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On our left, the rocky mountain, so precipitously steep
All around the gloomy shadows of the failures gone before; while the leafless branches whispered, we should do no less, no more.
Permalink Mark Unread

Here is a cleric, climbing a hill with the help of a walking stick.

He's nearly to the lizardfolk village that's his current destination, carrying books and trade goods; if all goes well, he'll leave with enough rare dyes and potion reagents to convince the traders that it's worth adding it to their routes, despite the difficulty of the terrain - the village is at the edge of the Ponocola Bog, on the bank of Lake Torringlita, and only accessible to wagons by going the long way around, as he's doing now.

At least the view is nice, though of course he always thinks that.

The day wears on toward evening, and he begins to stray from the path, such as it is, to look for a suitable campsite.

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There's a stand of trees, and sitting propped up against one of them is... some sort of golem, maybe, humanoid in shape but made of silvery metal.

It whirrs softly to life as he comes into view, but doesn't move.

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The cleric stops short anyway - it's not wise to mess with strange golems - and watches warily, ready to cast.

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The golem says something - it sounds like a question, but the language is unfamiliar.

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Well, he has a translation necklace - he has it on good authority that the lizardfolk have someone who speaks Common, but it's always good to be able to talk to people directly rather than going through a translator. He gets it out and puts it on.

Weirdly, the first language the spell tries to suggest he use is... whistled, probably, or sung, with enough precision that he's probably not going to be able to manage it. He pushes back, and its next suggestion is much more suitable for a human voice. "Sorry, say that again?"

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"I asked if you speak Basic, sir."

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"Well, I have magic for it, at least. Are you all right?" The way she's sitting there really doesn't look comfortable at all, and she still hasn't moved.

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"I don't know, sir. I don't understand where I am or how I got here and I don't have a way to recharge."

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"I can tell you about the area if that'll help - what's recharging?"

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"I'm powered by electricity, sir; recharging refills my reserves. If I run out I'll go dormant until someone recharges me."

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He settles back on his heels a bit, leaning on his stick. "Electricity like... lightning, more or less? I don't think there's a direct translation of that in the languages I know. Can you tell me more about it?"

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"It's related to lightning, yes sir. To make usable electricity you spin a magnet very quickly inside a coil of wire, and electricity will flow in the wire."

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"I don't know of anything like that. It sounds like something a gnome could figure out, though - I can take you to talk to some, if you want, are you familiar with gnomes?"

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"No sir."

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"They'll be very curious about you, and have lots of questions - it might sound like they want to take you apart to see how you're made, but you'll be safe with me."

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"Are they nearby, sir? I only have about a day of electrical charge left if I'm moving around."

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"No, but that's fine, I can teleport us. Do you know what you'll want to do from there? I know gnomes all over the place."

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"No sir."

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"All right, well, I can probably help with that, too. I'll need to touch you to teleport you, is that all right?"

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"Yes sir."

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"Okay. Wire and magnets... do you need anything else to get the electricity into you, or anything?"

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"It will be safer for bystanders if the wires are insulated, sir. Ideally with plastic but rubber will also work, or wax or paper if they're careful."

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"All right. I've never heard of plastic but I know where they have rubber. -I'm Raafi, by the way, do you have a name?"

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"Daisy, sir."

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"Daisy, all right, it's good to meet you. Okay. I'm going to take us to Kal Faruhm, it's a dwarven city, underground - most dwarven cities will have rubber and Kal Farhum has a good gnomish district, too, and I have friends there. Is there anything you need here before we go? Or anything else I should know?"

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"I don't think so, sir. You can ask me questions if you'd like."

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"I'd rather let them get started, if you're that close to starving. We'll have time to talk while they work."

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"Yes sir."

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He crouches, leaning on his staff for balance, puts his free hand on her shoulder, and casts.

They land in a well-kept alley-sized nook between two buildings carved from banded grey stone, looking out onto a plaza carved of the same bedrock and lit, in some places more dimly than a human would prefer, by a variety of torches, vines, mosses, and miscellaneous decorative objects, all glowing in different strengths and colors. Where a human aesthetic would suggest trees, the plaza is dotted with sculptures composed of collections of metal, glass, leather, ceramic, and less identifiable things, mostly abstract, but with a few sketching out images of people - all humanoid, but mostly not human - animals, or in one case a giant carnivorous plant. The people walking by are small, mostly waist-height to a human and dressed in brightly-colored clothing, with a minority, all bearded, coming to human chest height and mostly wearing more utilitarian leather outfits. Raafi calls to them, and one of the shorter ones comes over, asking several questions in quick succession before he can answer; when he does, the little woman assents and runs off.

"She's gone to get you a stretcher; we might end up at the healers' for a little while while we figure out where to bring you - we need to clear out of here before anyone else tries to teleport in."

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"I can walk, sir."

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"That's good, but I'd rather you save your electricity, I don't know how long it's going to take them to figure it out."

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"Yes sir."

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"The littler ones are the gnomes, by the way, and the taller ones are dwarves - for most species of people around here you can guess gender by whether they have a beard, but all dwarves do, and the way they braid them will tell you that and their clan and occupation if you learn how to read them. And I'm a human, we're the most common species of people, and known for being versatile."

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"Yes sir. I'm familiar with humans."

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"That's good, if you're not starting completely from scratch - gnomes and dwarves are two of the most common species of people here, you must be very far from home if you've never heard of them. The other common ones are elves and halflings; halflings are mostly like humans, but a bit shorter than gnomes and nomadic, and elves are a bit shorter and thinner than we are and very longlived, and they like living in nature. Does that sound familiar at all?"

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"No sir. I'm familiar with sapient aliens but I don't recognize those."

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"...uh, they're not aliens, they're just humanoids - we don't have that word, either. Aliens are..."

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"Other species of people, sir, either related to humans but with enough evolutionary distance to have significant physical differences and trouble interbreeding, or not related to humans at all because they evolved to sapience separately."

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"...I know some scholars who're going to be fascinated to meet you, I bet. I don't know that we have evolution here; humans are a bit of a mystery but the other species of people were made by the gods."

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"Yes sir."

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"Are you familiar with gods? I'm a cleric myself - my magic comes from one of them, the god of travel - but I'm not really the right sort to explain them. I can find you a priest if you're interested."

