The person is startled and somewhat put off but makes no effort to stop her from departing.

They do watch her go from the window.

...Apparently that was rude or something? 

Ashran isn't in any particular hurry, now, if she runs into any more strangers she can pretend to be from somewhere far away and not speak the language. She keeps walking until she's definitely out of sight behind another of the pretty barns, and then calls for a ride. 

Mhalir orders the shuttle pilot to scan the area again and check that no locals are in a position where they could see her. 

No one's closer than half a mile off.

Mhalir gives the go-ahead, and the shuttles descends, cloaked, and collects Ashran and her host, and then soars back to orbit to debrief. 

Mhalir was, of course, listening to the recordings the whole time. He tells Ashran to take a break until she's ready to sit down and talk through what happened, and then he paces. 

<Carissa? What do you think.> 

:I don't like it. Maybe the person was just an eccentric, but - if not, something's up.:

<I mean, they seem - culturally very different? Which is not surprising, this is an entirely different world. I - would not necessarily find it concerning beyond that, though obviously there is context that we are still missing and will need to understand in order to operate here.> 

Carissa thinks it's pretty concerning! There was - something about the stranger's friendliness, not flirtatious, not appeasing, not even uncomplicatedly friendly, while offering a meal with meat and wanting to talk about embroidery - she's travelled through farm towns and they want - news of far away, to talk about the life-and-death matters of farms themselves - and farmers don't live alone...

<...You might have something important here> Mhalir acknowledges. <I want to try to unpack it further. ...Hmm, actually, though - why do farmers not live alone, in your experience? - Also I am not sure we know for sure that he did, Ashran did not think to ask about family.> 

They don't live alone because there's too much work to be done on a farm for one person to sensibly do it and also because most people want lovers, and those inevitably produce children, and they have parents and siblings and so on and they get sick or injured and will starve or lose the farm, if there's not anyone attached enough to look after them while they mend.

<Hmm. Those reasons seem likely to also apply here, but...maybe not, I think we lack context to determine for sure. Anyway, what else - you were surprised they did not want something, or want the category of thing you expected, something about the exact style of their welcome seemed off...?>

:Didn't seem to be asking the right questions, didn't seem to be at all suspicious or even very curious, had never heard of anyone not having telepathy before and thought of it as a soul malfunction but didn't have questions or worries about that either - it could be contagious! And I have no idea what to make of the claim that they've had the same king for 1300 years and the - responding to a question of his fitness with 'he's had a lot of practice' - that's a way of talking around something...:

<Hmm. What would your - theories, be, for why someone might appear that way - the lack of suspicion or curiosity, I mean?>

:I don't know. Maybe they're Dominated. Or an automaton. Or very dense but then they'd have a hard time living alone.

<....Hmm. I think there are - probably more likely hypotheses than that. I will see what my other staff have to say, their hosts have exposure to a wider range of cultures.> 

Carissa is SO SUSPICIOUS.

...Well, they can sit down and let Ashran and Eliza give their full report and then see what the other Yeerk staff have to say. 

Hosts are divided! Earth isn't preindustrial and they don't know what farmers were like. Some people are just lonely. The hosts from Predain might have more of an idea what to expect?

The hosts from Predain share more of Carissa's impression that something is off, but are less sure than Carissa is of the causes; since the discovery of Velgarth, they've been back to visit Absalom and Osirion, which also felt starkly different from Predain, so maybe it is just a culture gap? Probably they just need to get more information, from a wider range of sources. 

Mhalir approves of this. He wants them to plan another shuttle expedition for the next day; they can try to visit the nearest town, now that they know how to blend in better, and maybe also make a visit to the other continent and the less tidily-organized cities? 

<...I would very much like to read some of the locals' minds> he admits to Carissa. <I do not want to place either of us in danger, but it does seem we have better technology and magic than the locals, so perhaps we can hide unobserved while you cast Detect Thoughts somewhere?>

That seems like a good idea. It's not safer to be totally ignorant of the situation, and something is wrong.

<One more day. We can try to send multiple parties tomorrow, to gather more information, decide where best to try this - how many times can you cast Tongues for them...?>

Ten, if we don't want me to do anything else. We might occasionally want me to do other things, though.

<We almost certainly do not need ten of it for tomorrow! Perhaps you can prepare - three, to start, and then leave some spell slots open until we know what we need you to do...> 

Sure. 

The planet makes her nervous, now, because of the creepy people, but obviously gathering more information is a reasonable next step.