"Oh, I'll tell you what happened. So, the Church of Tsukiyo got concerned about activity in these caverns under a mountain, thought someone might be trying to get it to erupt? So two of their paladins went off to investigate, there were a bunch of obnoxious traps, I've got some experience disarming the damn things so they hired me, and then before we ever figured out what was going on they both spontaneously started trying to kill me, didn't quite manage to immediately, and then while I was running away one of the doors I went through took me here."

Griffie blinks. "That sounds really surprising and unpleasant, and I'm surprised even given that you came in here with sword wounds!"

"I had this expectation that paladins wouldn't just randomly turn on their employees! Just, acting normal one minute, trying to kill me and losing their paladinhood in the process and not looking dismayed by this at all the next."

"Do paladins where you come from normally lose their paladinhood when mind controlled?"

"Mind control doesn't work very well when used to make people go against their nature, and I wouldn't really expect people to be de-paladined entirely over it?"

"Weird." Good for the ex-paladins.

"Anyway, if I have to hide and wait them out somewhere, this place at least looks like it'll sell me a good beer. Wouldn't have expected a bar with free healing to be under a mountain but apparently the whole place is more unstable than I thought it was so, y'know, I'll take it."

"Bar will probably give you your beer for free. Welcome to Milliways, a universe to which doors sometimes randomly lead. You can open your door to the exact place and time you came from whenever you're ready."

"The exact place and time I came from, huh. Not sure I'm ready to go back to running even uninjured. Don't suppose that if this isn't the usual destination of the door I went through I have options besides that?"

"You could ask to leave with someone else. Not me, though."

"Why not you?"

"You really don't look cut out for divine warfare and I'm not sending anyone through my door who isn't."

"Iiii am going to get that drink now."

The woman walks out of the infirmary, sits down at the bar, and requests a good beer, which appears. She takes a sip and looks somewhat more relaxed.

Saira glances in the no-longer-bleeding person's general direction and tries to look vaguely nonthreatening and open to interaction.

The person waves. "Hi. I'm Karasauriu and I'm looking for people to go home with because when I got here I was being chased by murderers and I can't wait them out here."

"...Okay. I will charge and also insist on going through our laws with you first."

"I have a bit of coin on me and could also sell some weapons and tools and armor if necessary, and what are the laws?"

She gets copies from Bar. The imperial laws, about a page; Anavel Sani's state laws, longer than that; and together with the appendices covering taxes and building codes and elections it's an amount of material that would be unwieldy as a pamphlet and might be reasonable as a book.

"This one you'd definitely need to know, and then whether you need to know these depends on where you live, and whether you need to know this one depends on what you want to do... anyway, start with the page of imperial laws. What kinds of weapons and tools and armor do you sell?"

"I'll take a look at the laws, thank you. As for weapons and tools and armor: three daggers, a crossbow, this helmet and breastplate that aren't in your size, some tools useful for disarming traps and opening mechanical locks without having the key."

"Helmets are useful, knives are useful but not usually as weapons, I have never encountered a situation that would be improved by a breastplate but I live a very unexciting life, and I don't know what a crossbow is. What kinds of tools disarm traps?"

And here are the imperial laws.

The Hari Empire commands all free people who live within Har's borders and partake in Har's society, to

pay taxes which are explained in the Appendix of Current Imperial Taxes,

not change, touch, or put magic on the body of any free person unless that person allows it,

not kill any free person unless that person allows it,

not take away any free person's possession unless that person allows it,

not change or put magic on the possession of any free person unless that person allows it,

not release and make free any slave, unless a reasonable person could expect that slave to understand and follow these laws,

keep all contracts which they chose to make at a time when they were not being threatened with battery, murder, or something these laws forbid,

stay out of areas owned by any free person unless that person allows it,

not lie to a judge or police officer while in court for the purpose of determining any person's guilt or innocence in any criminal case,

not prevent any free person from entering any public place whose owner has not chosen to restrict entry into it,

not force any free person to leave any place whose owner consents for that person to be there.

Additional exceptions may exist for some law enforcement officers; for more information on this, see the Appendix on Law Enforcement. For more information on property, ownership, and state and municipal laws, see the Appendix on Property and Possession, and the Official List of States of the Hari Empire. For sentencing guidelines, see the Appendix on Sentencing. For more information on the Hari Empire and who can speak for it, see the Appendix on Elections. For information on the benefits of society, see the Official List of Current Imperial Public Works. For more information about opting out, see So You Never Want To See Another Person Again: A Guide To Private Island Life. Remember to also read the laws of the state and city you live in!

"I'm not thrilled with slavery, but if I don't have to own slaves myself, sure, I'll follow the law. Any port in a storm and all that. A crossbow is a weapon for launching pointy bolts at speed across distances, it's easier to operate than a regular bow. If you don't have armor and you manage to avoid the more lethal sort of excitement it's probably not something you want, though you could use it for hunting." Karasauriu also goes through the trap-disarming tools, which are rather similar to lockpicks though designed for larger devices.

"I think you're also going to want to know about our magic, because it obviates some of these things and I don't know if you'll be able to support yourself once you're there. There has got to be a published list of the types somewhere - Bar?"

Bar indeed has an introductory publication on Hari magic.

Karasauriu has a look. "Wow, you've got a lot more innate magic than I do, I have a bit of illusion magic but nothing like your world's born illusionists. Does that level of illusion magic mean working as a scribe is out, because that's what a lot of my safe-environment skills are. I wouldn't be thrilled to work as a washerwoman but … oh, you might do laundry with force magic or sufficiently selective use of structure magic if that works and I can't do that. Maybe I should just ask you: what options are there for unskilled workers not selling mage services?"

"You can professionally have hands - uh, move small objects for species that don't have hands. In some places you can fish for free or harvest wild stuff for free if you don't sell it, sometimes there's limits on how much and sometimes you can't. Possibly you could maybe be a receptionist somewhere, if you spoke the language. No economically useful magic and unskilled is a hard combination, otherwise I'd be saying, like, doctor, judge, teacher... command designer... sex worker... artist?"