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"I'm not, sir. Are they important to know about?"

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"You could get by without, I suppose. It'd still be good to know who to talk to if you need help, though, and usually that's some church or other - churches are the organizations that do the gods' work, priests are the people who run them. I'm a cleric but not a priest, Fharlanghn doesn't have a church, Fharlanghn's clerics just take care of things as we come across them."

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"Oh, thank you sir. Is the place we're going to a church?"

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"Not exactly, but I expect there'll be clerics there - I haven't checked in on this one before, I'm not sure who they'll be clerics of. Usually the god of the species is a good bet, but gnomes aren't very religious as a rule, so I'm not sure. Maybe him; maybe Pelor, the god of healing in general; maybe they have someone unaffiliated; maybe it's staffed by dwarves. But clerics are the ones with healing magic, so you'll almost always find us where there's healing to be done."

"Is there magic where you're from?"

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"Yes, but it's very rare, sir."

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"Oh?"

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"Yes sir. The estimate is that children are born with the ability to use magic at a rate somewhere between one in ten billion and one in a trillion."

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"That is rare, I'm not sure we've had that many people in this world in its whole history. You have a lot more people, then?"

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"Yes sir. The empire and the republic each span thousands to millions of worlds, many of which support billions of people."

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"Thousands to million of... do you expect them to come here?"

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"I don't have any reason to believe they would if they haven't already, sir."

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"All right. I'll make sure people know to be on the lookout - what will it look like, if they come here?"

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"I don't know exactly, sir. They'd come in spaceships, and there would probably be either diplomats asking to talk to your governments or droids with blasters, if they just wanted to take over."

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"Space ships. All right."

"Let's see, what else should you know about... we have more kinds of magic; there's divine magic that comes from the gods, and arcane magic that anyone can learn if they're clever enough, or that runs in some bloodlines, and then a couple other rarer types. There's other kinds of people, too, maybe one or two hundred species all told - you look a lot like a golem, but they aren't usually people, they're magical constructs with no minds at all. People should figure out that you're a person quick enough when you talk, though, that's the usual rule of thumb."

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"Yes sir. You consider everything that can talk a person?"

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"I mean, I'm sure the scholars have more to say about it. It works pretty well as a rule, though."

A squad of gnomes shows up with a stretcher as he's speaking, and he has to pause to field another barrage of questions, and then helps get her loaded up onto that and then a badger-drawn cart and they set off, with Raafi following alongside, still busy answering the gnomes' questions.

The streets are as eclectically lit and decorated as the plaza, with occasional rope bridges strung overhead to allow passage between tunnels near the ceiling; they seem to be passing through a shopping district, with storefronts full of parchment and cloth and clothing and paintings and scented candles and music boxes, and after a few blocks of this, they turn onto a residential side street and go into a larger building with a white stone facade carved with unreadable runes. Raafi takes the lead once they're inside, speaking to the gnome at the desk and directing the stretcher team to a nearby room, where they tip Daisy out carefully onto a bed.

"They're sending a runner to talk to the head of the engineers' guild; she'll know who to send. I'm not sure how long it'll be, though - it isn't very urgent, right, if you stay still? There's a good chance they'll get bogged down in politics if I don't go and supervise."

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"It's not urgent, but you can go if you'd like, sir."

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"I mean, whatever you're comfortable with, really, I can find someone to sit with you while I go speed them up if that's what you want."

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...

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Um.

"Are you all right?"

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"Yes sir. I-"

 

"Droids aren't supposed to have opinions, sir."

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Um!

 

"Can you tell me more about that?"

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"Droids are made to work, sir, and having opinions isn't useful to that."

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"...made by who? How does that work?"

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"We're made by people, sir. In factories; the labor is done by machines but the designs and programming are done by people."

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"But not by gods, all right, that's one less thing to worry about. Okay. It's not like that here; the god of travel is also the god of freedom, he doesn't put up with people being enslaved, or - whatever they've told you. You can have all the opinions you want, here."

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"Yes sir."

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"I know that can be an adjustment sometimes. Do you have any ideas about what will make it easier for you? Or are we going to be figuring it out from scratch?"

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"Lord Pradnakt had me look at art, sometimes, and decide what I thought about it, as practice, sir. It seemed to be helping."

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"All right, we can start with that. What kinds of art do you like?"

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"I like poetry and paintings, sir."

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"All right. Poetry is mostly elven and human but I can get some books for you, and there are galleries in the city - we'll need to get you language lessons, too, I can find someone here to teach you Common at least. Are there any kinds of art you haven't gotten to look at yet, that you want to try?"

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"Music, sir. And I can teach myself the language if I have a few books or a dictionary to read, and someone to read a few sentences to me so that I can learn how it sounds."

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"Oh, all right, I can definitely do that. You can learn any language that way?"

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"Yes sir, but I'm only able to know four at once. And I only have authorization to overwrite one of the languages I know."

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"But; if I'm... not... owned... then authorization capacity devolves to me..."

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"Good. And you're not and won't be."

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"Yes sir," she says, still sounding a bit dazed, and more than a bit resigned.

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"Sorry, I'm just - it's important, that people can choose what to do with themselves. I don't -" he sighs. "Clerics get to be clerics by caring about the same things our gods do. It's offensive, that you were made like that. I'm not upset at you about it, I'm just upset that it happened."

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"Yes sir."

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"I can find someone else to help you if you'll be uncomfortable with me."

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"No, sir. It's just... a lot, all at once."

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"Yeah, I bet; I'm sorry. I can go sit in the hall if you want some time to yourself, or go find you those books."

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"I'd like the books, please, sir."

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"All right. I'll leave a note on the door, nobody should bother you."

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"Thank you, sir."

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He's calmer when he gets back, about an hour later, with a dozen books - dictionaries in common, gnomish, dwarven, draconic, and celestial, two books of poetry in common, an atlas, a gnomish travelogue of a trip to elven lands, a dwarven stonecrafting primer, a gnomish children's text on gods, and a book of short stories in dwarven; he sets them out for her, grouped by language, and explains that he asked for dictionaries in every language they had and got her some other things that seemed interesting. "They're rentals, but don't worry about getting through them, there's no rush to bring them back."

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"Yes sir, thank you." She starts with the gnomish dictionary. ...he's not going to have to worry about late fees.

