At the very edges of (some) realities, when their proverbial woven thread begins to fray out of tidy alignment and into entropy's embrace, is a place known by many as the Mists. It is not quite a place of unbounded chaos, but it's somewhere that chaos has perhaps begun to edge into, as water seeps in from the ceiling into an empty room. Just as other things besides chaos seep in from the floor, or perhaps the walls, depending on how much someone is stretching this metaphor. There are echoes of things from more self-contained places, things that were loud enough, or important enough, or messy enough to make a mark large enough to edge outside of the normal bounds and into somewhere else. These echoes find fertile ground in the primordial sludge of creation and chaos; there's a lot of (proverbial) building blocks lying around, eager to fit themselves into something that looks somewhat right.

Vetareh is more of an expert on the place than she'd like. One only becomes a connoisseur of unreality with a lot of time, practice, and bad luck. Bad luck because, well, when you've gone and unexpectedly fallen out of a world, how do you get back in? Her answer was, of course, 'look for a hole,' but there's an awful lot of Mists to look through, and no guarantee that she'd wind up where she started. Anything at all would be a stroke of great luck, because really, who runs around cracking reality or something?

But she's got nothing but time, and anyone unfortunate enough to fall into this place between worlds has the dubious blessing of staying in precisely the same condition they were in when they arrived. Eventually, she finds one. It helps that there's an awful lot of fire involved. Very bright and notable, that.

And that is how Vetareh, Professor and Spellbreaker of the Orrian Crown, manages to claw her way out of a fate considered worse than death itself.

"At least things seem to be... less on fire now?" she says dubiously to no one in particular, as she takes the first tentative steps into proper reality since she fell out of it, who knows how long ago.

Things are MUCH less on fire! They have, as it happened, been on fire recently. There is still ash on the ground, still smoking, but the grass is visibly growing over it, and small shoots of trees are starting to go rise up through the ground. Off thataways there are more trees, which look like they are probably older than her civilization and certainly older than her, and scrub and thicket and brush which did not catch fire but is clearly next to an area that did.

Clarification: Small shoots are actively growing. Before her eyes. That is probably magic, and it is probably magic because she can in fact see, with her usual magical senses, that there is magic flowing through every branch of tree, blade of grass, random bit of moss on rocks, microbe, and anything else vaguely biological that touches anything that touches anything that touches... the dirt under her feet. It seems to be stronger in the towards-the-trees direction and weaker in the away-from-the-trees direction, but it is everywhere and flowing through everything.

... More faintly, there's magic in the water, magic in the rocks, and magic in the air, all seeming to be different... kinds of magic? Like they're locks that need different keys, or possibly keys that need different locks? There's at least three kinds of magic in the air, though they're all very faint.

What exactly does Vetareh want to do next?

Well, for safety's sake, she'd like to get away from this place that was recently very on fire, and get to the old trees that look like nothing set them on fire for at least a couple centuries. There might be defensive nature spirits or something, but without knowing what actually caused the hole in reality that she entered through, it's safest to be away from it. Probably. Or maybe she's just terrified of falling back into the Mists, and is making any excuse to lessen her chances as much as possible. One of those.

Then, she finds a nicely defensible section of thicket to hole up in to adjust to not being completely screwed anymore. To not being in the Mists anymore. To have made it out intact and (mostly? as far as she can tell?) sane, when the odds were very much against her. She, quite reasonably, feels that a little bit of crying is in order. Or perhaps some giggling, she can't... really tell. Maybe a mix. Gods, she's out. Everything's so real. Faded semi-unreality did not offer all that much in the way of sensation.

Does anything come to ambush her as she has her very reasonable meltdown?

Anything, no. Anyone...

"Hello! Where are you from?"

The girl is short, dark-skinned, black-haired. She has a spear, wooden shaft with a flint head but seems less concerned with it than she is with sheer curiosity, and she's obviously nonthreatening enough that her armor of scales of water-hardened leather just looks kind of silly on her. She's also very magic, in the way that the forest is magic, not in the way the rocks are magic.

(The sentence is tragically impossible to understand, since Vetareh does not speak court Qalmiri.)

Another human? That's a good sign. That means either Tyria, or wherever the gods took humans from before they came to Tyria. Or maybe humans are the multiverse equivalent of a plague, and the damn things are everywhere. It's not like she would know. It's convenient for her, anyway. She won't squint too hard at it.

Oh dear, what a terrible introduction. Opening with giggle-crying by herself in a thicket is really not the entrance she would have picked, for her new, er, location? Well, at least it does make her look nonthreatening and harmless, which is convenient.

"Hi," says Vetareh, with a small snort, scrubbing at her red rimmed eyes. "I'm afraid that it's incredibly improbable that we share literally any language at all, but, you know. If you know any others, feel free to try." Then she makes a thoughtful face, and recites something from Lyssa's temples, something barely intelligible and ancient, from before the language drifted a bit. ("True beauty is measured not by appearance but by actions and deeds.")

She speaks languages Rinara DOES NOT KNOW. This is not acceptable.

"Huh, how about Karakralin?"

"Do we have Viranatui in common?"

"I speak some Low Qalmiri. And some of this Low Qalmiri."

"Laukeran is hard but I know some!"

"Tafnoi tafnoi tafnoi?"

"Yep, nothing in common. Sorry," she says, shaking her head. Even without understanding, she can tell that different languages were tried. "We could attempt to play charades, I suppose. Or I could try to explain myself with illusion? Hm, that seems so inefficient, though..."

"This really isn't working."

Does Vetareh seem to be in decent shape? If not, this is a solvable problem if Vetareh will let Rinara poke her!

(geeently move finger towards Vetareh's forehead)

This could be an opening for something hostile, but so could just about anything. And maybe this will solve their problem with magic. Vetareh tilts her head a little, smiling with bemusement, and helpfully leans her forehead towards the finger.

MAGIC HEALING. If Vetareh was in any way shape or form injured, she now isn't.

Nope! She was, and is, completely fine. But it was very friendly of this person to open with attempting to heal her, that was nice. Very prosocial, Vetareh approves.

"Thank you," says Vetareh, with a little grateful bow of her head, to at least show she understood the intent. Even though she's, well, fine. Physically.

... Then the weird laughter and crying is about...?

Hmmm.

She supposes she'd better try to explain herself. First she holds up a finger, then makes a simple illusionary butterfly to communicate what she's going to do. She's (among other things) a (somewhat shitty) illusionist, and can make helpful communicative illusions accordingly. Even if she takes forever at them, and they're about as sturdy as tissue paper in a windstorm.

The butterfly is clearly an illusion; it's entirely purple, and sort of flat in a way living things aren't.

Wait, magic pictures aren't a thing you can do!

Rinara watches to see just what this strange new land's magic can do!

Okay, non-hostility and use of illusions communicated? Yes, good? Time to get to talking. She hooks her scepter to its place on her belt so she can use her hands to emote.

She makes a little green circle above her right hand, and puts a stylized version of a city on the outside of it. Outside of the city, on the same circle, is a little simple and stylized figure that looks like it might plausibly be Vetareh, from the pale skin, clothes and red hair. Then she makes a scribble of multicolored illusion that devours the little Vetareh whole.

Above her left hand she makes another scribble of multicolored illusion, which spits the little Vetareh out. For effect, she makes the little Vetareh jump around in stylized panic, little stick arms above her head. The hand holding the circle and the city she came from is moved away from the little panicking Vetareh, and then the illusion disappears.

Right hand gets a new circle, this a slightly different shade of green! There are trees on this circle. Then there's orange fire to burn the trees, and behind it is the same multicolored scribble that ate Vetareh earlier. The scribble is much bigger than the last, and eats an entire hole in the green circle and its trees, leaving a ring of multicolored scribble, surrounding emptiness. By the left hand, she makes a matching ring of multicolored scribble. The stylized Vetareh jumps through, and disappears, and then comes out from the scribble on the circle with trees. Tiny Vetareh jumps with obvious glee.

Then the less stylized, life sized version closes both of her hands, and the illusions disappear. Vetareh gives a little shrug and an awkward smile.

"Surprise?" she says, somewhere between wry and sad.

Okay, that is amazing.

So, she was in a civilization somewhere, then weird magic happened and she became somewhere weird, and then something happened - probably to do with Iraqual? and she ended up here. And is really happy to not be somewhere weird, which makes sense; the world outside Lemrysh is romantic, but it's also horrible, whereas Lemrysh is only horrible when Mother wants it to be Civilization is invading it.

Rinara wonders if she can do an explanation that way! She bets she can!

