"Huh. I bet my grandmother knows some who did, I'll ask her. - a couple of them, yes. She's got - how do I tell you where she lives if you don't use your soul - she's got a place at the top of the cliffs, on the road that's paved crosshatch, the house is blue and gold with stained-glass windows..."

How bad do we want to chase this?

<I think it is important. But we can go to the palace first.> 

Shiver. It still seems possible that the people in charge aren't - like this, in which case they might notice that she's not one of them and then -

- then she teleports out. There's still no magic here.

They head towards the palace. It is an exceptionally tasteful palace in the style of the surrounding buildings but more ornate, with everything hand-carved. In Golarion it'd communicate a very powerful King, to have had so many artisans on call for the project. Here they may well have done it for fun.

Mhalir is also on edge. He - agrees that he's not sure what it communicates, here, that the King is apparently widely respected, or that he has copious resources, or any of it... 

His attention is somewhat scattered, skimming the surroundings, trusting Carissa to handle the social aspect here. 

The interior of the palace is just as exquisite, and the first person they meet is a servant in a rich, deep blue dress, polishing a doorknob. 

Carissa repeats her cover story about an art project explaining the lack of telepathy and a different project which makes her want to talk to diplomats who talk to orcs.

"Yes, I heard about you!" the girl says cheerfully. "I'll check if Sadar is free....he could see you in the morning?"

"Sure. Thank you. I should just come back then?"

"I suppose so."

"Is there anything I should know so I don't waste his time?"

"....waste....his time?"

"...well, it'd be rude, right, to just ask questions I could learn from anyone."

"I suppose?  He's worked for the King since the Sundering of the Elves and he writes orcs, that's all I know about him."

...Can he cast Detect Thoughts without being obvious about it and see if there's anything more to be learned about 'Sundering of the Elves' - Carissa obviously can't ask, that would break the locals' suspension of disbelief even for an 'art project'. 

It's not that hard to subtly cast spells when no one has the concept of spells. She's thinking that she also knows of Sader that he likes his tea cold, but that's not really the sort of thing you volunteer, probably, depending what kind of project it is - but she did say 'that's all I know about him', and that wasn't quite right - "Also he likes his tea cold, and I've met his wife, but I don't know much about her," she volunteers, just to be safe. "What kind of project is this?"

"I like to collect all the information before I start getting ideas about what form the project will take, so that my picture of the world isn't constrained already by the anticipation of what art I'm making of it."

Now she feels sheepish. "That makes sense."

This did not get them any more information about the Sundering of the Elves and did result in Mhalir feeling even more baffled about the Elves. 

<...There was apparently a library> he remembers. <That might have information about historical events - I am not sure it makes sense to ask her right now, but it could be worth exploring.> 

"Are there good books about orcs I can check out so as to not ask questions that are in a book already?"

"...probably. I haven't read any of them personally."

"In the palace library?"

"...probably," she says again, with a touch more emphasis to underline the point that she has not researched this subject herself.

"Could I go in and read them?"

Why would she be unable to do that? "...I can't think why not? It's on the left, starting at the second floor. In case of flooding."