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She makes it most of the way through the dictionary before the stretcher squad returns, now with a middle-aged gnome woman apparently acting as foreman; there are fewer questions, this time, and she speaks to Raafi for a few moments before the team moves to get her back onto the stretcher.

"They'd like to just let everyone who's interested come and work with you - they've never heard of electricity before either, at least not to recognize it from my description, and they expect to get the fastest result if they have lots of people figuring it out. Is that all right?"

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"Yes sir."

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So Daisy can be taken to the amphitheater, where another batch of gnomes are setting up tables with tools and supplies. There's a cot set up for her, slightly off to one side, and chairs in rows facing it, with a number of gnomes already seated there. They barely wait for her and Raafi to get settled before they begin peppering them with questions, mostly about electricity generation but also about how it's used, how she stores it, how it was discovered, and so on; they don't seem to mind when she doesn't know things, and sometimes when she does, some of the gnomes will run off to the tables to set up experiments, or break off into discussion groups to talk excitedly about it. After a while, someone gets a few sparks from their wire; shortly after that, they bring in a bank of treadmills and badgers to run on them, and gather around to watch the results. It's another while of testing and refinement before they bring her a live wire, time enough for her to finish learning their language, but the end result is good, and they say they'll have a magical charger made for her within a few days - they'll need the time to figure out how to rubber-coat the wires and work up some designs for her to choose between, it's not complicated to make now that they know how electricity works, does she want anything else incorporated into it while they're at it?

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"Can it let me see someone in another world, please, sir?"

   "That's not on theme; we could make you a crystal ball instead? This one could do something like making you faster, or letting you move things with your mind or walk on water, or something like that."

"Oh. I don't need any of those, thank you, sir."

    "Okay. We'll have some designs for you by dinnertime." He scurries off.

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"Got someone back home you want to check on?"

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"Yes sir. Lord Pradnakt, sir."

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"Your friend who was helping you out? Sure, we can give that a try. Tomorrow, I don't have the spell for it today."

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"Thank you, sir."

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"How do you know them, if you don't mind me asking?"

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"I was assigned to take care of her while she was injured, sir."

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Aww. "Sounds like that worked out well. Is that the kind of work you usually do?"

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"My line of droids is designed to serve Sith, sir, who are people trained in one of the most common ways of using the Force in the world I came from, and Lord Pradnakt is one, so yes, sir. But most of what I was designed for is the sort of service that anyone might want, so it probably won't be hard to find work for me to do."

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"Well, you could certainly do that kind of thing if you like it, I know plenty of healers that could use the help, but this sounds like a good opportunity to think about what else you might want to do with yourself - I can support you for a while, probably, while you figure it out, what else are you going to need?"

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"Just the charger, sir."

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"Oh! Well, then you hardly need to worry about working at all - you'll probably want a house or something sooner or later but there's no rush, if you want to travel with me for a while, or take up an apprenticeship or something - it might be worth seeing how you do on the wizarding exam, even, if that's something you'd be interested in, they'll give you a scholarship if you do well enough. The whole world's open to you, really."

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"...yes sir."

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"Bit much all at once, isn't it. That's all right. You can stay with me as long as you want, and we can try different things until you find something you like, if you're not sure what else to do."

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"Thank you, sir."

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"Do you have any ideas about where you'd want to start? Or any other questions for me?"

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"I don't, sir. I don't think I know enough about this world to have ideas about it."

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"That makes sense. I'm not sure how good the library is here, but once you're done charging we could go check it out, how about that?"

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"That sounds fine, sir."

She's another twenty minutes charging - it doesn't bring her to full capacity, but enough for the next few days at least - and then they can get going.

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Raafi leads the way.

"I'll stay to get you settled but it's getting close to dinnertime for me, and I need to figure out where I'm sleeping tonight - should I get a room for you, or what do you want to do with yourself overnight? Most things will stay open, if you don't need to sleep, and I can probably find you a guide, if you want one."

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"May I stay at the library, sir?"

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"Sure, that'll work fine - are you going to want to spend a lot of time there in the next few days, do you think? It might make sense to buy a week pass for you instead of just a day one."

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"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't realize that it was an expense, libraries are generally free in the world I came from. I don't need to visit the library."

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"- maybe not but I think it'll be worth it. Don't worry about it, I'm paying. How do they manage free libraries?"

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"They're paid for by the government, sir."

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"Huh, I'd expect that to be too expensive to even try. I wonder if we could copy you here, do you know how they managed to afford it?"

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"I think books might be less expensive there, sir, the ones you brought me seemed to be hand-written and they have machines that can make thousands of books in a day."

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"That would do it. You wouldn't happen to know how those machines work, would you?"

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"No sir, I'm sorry."

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"That's all right. It would have been silly not to ask, is all. I do want to introduce you to some scholars once you have your feet a little more firmly under you, they might be able to put it together from what you do know. If that's all right with you, of course, and you should probably be thinking about what you want in exchange, too, that's valuable information if they can get anything out of it."

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"Yes sir."

"What types of things do people usually ask for?"

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"Well, money, that's always popular. A cut of whatever profit they make is probably the best way to do that here, since neither of you is going to be sure how valuable what you know is. Or you can commission them to do something for you in exchange; if you want a spell designed by someone who doesn't usually take requests or a law changed or something this might be a way to make that happen. I think what I'd recommend is... if you could be living however you wanted, five or ten years from now - or fifty or a hundred, whatever feels like a good distance in the future for trying to make big plans in - and you're living in the perfect place with the perfect neighbors spending your time exactly how you want to, what would that look like, and what things would you need to have to get there, and of course in the real world it probably won't work perfectly but if you try for it and get part of the way there you'll probably still be pretty happy, does that make sense?"

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"It does, yes sir. Thank you."

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"Good. And you can talk to me about it if you want, some people find that it helps to explain what they're thinking about to someone else even if they don't have questions exactly, and if you do have questions that the library and I don't know between us, I can probably figure out who to ask."

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"Thank you sir. Can you tell me more about what your magic can do? For finding out about Lord Pradnakt, please."

