"...I didn't bring any decorations," Uamok says. Her mates nod along.

"Oh, we can find you some. Or have them made, if you can describe what you want - are there kinds of decorations that are popular in your world?"

"Sometimes people get painted?"

"Sometimes important people wear a lot of keys around their neck but it wouldn't still work as a statement if they weren't real keys."

"There's things like pouches and bandoliers for carrying stuff and some of those look nicer than others?"

"We have painters, I'll have some found and you can pick the ones you like. You might start a new trend."

"Oh, that will be fun. I'll go in chevrons," says Uamok.

"Leaves? Too pretentious?" wonders Kiv.

"No, do leaves, you'll look great in leaves," says Iss.

"Leaves are a great choice."

The first of the wizards arrives while they're still brainstorming, and Prince Maziar introduces him as Waleed, the royal armsmith.

"What's an armsmith?" asks Uamok.

    "I'm in charge of making and enchanting weapons for the royal family and their guards."

"I've mentioned weapons but not really explained them - you've noticed that humans don't have claws or teeth like yours, in a fight we'll use artificial ones instead. The prince's rapier there, for example."

"Do you get into a lot of fights around here?" Kiv asks.

"I wouldn't say a lot," says the prince. "Not that we need to handle personally. It's good practice to go on patrol with the soldiers from time to time and there's always hunting, but we're at peace with most of our neighbors."

"What kind of magic do you do to the weapons?" says Uamok.

"Most often simply enhancing them, making them more likely to strike true and more damaging when they do. Occasionally the royal family will have a request for something more complicated - the king favors shocking scimitars for his most favored warriors, for example."

"I go hunting for wild spren when I'm at home but we use guns," says Uamok.

"A bit like a crossbow, but stronger and louder," Raafi clarifies.

    "I'd be interested to see that."

"I didn't bring any," she apologizes.

"I'll be going back at some point, I can pick one up."

   "Thank you."

Another wizard arrives, dressed in sky-blue robes to Waleed's dusty red outfit and wearing a shoulder bag full of scrolls, and introduces herself as Aatika, the palace diviner. "The servant said you're looking for wizardry lessons?"

"Yes!" says Uamok. "Diviner is the - finding things out one?"

"It is. I actually do most of the day-to-day spellcasting in the palace, but my job when they don't need me for anything else is watching for any trouble that might be on its way here."

"Like earthquakes?"

"We aren't prone to earthquakes, here. Sandstorms, though, I'll notice those if the druids don't. Or orc raids, or if a sphinx gets too close."

"What's a sphinx?" Skon asks.

"A kind of monster, with the body of a lion, the wings of a vulture, and an animal or humanoid head, depending on what type they are. Some of them are friendly, but there's a colony of hieracosphinx to the south of us that attacks our farmers when the hunting has been bad for them, and we'll get canisphinx and saurosphinx passing through sometimes."

"...what's a lion and a vulture?" Skon asks.

"Lions are like the sandcats we saw in the zoo, but less fluffy and bigger - maybe halfway between my size and Uamok's. And vultures are a type of large bird."

"Huh! That sounds cool looking," says Iss.