"Ooh, dancing," says Uamok.

"I can arrange for someone to come and play for you if you'd like to practice dancing to our music ahead of time," he grins.

"That sounds fun!" says Skon.

"Tomorrow, then. Any more questions before you meet the king?"

"Can you repeat his whole name deal again, I'm not positive I memorized it," says Iss.

"His Majesty King Nawfal al-Kaprela al-Kamar," he repeats slowly. "'His Majesty' is part of his title as king, Nawfal is his personal name, Kaprela is the country, and Kamar is our lineage. Princes are 'your highness' rather than 'your majesty' so the equivalent for me is 'Your Highness Prince Maziar al-Kaprela al-Kamar' - I don't expect you to call me that, though, I'm not in line for the throne, Prince Maziar is fine."

"Is there somebody who is in line for the throne we have to call something complicated?" asks Uamok.

"The only one you have to is his Majesty's eldest, His Highness Prince Arkaan al-Kaprela al-Kamar. He's not in the country right now, though, he's off finishing his education. It would be polite to call his other children by their full names but the only one I expect to care very much about it is Her Highness Princess Kifaaya."

"Okay, I think I've got all that," says Uamok.

And so they can go in.

The throne room is made of the same sandstone as the rest of the palace, well lit with magic; it's a long, relatively narrow room, and the walls are hung with intricately carved wooden panels and backlit stained glass depicting various scenes - some appear to be battles, like one where a group of humanoids use sticks to menace what appears to be an orange-skinned humanoid, except that it has a swirl of magic in place of legs; others may depict more peaceful accomplishments, like one where a kneeling humanoid offers an implausibly large gemstone to a more elaborately dressed one. Guards with spears stand between the panels, almost like artwork themselves in their bronze chainmail and blue-trimmed white capes. A thick green carpet covers the center of the swirling mosaic of the floor, leading to the far end of the room, where a pair of steps separates the main area from the raised platform containing the throne, a bulky and relatively plain thing carved from a single piece of mottled translucent bright green stone, polished to a shine.

The man on the throne is more weathered-looking than the prince, but less so than Raafi, wearing a yellow silk outfit intricately embroidered in a rainbow of colors and holding a short bronze scepter with a red gem carved in the shape of a tongue of flame set into the top of it and a smaller blue gem hanging from a short chain at the bottom; a young woman with a familial resemblance to the king and the prince and wearing clothes only slightly less ornate than the king's stands demurely to the left of the throne.

Prince Maziar approaches the throne, stopping a few feet short of the steps, and bows, more deeply and for slightly longer than he did in the hall. "Your Majesty King Nawfal al-Kaprela al-Kamar, Princess Sahar, may I present the visitors from another world: Uamok, and her mates Iss, Zoi, Skon, and Kiv. Uamok, gentlemen, may I present His Majesty King Nawfal al-Kaprela al-Kamar and Her Highness Princess Sahar al-Kaprela al-Kamar."

"Welcome," says the king.

"Thank you, your majesty!" says Uamok, while the males all gawk at everything.

"Um," says Zoi, "it's usual to introduce us in order of precedence, so me first, then Kiv, then Iss, then Skon."

"I'll make note of it for next time," the prince says, and the king gestures vaguely toward the group with the lower portion of the scepter.

"Has your stay been acceptable so far?"

"Yes, thank you!" says Uamok.

"I understand that His Highness is interested in hosting you for a time; can you tell me what you expect to do during your visit, and what you will need from us while you are here?"

"We want to see all the Oerth things," she says. "Like theater and museums and animals. And learn magic. We brought our own emergency food because we mostly eat one specific animal from our planet but I think Traveler is going to sometimes do magic food for us."

"Adnauk's priests have agreed to provide them food for a month, if need be," the prince adds. "And I've requisitioned the east ballroom as guest quarters, and sent a messenger to see which of the storehouses are empty as alternatives."

The king considers this, then nods, "acceptable," and gestures again with his scepter. "What else can you tell me about your world and your species?" he asks Uamok.

"Well, females like me are much bigger than males like them and there are more males and fewer females. We don't have any magic there but we do have some things you don't like guns and elevators and freezers!"

"I'm sure our scholars will be interested in hearing about them. I would like to know how your people live; how are you governed, in your own lands?"

"I'm not sure exactly what you mean?"

"Do you have laws? If you do, who creates them, and who enforces them? If not, how do you arrange to work together sensibly and manage those who would harm others?"

"We have laws, if I understand the word right. If you... steal something, or eat somebody, then whoever you stole from or whoever saw you will probably bite off your leg or something."

"I see." He gestures with the other end of the scepter, this time. "We expect that while you are a guest in our land you will not attack anyone; if you feel wronged or observe wrongdoing while you are here you may discuss it with myself, or His Highness Prince Maziar, or one of our guards, or a member of the priesthood, and it will be seen to. Do you expect to have difficulty with this?"

"...if somebody attacks me or one of my mates I will probably have difficulty with this but otherwise probably not?"

"If you are in danger you may of course defend yourselves and each other." He pauses thoughtfully, and then gestures again with the bottom of the scepter. "What other behavior would you consider worthy of that sort of punishment, in your lands?"

"Kidnapping people? ...also murder even if you don't happen to eat them but usually people who commit murder wind up eating some. Or maiming somebody who didn't even do anything or doing stuff that would probably wind up that way like blowing up a building which is also sort of like stealing the building even though you don't keep it."