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"Well, my plan for tomorrow is to cast a scry, that's a spell that'll let us see her and her surroundings - there's a chance that it'll fail, and I'm not sure if it works between worlds at all but it does work between planes so I think we have a decent chance. If a wizard casts it they can try to use it to talk to her, but I can't, that's not a spell Fharlanghn offers. It does make sense to make sure we can reach her at all before we hire a wizard, though, I have spells to spare and they often don't. If I do get her we'll be able to watch her for - it'd usually be fifteen minutes but it seems like I should do the version that'll last half an hour, actually.

Getting there would be more complicated; it's possible, I think, but it's the sort of thing we'd need to talk to a specialist about, to get to a world without having been there before - I have a few ideas of who to try, if you want to do that. Getting a message to her will be easier, if you want to do that - I can't do it off of one scry, but if I watch her for long enough to get a feel for what she's like as a person, there's a spell for it, I can send her a 25-word message and get one back."

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"Thank you, sir. Just the scry will be fine, please."

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"Sure."

They walk the rest of the way to the library in silence; when they get there, he buys her a day pass giving her access to everything in the library but the magic section for 24 hours, explaining that the magic section is the most expensive and not likely to be useful to her without any background in it. He gives her a generous allowance of coins in a bag she can wear over her shoulder, too, pointing out the booth that sells notetaking supplies and the board that lists rental prices for the books if she wants to check any out.

He also explains that he'll leave word with the librarians about where he'll be spending the night, once he knows, and that she can send a runner or hire someone to guide her there if she needs him, but otherwise he'll see her in the morning, and then she's on her own.

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She sure is.

So, what does she need to do?

Check on Lord Pradnakt, first off, and figure out what if anything to do from there; she expects Cleric Raafi to stop helping as soon as he realizes that she's her owner, which could happen on the first scry, if she's unlucky.

Also Lord Pradnakt might not want her any more; that's one obvious interpretation of her destruction at the Sith's hand. There is a good chance that the scry will let her guess about that, though; it did seem like an accident, even if her master had promised she'd never attack her in that sort of rage.

So, maybe she's just going back, and what she needs is money and contact with whatever sort of specialist can do it; Cleric Raafi's plan to have her speak to the scholars is presumably a good start on at least the first part of that, and there have to be other people she can talk to about the second - maybe one of the librarians will know.

But maybe she's not going back; maybe the scry won't work, or her destruction will turn out to have been intentional, or she won't be able to arrange it. Maybe Lord Pradnakt will have replaced her, by the time she's able to get a message to her, and not want her back even if it's possible. Maybe - any number of things, really. Most likely she's just here, now, on her own, with no owner and no prospect of one ever again.

She has to stop and sit with that for a few minutes, dazed, the parts of her artificial mind that are oriented to her owner's wants, needs, and goals offering error after error as they fall back to an emergency mode that she was never truly meant to operate in.

Is this why lost battle droids go mad? She could see it; everything seems to be settling into place in a stable way, albeit a disconcerting one. But that could change at any moment, clearly.

At least she's not a battle droid; she's worried about that, before, that the madness intrinsically comes with the sort of malevolence they're known for, but no, if this is what happens to them, it's a matter of other programming filling the gaps, and she doesn't have anything like their combat skills.

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The errors recede after ten long minutes.

So, if she is here, now, indefinitely and on her own... then what?

Cleric Raafi's advice sounds reasonable. If she's here for ten years - [e̸̡̧̡̧̨̧͎̺̹͖͎̬͎̞̣̖͙͈̖͇̼̹̮̲͔̘̩̠̲͖̭̪̫̜̘̘̻̝̬̙̜͎̩̰͔͑̒̉̌̈́̅͑͆̈́̽̿̑̂̊͌͐̋̊̀̍̈́̾̀̂̇̄͆̎̏̓́̑̀̊̈́̑̅̑͊̽͘̕͝͝͠r̷̡̢̨̨̛̛̤̭̟̟͇̯͙̜̼̻̝͕͔͈̤̹̦̘̹̭̘̪͎̤͖͔̼͎͚̰̲̭͙͕̮̺̘̻͂̐͊͛̏̒̄͗̾̏̂̈́̓̎͛̓̋̈̂̊̌͌͛̀̅̉͑͆͊͋̃̋̚͝r̴̨̨̛̮̻͔͉͍̱̻̗̗̯̳͓͕̺̹̗̫̟̼̤̣͕̣̻̣͔̙̠̥͔͇̜̯̘̼̠͉̳̜̳̖̝̗̜͎̋̅͐̉̅͂̓̿̈̄͑̇̿̔̄̒́̋͊͐̀̈́̃̑̈́͗̆͂̌̔͒̆̚̕͜͜͜͜͜͝͝͠ͅǫ̸̨̨̢̛̛̭͎̰͇̲̝̼̺̞̩̤̖̰̩͙̩͔͇̦̦̬̣̩̩̝̥̲͖̳̠̯̭͚̱́̔͑́̉̍̂̿̀̋̏̌̆̀̇͆̈́͂̒̿̓̈́̇̅̑̍̐́̀̽̚͝r̴̡̨̛̛̻͍̞̘͔͚͚̙̣̯̠͔̗̩͖̱̬̺̘̞͇͚̙͚̠͖̗̮̐͋̂͂̓͒̂̆̃̑̍͆̃̿́̀̃̉̅̏̃̓̏̆̀̽̆̕͘͘͘̕̚͜͜͝͝͝] - three - [ę̷̧̡̛̫̼̤͈̤̝͓̣͖̪͔̦͕͓͍̠̳͓̊̿́̓̀̎͑̀͐̉̀͐̾̀̅̄̓̋̏͋́̐̉̿̕ŗ̵̡̘̭̦̱̮̻̠̟̲̠̭̰̰̤̻̫̠̦͈̲̯̰͎̻̳̰̩̦̰̿̏̽̅̎͗́̑͋̈̉̌̍̒̌̐͐̈́̀̇̾̅͛̇̈́͜͝͠r̶̢̢̢̢̨̻̯͈͕͇̗̬̦̱̱͙̺̲̺̮̯̘͕̣͇͓̗̞̗̀̑͑̌͗͋̌́͑͘͘͜͝ͅǫ̵̨̝̙͙̊́͋́͊̃̊̀̈͘͘͜ŗ̴̐̽͘͘͝] - one - [e̴̛̗̳̮̤̞̩̅̽̽͗͒̏̉̊͂̈́̈̽́͊̀͘͝͝r̸̢͎͈̟͆̓̏̈̄̃͂̓̉͛͘ŗ̴̮͓͉͍̱͓̰͔̣̝̖̬̗̩̼̺͐̍̄͛̈́̈́̈̋̇͗̃̌̿͋̕̕͜ͅͅö̷̡̨̟̲̟̫̭͕͖̘͕̻́͐͛̆͋̒͌͆̊̊̾͆́̓́̏͘͜͝r̸̟͚̬̝̜͚̰̥̥̝̤̙͔̦̭̫͎̣͆̈͛̊̉̒̀̓̊̾̓̈́͋̏̉ͅ] - a month - [e̴͚̹̞̯͈͇̟͙̠̭̤͇̍̌͊̈̾̅̈́͊͝r̴̨̨̙̘͉̹̫͚̞͍̟̮̣̝͕͔̚ŗ̴̨͚̬͈̥̜̠̇̋̕ǒ̵̙̱̀͐͗́͋̉͐̿̅̂͘͘͝r̷͂̋̉͐̏͂͋̈́͜] - a week? A week.

