"All right, take your time."

"The ideal shaman," he says slowly, "Is empathetic - and not just with the kinds of people they're familiar with. They should be curious and observant. They should be in tune with their emotions, be able to understand what they feel and why. They should be good at meditation and focus, able to take strange and specific states of mind deliberately. They should enjoy spending time in nature. They should think they'd do well picking at - I'm struggling to put this into words - entangled interconnected concepts that don't have one specific correct interpretation? Philosophy? This is an emotional and spiritual skill, not a technical or mathematic one. Artistic skills or poetry or musical ability would correlate but is not strictly necessary. None of these are specifically crucial, this is just my best attempt at a list of traits a good shaman has or can at least emulate."

"All right, I can list those as filtration criteria if we have a glut and also nice-to-haves for the volunteers themselves to consider," says Revna. "When would you be ready to start?"

"I've no competing obligations, though I'm getting tired, it's been a long day. I know a few places on the planet below that would be good for lessons, I might need a teleporter to offer rides."

"How many rides are we talking about? There are some idling teleporters as long as this planet's brand new but they'll peel off to other places as things settle out."

"...Being close to actual spirits who are known quantities to me is going to be important eventually but if teleporters are as rare as all that perhaps I should look for recommendations of natural areas that people can get to without so much fuss and investigate some, for the initial phase."

"I'll add 'teleportation quals' as a nice-to-have for the students, shall I," says Revna.

"May as well. I don't know how you-collectively operate yet, though I'm trying to learn. Big world out there."

"Enormous!" says Revna enthusiastically. "All right, we should have candidates filtered by tomorrow, if you want to go get some sleep."

"Miss Lisa also mentioned that you would be interested to know what people are good at and might find jobs with, and presumably also what they value if you're a merchant? Also, would that be aboard ship or shall I beg a ride back down to Goldvalley and find an inn?"

"I am interested in that! You can have a guest room - let's see - 446 is open."

"446, got it. Well I can talk a bit more now. Actually - I just realized I don't actually know how to use this-" He peels off the pay card from his cardboard sign where it sits against the chair. "I don't usually handle money honestly, since it's dangerous to carry too much silver on you and I travel so often. Oh, that's the first big thing - offplanet travel is going to be very popular. A lot of people would probably pay just to hop up and see the starscape, once they realize that's an option. Space is a big cultural motif."

"Ooh, we can put in an orbital bus station if that'll be popular instead of going directly to Station One."

"I think it would! The rest of it - I'm not sure what'll be unexpectedly popular, having never made contact with a new world before - exotic spices, sugar and cheap meat, healing magic, fine cloth, shiny metal gadgets, immortality rings - there might be murders over those if people don't join, ironically enough - all that will go well. Most people are farmers. Most of the rest are craftsmen of some kind or another, and most of the rest of the rest are soldiers. I'm not sure you really have much need for any of those."

"Not a speck but they can retrain!" says Revna cheerily. "Okay, that's not fair, some people will buy handmade crafts as souvenirs, but practically speaking."

"I wonder what the Delvers are making of all this. I don't know much about them - I barely know they exist, honestly."

"- who might those be?"

"Oh, it's said that there were once three races of humanity. The farmers, us, the delvers who mined ore and made machines, and the enforcers who fought invaders and crime. Enforcers all died with honor fighting dragons - or were brutal oppressors who were all justly murdered by we farmers depending on who's telling the story - delvers were scattered and shattered, and farmers slowly picked up the pieces. But I once saw a delver in a heavy suit of metal with a curious helmet that covered the face and had an odd piece sticking off the front, like an absurd tongue. From what I understood of what I saw, I think they have an - not an agreement but an understanding with outsiders. It was an odd scene, one party leaves goods lying on the ground and pounds on the great vault door, then retreats off to the surrounding hills. The delvers exit and leave baubles or metal as well, what they propose to trade for the first item, and then retreat inside. After that either the trade is made or rejected depending on what the first party takes without ever having to stand face to face. Or within bow range."

"Huh. I'm not sure we noticed those. We'll have to be more thorough. How sure are you the Enforcers are all dead? Any other kinds of people?" wonders the Dwarf, typing rapidly.

"Not very sure, honestly! Well, dragons and spirits and some or possibly most animals. There's tales of tiny aliens living in stumps and moving metal giants and living dreams that move from mind to mind and fey creatures luring people astray and a special rock where the star lords can hear you and a race of ugly Fishmen who make pacts with dragons and creatures made of living slime with odd artifacts. I've never encountered any of that personally, unlike the delver meeting place.

"Wow. Okay. Forensics'll have to go over this place with a fine-toothed comb."

"Dragons by repute really like shiny gold and silver and gems, though I've never met one." He yawns. "I'll be happy to try and help figure out if certain animals count as people to you folks, it sounds like that could get messy."

"It could. There's big subsidies for non-animal meat, to displace eating even ordinary animals that aren't at all bright. Are you going to be all right finding your room on your own?"

"I was shown around the guest rooms earlier, I'll be fine. But that's a sign it's time for me to go. This was a pretty productive conversation." He nods and smiles and stands to gather his bags.

"Mm-hm! I'll get back to you if anything comes up regarding the grant or the student filtration process."