She points at a patch of grass, then drags her spear's butt in the dirt around in a rough circle, surrounding that patch of grass. Then concentrates.

Everything in that circle slightly grows, it's a little greener than it was before. Then she points.

The upper left corner of the circle is growing quickly; it is very green. The upper right - she concentrates - a ring of grass is weaving around itself, raised up to encircle its own area, inside which stubs of root are moving to support each other, growing and then fixing in place like architecture. The lower left is leaping up, a barrage of flowers dancing like flames in a breeze; the lower right is a patch of thistles. (Were they thistles before she arrived? Who knows?)

The middle is not growing at all, even though the rest of it is.

Rinara taps the upper left corner, then says, "Lemrysh. Home. Here." She then smiles and taps herself and the ground beneath herself.

Rinara taps the upper right corner. "Qalmir. Civilization." She frowns and points easterly.

Rinara taps the lower left corner. "Viranatu. Civilization." She frowns less and points south. 

Rinara taps the lower right corner. "Karakral. Civilization." She frowns a good deal more and points southeast.

Rinara taps the center. "Profectus. Enemy." She makes a horrible face and shakes her head.

She points waaaaay off outside the circle. "Surprise?" (In Yvette's language, badly.)

Oo! Map of the area! That's very useful, thank you, person.

She makes an illusionary copy of the map, with the areas color coded and with approximate spellings of the provided things-that-seem-to-be-names written in her native alphabet. This is immensely helpful, and Vetareh kind of wants to do something nice for this woman on general principle because of it. Maps! They're great!!

Oh. It seems like her new friend thought that the word 'surprise' is a name? Good thought, new friend, but actually what was happening was Vetareh's color commentary, not her being thoughtful and explanatory. Let her fix that now!

Tiny illusion of circle with its city: "Orr," she says, pointing at the city, and then the circle is called, "Tyria."

Place where Vetareh was stranded: "Mists."

And then her shiny new map is shrunk down to about a thumb's width in size, and tucked into the inside of her sleeve for later. A proper map would be better; this little illusion will probably get torn to shreds the minute she gets into any kind of fight, even with her clothing's protective enchantments ostensibly protecting it. But an illusionary map is better than no illusionary map, so she'll take it and try to keep it safe. And maybe curse not putting more work into making illusions sturdy instead of 'communicative' or 'good for note taking,' which is what she'd been optimizing before.

Oh, that is fascinating. She can make maps! Nonetheless Rinara is going to try to correct Vetareh's map of her world in a few ways via gestures and facial expressions; her map was simple, but Vetareh has the budget, because her magic is for this. No, see, there's lots of areas that aren't part of any of them! And Qalmir has the middle bit where they talk like this (High Qalmiri, which she speaks fluently) and then these outer areas where they talk like this (two different dialects of Low Qalmiri, not mutually intelligible), you REALLY REALLY REALLY DON'T WANT to go to Profectus in the middle! You REALLY don't! And if you see this river valley between here and Qalmir DON'T GO THERE EITHER.

And then oh. Fascinating! Rinara's got this; the new person is from Orr in Tyria and got stuck in the Mists, which her magic can access. Probably Tyria is another continent. Rinara is not sure how to ask 'how large is your bloodline' or 'what element are you' (light? Is there a Font of Light? Does that mean there's a Font of Darkness? That would be bad! Hopefully Karakral counts!)

Either way, this is great! New Person is g-

"Rinara."

Rinara wore armor like she had to. This woman (of the same ethnicity, possibly a family relation?) wears armor like she expects to try to kill people very thoroughly very soon and expects them to object. Her boots (leather) are digging into the ground, the sword at her belt is ready to draw, and her wicker-and-leather shield and oakwood spear were both ready, shield to block and sword to thrust - and she very clearly has the same magic Rinara does.

Vetareh doesn't need to have been in anywhere near as many dangerous situations as she has to know that this person considers an opportunity to engage in violence against her a plus, not a minus.

Vetareh is delighted to correct her map, and changes things accordingly! This will be such a good illusionary map that will probably get dispelled if someone sneezes on it. She'll try to make it very sturdy so at least it'll have to be a large sneeze. Please live, little illusion map, she believes in you!

Then their other visitor arrives. Uh.... huh. Martial combatant, looks like? That's not great for her, she's kind of outfitted to do terrible things to other casters right now, but maybe probably-hostile lady has enough magic for Vetareh to meddle with. That'd be nice. And Vetareh does have some spells for people that for some reason want to stab things instead of blasting them with magic, so. She can in fact still defend herself. Just she might get a little banged up in the process.

Vetareh shrinks her little map to put it away somewhere more safe than average, and then her hand goes to her scepter. She doesn't draw it, precisely, but technically speaking she doesn't need to. Touching it is enough to channel spells through it to strengthen them. She'd rather not be the one to start hostilities, but if (when, it looks like) they begin, she would very much like to be the one to end them.

"KHATOLA HOW NICE TO SEE YOU HERE HA HA"

(please don't stab this person she's nice)

"Traveler's recruiting Karakralin mercenaries?"

She smiles slightly, when Vetareh's hand goes to her scepter. Raises her spear, like it's the weapon she'd use.

"No, she's from MUCH further away and has LIGHT magic, not void magic!"

Khatola hesitates a moment. (She's slightly less happy than she was when Vetareh looked like she was about to draw.)

"Tell her to get the HELL out of my forest."

She glares at Vetareh and makes a spearbutt-jabbing gesture AWAY from Lemrysh, towards the destruction.

(If Vetareh twitches wrong there's going to be some attempted violence.)

Oh. Not immediately trying to kill her? Telling her to get out of this, uh, safe area for being a scary stranger, or she'll (attempt to) kill her? ... That's pretty fair, honestly. These people have no idea who she is, what she's capable of, or her motivations at all, so. Yeah, sure.

She nods agreeably, then looks back at the destruction, makes a face, then pulls out her (illusionary) map, and starts miming locations she can go besides horrible destruction. Because, uh. She'd rather not go to a war zone, thanks, but she's totally fine leaving? Is that fine, stab happy lady?

Stab happy lady does NOT think drawing a magic map and making gestures in the air is fine! Is Vetareh faster to the draw with her counterspell than Khatola is with her spell?

RINARA WANTS THIS NOT TO BE HAPPENING.

(She's been feeling that way a lot, recently.)

Yes she is! She's irritated about it, but she is!

Whatever magic stab happy lady was about to do, it's interrupted now. Stab happy lady has her energy sapped as a nice bonus, though not quite as much as it would have if Vetareh had been touching her scepter. Less potency sucks, but it wasn't worth the loss in speed to reach for the scepter. Vetareh looks annoyed, and gestures expansively to her very harmless and probably recognizable map. She's trying to figure out where to go, not doing anything hostile!!

("It's a map, dumbass. If I were trying to kill you, you'd know it," she mutters, even though no one can understand her.)

(Khatola gathers her powers. From the First Root to her, from her to the shoots beneath Vetareh's feet, she can feel every cell division, and the circuit is complete and -)

Wait what that's impossible you can't do that

Well, while her mind reboots, it is STABBING TIME.

("Seriously?!")

Okay! Hostile fight time, FINE THEN.

Running might be smarter, but actually Vetareh is annoyed. And this is the first time in a very long time she's been able to take out her aggression on someone that can acknowledge that she exists. So: Vetareh will not be running. She will be getting her scepter and get to being terrifying.

Her next spells are meant for a caster, but they're flexible enough that they'll do here. First: the hex named Stolen Speed, which is precisely what it sounds like (but only in regards to magic). She steals this crazy stabby lady's magical speed for her own - whatever spell(s) she tries next will be like casting through molasses. Second: she has two quick little hexes that will hurt someone who doesn't cast, when they go off in a couple seconds, fast enough (with help from Stolen Speed) to get off before crazy lady gets to stabbing. Then, third: actually she would like to not be stabbed, thank you, her scepter is not meant to be a melee weapon but it can, you know, block one. In a pinch.

(And Khatola might notice that there's some kind of shield around Vetareh, slowing down stabbing attempts rather directly.)

Khatola does not actually notice Stolen Speed! Instead of casting at the speed of reflex, she casts at half the speed of reflex! She does, however, notice that her spear is not doing what it is supposed to, and the tree that is supposed to be sprouting under Vetareh isn't!

Aaand then the spells go off.

Khatola feels like she is very tired, all at once. Not like she's been running a marathon; more like she'd been running a marathon for a day straight, and now at last her limbs are physically giving out. But, oddly, without the breathlessness. It hurts, like someone has reached inside her and ripped a large portion of the life out of her.

