"Mm-hm. We are currently in the city of Chicago, for reference." English. "Adarin, how do you feel about language-ing her, I can just write her one of those how-to-hotel phrasebooks if you have misgivings...?"

"Thank you."

Her companion does not comment on if she's being excluded or not.

"Okay. Even being able to pick up English, you're probably in for a bit of culture shock, we could maybe leave you a mirror. What are your names?"

"Seraphina. Seraphina Odaliath," says the mage with the little bird daemon.

"Xiara," says the other, apparently not caring to expand on it more than that.

"Okay. And I'm Isabella Amariah but I suspect you knew that. Do you have enough mana to teleport, or do you want to stay in the hotel with Seraphina long enough to recover to the point where you can?" Isabella asks Xiara. "All the portals open to the hub or to major metropolitan areas, not exactly campgrounds for you to hole up in and wait."

"I do not have enough to teleport, no. I was planning on just - picking a direction and walking with my allies scouting out potential places to 'hole up and wait.'"

"I don't recommend doing that in an Earth city. You might be fine, but you might wander somewhere you aren't supposed to be because you can't read the signs or recognize what conventions of buildings here are likely to mean and if you get picked up by the cops you can't speak the language."

"I was going to avoid the cities."

"We're in a city. A city with nearly three million people in it and surrounded by suburbs where it doesn't border water. It will take you several days to get to be not-in-a-city unless by 'walk' you in fact meant 'boat' or 'swim'. The portals don't lead to anywhere substantially less inhabited except for the portal hub. So unless Adarin wants to volunteer to give you a ride - I'm not putting you on my cloudpine for the hours it would take to drop you off in rural Wisconsin - you will be spending the next while in a city."

"Translation spells are one thing, but teleportation spells are a bit bigger. Sorry, no. I need the mana."

Xiara seems honestly surprised for the first time since she's arrived. Her cat flicks his tail, back and forth, agitated. "... Your cities are that large? Then I shall take the lodgings. Perhaps the translation spell would also be wise."

"This is a large city, but not the largest in the country," says Isabella. "This is a very thoroughly inhabited and developed country in a very thoroughly inhabited and developed world. So I guess I'm putting more mages up in a hotel."

"Apparently so."

"... This is a clever spell. I am impressed," says Xiara in slow, accented English.

"Thank you."

"It's the cleverest of spells," says Isabella. Sappily. "All right, let's see where I can book a hotel for the night..." She pulls out her phone.

Adarin is so pleased by this praise! He grins, delighted with Isabella's sappiness.

"You two are very cute together," says Seraphina, smiling.

"Thank you," says Isabella. "There's a Doubletree a ways north of here. But I don't think I can fit you all on my cloudpine at once and trying to transport you by bus sounds like a sitcom waiting to happen. Let's just walk into town and see if we pass a hotel." Isabella hauls herself to her feet.

Up Adarin goes, as well. "Let's aim for a nice one, I kind of don't want to see what sort of trouble they would get into at an unsavory one."

"I have been in many unsavory places before. Is there something that would make this any different from those?"