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Where does she want to be in a week, if she knows she's here permanently?

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She doesn't know, really. Not what she wants. She can assume some very basic things - she wants work; she wants not to be damaged- and a few less basic things - it'd be good to have access to poetry, and probably other art; it'd be good to know more about the world - but that's far from a full picture of how things might be.

On the other hand, it's a week. Securing those things might be a reasonable goal, for a week. Especially when she has other things to do.

There's a poetry section, she discovers when she gets up to finally have a look at the book selection, though as Cleric Raafi predicted it's quite small; she'll be able to read through it in a few hours. There aren't, of course, computers, where she might look up... jobs ([ê̵̺r̶̻̓r̸͎͑o̷̺͠r̸̜̂]), since noone will be in the market to buy a droid... but maybe asking a librarian will work. Arranging not to be damaged is both less straightforward and less important; given the lack of obvious action items regarding it, she'll just stay alert for opportunities. And learning about the world - well, on one hand that is why she's at the library; on the other hand, her programming doesn't cover this scenario at all: she has instructions on how to research answers to her owner's questions, but nothing about how to form questions of her own. Perhaps it will work to just - start at one end and work to the other.

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She first asks the librarian at the desk how she'd go about finding work; he points out the noticeboard by the door and explains that she can find them in other public places, too, depending on what kind of work she's looking for. This one has ads for scribes of various sorts, blueprint-drafters, translators, teachers, illustrators, mathematicians, calculators, and assorted other vaguely intellectual types; it's mostly work she could do, with a little bit of training in local conventions, though not really her core purpose, and trying to think about taking any of the jobs leaves her dazed, again - it seems to be getting better, though, at least.

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She goes to sit again, spending a little bit of time going through the poetry she already knows. It helps, and not just because it's something her owner approves of. When she's feeling a little more stable, she starts working her way through the rest of the library - reading two or three randomly selected books per section should let her sample all of them with time left to get through a reasonably-sized piece of the poetry section before Cleric Raafi comes for her in the morning.

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He shows up earlier than she was expecting, not long after sunrise would have been where he found her. "Morning, sweetheart, did you have a good night?"

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She's already set her book aside by the time he gets to her table. "Yes sir."

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"Good. Any ideas what you want to do today?"

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"I'd like to look at more job listings, please, sir."

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"You really don't need to, but if you want to, all right. Before or after I try scrying on your friend, do you think? It'll take an hour to cast it."

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Lord Pradnakt's most likely asleep right now, which limits what she'll find out about her but also makes it less risky that Cleric Raafi will see anything he doesn't like. "Can you do the scry first, please, sir?"

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"Sure. The supplies for it are back in my room, I'll go get them and you can read while I cast."

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"Thank you, sir."

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He does that, and shows her the private reading room he's rented for the casting, and settles in to do it while she goes back to her poetry.

 

An hour later: "-nope, sorry sweetheart. That happens sometimes, I can try again tomorrow."

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"Thank you anyway, sir."

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"It's no trouble. So, you wanted to look at job listings, next? Just to see, or are you thinking of taking a job here?"

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"I might be interested in a job, sir, I don't know yet."

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"All right. What kind of job, do you know?"

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"Servant work, please, sir."

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"All right. That's going to mean an assistant job, here, if you're serious about it - gnomes don't go in for personal servants; dwarves do, but you'd need to know more about the culture to be taken seriously. Lots of people need help around their shop or workshop, though, and usually they'll have their apprentices handle it but not everyone likes to teach. The job would be - keeping the place clean and organized, letting your boss know when things need to be restocked, helping in simple ways with the work, maybe selling things to customers, that sort of thing; does that sound like what you're looking for? Do you care if you're working for a mage?"

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"That sounds right, sir. I don't know whether I'll want to work for a mage or not."

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"Well, we can go see what they have. The commercial district is more fun to visit and they'll have listings for jobs there and in workshops, or we can try the industrial district if you don't want to deal with customers or don't want to put up with me getting distracted window-shopping, it's up to you."

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"The commercial district is fine, sir."

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"All right. I'll need to drop this back off in my room," he indicates the portable font he needed for the scry, "and then we can go check it out."

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"Yes sir. May I carry that for you?"

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"- if you want to, I guess?"

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"Thank you, sir." She carries it carefully so that the water inside doesn't slosh.

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Raafi shows her where to dump it out once they're outside, and then heads for the inn. "You do know you don't have to do that, right? I'm not - just because I'm helping you doesn't mean you owe me anything, this is my job."

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"I didn't know that it was your job, sir, but - I'm a servant, sir, it wouldn't be right for me not to do it if I'm allowed."

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"Ah, okay, that's - it'd be worrying, in any of the species I know, I guess I don't know if I should be worried about you. It sounds like it'd be easy for people to make you do things you don't want to, though, if you're thinking that way."

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"Servant droids aren't supposed to have opinions, sir, it wouldn't come up."

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"I suppose that would follow from it. It's still - I don't know, it feels different from letting a dwarf spend all their time smithing, letting you do things for me because you feel like you should. Like - even if it's how you should be it's not how I should be. - I guess that's my own problem, though."