Idly, Vetareh notices that she was casting something else, and uses her second interrupt. This one causes the same painful exhaustion effect.

And she falls over.

Right. Problem. She makes Madera's and Calama's foreheads tingle at a distance; that's easy enough, a quick heal can reach half the length of Lemrysh Forest. "Khatola started a stupid fight with a magic neutral and is losing" is too complex to send, but "pay attention to me" isn't. If From OrrTyria tries to actually do anything potentially lethal then Rinara can stab her, but hopefully she has the self-control not to retaliate when Khatola IS STUPID, and then we can solve the whole problem with nobody ending up dead!

Oh good! That saves Vetareh the tiresome complication of 'martial combat.' That's nice! She's not very good at that! Still, best to disarm miss stab happy while she's distracted. If there's anything Vetareh's good at, it's leveraging an opening. That spear? Over there now! Khatola's dominant hand, which once held the spear? Twisted painfully behind her. Vetareh? On top of and pinning Khatola! This dagger, from Vetareh's sleeve? Not quite to Khatola's neck, but definitely out and in the vicinity of cutting Khatola's throat.

("Are we going to stop being dumb now?" says Vetareh, sternly.)

Khatola can probably heal from a cut throat. She just doesn't NEED to, because this is Lemrysh Forest, and she's a Daughter of the Forest, and that means that backup's on the way.

"Khatola, she is ACTUALLY NOT UNFRIENDLY. Can you please stop being an idiot?"

Khatola is not picking a fight.

Vetareh is very clearly irritated (and that's the flavor, irritated, not 'afraid' or 'shell shocked' or 'surprised') but also disinclined to push any further. The winner of this extremely dumb fight is pretty obvious. So long as Khatola doesn't pick this fight any more than she already has, Vetareh will not end it even more than she already has to. She could break out her resurrection signet quickly enough to fix it, but still. Killing someone is such a rude opening, even if it's fixable.

She looks at Rinara and raises her eyebrows.

("Is this yours. Are you sure you want to keep her. I don't think she's house trained," she says, in a deadpan.)

Rinara sighs, but then suggests (using gestures) that Khatola actually had a point and Vetareh should probably leave.

(She does not say 'a small army of backup is on its way', largely because she can't translate it.)

Yeah, sure, Vetareh doesn't really want to stick around near Crazy Stabby Lady anyway. She was in fact going to go upon the suggestion! But! Someone wanted to stab!

She pulls up the illusionary map again (a little frayed and faded, mostly from Vetareh's own spells) and makes little red 'X' marks over both the forest and the zone of massive destruction. Where, oh smart one that doesn't pick dumb fights, should she go instead?

(The illusions move without her moving from her place pinning Khatola, or making any gesture at all.)

Well, there's a tradeoff here! Viranatu is the least evil civilization, but Qalmir is the most civilized civilization, and From OrrTyria seems like a very civilized sort of person even though that ought to mean she's evil. 

She's going to poke Qalmir, up in the northeast bit, right in the middle of the ring. Then she's going to say "Qalmir. They speak Court Qalmiri in Qalmir." In Court Qalmiri. Which is the language that she and Khatola have been speaking anyway, but, like, not because of that.

"SERIOUSLY?"

Yeah you don't get to be part of this conversation any more.

"Qalmir," agrees Vetareh with a nod, butchering the name a little with her accent. She confirms the direction she's to walk in by tilting her head and waiting for confirmation from Rinara, but the map was clear enough there.

She looks down at her captive and raises her eyebrows. "Behave," she says, sternly, then releases the arm she'd been twisting and gets off of her. Is stabby lady going to try and continue the fight? Because that would be very dumb, but stabby lady has demonstrably done dumb things before, so.

Stabby lady is not going to continue the fight. She will have WORDS with Rinara later.

Okay, great.

Vetareh gives Rinara a courtly curtsy, Khatola a bit of a cold glower, and then it's off she goes to whatever the heck Qalmir is! Thataway, apparently.

Rinara sighs and waves goodbye as Vetareh leaves. She's genuinely tempted to follow her - just run off from her life, leave the one functional place in the world to defend itself, let Civilization take over everything - if it means she can KNOW WHAT THIS PERSON CAN TEACH HER.

But that is silly and Rinara is a good person and so she will stay and help defend Lemrysh against the Forces Of Evil.

She just really, really doesn't want to.

Shortly after Vetareh leaves, the reinforcements show up and, and Madera gets treated to TWO SEPARATE VERSIONS of what's going on from her Sisters. They agree only insofar as a WEIRD MAGIC PERSON showed up and then left and both of them are saying the other one behaved super badly. Why does her life have to be like this?

"This way" is apparently a REALLY LONG WALK. There's a lot of forest! If she keeps going long enough, she'll eventually run out of forest, and then there will be a rather hot and dusty plain! It is conceivable that Rinara did not have a good intuition for how far away Qalmir was, but it is apparently more than 'a day!'

Ugh. Okay.

Well, it's not like Vetareh is unfamiliar with walking. (Quite the opposite, ha, ha.) At least this time she has the novel problems of 'finding water' and 'finding food' and 'finding shelter' to break up the monotony. And she can sleep! That's nice. Respectively: she has known how to find water since she was twelve and furthermore knows a minor signet for drawing it from underground in a pinch, anything small and tasty looking can get blasted with magic and made edible with the power of fire, and Vetareh can in fact make aforementioned fire if she has to. She resents it, though. Not her specialty, she has to do it with, like, sticks and rocks? It's really annoying. And then when night is near she can find defensible locations to set up an illusion to sleep under and eat and whatnot in.

The hot and dusty plain is at least bizarrely safe? She would have expected a couple beasties to have shown up to try to murder her by now, but. She's fine with nothing immediately trying to kill her the minute she's away from dubious safety. That's weird, but fine.

Rather boring, admittedly.

But she does have a problem to work on, as she travels. There is this irritating 'language barrier' thing going on, and she doesn't like it. Probably there's a way around that problem with sufficient application of magic, and if any branch of magic would do it, the one of minds and illusions and concepts would be it. Which is what she's primarily attuned to. So. You have a stick, Vetareh, get to leveraging. As you walk. Like you've been doing for who-even-knows-how-fucking-long-anymore.

Nothing in particular tries to kill her! She occasionally passes a river, but not usually much of one. She hasn't hit any villages yet.

She has an unfortunately large amount of time to spend working on solving magic linguistics puzzles.

Joy of endless joys. Just what she needed. More time to herself to work on puzzles of her own creation. Whatever, it's fine. She's fine. Totally, completely fine. Well. Functional. She's functional. That counts as fine, right? In some definitions? Right.

So, while solving the fundamental language problem by transferring knowledge from one party to another is theoretically possible, it'd take quite a bit of work, experimentation, and a willing subject. Probably also a better understanding of the language, too; she'd start with transferring her own language to someone else and seeing how that took before moving on to trying to copy someone else's. 'Knowledge of a language' is rather finicky, after all, and probably this whole thing either needs a willing subject offering up their language consensually, or a couple of years (maybe decades) of hard work by dedicated geniuses to figure out the ins and outs to the point where the person doesn't need to offer understanding and structure to the copy. She doesn't really have the patience for the second one.

What she's going to go for instead is something much more shallow; direct concept transfer between an individual and herself. That is to say, avoiding the language barrier by ignoring it and having direct mind to mind contact. Bit messy, but hey, she's not being judged by her peers for the artistry of her spellcraft anymore. It's straightforward enough to scrape up a spell that will probably work for basic communication, and soon enough she has something she thinks will probably work. Probably.

If she could fucking find anyone, why is this world so empty and boring!

This world unfortunately cannot answer her, because it does not talk!

Hey, looks like there might be some people over there, aren't there? Narrow, rocky streambed, some sheep, looks like some kind of palisade on a hilltop?

CIVILIZATION! IT EXISTS!

Okay time to go say hi, and try to prove herself friendly enough that people will hold still and let her cast experimental magic on them so she can skip the dumb charades part of this story. She will try her very best to look so innocent and nonthreatening! Hi, she knows she's very strange and scary, but her scepter is put away and she's going to wave and smile while she approaches the palisade slowly. Isn't she innocent looking, please accept that she's not a threat in this bizarrely nonthreatening world?

Ab Khorshad is a tiny village on the Westwater, and they are expecting the Tafnoi. They are always expecting the Tafnoi; 'not expecting the Tafnoi' is one of these things that small villages are evolved not to do, in rather the same way that you will never find rabbits that like to cuddle up with hawks.

