Merrin manages not to say 'but I get along with basically everyone, I'm not worried they'll bore me' because she is, instead, noticing that this is confusing, and then piecing it together with the other confusing part where Antonio doesn't come across as sounding nearly as intelligent as one would expect from a high-level Governance official and...oof she doesn't like that implication at all. 

Why is Albe sighing?? Was she hoping to be the one to personally make friends with Merrin and introduce Merrin to her friend-group socially? In that case Merrin - is not actually going to feel bad about security considerations. Though she should ask what the considerations are, if 'Absalom' is dangerous or something that seems important to know - it'd be weird for it to be both unusually dangerous and also a default destination for higher-quality entertainment, that implies things that Merrin doesn't love about the overall safety level of this planet. Great. Also some things about how seriously they're taking Merrin's personal safety, but - no, that isn't actually surprising now that she thinks about it, obviously she is going to be very important to the Governance of Cheliax.  

"Sorry," she says to Albe, not wanting to outright reject the possible overture of friendship. "Anyway, I think I've said all I wanted on that, and I'm not actually going to fall apart if I go a couple of days before I start making local friends. Um, another thing I wanted to say is that if it turns out we keep having problems with the translation-magic and Baseline, and also the translation-magic can't be applied to me, I should probably get language tutoring so I can just learn your language the normal way as fast as possible."

She will not apologize for 'as fast as possible' being not that fast, it's not as though they have a lineup of other dath ilanis to compare to, and if her deeply uncomfortable inference is right then she'll actually come out looking pretty good relative to their expectations. 

"- but first it probably makes sense to do more testing on the anti-magical effect, which I think Albe was about to do before I interrupted you with requests about my social life." 

"Indeed," Albe says, now sounding fully professional about that.

"I'll note to my managers the part about tutoring.  Meanwhile I expect we can scrape up some items that grant translation-economicmagic, and pass those around at the party from hand to hand so that people can speak to you."

Albe is already heading out in the same direction Merrin entered from; she beckons Merrin to follow.

Oh good. Merrin can gracefully handle 'professional'. Or at least behave in a way that feels smooth and comfortable to her and hopefully doesn't cause terrible offense to the locals. She follows. 

(It's not that she would...mind, exactly, if the infohazardously beautiful, possibly nonhuman or partly-nonhuman, highly-paid-Security-cleared-consultant-with-considerable-autonomy-and-authority with incredibly doompunk horns were flirting with her? It's more that Merrin is already wandering around in an entirely different Civilization, missing huge swathes of context, and aware that the translation magic they're using doesn't work perfectly. Flirting is likely to be especially high-context-culturally-dependent, and actually she thinks 'flirting-related misunderstandings with aliens' might be literally a recurring trope in a certain genre of fiction. Which is one thing if you're an author going for entertaining elaborate shenanigans, but Merrin is instead aiming for not causing avoidable problems. Besides, for all she knows that was not flirting at all and might not even have been an attempt at befriending, and was instead a result of whatever instructions Antonio gave Albe to avoid socialweirdness not being sufficient.) 

(Also she does actually want to understand what's going on with her bizarre anti-magical effect, and after that she has several pages of questions to ask. She may have requested help setting up leisure time later but for now this is still work time.) 

She's really curious what the other tests are going to be, after the instant-movement one. 

....And now that she's a little less distracted by surprise ambiguous-maybe-flirting, Merrin is replaying the recent conversation a bit and noticing some confusion at "the poor folk of Cheliax are among the wealthiest in the world, and their wealthy folk among the poorest". 

Merrin thinks this is a really confusing way to phrase the concept that it seems like Albe was trying to convey? Though Merrin is obviously trying not to be annoyed about it, she's talking to an alien, maybe a literal nonhuman alien not just a human from a causally-separate Civilization. If she's parsing it right - and she thinks it is - then that means that...countries in this world have a significant spread in terms of their shape-of-wealth-distribution? (If she's not and the translation is misleading then maybe Albe meant the literal opposite?) 

....That's weird? It makes sense to Merrin that having economicmagic at all would affect that dynamic - not that she could say how, yet, but once she knows more about both the rarity/cost/difficulty of their magic and also the key roles it plays in their economy, she could at least make some guesses? But that doesn't explain Cheliax being different from everywhere else, so that has to be something else?  

So it's - cultural factors, probably. Or some sort of weird first-mover effect in a world that doesn't have enough global liquidity or efficient global supply chains for that to quickly reach a stable equilibrium (or else she's in a very specific period in history where it will eventually but hasn't yet?)

Or....something to do with gods? That being one of the obvious other major differences, and one that she understands even less than their economicmagic. Maybe it's something that Asmodeus cares about? Or something that 'Lawful Good' in general cares about, or some downstream effect of a different thing they care about.... 

Albe, moving as if in a mild hurry, conducts Merrin back to the platform on which she arrived.

