She yoinks the tablet and jumps away at this point yeah.

...Goes to check on the fabber and lets them sort it out.

There are some disappointed recriminations at each other as she leaves, but nobody chases her; some of them go back towards the village, and after a few minutes Allegra walks back out and calls over to her:

"Sorry about that - I hear there was a bit of an incident - everything okay over here?"

A new crowd would probably have started to form already, but there is a lot of excited yelling - sounding happy rather than angry or scared - over by the main road.

She's doing something at the edge of the river, keeping water away from the bank briefly with a flickering blue field. Installing a pipe of some sort.

"I showed them some stuff from home and they got hyped. They're like a bunch of twelve year olds. It's not a big deal. I'm not much more mature sometimes, hahah."

"Glad you're okay. Nobody's hurt - as you say, they just got over-excited.

Talking of over-excited, I suspect all that whooping means Liaven has come down with the wagon.

One of the people who came to get me said they'd told you about egregores - anything else you want to know before whichever one it is inevitably comes over?"

"I mean. I'm super not a diplomat either, maybe let 'em know. Hell, now I'm thinking about being lost again. Oh well."

"Sure, I'll go check which one it is and tell them to go easy on you - or would you rather they didn't distract you at all? I'm sure other people will be in a hurry but I am not and I'm happy to make sure you get all the time you need."

"I can be distracted from this, I want another day or two to fully recover anyway, Emu still doesn't like what it sees. It's not even - go easy on me, it's I have absolutely no interaction with your government or whatever and I'm trying not to think about what the UNEDC would say about this situation. Probably something like 'use your initiative as a cadet of this storied military tradition and act in full accordance with the universal code of military justice, your standing orders as a UNEDC member, blah blah blah blah BLAH."

Shrug. "I'm just a first year out of my depth. So whatever."

"I mean, we do _have_ a government, but nobody is obliged to do what it tells them other than about, like, not killing people, and for most purposes in this Steading the government is me.

If you go elsewhere there might be more complications, but Navarr - uh, that's the nation we're in, I don't know how much you've managed to take in - is very big on only taking orders from people you feel like taking orders from.

I'll go tell Liaven to be nice."

A few minutes later, Allegra comes back with a very heavily tattooed man in tow. He's dressed in some quite practical looking leather armour with a green half cape and you can see a significant quantity of daggers about his person in various states of hidden-ness, and moves with easy confidence.

Allegra stays at the top of the path and lets him approach on his own.

"I can't say I'm sure how to greet someone who's fallen from the sky and immediately started an infrastructure project," he says as he gets into comfortable speaking range - although he sounds like he can project his voice quite well over distance. "Cerys Liaven. I'm told you know the significance of that, but I came here to answer your questions, so you might as well ask any you have."

She has reached a stopping point and sealed it off for now. This bit's done, it's only all the rest of the pipe that's still needed.

Something about him puts her a bit on edge.

"Hey, if you think this is an infrastructure project you should visit Cairo or Delhi some time. If the Ants don't destroy them in the meanwhile. I'm not sure I have good questions? I guess are you more like a priest or a hand of Liaven and all Liaven knows the same stuff?"

"I would absolutely love to visit Cairo or Delhi some time. If there's any way we can get there, I'm all ears.

I'm not going to kid you though - the Steinr never made it home. You might well be stuck here for good. They brought us steel, and it looks like you've been busy too?"

He looks a bit like he's bitten something sour when you suggest he might be a priest.

"Liaven is not a god. I have access to the memories of all who've hosted Liaven. I'm still my own person and Liaven is too - just a bit of a... distributed one."

"Yeah, I don't even have full telemetry of what the hell I did to send myself here. Oh huh. Well, there's gods and then there's gods, you know, Allah's not the same kind of thing as Poseidon even if they're both probably made up. I've read stories about that sort of thing too, hopefully I get it. Is it, like, voluntary?"

"Absolutely - I can tell Liaven to fuck off any time I like - I enjoy getting to do this.

And, yes, about these parts we're very certain that so-called 'gods' are all made up. Not that there aren't powerful things out there - I don't know if you've heard of the Eternals - but none of them deserve your worship, even if they might like it.

You get a bit of leeway for being a foreigner, as long as you aren't actively trying to sell anyone on your religion, but we do take ours quite seriously.

The human spirit is supreme and we control our own destiny, and we're a bit picky about which Virtues are useful - that's probably all you need to not put your foot in it, and anyone will be able to help you straighten out any confusion without it being a problem - the first time."

He's trying to be genial but isn't disguising the implied threat here very hard. 

"Ugh, where are my manners, Allegra told me to be nice.

Do you have any idea what you're planning to do next, other than improve random Steadings?"