When a red-haired girl with unnaturally pale skin (no tan - no sunburn), wearing clothes that do not really cover enough of her, wanders into town, the people of Ab Khorshad react about the way you'd expect sensible people to react.

First, they panic that she's one of the Tafnoi in very very good disguise, and run for safety. Then their brains start coming up with hypotheses, most of which, oddly enough, end up surprisingly close to the truth. Then they delegate the job of taking risks related to these hypotheses to one of the people who is very well paid for the job.

Ashakhar Firuz Gholman blinks, then rushes to put his helmet on while the rest of his cohort armor themselves. Foreign noblewoman wandering through the desert is the sort of thing that every warrior in the Western Marches with the faintest grasp of either political acumen or romantic heroism wants to hear, and though his superiors wouldn't have posted him to Ab Khorshad if they hadn't thought he had a decent head on his shoulders, that doesn't mean he isn't a warrior or that it isn't the Western Marches.

What this looks like to Vetareh is that people (looking very poor by her standards, probably malnutritioned) appear almost out of nowhere as they get close, fleeing for the gate in the palisade or driving their flocks for it, and then what comes out of the gate is a healthy young man looking vaguely similar in ethnicity to the forest-women, hair somewhere ambiguous between brown and black, armored in steely grey-blue scales gilded on the shoulders and girded with a sword. His armor and sword are both slightly magic with rock-magic, but there's nothing supernatural about him; he looks very straightforwardly alive.

"Greetings, my lady. What aid do you require from the knights of Qalmir?"

He's going to try that once in High Qalmiri, once in the Low Qalmiri this region of the Western Marches speaks, and then in bad Karakralin and worse Laukeran.

She wasn't exactly expecting everyone to flee quite so ostentatiously, but, well. Sensible enough, she supposes? A bit much, and honestly if their defense is mostly 'run away' that seems... kind of garbage, actually. Well, regardless, she's going for nonthreatening. Instead of following any of them, she sits down where she'll be easily visible, and waits to see if someone will come out to talk to her. And meanwhile, she people watches, smiling at anyone that looks like they're actually looking at her. Which they're mostly not. Vetareh is... a little concerned about the status of the people she sees?? Are they okay?? Why do they look, what is that, malnourished? But feeding people is the easiest part of having people, you just give them food and then they eat it???

While she waits to see if anyone will be brave enough to come talk to the strange stranger, she wonders how people could possibly fail at farming so thoroughly that malnutrition happens. Is there a famine going on? Do these people not have very advanced magic? Ooo, oo, does she get to start a magical revolution, because that sounds like great fun, even if she doesn't.... quite know how to turn her own magic specializations into something for farming. That's really more Melandru's area of expertise, and Vetareh always found the nature shtick kind of... one note and boring. Maybe something with necromancy? Speed up the rate of decay of dead things, maybe? Hmm...

And then someone does come to see her! One guy, by himself! Wow, either they trust this guy's abilities a lot or he's being thrown out here as a potential human sacrifice if she's crazy, which fortunately she isn't, but still.

"I really, really doubt we have any languages in common," she says apologetically, shaking her head as way of reply. But she will dutifully listen to each one of his language attempts, and confirm that she doesn't know any of them. Then, when it seems like he's done, she makes a little tiny purple light in her left hand, points at it with her right, and then points from her mouth to him, and back again. Magic to talk! May she?

Firuz has no objection to any attempt to use magic to help communicate! He's rather confused about who she could be, though; red hair suggests Viranatui, but there's only three of their royals (generously), they're all darker-skinned than that and the Red Witch is twice her age. Maybe she's from one of the overseas countries? He's never met anyone from overseas!

Excellent! Then she casts, uh, shit she never named it. Vetareh's Shitty Discount Relay! ... Better name pending when she's worked out the inevitable kinks and gotten the whole thing neatened up so it won't fall apart the minute someone magical sneezes on it.

It does feel like there's some kind of connection made, to both parties. Sort of... like there's a pool, or perhaps a pit, at the edges of his mind, that he can throw thoughts into. And which spits out obviously-foreign concept packets at him, as follows:

((Greetings/Assurance of nonthreatening nature!/Apologies if this is freaky!)) ((Is this intelligible/Understandable/Not-garbage enough to communicate with?)) ((Link should be two way/Replying should be obvious/I think I can hear you if you mean and intend to tell me something?))

WELL THAT IS BIZARRE he's a Hero, Heroes are supposed to be able to roll with bizarre things. He wonders what her element is, 'thoughts?'

((Greetings/Assurance of lack of hostile intent/Desire to extend nonharmful assistance.))

((I can comprehend your meaning/I think I know what you're doing/your message was received.))

(([I/I but not a very unimportant I/I but not like a SUPER unimportant I/I, a person who stabs things/I, a person who works for the government/I, a male person)),

((Ashakhar (which is a word)/important person who stabs things/but not like I'm in charge of anything/but not like I'm some random farmer who got given a spear))

((Firuz (which is my name)))

(([Gholman which is my name/slave of the state/person who stabs things/person from a long military family))

(([desire to offer/obey my job by offering/offer]))

((You who I am talking to/you who are of royal blood/you who have magic/you who are high status/you who are female))

((the polite greetings/moderate assistance/a place to stay))

((of [Qalmir the country I'm from/Qalmir that rules this place here/Qalmir that is TOTALLY THE BEST/the representatives of Qalmir who are right here/this town/me and my buddies.))

(It was a shorter statement in his head.)

Vetareh does not burst out laughing, because she's a professional, but she does quirk a little smile. Okay, so. That's something to work on in the next, less shitty version. Maybe some sort of... consolidation part. That seems like a thing that is necessary. Because: wow. Oops.

But this is nonetheless better than charades! Even if many of those concepts were a bit too foreign to really... understand. Slave of the state?? That's a thing? Why is that a thing. Royal blood??? Well, yes, she has like half a drop of it on her mother’s side, but she has no idea how this person would have guessed that. Her clothes, maybe??

Regardless:

((I'm Vetareh/A mesmer/meta-mancer/illusionist/concept-meddler/massive magic nerd/person completely uninterested in starting hostilities with, like, anyone, especially nations))

((Could she request hospitality from [this town/maybe this country she guesses?] in exchange for [being friendly/helpful/a huge magic nerd at literally any problem they put in front of her/pretty and interesting]?))

... Yeah, Firuz blushes when she gets to "pretty and interesting." Does she not understand that she is higher status than he is???

((Welcome to Qalmir/we will offer you shelter/I'm extending this without explicit orders but expect my superiors to back me up.))

((This town/little place/town not in Qalmir proper))

((Is part of the Empire of Qalmir/under the authority of the Empress of Qalmir/will be protected by the Qalmiri army if anyone attacks it, which is a serious concern))

((We are glad you have come to Qalmir/because Qalmir is AWESOME)

((However far you are from/wait really other worlds seriously/I bet it's like another continent you look like a human.))

((We do not know what a Mesmer/wielder of an unknown magic/magic person not from a known royal house is))

(unless it's a witch but he isn't saying that, you don't call people witches unless they go around saying I AM THE RED WITCH, it's rude.)

((But I am sure/well I confidently expect/I offer assurances that))

((you can do great and helpful things for Qalmir/and be rewarded for them like a lot/I'm going to get super promoted because you landed on me!))

((We hope that, however poor an impression the other lands you have been have given you/It is very unfortunate that people apparently try to stab you/they shouldn't do that but it's not surprising all other countries suck))

((Qalmir will not be a disappointment/Qalmir IS NOT going to be a disappointment I repeat it is the BEST/we're going to treat you like royalty.))

((Despite the limits of my own humble abilities/I'm not that humble but I have WAY LESS resources than back home/this town isn't Qalmir we just own it.))

((I offer you the hospitality of Qalmir/this is a formal invitation to come in/and if anyone tries to mess with you we'll beat them up.))

Okay, maybe her relay is actually perfect as it is, because this is incredibly entertaining and kind of adorable. She doesn’t mean that, she’s totally still going to improve it, but it is still great to get the extra flavoring for all sent content. This is very charming. Probably irresponsible to cast on people, since it seems to be sending... kind of a lot... but still! So cute!!

