"Yes ma'am."

"All right, sounds good. I'll have to talk to them about logistics - we'll probably have you shadowing someone for a few days first, and it's a good idea to give you a couple of days to settle in even if you don't think you'll need it, we'll need it, to get a feel for you - Raafi, love, how long can we borrow the translation necklace for, I can scare up a tutor but I don't think we can do without it..."

    "Oh, she doesn't need one; give her an hour with a dictionary and she'll pick Common right up. I think she can only do it with one language at a time, though, and we were with the gnomes, so she has gnomish right now."

"Oh! That's impressive," she directs approvingly at Daisy, "and we can get you a dictionary. Let's see, anything else?"

    "Not really! She doesn't eat or sleep; she needs this fancy lightning stuff but the gnomes are making her a machine for it, it'll just be a little box or something I think."

"Huh! That's convenient, I guess." She squints thoughtfully. "Not sure what Lastai would make of that, though, it seems a shame to miss out on all the things we can do with food - there might be something a wizard can do for you, if you want."

"Thank you, ma'am, I'll keep it in mind."

Nod. "Let me know if you decide you want it, it'll take a while to set up. Hm - we'll still need to give you a room - what has Raafi told you about us so far?"

"I know that Lastai is the goddess of pleasure, ma'am, and that your focus is on helping people do things that they enjoy even if they're unusual or dangerous."

"Mmhmm. That's true as far as it goes - she's also a goddess of artists, people who make things that bring other people joy, and of prostitutes, for the same reason - is that a respectable career, where you're from?"

"In some places, ma'am, but mostly it's not - I'll be polite to them, though, ma'am, you don't need to worry about that."

"Good, that's important. The other thing is that I don't want you to be uncomfortable, even if you're polite about it. We can find you another place to stay, I'll just have to set it up. So, which will you enjoy more, or does it not matter?"

"I don't think it matters, ma'am."

"All right. It will be more convenient for you to stay here, at least for the next couple of days; I'll have to check the roster to see what room we can put you in."

"Uh, I think we'll be spending the night in Kal Faruhm, I need to bring her back to talk to the gnomes about deigns for her lightning box. I haven't used my third spell, we could come back, but I've already paid for my room there, doesn't make sense to."

"All right," she kisses his forehead. "I do want you to stay a bit when you can, though, we don't see enough of you."

"Yes ma'am. I should get back to the lizardfolk, they do need their trade route, but it can wait a few days."

"Good. That sounds like the basics covered - Raafi can show you where the class schedule is, you can come to anything that looks interesting, and - hm - are you going to be comfortable in the city on your own, or should I figure out who'll be on call if you want to go somewhere?"

"I don't know, ma'am. Is there a reason I might need to go out?"

"Not off the top of my head, but I don't want you stuck here. And the boys won't mind showing you around, anyway - Raafi'd do a better job of it, of course, but they like getting to talk to new people. I'll see who's going spare and have them introduce themselves."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"You're entirely welcome. I think that's everything for now - am I missing anything, do you have any questions?"

"Can you tell me what Goddess Lastai thinks of being owned, please, ma'am?"

"- it's the same as a lot of other things she has us work with; it's dangerous, it can hurt you really badly if it goes wrong, but some people like it and it's our job to help them do it safely. If you do get it right it's no worse than any other way of having a family, it's just harder to be sure you haven't made a mistake somewhere."

"Thank you, ma'am. How do you know if someone's being hurt by it?"

"...mm. Well, I know how I'd know for a human, I'm not actually sure how I could tell for you. For humans it's - are they happy, do they have friends, are they scared all the time, do they have trouble relaxing and enjoying themselves, that sort of thing. Humans aren't meant to be just one thing, a human who's happy being a servant might also be a mother and a weaver and a lute-player, or whatever, and if they get to keep being those other things too, and they still enjoy them, they're probably fine. If you're only supposed to be the one thing that's going to make it harder to tell."

"That makes sense, thank you, ma'am."

"It's an interesting question! I'll ask around, maybe one of the other girls has thought about it before. And in the meantime we'll just be careful, I think you'll be all right here at least in the short term."

"Thank you, ma'am. And - Traveler Raafi was going to try again to scry for Lord Pradnakt, the Sith I served before I arrived here; would it make sense for you to take that over?"