"Testing instant-travel economicmagic," she says.  She takes Merrin's hand in her own -

And vanishes.

Merrin is left behind.

.......Does that mean it doesn't work?

Merrin is pretty sure it worked the first time???

She is now even more confused now! She starts trying to think of possible explanations but she isn't sure where to start - 

Albe is back.

"Now that is unexpected and incredibly interesting.  I'd guess that either you have some subdeliberate control of an innate resistance that you mentally switched on after being instant-moved, and can't yet perceive within yourself to switch off, or, for some reason, an external anti-economicmagical phenomenon around you only appeared or was activated after the first time an economicmagic was cast on you."

"Let's get you to a serious workroom, there's experiments to run and research to be done."

Merrin's half-finished thoughts grind to a halt. 

"- Yeah, I wasn't expecting it either. I don't– I guess either of those makes sense, if I had subdeliberate control I wouldn't know I did. Um. I agree that doing more research makes sense and I also want to understand what the flaming nuclear shit but - what's a 'workroom' and are there safety precautions you should brief me on before I go in one?" Any kind of actual serious research laboratory in dath ilan would have a set of written safety protocols and generally also a required safety training. 

She beckons Merrin to follow her as she again strides off.

"You are looking very immune to economicmagic, and are safe for that reason.  I am not easy to injure, and if I am injured I can be healed.  But we are about to try a number of things with a greater-than-usual possibility of disrupting interestingly, as pieces of their structure get canceled by you in a potentially unbalanced way.  As such we should be in a place that can withstand minor accidents without expensive repairs being required.  That is a 'workroom'."

"I cannot think of any safety-precautions that would be meaningful to you.  Aside from common sense, I suppose; if I seem to be in the middle of building something invisible and complicated, don't start poking at my invisible structure while I'm in the middle of building it."

Since Merrin by definition won't be able to see an invisible complicated structure...

"If you look like you're trying to concentrate, I won't be distracting." That much is common sense. Probably there are some elements that aren't common sense to her and that Albe isn't thinking to specify, but - she will just hold very still against a wall or something and probably nothing will explode horribly? Since Albe is clearly experienced at this economicmagic research thing.  

"Let's go do that, then." 

They don't seem to bump into many people as Albe hurries them through the hallways, including going up three flights of stairs.  A few men and women in doompunk clothing of various quality levels respectfully move out of Albe's way as she goes past.

Albe carefully knocks at a rather impressive doompunk-looking door, and after a suitable pause, opens the door and pokes her head in.

A few moments later she gestures at Merrin to follow her inside.

Merrin is trying to mentally note as much as she can about her environment! Mostly she is noting so much doompunk, which is - wow, this country (or palace, at least) has really gone all-in on a coherent aesthetic? She tries to make eye contact with the people they pass, in hopes of recognizing their faces later, but it's not as though she has much context on who they are even if she manages that. 

- is the serious research laboratory also doompunk on the inside? 

Sort of?  It's definitely rather mystical-looking.  The room's apparent walls are murky darkness, except for the wall into which the door was set, and the floor and ceiling stretching between those walls are coated with some yellowish metal, as is the door-wall.  Neatly arranged spots on the ceiling shine with Sun-colored brilliance, a respectable amount of indoor lighting even by Civilization's standards.

"Oh, don't touch the wall-fields, please," Albe says as they enter.  "They're magical dampeners that are themselves magic, and I'd rather you not cancel those."

See! This is exactly the kind of safety precaution that Merrin, who does not want to cause any problems, would have liked to have been briefed on in advance before she walked in here! 

She is going to look with great curiosity at everything, not that she really knows how to make sense of it yet. Merrin isn't a small child and can look at things without ending up accidentally touching them, but it still seems - better - to avoid the possibility that she'll shift her weight and accidentally break some sort of critical containment system. 

"....Thank you for telling me. Um, is there a spot where I can just sit down and hold perfectly still and definitely not break anything?" 

"Center of the floor is fine.  Let's start with the obvious, see if I can directly cancel an effect on you.  It won't work, wouldn't even work on a regular anti-economagical field, but let's try anyways."

Albe extends a hand toward the murky walls of darkness, takes the arm-length cylinder of polished metal that smoothly extrudes from it that dark wall, and then gestures at Merrin with her other hand, the one not holding the metal.

"Failure as expected," says Albe.

The metal cylinder floats back into the wall, replaced soon after by a thin cylinder of polished wood.

"All right, let's try the elemental energies in order.  This one is what we'd term Positive Energy.  Try poking it with the tip of your little finger first, it's relatively not dangerous but good practice for when we try the more dangerous energies."

There's a sphere of blazing pure white light within easy finger-poking reach of Merrin.

Merrin looks at it. Somewhat dubiously. 

".....I would maybe feel more comfortable if you defined what you mean by relatively not dangerous. Since, um, healing magic might not work on me, if anything bad happens, and I was firmly instructed to try not to have any medical emergencies." 