But also, more seriously: there seems to be a lot of formality, here. And a lot of structure. Certainly more than what she's used to in Orr. A whole country beating people up for messing with her sounds nice on paper, but also sounds... a little alarming. What happens if she decides she might want to go somewhere else or do... something else? Will they be offended? Will they stop her? A place with apparent slaves of the state sounds less like 'We want to assist with goals that align with ours and get along with you' and more like 'We want to use you to reach our goals, whether you're willing or not.' Being treated like royalty also sets off some alarm bells. There's a reason her mother renounced her titles and left Ascalon for Orr, and it was to the tune of 'Sick of being used' and 'Being pampered isn't everything.' Or maybe she's jumping at shadows, but she feels very much like she's run into a large and powerful beast that she doesn't quite understand, and she thinks blithely walking into its lair sounds like a shit idea.

((I wouldn't want to impose forever/make a permanent deal right out of the gate/align myself permanently with a political entity without greater understanding of my situation))

((Could I stay in this town/village/do small scale things before getting involved with greater powers?))

Oh no, Firuz is not a diplomat. Is he leaking accidental thoughts? That would be bad!

((We would be pleased to host you for as long as you desire/we aren't going to just tell you NO))

((However, I am confident my superiors will desire to speak to you/and then they will be in charge of making decisions not me))

((And I must send word to them immediately/no really that's an explicit order))

((I have no doubt they will be able to assist you in whatever your goals are/they are also going to treat you with full respect.))

((And no dishonor will come to you so long as you are in Qalmir/did I mention that WE ARE THE BEST.))

((Sure/That would be fine/I understand the importance of procedure and wouldn't want to get you in trouble.))

((Thank you for your hospitality/It's extremely appreciated/I cannot express how much I want a hot bath))

Which is to say: okay, so clearly this person is not really... in charge of much and she should make sure he doesn't get in the middle of any power struggles that might be about to occur. So she should say he did an excellent job and gave her a wonderful impression of Qalmir and smile like a stupid vapid princess and then break out in the middle of the night to run back to the wilderness and maybe talk to those tree stab happy people again. That sounds like a plan. If she decides she needs to, which she might not.

(Ugh, why did there have to be politics.)

((Excellent. Please come in//this is a physical invitation to enter))

((Tragically, however, we cannot provide hot baths/though to be honest one sounds nice))

((As we are too far from proper civilization/this is the ass end of nowhere.))

((That's fine/That's less shit than my life has been lately, so I will accept it. Thank you anyway.))

And then she can accept the physical invitation and go wandering into the place that may or may not want to use her as a political pawn! Well. Be led into the place that may or may not want to use her as a pawn. Same thing.

It's a tiny hill fort. There's a palisade, there's a well, there's a few buildings to provide shelter from the rain, there's a roof you can stand on to look over the palisade. There's some peasants sheltering inside; Firuz explains something to them and they treat her with respect but not with fear and get back to what they were doing. There's some other soldier people, and they are happy to provide her with food, shelter, and rest.

All of them, like Firuz, treat her like someone higher-status than themselves.

Oh, and there's a BUILDING with FOUR-LEGGED ANIMALS that are not sheep and are MUCH LARGER THAN SHE IS that look slightly like ELONGATED COWS. Apparently one of the soldier people is going to climb on its back?

...

Okay, so. Those kind of frighten her, but presumably they're domesticated? Especially if they're rideable? Why couldn't this world have a sensible mount of choice, though, like a raptor or even a dolyak or something. No? It's the weird quadruped with the too-thin legs that look like they're going to snap if someone sneezes on them? Okay. Sure. You do you, world.

The stable gets a bit of a strange look, but otherwise: yep she's being so cooperative and pliant! Please feed and water her, even as you all... carefully set her apart and above everyone else, thus making her feel isolated. Again. After who knows how long of isolation. Yes. Perfect. At least she gets a bed.

Gods, there goes her plan of getting laid the minute she made it to civilization, it's just too creepy when everyone's got her on a pedestal for no reason.

The thin-legged quadrupeds are domesticated! She can tell from how the person gets on its back and rides off!

Yeah, all these people who think she's super important are not going to make passes. They're feeding her and watering her and waiting for someone sufficiently important to show up that he can make decisions more complicated than 'when foreign royalty wearing magic clothes show up, give them hospitality and call for backup.'

Ughhhhhhhh.

Not that her displeasure will show on her face, or anything. She will smile politely and be so pleasant and stay where they put her and eat what they give her in small, languid, ladylike bites as she looks at the picturesque countryside. So that if it's poisoned she'll notice before she's out of commission entirely. Probably not, but hey. Might as well be careful. This place sets her a little on edge.

Is anyone brave enough to come try to talk to her (with magic) while she eats like the royalty they all apparently think she is?

Nothing is poisoned! They're giving her the best they have!

And sure, Firuz has dibs on that. What does she want to talk about?

The obvious thing that's disturbing her a bit!

((So is there some sort of famine/trouble going on around here? A lot of people seem so malnourished.))

... Did she grow up in a palace or something? I mean, yes, things have been bad, but... maybe she means particularly now?

((The Tafnoi/people of a specific culture/nomads who like stealing stuff))

((Have been raiding/looting/killing more than usual, so times are hard in))

((This province/the southern parts of the western Qalmiri empire/ areas neighboring this desert south of us,))

((Since the Traveler/giant metal guy/alien from another world/evil overlord/new conqueror person))

((Conquered the Hellfire Wastes/these terrible poor areas south of us/the continent's largest desert.))

She's... missing something. Because petty bandits don't explain poverty that looks this entrenched. These are not people that have fallen on extremely hard times recently, these are people who lived hard lives who are recently living harder ones. And she doesn't know where she'd see that unless this were a more literal war zone. With more things trying to kill her. Maybe... the fertility of the land is garbage, and there's no Melandru to fix it?? Could just that do all this??? Don't they have ways to fix it?? Hm.

((I see.))

((How long ago did things start getting worse/when did the evil overlord?? apparently? start doing evil overlord things?))

((That was five years ago/approximately five years/five years by our best repots.))

((But the lands near the Hellfire Wastes has been poor forever/they grow tiny crops/they have no cities/it is very hot and dry.))

((I'm sorry/That seems suboptimal/She is absolutely now trying to think of a way to fix it))

((Qalmir/like Qalmir Qalmir the inner area not its empire))

((Possesses boundless wealth/that's rhetoric it's technically bounded but super huge))

((Because of the benevolence of the Empress/ruler of Qalmir/person with all the Earth magic/practically God))

((and the power of the Worldvein/source of all Earth magic/center of Qalmir/thing the palace is built on.))

Oh gods there's that adorable phrasing again! She's so charmed. No, no, bad Vetareh, don't be so easily won over by charming phrasing.

Fortunately, she's a nerd, so she can be easily distracted by something else instead.

((What sort of Earth magic/what kind of super huge wealth/what are the defining parameters being controlled by magic here?))

Wow, she's really from a long way away! He honestly thought Qalmiri darics and nakri were the standard currency everywhere.

((The Worldvein is the font of Earth/metal/stone/ground/rock/not living dirt or plants. Its magic lets the Empress control the earth around her/no like everything/at a range of multiple miles. So all the mines have nothing but good ore and there's perfect farmland everywhere and Qalmir is impossible to attack/surrounded by a mountain range.))

((That's incredibly cool/commendable/a good use of resources/and I approve.))

((But the effect is just localized in Qalmir/around the Worldvein?))

Yes, in fact, Qalmir is the best.

((Yes, there's only so far she can reach/that's how magic works.))

Is it, now? Not in her experience.

But she just nods, instead of giving the game away and saying something like 'That's how magic works here, for you.' In fact:

((I was just wondering if, since it's earth, it could move its own font around. Wishful thinking, I suppose/It'd be cheating so hard.))

((What are the other local fonts?/I think the last I encountered was one for plantlife/trees/wood.))

Her CUNNING DECEPTION is a success! Firuz does NOT suspect she is from an alternate universe where magic works totally differently!

((No, the Worldvein stays at the heart of Qalmir/Qalmir is defined as that nation whose heart is the Worldvein. It can't move, worse luck/we could be super lucky.))

((The other ones on the continent are the First Root/font of wood/font of life in Lemrysh/the forest west of here/what you saw; ))
((The Still River/font of time/font of duration/font of memory in the Timeless City/place northwest of here/our tributary/really creepy place; ))
(The Empty Well/font of the void/anti-font is behind wards/we built them/Karakral sucks/they are needed near the court/palace/heart of Karakral/our southern neighbor/maximally evil; ))
((The Starshard/font of fire/font of energy is in the volcano/capital city/palace of Viranatu/the fire nation/southwest of us; ))
((And then Laukera/cheats/not a real kingdom is founded on the Seaheart/font of water/extremely underwater font off the coast somewhere.))