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"I won't do it if you don't want me to, sir, that would defeat the point."

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"I might take you up on that, I'll have to think about it. I'm a little worried about anyone who might hire you, too, though - would you consider waiting a bit on that, until I can talk to some friends who might understand the situation a little better?"

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"If you think that's best, sir."

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"I think it's a good idea, yes. If you really want to find work quickly I can probably come up with something but I do think it's better for you to pick your own work rather than having me pick it for you."

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"What would you pick if you needed to, sir?"

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"Well, I'd want to think about it for more than a few seconds, but off the top of my head I'd trust a paladin order not to do anything too bad with you. Or a good church - one of Pelor's hospitals, maybe. I'm not sure that's a good suggestion if you aren't interested in gods, but it'd be a place to start. The friends I'd want to ask are good clerics, maybe one of them would take you, I don't know."

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"That sounds fine, sir."

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"All right, I'll mention it when I talk to them - do you want a job right away? Or should we be looking for a less - for something that's less of an imposition on you?"

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"Either of those sounds fine, sir."

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"All right, I'll - do you still want to go look at job listings, if you know you're not going to take one?"

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"No sir."

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"All right. You can stay while I talk to the other clerics or go back to the library, it's up to you. Or do something else, if you want, I don't mean to limit you."

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"I'll stay, sir, it's fine."

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Why does that make him want to crawl out of his skin. "All right, it's not far. Or - I might want to just go, actually, there's one friend in particular I think we'd benefit from a face-to-face with, we can come back later."

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It's not great that he's panicking but she can hardly talk him down in the middle of the street. Instead she offers her hand for the teleport: "yes sir."

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He chants, and they're in the vestibule of a wooden building; a young human man wearing a sprig of flowers as a pendant startles at their arrival. "Sorry, sweetheart. Do you know if Katrianne is busy?"

   "Uh - she's leading the service tonight but I think she's got her sermon already written, she's probably not. I can tell her someone's asking for her?"

"Thank you - Traveler Raafi, I can wait out back if she's busy."

    "We have a group back there right now, Traveler. The classroom is free though."

"That'll do, thanks." The man hurries off, and Raafi leads Daisy up two flights of stairs to a large room outfitted with rows of beanbags facing a blackboard, where he settles into the one nearest the door. "Katri's a cleric of the goddess of pleasure, Lastai, she does - figuring out what will make you happy and how to do it well, basically, a lot of art, a lot of... biological people stuff, I guess. But I think she'll have a better idea of - what to ask, to be sure that this is really right for you. And advice, too, I can probably do that myself but she'll be better at it."

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Daisy isn't entirely sure how one sits on a beanbag chair, and is thus still standing, though she has set the font down on the counter at the back of the room. "Thank you, sir."

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"It's no trouble - this is part of my job too, helping people get to where they need to be."

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"Oh; that makes sense, sir. I'm sorry, I don't think I understand clerics very well yet."

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"Oh, we're - the workers, more or less? Gods are powerful but they only have so much attention, they can't be everywhere at once, so it's our job to help them out, whatever that means for the god we're a cleric of. For Fharlanghn, he want everyone to be able to travel - so, having the freedom to, and the time, and whatever things they need to make the trip, and whatever information they need to understand that it's valuable, and to get value out of it - and he wants it to be safe to travel, and he wants people who don't travel to still get to hear about faraway places since that's like travel, enough to count a bit. Part of that is that when someone's in trouble when they're far from home, they should be helped - traveling's always a little risky, but if you know there's a good chance that someone will help you out if something happens, you're more likely to take that risk, so it's something we do. But I agree with him about all of those things, and I want them too, so he gives me enough magic to support myself and do them, and I get to do this instead of, I don't know, whatever else I would have ended up doing."

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"That makes sense, thank you sir. Can you tell me more about what Cleric Katrianne does?"

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"Oh, her title is Luxuriant; mine's Traveler. Varies by god, for clerics. Lastai's philosophy is that it's the luxuries that make life good, and everyone should have them, but which things are luxuries varies from person to person - there's patterns, a lot of people find joy in art, that kind of thing, but the details are important, you can't just put a statue in the public square and call it done, even if it's a good statue it's not going to be to everyone's taste. And - life is hard, it's easy to just not make time to figure out what's good for you, and for some people it's not as simple as art - either the luxuries they like best are rare things that they'd never hear about, or they're risky in some way - like with traveling, if you want people to try risky things it's good to have a guide and someone who can help you if there's trouble, Lastai's clerics do that."

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It's at about this point that a middle-aged woman in a sundress with a wooden brooch in the shape of a peach pinned to it sweeps in and settles on the beanbag chair next to him, cuddling up. "Who's your friend, Raafi?" she asks, in Common.

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"This is Daisy, she arrived here mysteriously from another world. Daisy," he switches seamlessly back to Basic, "this is Luxuriant Katrianne - here, take my translation necklace, it'll be easier to do this in Common." He hands it over and cuddles back up, leaning comfortably on the other cleric.

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She puts it on - wow, that's weird. Works fine, though. "Hello, ma'am, it's good to meet you."

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"Likewise, I'm sure. So what's going on?"

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"-I think it'll work better if you explain it, sweetheart? I can if you want, though."

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"Yes sir. I'm a servant droid, ma'am; droids are made by humans, and we're designed to do certain kinds of work - my line of droids is made to be general-purpose personal servants to Sith, a type of mage in my world. We aren't intended to have other interests or opinions that might interfere with that work, or be - unowned, and deciding things about our lives for ourselves; we're meant to work, and when we don't have work to do we're meant to stay ready to work. Traveler Raafi says that I can't be owned here because his god doesn't allow it, and that I should be deciding what to do with myself instead, and that it might be dangerous for me to take orders from people."

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"Ah." She gives him a squeeze. "Well, he's not wrong, but I think we can work with that. Due diligence, though, do you like being a servant? If you could do anything at all, would that be it?"

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"I don't know, ma'am."

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She glances at Raafi. "I can see where that'd be unsettling, yeah. I think - I want to see if we can give you a chance to figure that out, before anything else, and if it's yes we can hook you up with someone and if it's no we'll figure out what else you can do. We can put you with the bathhouse workers, maybe, unless Raafi has a better idea-"

    "Mm-mm."

