"She is, but Beri says that when she thinks I won't listen otherwise." Jisa sticks her tongue out at her governess. 

"She didn't tell me she was going to space!" Beri protests, looking self-conscious. She reaches for Jisa's hand. "Come on. It's time for your bath." 

Jisa casts a look back at the Amentans. "Can I play with you again tomorrow?" 

"Of course!"

The next update that the Amentans on the ground receive is that evening, from Herald-Mage Savil. She went ahead and contacted the Tayledras in k'Treva Vale, and they're willing to host a (small) party of the alien visitors for a couple of days! If they're interested in taking up the invitation, Savil can Gate them over in the morning, once she's had a good night's rest. 

They pick out some representatives and land them to be Gated, which itself sounds like an interesting experience.

And Savil is there at the appointed time to Gate them over! She does not look particularly happy about this. 

:Introduce yourselves?: she demands of the arriving representatives. :The Tayledras won't speak your language and they'll be, er, nervous: 

They all say their names, smiling cheerfully! Kesha is not in this group but the green who was with her is, and a different blue.

(Savil haaaates Gates so much–) 

This does not show at all on her face. She leads them to the Heralds' temple to Kernos, the big bronze doors that have been used for Gates a hundred times before, and then raises her hands - 

- the doorway starts to glow, with a clean blue-white light - 

- and then it flashes, brightly, and a fraction of a second later, something else is visible on the other side. 

Taver is lurking within his Thoughtsensing range, reading all of the Amentans' thoughts as they watch this happen. 

The blue thinks that looks like it could be incredibly useful for transit! So much quicker and more convenient than a plane. Maybe it would be good form to offer to pay Savil? He's not sure of the culture around that but it would get locals used to Amentans buying their valuable services.

The green thinks that is SO COOL, WOW, how does it work, is it faster than light, are the people in the mothership getting interesting readings?

The yellow they've brought along - again not the same one as the main Haven delegation - is hoping it will not make her sick like buses and virtual reality that is just slightly off do. It seems like it might. Does she have an anti-emetic on her. There it is. She pops it as discreetly as possible, there is nothing in the universe more embarrassing than needing to throw up as soon as you get to somebody's place.

On the other side of the shimmering barrier, they can see - an expanse of varying shades of green, mostly. 

And a tall, slender man, clad in rippling green robes, stepping forward to meet the Gate. His waist-long hair is very white, and pulled back into braids on either side of his face. 

"- Savil?" 

"Starwind. ...May we cross?" 

A long pause. 

- and then he lifts a hand. "Of course, Wingsister." 

Savil gestures for the Amentans to follow her through the Gate, and steps over. 

SO COOL the green thinks loudly. DON'T PUKE the yellow thinks loudly. The blue is trying to calculate about how much money he should offer Savil for the lift if that seems opportune - it has to be in budget and he doesn't want to have to requisition a new budget till at least next month but if he lowballs her that's almost worse than not offering, really, they'll figure out how far a tap goes soon enough -

(Taver reads all of their minds up until the point that they actually cross the Gate, and then loses contact.) 

And Starwind steps forward. 

:Welcome to k'Treva Vale: He defaults to Mindspeech, because apparently the aliens have only recently learned Valdemaran, which isn't exactly his most fluent language anyway. :I hear that you are visitors from a different star?: 

"Yes we are!" says the blue in Valdemaran. "Thank you for having us here!"

A different white-haired human steps forward, taking Starwind’s hand.

:My name is Moondance k’Treva. This is my shay’kreth’ashke - my life partner - Starwind. He is the Speaker for the Vale: 

(Moondance is ALSO reading all of their minds, because he has a very bad feeling.)

These people have such great names, the green thinks. There will be an internet fad next week about making up a compound name and her granddaughter is going to tell her to call her Sunsea. Actually, that would make a great jobname. She should focus though. Rumor has it they might be able to read minds and she wishes the blues would figure out a diplomatic way to ask about that sooner than later WHOOPS now she's thinking about the last time she had sex with her husband (it was okay, not great, he'd shaved the sides off his hair a little too close last time he touched up the mohawk and it was scratchy...)

The blue wishes they would specify what a Speaker is - is that a diplomatic role, an executive one, both combined because they're organized in small preindustrial units, what. What does his script have for him here - "It's our pleasure to meet you, Starwind and Moondance. I'm Tasut Mehoi, and these are Antai Tekma, one of our linguists, and Aio Shumah, here to take notes and manage communications with the rest of the Amentans."

Aio wishes she had changed her job name. If someone asks her to explain "Shumah" she's going to die. It's one thing to harmlessly indulge yourself with a reference to a TV show when, at least, everyone around you knows that the character a) exists b) their name means 'radio'. But she REALLY should have changed it before this only she couldn't settle on anything.

…All of this is so baffling??? 

This does not exactly relieve Moondance’s bad feeling, but it does leave him somehow even MORE off balance! 

”If you would like to follow me this way—?” Starwind says in Valdemaran, gesturing in the direction of the nearest path into the depths of the green jungle.

The Amentans cheerfully follow along! They think it's really pretty here. It reminds Aio of a garden installation she saw once, tucked into the courtyard of an apartment building but open to the public, mostly nourished with mirrored sunlight.