]- administrative, sorry, it's hard to say...administrative assistance would be good for making laws, maybe they can tell you how and then you won't need them. Bread-making...I just think it would be good to know how to make food if we're doing a kingdom without Amentans right away, I don't know how long that'll take. And the bodyguard is for you, because you'll be the queen."

"These would be mostly for before Amentans can come across?"

"Yeah. Not a lot of good stuff, I think bulletin boards are better. I think you should have a bodyguard from here anyway, after? But not just that one. And the divination magic person, they might be good for after too."

"A bodyguard is a good idea. Is this enough to pay them?"

"Yes, for a few weeks. Divination magic person will want more if you pay them."

"How much more?"

"I think this much would pay them for a week, and the bodyguard for three weeks? I never paid any spellcasters though. I can make some money too, but not as much as this in the same time; music is different than other jobs because you can't do it all the time."

"Do I actually need a bodyguard? Are there assassins? My dads have security but they live on Amenta and there's a crime rate."

"I think there are crimes? That's what the Harmonium is for, when people break laws, and the gods aren't punishing them."

"What does the Harmonium do?"