"This is the raw form of the energy that underlies healing spells.  Unshaped, drawing a small amount of it into yourself would simply invigorate you."

"The effect is not long-lasting; do please proceed."

Was she just supposed to know that? It's not like anybody TOLD her - maybe they assumed the translation-magic would cover it but Merrin feels like it has been thoroughly demonstrated that this is a questionable assumption and also, in fact, it didn't. For all she knew 'positive energy' could translate to something like 'antimatter'. 

...Merrin is trying not to judge Albe about this, since it sounds like she was hauled in for an urgent situation and did not have much time to receive a handover, but she is still kind of judging this entire world's safety protocols. 

(There is a brief and mostly invisible-even-to-Merrin emotional tug of war between her deeply-instilled desire to be really actually sure that she has personally read and understood all of the hazards in a research environment, and the even deeper and more instinctive desire to avoid conflict. Merrin is very tired and also Albe is very pretty and 'avoiding conflict' wins.) 

"All right. If you're sure?" And she waits a beat and then pokes the blazing light. 

As soon as the tip of Merrin's pinky contacts it, the sphere starts to shrink, to diminish towards its own center, until the sphere is smaller and she isn't touching it anymore.  It doesn't feel like anything.

"You annihilated the healing energy, rather than it entering you.  Well, that's a pity, and another method of healing excluded..."

"It's unusual for me to try and see things from the perspective of somebody who cannot be healed, who must needs fear injury so.  It seems like it would exclude a number of fun activities in life.  But let me try..."

"Oh, interesting again.  I cannot touch your hair with my economicmagic hand; economicmagic is annihilated by your hair the same as it is annihilated by any other part of you, even though hair is not a living part of you under some important principles of economicmagic.  May I sever a small lock of your hair, to see if the effect persists when it is apart from you?  Either way, we can use your hair to test and touch the more dangerous energies I would try next, if that sets your mind at ease."

Wait is THAT flirting Merrin's brain should shut up. Merrin has things to do. Such as - well, right now her work seems to mainly include studying her mysterious (and equally mysterious to local economicmagic experts, apparently!) anti-magical properties. In a doompunk magic lab. With a distractingly beautiful horned nonhuman. Who keeps looking at her. (Although it's not like Merrin can take that as very much evidence for 'flirting', a fascinated scientist would also be looking at her.) 

...There are conditions under which this would feel appropriate and intriguing for flirting? This is not one of them because this is not downtime. Merrin still has several entire pages of additional questions to ask (at some point, eventually.) 

"Sure. ....Um, just following the principle of caution, I could cut it myself? I know I've cut my own hair and nothing weird happened, but there are still a lot of unknown unknowns in my model of your local reality. It's probably fine but it's cheap for me to do it anyway." 

"I cannot see what you are cautioning against, quite, but if you wish..."

An unusually dangerous-looking knife extrudes from the wall, with an arm-length double-edged blade and hefty solid hilt set with a red-translucent stone at the bottom.  Merrin may not recognize it as a ruby if she's used to clear unclouded synthetics for corundum.

Albe presents it to her, hilt-first, holding it by the blade herself, without apparent trepidation.

That is the most absurdly doompunk piece of...lab equipment?? ...that Merrin has ever seen. In addition, it seems really not ideal for cutting hair, especially when her own hair is short enough that she is not actually going to be able to see what she's doing! Has Cheliax not invented scissors. Even if Cheliax hasn't invented scissors they could give her something reasonably sized? Merrin is suddenly very curious what sorts of magical experiments require an arm-length knife rather than a scalpel-sized one such that this is the equipment easiest at hand. 

She's separately now very curious how the hidden wall-storage-compartment works - it's probably that, and not that the absurdly oversized and pointlessly double-edged-blade knife was spontaneously generated on the spot? Not that she can rule out 'spontaneous generation of unnecessarily doompunk lab equipment' as a thing this world's magic can do! 

Merrin has handled scalpels before, and found this a reasonable amount of stressful the first time and then got used to it, and this isn't different in principle, probably? There's just lot...more...total sharp to be cautious of. Oh, and also it might be magic - which probably doesn't actually matter for Merrin, it seems likely that she would cancel any magical effects it would otherwise have - but it would be pointless incautious not to clarify that.

(....Merrin is slightly starting to feel like maybe this is on purpose and she's being 'trolled'? Maybe Albe wants to see at what point she will actually raise an objection or flag a safety hazard? That...seems like a very fraught thing to try on someone from another world, though, and she has Antonio's assurance that he asked Albe to avoid being socialweird at her which would probably cover that case, and also Merrin herself can't assume any of the usual communication about this would be understood. Maybe Albe would consider it horrifically rude if Merrin falsely accused her of trolling?) 

She doesn't hold out her hand yet. "Um, normally I would ask if there are any safety protocols I should be aware of other than the obvious like 'don't wave it around wildly' but I actually don't want to assume that what's obvious to you will be obvious to me."