When she emerges in the morning the wizard she was talking to plops next to her at breakfast. "The cooks love it," she says.

"And did they express this with a particularly articulate glower?" She drawls.

"Ha, no, they got ahead enough of the rush that two of them were sitting down with their feet up at the same time. I don't have to read their minds to know they like it."

"Great. Don't mind me. I can't actually tell where my mood is coming from today."

"You don't scare me."

"...What?" That doesn't even make sense as a response. "Whatever."

Food. Yes, that.

"Maybe it's just setting in about home."

"Not glad to see the back of the place, huh?"

"...Complicated. I've wanted the freedom for a while, but also... Routine and familiar places are comfortable? If I make a joke about the Heterodynes, or mention the steam hub, nobody here will have any idea what I mean. And-"

She pauses. Then shrugs.

"Well, you could tell stories, if you want, people are always bored enough to listen to a new story."

"I guess I can do that. A brief recent history of Europa, as told to me through a book. The Heterodyne Boys, the Other, Wulfenbach's Empire and the Storm King... The Other made breeding creatures that could permanently Dominate Person most anyone. Little wasps that crawl down your throat. Really scary."

"Ooh, spooky. Does that want an endurance save, or a wisdom one..."

"What's the-" Share Language: Common Taldane, help- "--Wisdom, I think, could let you sort of shake it off for a bit? I heard about Agatha Heterodyne being infested but suppressing it until she was able to make something to remove it. But it'd probably be endurance to not get affected in the first place? Wulfenbach bred wasp-hunting weasels to counter them, and also did, uh, quite a lot of war about it. The book was kind of sketchy on the details. Oh, Wulfenbach thought he'd got the Other for good a while back, but it turns out he missed a backup body somewhere so she started operating secretly instead."

"What a name. The Other. Kind of presumptuous, to make like there's no... other Other... who might come up in conversation."

"Lucrezia Mongfish. Apparently the Other War consumed most of the continent so, if you say it with gravitas- The Other- It's just, obvious who you mean. Are there any legendary doom threats around here? The Wound," she intones gravely. "...She was revealed again like threeee years ago? By the new Heterodyne. And- Well, a lot of other stuff is happening, it seemed recent, Agatha woke up Castle Heterodyne and then had adventures across Europa and England, but it's all ridiculous rumors, I don't know what's true. Stuff a couple years old has become mostly consistent and agreed on."

"I think your storytelling needs some work before you try to gather more of an audience. Let's see, there's... Tar-Baphon, he's got a totally normal amount of a name. There's... Nidal, that's a name too."

"I have never deliberately storytold in my life. It really did not seem like a priority."

"You don't have to be great at it, just get the hang of putting the beginning first and all."

"I'm not actually sure this gets me the thing I want, but maybe maybe."

"Suit yourself, naturally."

Any lessons meeting up today?

There's something every day unless something weird is going on. The next one is a one-off on fort repairs.

Oh, she definitely wants to listen to that!! But later.

"-Do people play games that aren't cards here? I never learned any card games, I preferred board games."

"There's dice. Some people know how to play chess," says Txell. "Or might learn how any day now."

"Chess isn't awful. ...If the thing I know of as chess is the same. Knights, Clanks, Dragons, Minions, and a King and Consort?"

"Knights, rooks, bishops, pawns, King and Queen. But maybe yours move the same."