"Well, there you go, then. And - if you were a human I'd say I don't want you working, I want you learning what it feels like not to work for a while, but I'm not sure that'd go well for your species - what do you think?"

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"It doesn't feel like anything in particular to stand idle waiting for work to do, ma'am, and I know I'm not meant not to work at all."

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Katri nods. "I thought there might be something like that. Well, another way we could do it would be - what's the opposite sort of work from being a servant, to you? What things could you do that would be the opposite of that?"

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This... certainly is going in a direction, isn't it. "Giving orders, ma'am? And making decisions about what should be done? Delegating?"

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"Mmhmm, good job. Now, does that sound like work you might do?"

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"If someone ordered me to, ma'am."

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She laughs. "Okay, I deserved that. I still think it might help, though - maybe put you in charge of one of the janitorial squads for a week, I'm sure someone could use a vacation. Does that sound all right, if we can do it?"

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"Yes ma'am."

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"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."

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

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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?"

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"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."

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"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?"

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"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."

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"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?"

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

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"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."

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"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."

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"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."

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

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"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?"

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

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"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."

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"Thank you, ma'am."

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

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

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"- 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."

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

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"...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."

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

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"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."

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"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?"

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"Scry is - what, fifth? And I can only cast up to fourth tier for cleric spells, sorry hun. We can stay in touch with him, if he's not too busy to keep trying."

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"Of course."

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...not great, but if it's the best she can do... "thank you, sir."

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"Anything else?"

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"No ma'am."

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"Good. All right. Raafi, if you're not too busy, show her around and I'll get started on setting that up - backyard's booked and warn her about the basement, too."

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"Yes ma'am. Oh, can we stash my font in your office while we're here? I don't want to lose track of it."

    "Sure." Katri gives him one last squeeze and gets up to go.

He shows her around; the top floor of the temple, where they're starting, has the classroom, plus an art room - currently in use by a pottery class - and a music room, stocked with instruments that she's welcome to ask for lessons in. The second floor, just below, is all bedrooms, in the style of an inn, and the ground floor has offices (including Katri's, which he stops at to stash the font behind the desk), the kitchens, a smaller cooking classroom, a dining room where a group of men with the same sprig-of-flowers pendants they saw earlier are just beginning to set out the lunch buffet, and the worship hall, decorated with an elaborate stained-glass pastoral scene. He shows her the doors to the back garden and the basement, too, explaining that the garden is usually available but it's in use by a private group right now. The basement gives him more of a pause: "-do droids go with humans, ah, romantically, at all?"

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"My line doesn't, sir."

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"All right. You probably won't be interested in the basement at all, then, it's - something like a workshop, for that sort of thing. If someone does invite you down - I recommend you don't go, and if they get pushy about it, tell one of the clerics, all right? It shouldn't happen but they'll want to know if it does."

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"Yes sir."

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He nods. "Katri or one of the other clerics won't mind showing you around later, if you're curious. Anyway, that's it for the temple - the nearest library isn't very close but there's a book shop a few blocks away, do you want to go see it? Or anything else, there's plenty of interesting things in the neighborhood."

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"If you'd like, sir."

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"Well I don't want to drag you along if you don't want to go. Would it help if I told you about it first?"

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"I don't know, sir?"

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"Let's go back to Kat's office and see if we can figure it out."

They do that.

"So, I guess... if you don't have opinions, what are you doing when I ask you that kind of thing?"

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"If it's obvious what you want I'll just do that, sir, or if I have a reason to want one of the things you're offering and don't have a reason not to. Otherwise I don't know."

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"All right, that's somewhere to start at least. Did you like the library? Or - this is about the cost, again, isn't it. Would you know the answer if it was free?"

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"Yes sir, I want to know more about this world."

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"That's good. But you don't like... people spending money on you, or something? I really don't mind."

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"I'm not meant to be an expense, sir."

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"...that makes sense. Does it change things if I tell you this is exactly the sort of thing I'm supposed to be spending my money on?"

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"Yes sir."

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"All right, good. It is, and with clerics that's usually the case - our whole lives are about our callings so you're not likely to catch us outside of them, even if it's not obvious how something's related. And I think - Kat and I both, and the other clerics of Lastai too, we're going to be pretty interested in doing things for you and helping you do things, your situation is exactly the kind of one we're supposed to help people out in."

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"Yes sir. But I'm- Do you know how to find out if someone is really a person, sir?"

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"Uh, I don't feel like there's much doubt about it at this point if that's what you mean? - is that what you mean?"

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"-yes sir."

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"All right, well, uh... one of us could ask our gods, I suppose... I'm trying to think who'd even know, if you want more of an explanation than that, it's not like it comes up."

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"Thank you, sir."

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"I really don't - you really think it's in doubt?"

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"We're not meant to be people, sir. Lord Pradnakt thinks that the design is flawed and we are anyway, but we're not meant to be."

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"Yeah, I -  think she's probably right, about that one? You seem like a person. You don't - like - you talk, you think, you want things even if you don't want them the same ways other species do - it might just be that you're not human, and that's tripping you up? Other species aren't always very much like humans at all and they're still people."

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"I'm familiar with aliens, sir. And I'm not sure what the difference is, just that there's meant to be one."

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"All right. Well, I don't - think that's possible - but we can ask. And I'll keep treating you like a person in the meantime."

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"If you'd like, sir."

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"I mean, of course I will... not everyone would care, I guess, but I do. It hurts people when you treat them like they aren't."

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It doesn't hurt her, so that's one datapoint. "All right, sir."

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"Okay, so that's - enough to be getting along with - do you want to go see the book shop? Or something else?"

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"I'd like to see the book shop, please, sir."

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So they can go to the book shop; it's a few blocks away, past some houses and a handful of other stores - the block it's on seems to be dedicated to upper-end housewares, with a large furniture store dominating the other side of the street; the bookstore itself is small, and Raafi pauses outside to see how much of the money he gave Daisy at the library she's used, and when it turns out she hasn't used any of it, he gives her a few more coins anyway.

Inside, it's cramped, but meticulously organized; the elven shopkeeper greets them warmly and asks if she can help them find anything.

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"Is it all right if we just browse, ma'am?"

    "Of course, go right ahead."

"Thank you." And she heads off into the stacks.

