"The very foreignest."

"Most certainly."

"Does the spell let you show me a sample of your language or will it override you?"

"It will not override me. Would you like a sample of my language?"

"Yes please."

He looks amused, and then says something in his language. It sounds rather pretty, and neatly displays how his accent works with his language. It's not anything immediately familiar, for obvious reasons, but it certainly sounds like it works well enough in itself. That being said, it is completely incomprehensible to her.

"Pretty! What'd you say?"

"I said, 'This is a sentence in my native language. I'm quite sure my accent's normal, here. Unless I'm victim to a very elaborate joke.'"

"It is a currently popular fashion among linguists to declare no natively acquired accent any more normal than any other."

"Do you not have class differences in speaking habits there?"

"Some, but not particularly huge ones. I did teach myself a second language though, so I could remind myself parts of a spell and not worry as much about anyone listening and being able to figure out a counter-spell fast enough to matter," he says. "Apparently my accent in that one is absolutely atrocious."

"How big is the population of New Kystle, anyway?"

"Hmmm. We haven't managed a formal census, but... Over twenty thousand, or so," he winces.

"Yeah. We had around two billion," he says, softly. "Before."

"That's... shit."

"Yes."

"On that scale twenty thousand is a narrow escape. How did you get out?"

"I made a really big shield, and held it for as long as I was physically capable of doing. My sister went out to collect as many as she could, and bring them back to the shield. I hit mana deprivation at some point three days in and I don't remember much after that. After the fact, I heard that other mages worked together to do the same thing I'd been doing, and some others managed to make a portal, and we ran."

"... Yeah, I think so."

Hugs.

Hugs indeed.

Path glides off of her head and makes a soft trilling noise at Vernaia.