"Do you know what happened to the Origin? Our records show that they planned to retreat for repairs and rearmament after the Great Destroyer ignited the sky. They seem to have abandoned us, and if that is the case we would have no more attachment here than a sentimental one."

"With more information we can conjure for that the same way we conjured for models of your hold, but we'd need to know more, like maybe when they left exactly."

They can look that up! The early records are kind of a mess but they have it down to a 30 year period thousands of years ago, that corresponds with that massive battle at the other destroyed mine they found.

They will put the forensics demon on it till they narrow things down.

...Funnily enough, there were a whole lot of weird spaceships full of weird humanoid aliens who put the three kinds of humans down on the planet. They weren't anywhere in this world before that and they weren't anywhere in this world after a bunch of them were destroyed by unconjurable negative space in the shape of a dragon the size of Madagascar, either.

......gosh.

Are normal dragons unconjurably negative space too?

Allmother is, as is some of her territory. The rest of the ones they've talked to aren't.

Then they can relay to the Delvers that it looks like they came from another universe originally, and they don't know which one but it doesn't seem to be one they've discovered yet, and there are no more left in this universe and a lot of them were destroyed. It is of course possible that there are still some in whatever universe they came from though.

"....So the Fall was complete after all." The Security Authority sighs. "Do you suppose we could get temporary defensive support while we continue to discuss matters with you and consider the offer to join Vanda Nossëo? We'll need a Special Session of the General Congress for discussion before the vote itself, and we can't just drop everything and start one right away anyway."

(The other three Delver enclaves that still exist in the world are following broadly similar conversation paths, if differing in the exact details. They don't seem to be in contact with each other.)

"Is it just the dragon you're worried about, or is there another source of threat?"

"No, it's pretty much the dragon. They are deadly cunning and have plagued us for hundreds of years. The one before it left us alone, but I suppose this one killed it or something."

"We haven't been able to get through to the dragon, but we can move the person trying to talk to it to the border between its territory and yours and give her some company that should be able to keep it off you, if it's a narrow chokepoint."

"We have many old tunnels, former and current mine routes. It stings, but we could collapse most of them since you seem capable of providing for material needs. This is sounding less and less appealing, however, I don't think I can agree to it on my own at this point."

"Well, if you can get it down to a narrow chokepoint, we can cover it with relatively free resources, since we have some float staff on the ship who could take a dragon, but we don't have thirty of them without calling for reinforcements, which we can't do for a nonmember state."

"Hm. We'll think about it." And then he has more questions about their laws and court system, which can be answered just fine.

The dragon called Warden goes to the same spot they previously met a Vanda Nossëo repesentative, precisely 48 hours later. 

The Elf assigned to the Warden, Yávemar, has been camping out there off and on, and is taking a little nap, but a dragon's approach is plenty to wake her up. Hello!

Hello. After a journey through the Dreaming I have decided I want to leave my territory to its fate, lost or reclaimed later, and go try to learn song magic, because it is very strange and aesthetically appealing and potentially very powerful.

Oh! Remarkable. If you want to immigrate to a Vanda Nossëo world, you will need to be able to follow the laws there; there are many choices of exact places to reside, with different local laws, of course, and you can choose any that will have you.

Yes, I did not mean I wished to depart this very moment. I must understand you and yours much better before I become a guest-of-sorts. ('Immigration' did not quite make sense.) Just as you have learned the proper songs to call me. I am intrigued by the hints of deep order I hear in your thoughts. Interactions between dragons are generally not orderly even when Tradition is followed. What would you ask in exchange for a lesson in such things?

I would be happy to teach you for nothing, but if that would be objectionable, I would like my comb back; I didn't know when I came here that you were so fond of shiny things and didn't bring it specifically for giving away.

Something for something, and nothing for nothing, Warden says firmly. The head feathers twitch slightly, but they ever-so-gently pull it off of where it's tucked into feathers and carefully set it down on the grass before backing away.

Yávemar puts it back in her own hair, and begins patiently teaching about the kinds of worlds that make up Vanda Nossëo and how the peoples on them live.

Warden has no point of reference for any of this and needs things like 'the laws are very specific and written down' and 'people lie sometimes' and 'we divide responsibility for things among different people' explained.

Warden does understand that there are complex social rules that aren't the same ones dragons use at play, and keeps asking for examples and analysis of basic politeness by human and elven standards.

Yávemar is very patient about explaining all these things. The laws are specific and written down, and sometimes amended as new things come up. People lie, but when it's important there's truth magic. She has read etiquette books by several species and can recite from them to illustrate concrete examples.