Meanwhile, a caralendar living in Meiu visits the Dwarves to ask about work for void mages abroad.

They have options! How does this void mage feel about removing falling-apart sidewalks, painting the ground beneath en route, to be followed by a paver robot? Angels are expensive and conventional demolishing is so noisy.

"Does it pay a normal sort of rate for working mages?"

"If you can undercut an angel and aren't much slower I think it'll be worth it to them... going rate for different kinds of mages varies a lot, you'll make more than a heat mage and less than a defense mage."

She’s interested in trying that.

Does she want just the referral or, for a small extra fee, an escort to show her the bus route from here to there and help her secure lodging and locate a grocery store and set up a bank account?

She'll accept an escort if given adequate assurances about whether the price will leave her too broke to benefit from the grocery store.

The grocery store is extremely cheap and if it's not cheap enough you can go to a public access replicator.

...Yeah, okay. She'll take the escort.

Pops ensue! Here they are in a pleasant suburb. The sidewalks have some cracks in them.

Huh. Weird place. "Is that the sidewalk they want vanshed?"

"You should check in with the city about what routes they want vanished. That's the city hall right there, we'll find something near it. What kind of place would you like to live - size, amenities, price range -"

"I just want a private place. I don't own much, I don't care if there's room for objects."

"Okay, small cheap place." Computation ensues. "Does this picture look good?" It's a studio apartment with a big window; it has furniture already.

She boggles at it. "Uh. I mean. If that's within my price range then what's wrong with it."

"Oh, it'll be fifteen minutes walking from there to here and there's no roof access and one review says that they're not prompt about maintenance requests."

"...Maintenance requests?"

"The review says they had an issue with their dishwasher and another with the internet connectivity and had to wait over the weekend for the first to get fixed and the second problem was still extant at time of writing."

"I don't understand what kinds of problems those things would cause."

"Well, if you don't use the appliances or the internet it sounds like this place will be just about perfect for you."

"...That’s very high praise."

"If you don't like the look of it I'm sure I can find something else, what about it isn't to your taste?"

"I can't find a single thing wrong with it that makes sense to me but for all I know if there's a problem with the dishwasher that means someone could scry on me while I sleep or hear me snore or something."

"- ah, none of the apartments on this planet are likely to be specifically warded against scrying. It's not a common power in the area."

"'Private' is the only thing I specified."