"I'm Iskander."

"I am pleased to meet you, Kybele and Iskander, such as the circumstances might be. Please describe your occupations."

"I run a library and a newspaper. He does woodcuts for the newspaper and other assistive tasks."

"Please tell me where and when you were born, and where you lived before you came here."

"We were born in a village called Creekfork and live in urban Scythia now."

"On which planet is the city of Scythia located? We can go over to the map if it would help you." He looks in the direction of the large diagram behind the desk.

"I don't actually think the planet has a name?"

Okay. "Were you previously aware of the existence of other planets which contained humans?"

"N- I was not aware of that."

"Apologies, I'll need you to expand the pronoun for surety's sake.

Were you previously aware of the existence of the Cielos Consortium, of Xiedos, of Madame Segatriz, of Sofronio? Were you previously aware of Grejonta, Peregenia, or Chiprasonia?"

"I was not aware of other human-inhabited planets. I have never heard of any of the things you just listed except that I once heard a story about a city named something that might have been or just sounded a lot like Peregenia."

"Have you suffered any head injuries lately? Do you feel that you are missing time or important memories? Can you recall the events of the day before you went to sleep?"

"I have not and do not believe my brother to have suffered any head injuries lately. Apart from the normal amount of insensibility produced by sleep I do not think I am missing time or memories. I can recall yesterday. Iskander -"

"I don't think I'm missing time or memories. I can remember yesterday. We had fish for dinner."

Hugo takes a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

"While we are under Heliotrope's Honesty, are there any other statements you want to attest to? Otherwise, I have no more questions for you that would require it."

"I do not really know what it would be useful to have attested to in this context."

He puts out the candle with a snuffer.

"Here's what I'm going to do. If anyone asks, I'll say that you're a librarian and Iskander is your assistant, and that you're traveling with me to help me with research. I'll have you help with me for some little task so that the both of us will be able to attest to that honestly, in the extreme event it might be necessary.

In a day or two, weather permitting, we are going to land at the Academy of Halaise. I'll want to talk to you again before we do, but you mentioned that you were previously sleeping before you came here. So, I'll set you up in one of the guest rooms and you can nap and eat and change clothes — I will have these provided for you."

Do they seem fine with that?

That seems broadly reasonable to her!

Yawn sure fine.