So fonts are all... aesthetically coherent. Like a single aspect from an elementalist, instead of the arbitrary divisions she's accustomed to. That sounds... cute and kind of tidy. And since she went and made her type of 'font' apparent, it makes her potential cover story very easy. She has a mind font, and so, if she'd like to not explain that she's from another world: she doesn't remember. Because mind magic wiped her memories. Ha. Probably she shouldn't open with lying, or something, but she's rather charmed by her newly invented cover story. And this is probably safer! Yes, be a strange foreigner from within the magic system, instead of a strange foreigner with a completely different system. That way if they try to capitalize on weaknesses they expect she'll have, they... won't, actually. That seems like a smart thing to set up when one is a single person up against a massive system that may or may not want to leverage her for their own devices.

Is this justification for how she's totally thought of a name for a theoretical mind-font and wants to use it immediately? Maybe! Is it still tactically a smart move? Probably! Also, it sounds so fun to lie with thought-speech. Easier than normally, even.

((Well, my font is the Dreamweave, and it's—))

Then she sits up, abruptly, furrowing her brow.

((—??? confusion/fear/alarm/the feeling of missing a step but with one's own mind/Oh shit is this what being mindwiped feels like?))

((... uh/I was not expecting this and don't know what to do/Where the fuck did I live in relation to this place??/Coastal? It was coastal/AAAAA.))

OH NO! That's horrible! Firuz Gholman feels it is TRAGIC that she lost her memories! He will stand uselessly! 

((Don't worry!/worrying won't help! Wherever you were before, you're safe now!/I reiterate Qalmir's protection!))

(There is a note of discord at the back of his mind - how, exactly, did she not notice that she'd lost her memories beforehand? When was she dropped in the Hellfire Wastes, exactly? - but PANICKED VIP is enough of a distraction that it isn't his first thought.)

((Right, yes/Qalmir has lots of reason to keep me safe and alive/Honestly the fact that I'm alive, away and confused means something went wrong/right for me, probably?/I feel so incredibly stupid though how did I not notice!/[She knows the answer to that question, there's a tone of 'Of course I didn't notice,' approximately equivalent to 'of course I was bruised when I fell down']))

((Sorry, one moment as I—retrace steps and check over everything/I need to find the holes/or the walls where there were doors/but by closing my eyes and seeing if I walk into any walls trying to go to the library because I DON'T REMEMBER IF THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY OR NOT AAAA.))

This also, conveniently, gives her time to get her story straight and review everything she said! She picks a bit of floor to stare at and obligingly holds her head in her hands, looking suitably disturbed by her amnesiac status. What exactly were all of the details...? Oh, confused amnesiacs can ask for outside opinions, that would be very smart for them to do!

((Actually/My mistake, this is backwards, I'm panicking and being dumb/What all do you remember me saying, I need [as close to objective perspectives as possible].))

This is not a problem he can solve by being muscular or loyal or brave! Firuz is somewhat out of his depth here! Still, he'll roll with it!

((You said you were from a long way away/another world/was that figurative?)

((You said you were a mesmer/mind mage/mage from the mind font?))

((You said you'd been to Lemrysh/the wood font before?))

((Lemrysh was the place that tried to stab me, yes, I think that's true/It didn't make any sense and I was confused and frightened and defended myself [with magic], and ran.))

((Mesmer/mind mage/mind font mage is a correct term, that just sounds unambiguously correct. Being from a long way away/another world...))

She trails off, frowning.

((...Long way away is right, I think, but other world sounds so insane?/I remember thinking that I could have ended up in another world for all I knew but not why I thought that/That's so confusing, I apologize/I didn't... travel through the world normally? I think? Otherwise it doesn't make any sense!))

((The Daughters of the Forest/royalty of Lemrysh/wood mages are very hostile to outsiders/evil and xenophobic/crazy forest cultists. We mostly just leave them alone/they are outside of our power-projection range/they aren't worth killing. It's a tragedy they tried to hurt you/hurting people is bad/but it is unexpected because they are bad.))

((I don't know about that! Void/Karakrali magic doesn't do that/we've never seen it do that! All it does is destroy/erase things/kill people and make monsters/shadows/hungry ghosts. I can't imagine what a lack of the world could be/seriously that's bizarre. Perhaps a sage back in Qalmir would know/they're supposed to know important things like that/I don't know things like that.)) 

He pauses. How can he phrase this important question very politely...

((... Do you know how you made it through the wastes unharmed/YOU WALKED HERE FROM LEMRYSH AND YOU AREN'T EVEN SUNBURNED???!!!!))

Uh. Her immediate impulse response of 'Of course I'm fine, nothing even tried to kill me,' is clearly incorrect for the character she's playing. So, if she were expecting herself to be less capable and competent, and her magic only did mind stuff: that's a damn good question, especially since people seem to be less capable than she's used to. And the world less deadly. How does a mind magician look like she's fine?

Oh, that makes it so easy, when she phrases it like that. Answer: she's not.

((What??/I'm NOT unharmed/I'm tired and sore and so extremely sunburned and had to magic animals into killing themselves and why would you think I—oh. Oh, oh, my fault, magic/defense mechanism/you just think I look fine))

???????????????????

Is she saying she has auto-on mind control????????? That's not how magic works??????? Also that's horrifying!

((!!!!!!!!!!!)) slips through because he wasn't paying enough attention.

He needs to send ANOTHER messenger after the FIRST messenger immediately to let the governor know he should PANIC!!!!!

((Is there anything I can do to help?/seriously please let me help/panic panic panic))

Ohhhh no, she messed up. She's not... entirely sure what she messed up, but that's definitely a mistake right there in front of her. She has incited panic. Is it... the range thing, she shouldn't be able to do magic at this sort of range from her font? That's probably it, uh.

((I'm sorry I did it very early on and forgot about it/this is very scary and the way I protect myself is to look like the strongest in the room!!/I'll put it back sorry sorry sorry!))

Quick! Illusion up some sunburn! And mud! And scratches! Does this solve her problem?

Yes! Now he's just worried about her health! And about the horrible mind control, but less! (He's still sending the second messenger!)

((You have nothing to apologize for!/I'm not important enough compared to you that you need to apologize!/Please don't take offense!))

((Do you need medical attention/warning medical attention here is terrible/but also please don't die!))

That... looks like a recovery? Maybe? Gods, she has no idea. She'll wait and see, and if her clever plot of lying extravagantly fails, she can always, you know. Tell the truth. Which will probably sound less plausible, but still.

(Also she's so offended by 'he's not important enough compared to her that she needs to apologize', what the fuck.)

Is she supposed to act like more of a baby when it comes to being hurt? That looks like she's supposed to act like more of a baby when it comes to being hurt. Because what she's illusioned onto herself is nothing. She'd barely even notice if it were real. But apparently it's concerning or something? None of these would even be in much danger of scarring without any kind of healing at all. But, sure, sure. Be a baby about injuries. She tries on a brave, pained smile.

((If you have any ointment for sunburn or cuts that would be great?/Otherwise I think just keeping them clean would be fine?/And some bandages?/I am a little out of my depth on the injury department honestly.))

Well, he's a soldier. It's not like he gets injured often - 

((I'd be honored to assist you/I will assist you if you don't object/you dying would be bad so I'll bandage you, noble lady/person higher status than me/person with magic.))

And he will get some bandages and ointment and get her out of the sun even more seriously with her complexion what the hell and get her more watered wine in case of heatstroke and generally do what he can to help without offending the SUPER POWERFUL MAGIC LADY.

((That would be great, thank you.))

She will hold still and have her fake injuries fussed over. And try hard not to be annoyed. Fortunately, she can grimace in pain whenever she's touched, so her irritation looks like it's at the situation instead of being quite this babied. There will be no eye rolling, none to speak of. She will distract herself carefully keeping illusions updated as he 'cleans' her 'cuts.' But she will give him (pained) smiles to show him that she is not mad at him. Just. Yep, definitely in pain. Mhm. So much pain. From these tiny scratches and this pathetic little sunburn. So debilitating. Truly.

She's not that badly sunburned, but wounds can be infected and then you die horribly, and it's better to try to make that not happen. (He will refrain from telling her stories all about that, since she is a noble lady and can probably get the pull to have him assassinated if he annoys her too much.)

Also, sunstroke and, like, her skin. SERIOUSLY she should still be in way worse shape than she is if she's been WANDERING THROUGH THE DESERT wearing THAT.