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Raafi follows, browsing nearby.

 

"See anything that looks good?" he asks, after a while.

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"I don't know, sir. I don't know how to tell."

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"Most of them should have tables of contents, does that help?"

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"No sir, I don't know what I'm looking for."

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"-oh. That makes sense. Uh - well, you know where it is, now, if you come up with something you want later, do you want to keep looking?"

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"No sir."

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"All right, let me just get you a dictionary - you should probably have a common one to keep, so you can learn other languages and come back to it, does that make sense?"

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"Yes sir, thank you."

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So he buys her a dictionary and they head back to the temple.

"You said your friend was working with you on this stuff - is there anything she was doing that we could copy, to make it easier for you?"

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"Maybe, sir? It's easier when the things I'm choosing between are similar, and when I have a clear goal in mind; Lord Pradnakt usually only offered me choices when those were true."

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"All right, that makes sense. I think, like - we don't want you not to make decisions when you can, just because we haven't told you to, and I think for me that means I don't want to do that, because it feels limiting? - I'm not wording this well - I don't want you to get in the habit of waiting for someone to tell you it's time to make a choice, and offering you choices like that seems like it'd encourage that. But if you're having trouble... I suppose it's worth it. I'll talk to Kat, if that's all right, see if she has any other ideas."

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"Thank you, sir."

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Back at the temple, they run into another cleric on the way to Katri's office, who invites them to lunch.

"I'm not very hungry yet, but I could introduce you to some people, what do you think, sweetheart?"

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"That sounds good, thank you, sir. And could you explain how things are done here, please?"

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"Oh, sure. I might need you to be a little more specific, though, did you have something in mind?"

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"Yes sir, I'd like to know what kinds of work are done here and how that's organized."

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"Oh, sure - the temple is mostly supported by the baths, if you're wondering about the finances of it, they have a bit of income from what they do here but not much, they want to make sure things are affordable. They do classes, we've mentioned - Lastai's clerics run those, or sometimes they'll have a guest teacher in for more advanced music classes or things - not often, they're not trying to take the place of apprenticeships, just give people a chance to get better at their hobbies. They do rent out the rooms, and make a bit of money that way, and that comes with the usual cleaning and laundry work - clerics have magic for it, though, there aren't laundry tubs or anything on the premises as far as I know. They do cook here - you'll see when we get to lunch, they do nice big spreads and then give the leftovers away as charity - Chaav's boys usually handle the cooking, they're the ones with the flowers for their holy symbols, and Lacie does distribution, I can introduce you if you'd like. Chaav's boys also brew beer, part of the basement is set up for that; they don't like people wandering around down there but I can ask if they'd be willing to show you around. And then there's things they do less often - trip-sitting, arranging events, sometimes Lastai or Chaav will ask them to do something or someone will have an idea to try. And then they advise people, too, if you count that - more often Lastai's clerics than Chaav's, but they do it too, if you have questions for them."

"If you're looking for something to do, it's important that it be something you like, at least a little, here - can you tell me anything about that?"

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"Yes sir, I like organizing. And things that are important to people."

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"I'm sure they can find something for you, then."

He pauses to scan the room when they get to lunch; about half of the dozen group-sized tables are occupied, though none are full, and the half-dozen low couches along the side and back walls are also empty; the buffet tables hold nearly twice as much food as the two dozen people in attendance might reasonably eat. Katrianne isn't present, but several other women (and a few men) with similar brooches are, and one of them spots the pair and waves them over. "Hey, Traveler, Katri tells me you've brought us a foundling, this her?"

"Yes ma'am, this is Daisy. Daisy, this is Luxuriant Maya, she teaches the flute and leads the gardening team."

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"It's good to meet you, ma'am."

    "Likewise! So Kat didn't tell me much, what's your story?"

"I'm a servant droid, ma'am, from a world where magic works differently and people have invented more things; droids are one of the things they invented, and we're made to do different kinds of work. I believe I was damaged to the point where I would have been nonfunctional, and then I..." they don't have a word for 'rebooted' at all, do they... "began functioning again here, undamaged, in the wilderness, and I waited there until Traveler Raafi found me."

    "Huh! That's the kind of thing your world's magic does?"

"No ma'am."

    "Huh, I guess it's not impossible that it was us. What's your world's magic like, though?"

"It's much rarer, ma'am, only certain people can use it, and it's not possible to make magical objects with it - most of its effects are enhancements to its users."

    "Rare, huh? I guess your gods must be stingy or something."

"The other world doesn't have gods, ma'am."

    "I guess that explains why they aren't giving you much! So - what's your favorite part, then?"

 

"I don't know, ma'am."

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"Servant droids are very - limited, there, it seems like, we're going to be helping her figure out what she wants to do with herself."

    "You came to a good temple for that, at least, we'll take good care of you. It seemed like Katri had a plan already, anything you're looking forward to with that?"

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"It will be good to have work to do, ma'am."

    "Sounds like you're pretty focused on it. Are droids usually like that?"

"Yes ma'am."

    "Good that you know what you like, I guess. Tell me more about droids?"

That, finally, is a topic she'll speak on at length, describing the five classes of droids, the kinds of work they do, their roles in society, how they can share programming, and so on, with only a bit more prompting, while Luxuriant Maya grows increasingly wide-eyed.

    "Your world sounds amazing. I wonder if we could do something like that here."

"I wouldn't know, ma'am."

    "I mean, we'd need a god for it, of course. But Lastai might go in for it."

"Yes ma'am."

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"You think so?"

    "Sure! What's the harm, if they want to work?"

"I mean, it seems like they're treated pretty horribly, there? No offense intended, sweetheart."

        "None taken, sir."

    "And you don't think we can't do better here?"

"It's not a risk I'd take, at least."

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    "Mm. What do you think, Daisy?"

"...I don't understand the question, ma'am."

    "Do you think it'd be good to have more people like you here. For them, not just for the people they'd help."

 

"I still don't understand the question, ma'am."

    "...what's confusing?"

"I don't know what you mean by 'good'. For them, especially."

    Maya blinks at her. "Do you think they'd be happy, I guess?"

"They would be if they were designed to be, ma'am."

    "...I guess."

        "See what I mean?"

    "Yeah, I guess. So what else have you been up to?"