"Are you going to try to underpay me because you know I haven't actually figured out how much this amount of money can buy, or is this what you'd pay me if I did know what prices were around here?"

"This is the standard rate for people summoned under approximately comparable circumstances to speak to the imperial government about matters of imperial importance, which is far from the highest rate any position commands because it is a standard rate, because it is expected to benefit you if the government learns what you know, and because it is not effortful or painful. At least, generally. If you expect it to be effortful or painful for you to be indoors because you are a plant, for instance, some form of accommodation may be made, and you should let us know."

"I accept the job offer. Being indoors for many hours per day is fine for me specifically because I have an item that gives me energy so I don't need bright light for that. Other people like me might need their clothes illusioned to glow on the inside to do lots of work indoors, though."

"I'm sure that'll be good work for some illusion mages."

Griffie thinks about several possible answers to this, ranging from "there aren't actually a lot of my type of plant creature and other plant creatures have different reasons for liking being outside" to "actually, even if everything goes extremely well, it's going to be a massive disruption to your economy and not just like having some immigrants of a different species" to "Even though I'm a nice cooperative person, if we can interact with my world at all, there's going to be a massive war". Ey doesn't actually want to say any of them, though, so ey makes a noncommital noise.

Well, anyway, the airport is over there, here's how Griffie will know it's time to go there, this same belul will be available to show them the way from the Mar Geru airport too, any questions?

"If I am not going to build things or do sex work or sell food yet, do I need to know the state and city laws for here or for Mar Geru?"

"There are also things about parks and fishing and it's illegal everywhere to replace matter with emptiness."

Griffie looks concerned about that last one.

"The matter I and my belongings are made of will replace itself with emptiness unless I do magic to make it not, and I constantly lose some of it and compensate for that by making more. I did not know this was illegal, made no attempt to conceal it, and I also demonstrated the problem in the government office and they did not warn me."

"You make more - for context, the reason it's illegal is because it causes there to be less matter, and we have no way to make more. And you're not even choosing to make it do that, right, it's just doing it and you're undoing it?"

"I am not choosing to make it replace itself with emptiness, I am stopping it from doing that. When I came here I almost died that way, it was a very unpleasant surprise! I can make more but it would all fall apart without my magic or defense mage magic. I haven't destroyed any of the kind of matter that naturally exists here."

"Then you're - not fine, you're having some kind of emergency - you're not in violation of a law against void magic."

Honestly, Griffie's standards for 'emergency' are pretty high these days and 'I have to do magic twice a day to not fall apart and to breathe' does not qualify. However, saying that would get into a topic ey'll be paid to discuss tomorrow and does not actually find fun, so ey doesn't. "Well, I like not being in violation of the law. What are the rules about parks?"

"How about we stop by city hall and get you copies of the local laws and see if they have them for Mar Geru here or if we'll need to scry them."

"I can't read Hari yet, someone will need to read them to me."

"I'll do it and try to talk the government into paying me for it later unless we can convince someone else it's their job."

"I appreciate that! I would extra appreciate it if I could get a good view of the text while you read it."

That's feasible.

When they get to city hall, the belul reads some state and city laws to Griffie.

Griffie is appreciative. The park laws permit basically everything Griffie would actually want to do in a park, it's convenient to not need to eat and not want to ruin other people's fun. Maybe one of the people who's scried Griffie and eir stuff will figure out how to make something like eir ring of not needing food and needing less sleep but for Hari people using Hari magic, that'd be cool. (And hopefully a more tempting target than figuring out making slave copies, eegh. Bringing the ring to nosy people's attention might be a diversion from that?)

Great. The belul makes sure they have a time and place to meet tomorrow.

And Griffie intends to be there! For now, though, having acquired the power of speech and resolved eir legal obligations, Griffie would like to visit the local market.

The local market has many things for sale! Would Griffie like to buy some honey, some blood, some peaches, some meat, some fish, a slave, any of these three illusion shows, an amulet of nondetection for the price of a bag of apples, a bag of apples for the price of an amulet of nondetection, slave bracelets, a blanket, a knife, a writing implement designed for an agerah, bioidentical insulin, the services of a sun mage, bulk pecans...

This is a very interesting marketplace! Mostly Griffie would like to see if anyone is hiring for short-term work, though, ey doesn't have any money. If that fails, Griffie will try to identify people who may not have realized they could hire a living cloud of exotic matter or sabertooth tiger or similar but would find that doing so is relevant to their business needs.

People looking for short-term work, unfortunately, mostly read the noticeboard. There is a snake approaching force mages and people who seem to have hands, though.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of obvious unfilled need for a shapeshifter. Maybe if they contacted an illusion show producer.

Someone does come up to Griffie and offer to sell information and advice about Har.

Griffie appreciates the offer. Ey can trade services but doesn't have money yet, ey's going to go try to read the noticeboard and will probably wear money when ey has some, okay?