"I'm agnostic, man. It shouldn't be the- The one thing you care about. 'I can't do this because of my religion' sure, 'you can't do this because of my religion', fuck that, that about sums it up. I need to get used to this place, there are so many moving parts I don't understand and it's going to keep being like that for a while probably. I think I've forgotten what Virtues are except like auras of emotion maybe."

"So, quick primer on the virtues."

He seems to be counting them off on his fingers, but also this has the air of a speech he's given a lot. 

"Courage - including to face unwelcome truths as much as a battle. Ambition - don't let anyone stop you. Loyalty - know who and what you value and stick by them. Pride -know who you are, don't let anyone do you down. Prosperity - work hard, play hard, don't let resources stay idle - it looks like you have plenty of this already! Vigilance - don't let threats go unchallenged. And Wisdom - find things out and act on them, stay curious.

I guess you've had a lot to take in, yes? Normally when we find someone from a far away land or with a unique opportunity, we'd round them up and send them to the nearest civil service hub, who can send you on to Anvil or the Castle of Thorns - that's a big fancy castle in Dawn, where the civil service are based, it's a nice place to hang around to the next festival if you're into soft beds and all that.

You seem to be settled here okay, though - I'm quite happy for you to make your way on your own time, or if you want, I can start helping you to settle in our nation."

She thinks for a bit and takes a deep breath.

"I wanna be clear here, I'm a citizen of the UN. They fought the Ants, they evacuated America as much as they could when it fell, saved all of my friends and family from certain death. The UN has its flaws, but its founding mission, peace, friendly relations between nations, better living conditions, and human rights, is sound. I joined their military. That's where my Loyalty is. Maybe it becomes irrelevant if I can't contact them, but there's still a - a set of ideals, there. I'm not really looking for a new home, even if I could probably use one. I do kind of want hot showers and coffee and the internet, though. Maybe I can get two out of three later."

Cerys seems more impressed than taken aback by this.

"Understood.

I have no idea what an 'Internet' is, I'm afraid, but hot showers and coffee are definitely available in Seren - that's our major city, a couple of days easy travel or we could be there tonight in a hurry."

"Internet'd take a while to explain properly, I included it as a joke. Now the internet would be infrastructure. Social and political too, not just a physical thing. Internet's nothing without users. Think of it like a library that's everywhere and anyone can put things in."

"One of the Eternals is such a library - but it's not so keen on people taking things back out. Phaleron, the Eternal Library - of Day. I'm sure Allegra can fill you in if you're interested in that, I'm not a Vate myself, and I would caution you not to involve yourself with Eternals or their Heralds without good advice from one."

"You have way more magic stuff. I wonder if our would would be even more confusing to suddenly be in. Oh and, everything I hear here is going into a box labelled 'remember this is one narrow source that might be mistaken or lying'. Also building a water pump is one thing, it's constructive, I wouldn't shoot things for this village right now."

"Vigilant of you." Cerys mostly sounds approving, if a little frustrated. "I don't wish to interrupt your useful work; I can be around for a day or two, should you find more questions or decide you wish escort to Seren or the nearest civil service outpost."

"A message sent off there to expect me wouldn't be amiss, I think? Those take a while without the internet, right? Or instructions on where to go and what to do, even if I'd rather fly myself places after another day or two to get back to optimal."

She's going to be so far behind on simulator time. Not important right now.

"Oh, you can fly?" This does appear to have successfully surprised Cerys. "That would be extremely useful, if you could be convinced of the righteousness of our cause; but I don't expect to do so just by talking to you out here in Miaren, where it's safe.

The sign of the Civil Service is the horse, usually on a purple background - it should be fairly easy to get directions in any major settlement. Seren is mostly east of here, slightly south, you should be able to follow the track to where it connects to the Trod, which is well travelled and any Striding will point you in the right direction - as long as they are pointing you down a Trod rather than inviting you back into the trees, you are unlikely to come to harm, if you can escape as you say."

"All noted. Hehehe, yep. Valkyrie Cores, named after flying warrior-women from legend. Because the most practical thing to with one was to become a flying warrior, and mostly only women can sync with them for unclear reasons."

She flexes her impeller and a wave of shimmery blue lobs her a good twenty feet in the air. She lands with a similar shimmer, arms wide.

Cerys takes an instinctive leap back into a fighting stance and has drawn two daggers before becoming certain he is not in fact in danger and putting them away again.

"Very impressive," he admits. "I suggest you might want to warn unaccustomed people before doing that in front of them, unless alarming them is the point - quite a few of our people have combat reflexes and may not react pleasantly to surprises, and can throw a spear or shoot an arrow a surprising distance."