If anyone asks, she'll say she did a lot of her wandering at night.

... But yeah she's kind of consigned herself to a lot of bedrest, hasn't she. Shit. And she can't even pass the time with illusionary puzzles, because she's pretending she can't do those. She knows how to solve all of the ones she can make and kind of hates them anyway, but still. UGHHHH. She asks for a lot of water and obligingly is infirm and whatnot. She will tolerate being fussed over until someone important arrives. This is boring, but she has a lot of experience being bored, and if she needs to quietly cry about being bored she can pretend it's because she's in such horrible pain. Mhm. This will be worth it, it's the smart tactical thing to do. Pretend to be weaker than you are, and whatnot. And in the meantime, in the safety of her own head, she'll work on getting the relay spell neatened up. Make it nice and efficient, smooth out the magical burrs that'll catch stray magic and potentially pull it apart, so on. Maybe work a bit on how to get herself the actual damn language.

And be so, so infirm. Putting on such a brave face.

Gods, she's so bored though

The Qalmiri are happy to protect her, get her lots of fluids, and she may even be starting to learn the language!

The first thing she picks up is that there's at least two languages spoken - the soldiers are speaking one language, which they're referring to as 'High Qalmiri', the local villagers another, which they just call 'Qalmiri' but which the soldiers seem to be referring to as 'Low Qalmiri'. The two clearly have similar roots if you go back far enough, but are not mutually comprehensible, which makes her job somewhat harder. Still, it's not too bad.

Her boredom ends a few days later, when a small cliff arrives. Only about twenty feet tall and the same wide and, fairly flat on top, very magical, but definitely a large mobile rock, seeming to swim through the earth like a shark's fin through water, rising and falling as it moves but steadily moving a good deal faster than a person. There's what looks like a permanent structure on it, a low stone wall with pillars rising out of it to support a silken canopy, and half-a-dozen men in it, wearing Qalmiri armor. One of 'em has exceptionally fancy armor (gold and jewels and all) and a jeweled scepter that looks extremely magic.

The cliff has a mind! Not a human mind, more like an animal one and not a very smart animal. The mind is under mind-affecting powers!

The cliff slows to a stop outside the tower then lowers itself to be level with the ground, and Exceptionally Fancy Armor gets off to go talk to the garrison. How does Vetareh respond?

She keeps track of the language, after asking for some paper and a writing utensil. It's not like she has much else to do, and she's not allowed to take notes in illusion, like she prefers.

Uh.

Her response to the arrival of the cliff is to continue being infirm, here in her bed that she's mostly been staying in this whole time. That's... incredibly weird, though. She closes her eyes and pretends to be napping while she tries to make some kind of sense of it with her own magic senses. Is the scepter connected to the cliff at all? Or is it a different thing?

Oh, definitely! Her Metamagic Skills can tell - the scepter's a way of issuing orders to the cliff. It isn't the binding magic (that's unrelated), but the binding was to do what the guy with the scepter tells it to do.

She isn't just infirm in her bed for long! Fancy Armor sweeps in with Firuz and bows deeply to her. Is she going to do any translation-spells?

Yes! Yes she would. The slightly improved relay that she’s been working on, she’ll cast that. It mostly doesn’t work any differently, just holds up better under stress, and keeps for a longer distance.

((Hello!/Thank you for coming/And for your country’s hospitality.)) She gives a pained little smile. ((I very much needed it.))

Excellent!

((Greetings, person-who-is-higher-status-than-me-but-less-than-when-Faruz-said-it / woman of royal blood / person with magical powers! I am glad we have not failed you in hospitality/this is a rote phrase said to high-status people as thanks for their thanks.))

His eyes scan her rapidly. ((My master/boss/metaphorically owner, the Governor/administrator/person-managing-things-for-Qalmir of Gulmat/a large province/a province of Qalmir/where we are))

((wishes to invite you to leave/desires that you come to/has ordered me to bring you out of this barren frontier post/this is poetic understatement/it is also true,))

((And to his palace in Gulmat/this time it's a city/the place where the governor is, where you will be treated with the utmost hospitality/this is a rote phrase said to high-status people so they don't think they're getting thrown in a prison. Are you well enough to travel/ready to go?))

Oh yes please get her out of here she is sick of staring at these damn walls give her some godsdamned intrigue or something.

No, no, she must continue being the injured waif.

((I believe so, but it depends on our mode of transportation/I don't believe I could ride [one of your animals] for very long/I don't think I'd even seen them before my arrival.))

((Happily/smugly, there will be no need for horses/they are primitive and smelly. The tame troll/rock monster (gifted to meby Her Divine Majesty/the Empress of Qalmir)/(that I own) can travel far faster than any steed, and in greater comfort/though that's relative. The journey to Gulmat will be short.))

His face, she can tell, is giving the appropriate expressions suitable for the first meaning of what he's saying, and he doesn't seem to have noticed the second.

((Oh, really? How delightful/convenient/fortuitous-by-design. Then yes, I believe I am ready to depart.))

And with that, she can get out of bed! Carefully, without springing out of it quite as quickly as she could, or as she'd like. So, so infirm, mhm. Lucky to be alive, really.

((Faruz, thank you very much for your hospitality and care, rest assured I will not forget either.))

Faruz bows. This is way better news than he was expecting!

The officer escorts her, with some assistance, to the low-walled building that wasn't there yesterday. It really is very nice; there's a waist-high defensive wall, sure, but there's enough silk to block both the sun and the wind, and an extremely comfortable-looking couch for her to lie on. Several of the soldiers give her a look (or more) but it isn't long until the troll has lifted out of the air and is moving again - surprisingly fast, for something made of rock, and astonishingly smoothly, the swaying constant, regular, and no particular disturbance.

The officer doesn't particularly seem to want to talk, and neither do the soldiers.

Neat. And she will obligingly lounge on the couch like the royalty they think she is, and be a nonthreatening royal person who is totally not capable of breaking out in the middle of the night and escaping into the inhospitable desert, never to be seen again.

At least there's scenery to look at, this time. Sigh.

The scenery is actually still pretty terrible, as lands next to deserts are usually still kind of desert-ish, away from rivers! Still, there's some nice mountains and unfamiliar desert flora.

It's only a couple hours, though, before a city - and a real river, that the city is on - appear on the horizon. It isn't a tremendously impressive city by Vetareh's standards, but it has high walls and towering spires and is (insofar as she can tell behind the walls) bustling with activity. Ships are going up and down the river, and the troll stops and lowers itself to the ground just outside the city walls.

((I will inform the governor of your arrival,)) the officer says, and he and one of his soldiers go off, presumably to go do that.

((Thank you kindly for your service.))

And then she can obligingly wait like they clearly want her to! Yep. Lady of leisure. Absolutely used to being pampered like this. Not capable of any mayhem whatsoever (oh gods she could do with some fucking mayhem right now).

Meanwhile, she amuses herself inspecting the city and its people. How are its citizens doing? How common is magic? Is the place clean?

Its citizens are dirt-poor! Most of them clearly show signs of malnutrition, ranging from severe to mild! Some soldiers, and a few important people in fancy clothes are not malnutritioned, but, uh, they're a small minority. They don't look actively oppressed, though, or particularly unhappy, they just look like they don't have enough in the way of clothing or food or space or rest.

Magic exists! But it mostly seems to exist in the metal; a great deal of the worked metal, whether tools or weapons, has perform-better worked into it, magically speaking, but there doesn't seem to be much else about it. None of the people have magic, and none of them have obvious fancy magical items.

And for the third - 'no' will do as the short version. Important people are carried around on litters, not because they're too lazy to walk, but because the alternatives are (a) litter (b) troll or (c) a quite high risk of getting literal sewage on your boots. Most people choose (c). The streets are paved and there's gutters running along the sides, but it doesn't look like anybody's cleaning up after the horses.

Uh. Wow. Okay.

So her assessment is that things here are... not great? And that there's a lot of people. Why did they make this many people if they couldn't feed them all. Clearly the city has more people than it can handle. Why do they have their animals running quite so rampant in the streets. Where are their sewers! The gutters contain more than just horse poop, that looks like they just let their garbage sit there and fester. That's so incredibly gross?? And also absurdly wasteful?? She's pretty sure some acolytes of Melandru would have a fit over that much good potential fertilizer going to waste. No wonder they can't feed everyone!

It isn't that long before the officer returns and the troll starts moving again. ((His Eminence/this is a fancy title/it means the bearer is very important/it also implies but does not state he has been castrated, Jahan Amiri/Very Important Person, of the Ministry of Inspections/the bit of the government that makes sure everyone else is behaving themselves/they're very important, desires to speak with you personally/so presumably you're going to talk to him.))

The troll is headed straight to the waterfront - specifically, to an absolutely marvelous ship, wide and long; the entire hull is decorated with elaborate tracing in iron and bronze, elaborately painted a thousand shades to show scenes both natural and from life; a woman playing a stringed musical instrument, two men playing a game that involves a board and tokens, a troll (in the art stylized to look almost humanoid) lowers its head in submission, horses running... It is, frankly, staggeringly beautiful, even by the elevated standards of Tyria, to say nothing of the sails of many-colored silk or the fact that there is a literal entire medium-sized house on it which, if anything, casts the hull into shadow.

A very long and wide gangplank has been laid to connect the harbor with the boat, and the troll lowers itself to the ground in front of it.

((If you are willing/I assume you're going?))

Wait, what was that bit about castration. What. Why is that thing?? Who would do that??? What kind of horrible torture world has she arrived in! No wonder the gods stole a portion of humanity to Tyria, it sucks here, cutting off genitalia is barbaric!

"Uh," she says out loud, pretending she is distracted by the (admittedly very pretty) boat instead of by their horrible penis chopping culture! Those poor penises! What percentage of people have their genitalia removed for no reason! Why would anyone do this!!!!!!!!

((Yes, of course,)) she sends, when she's recovered herself. She does not blurt out dumb and very rude questions like 'Is your penis still intact' or 'What does one even do with a bunch of disembodied genitals,' or 'Does your empress demand your genitalia as tribute before she gives you power,' or the like. And then she can leave the troll and walk where she's led while she doesn't ask any of her terrible, terrible questions that she is nonetheless thinking very intensely, from the comfort and silence of her own head.

Inside, the ship is even more beautiful. Whatever rowers there may be are invisible under the hull; instead there's silk awnings and canopies with tables and chairs spread out, at one of which a handsome young man playing a stringed musical instrument (quite well); the moment she sets foot on it, a pair of (clean and not malnutritioned at all) servants, both female, in extremely fancy silk clothes (that reveal a good deal less of them than her own do) appear practically out of nowhere to bow and say something friendly in Qalmiri and take her imaginary possessions and escort her into the house physically on the ship and (if she doesn't hit them with a mindlink first) to a room in it that contains (a) the most obviously comfortable bed she's ever seen, (b) a vast amount of random stuff - hairbrushes, combs, things that are probably musical instruments, fancy clothes, jewelry, books, a good deal else, and (c) some very comfortable-looking furniture. The city-smell is drowned out by a rather subtle floral scent, and the city sound by the faint washing of the waves, the instrument, and very good insulation.

Vetareh is a pliant and easily led magic person that feels so, so justified in lying like a rug the minute she got here. So, so justified. She does not want anyone that would make this at the expense of sewage in the streets below to know her full capabilities. And it's for a damned boat! The implications there do not escape her! Gods, what lovely gilding, pity it seems to be for a cage. Held up by people! She has enough control of her facial expressions to hold in her horror, at this and the way everyone is rushing to serve her, but. Wow. Wow. She does not like it here.

She will cast her relay spell on anyone that seems like they'd like her to, but it sort of seems like everyone is deferring to her. (Eugh.)

In that case, one of the servants wishes to explain that ((His Eminence/someone very important/someone she very much respects/slightly weaker castration implication Jahan Amiri/Very Important Person/not horrible like most Very Important People awaits her pleasure/is waiting for her in the Violet Room,)) and that she will be perfectly willing to escort her there as soon as it is convenient for her.

(And also, though in a manner as to avoid any implication that she smells funny, that hot baths are available when she wants 'em.)

She hates it here and wants to burn this pretty, pretty boat to ashes. But she does have any experience in court, and so she knows that what one does before going and meeting Very Important People is acquire a bath. Furthermore, she really, really wants one.

((A bath first, please, if it wouldn't put His Eminence at too much inconvenience/Please send my sincerest apologies for the delay.))

... Are they going to try and help her bathe. Please, no. She needs to get her illusions right in privacy, and also she would really rather not associate bathing with company with this creepy servile thing they've got going on. They are totally going to try to help her bathe, aren't they.

They're actually good enough at their jobs to let her bathe on her own, after about half a second of confusion.

She gets a hot bath. It is a very nice hot bath. Nothing at all is wrong with it in any way, shape or form, except the civilization that provided it.

They are so good at their jobs, and it's so creepy, but she's so grateful. Good, space, give her space. She is competent enough to not accidentally drown in a bath, thank you. She gets herself suitably clean, pretending gingerness over her illusionary sunburn and (now half healed) scratches in case anyone is watching, and taking the extra time to touch up her illusions while she's at it. Her hair is then carefully scrubbed with the soap that smells the nicest, and then she can soak for a little while and think.

Sweet comforting arms of the merciful Dwayna herself. She wanted this bath so badly, and it feels so nice. Especially after walking through an entire damned desert to get here. Gods, she walked through an entire damn desert to get to this gilded hellscape. If she'd known this is what awaited her she might have stayed with the stabby tree people, at least they were honest. Here she is absolutely certain that the going plan is to lure her into a trap and keep her as a pet mind-mage forever, giving her all of the comforting and pretty and petty things she could possibly want for all of her days. At the expense of who knows how many other people inside and outside of this pretty, pretty boat.

Ugh.

Okay. She's fine. She can do this. She (gingerly) dries herself off, and gets to finding where her clothes went so she can put them back on.

Her clothes are in the bathroom! They disappeared, were laundered, were dried and were placed by the bathtub in case she wanted them. There's also a choice of Qalmiri outfits if she wants one.

Hahahahaha there is no way in this world or the next that she's wearing unenchanted clothes right now. She will be getting back into her own, extremely enchanted defensive clothing made out of the best materials her money could buy. They were pretty good ones. Even if she does admittedly kind of hate it from having worn it for so long.

Also? Still creepy. Impressive, but creepy.

Once she's dressed she can be led off to meet with His Eminence. ... Whose name she forgot. Shit. Probably because she was distracted by 'castration' being a thing here. She hopes someone will say it again, just for her.

She is shown to the Violet Room, where a single person - presumably His Eminence - is standing to greet her. He is a fit, good-looking middle-aged man in regalia of the expected fineness, or possibly a little more, with a neatly-trimmed beard. His expression is stern but compassionate, and his gestures smooth and precise. The Violet Room is exactly as pretty as she would expect, with comfortable chairs and couches; it's surprising how small it actually is, considering how large it feels. She can hear absolutely nothing from outside it, though she can feel the slight motion of the boat under her feet.

He waits for her to cast the spell, then - 

((Greetings, noblewoman/mage/woman of royal family/there is an official pretense that you are higher status than I am but let's be honest, it's rather silly, isn't it, since we both have overwhelming secret powers the other knows naught of? In a practical sense we're equals.))

((I am pleased to have the chance to meet you/I am genuinely happy to have this opportunity to assist you with the goals you value in exchange for assistance with the goals I value, which I hope I can persuade you to also value.))

((Let us sit and talk. Would you like any wine? / Please tell me small cheap favors I can do for you that you value as a means of establishing my benevolent intent.))

He's speaking, too, murmuring a few pleasantries in High Qalmiri; his voice is a rich, soft baritone, the sort of thing that would automatically put her at ease if she hadn't already ramped her PARANOIA LEVEL up to maximum and refused to let it go any lower.

((It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance,)) she lies pleasantly, with a properly courtly curtsy, smiling and accepting a comfortable seat.

((I hope we can assist each other in our chosen goals/And that they are not fundamentally incompatible.))

((Wine would be lovely, thank you. Could I trouble you for a gift to send to those who first greeted me to your lovely country? I'm quite grateful for their assistance/And competence should be rewarded.))

((I quite agree/I already prepared the gift and was simply waiting on your confirmation to send it.)) He pours two cups of wine from the same pitcher with his own hands, and then leans back and lets her choose one, sipping first once she's taken hers. ((The principle is often neglected/in foreign countries, of course, not Qalmir.)) The slightly ironic tinge to that last sentence may, of course, just be her imagination. Certainly no deliberately ironic connotations are coming through his mental link.

((I hope your travel hasn't been too wearing, considering your condition?)) And the bizarre thing is that no unexpected secondary connotations at all are coming through that one; it isn't even distinguishing between "your condition, injured" and "your condition, stranded in a desert" and "your condition, lying to everyone about everything"; it gives no information as to which of those he considers most likely.