"Come in." 

The door swings open off in the distance, and she quickly strides over and takes a seat, settling in before offering a hand. 

"Good day." 

"Good day to you too. It's just popped into our mind that we never did introductions?"

"I'm Aela - High-attendant to the needs of our guests." 

"We're the blue hearts - if a singlet name is required, it's generally Romana's, though it is Iron speaking to you, at the moment." 

I offer my hand to shake. 

"Pleasure to get to meet you, Aela." 

"And a pleasure to know you as well, Iron." 

"Would you care for a drink? Moonsilver liked the idea of it as a disarming tool, but you seem too professional for it to be much more then something useful on our end. Still, I'd feel remiss not offering you the opportunity, considering, even if in a sense you are hosting me, rather then the other way around." 

I pour a mug of my own tea, taking care to keep it clean and controlled, then raise my eyebrow inquisitively at her.

"I would, thank you." 

She gently proffers her cup, closing her eyes and smiling as the hot water. 

"I suppose I can't much criticize the quiet approach." 

I toss in some sugar, and watch the brown fill out slowly, stirring idly with the spoon. 

"I've found it important to cultivate the skill to know when and how my words are valued." 

"That is a quite important skill - though I've if anything found it the most important to focus on when that's not an overly relevant consideration, it seems?" 

She sips her tea, a look of contentment radiating out, before she rests her hands just below her lips and nods, before placing the cup back onto the table. 

"That's a common experience amongst those living in uncontacted worlds who work outside of service roles, I've found."

I incline my head slightly forward in acknowledgement. 

"Sounds about right." 

I suppose probably some of this is being meddled with, temporally speaking, so I might as well throw in some milk and call it a day. 

I sip lightly at the edge, tongue enjoying the perfect warmth and the calm caress of the flavour. 

"I'm aware that there's a number of... lubricating factors to the temporal experience here - including for this tea, in all likelihood, so I confess I'm somewhat unsure as to how the 'schedule' will actually play out, in terms of hne exactly the visits to each world will occur?"

"Well spotted. Most of our guests find a more gradual transition towards a temporally mediated life more natural for their own experiences."

She sips quietly, and lets the herbal scent of the tea waft through the air. 

"Thallasa Cruises prides itself on the variety of destinations they offer, and that somewhat constrains the extent of the mediation we can offer in addition the experiential preservation that's part of the core of our business model.  The exact limitations vary depending on a wide variety of factors - is there anything you'd like me to focus on of those constraints?"

"I suppose the most immediate question would be 'When are we coming to our next harbor'?"

I sip and sigh. 

It's still relatively natural to keep this all up, but it's still... sharp, to think like this, and I expect we'll be tired later. 

Ah well.

"The exact arrival date from your perspective is something that you can freely decide, within the range of the seasons that you are traversing. If you'd like, we could be arriving at Goldenvale as soon as the end of this conversation." 

I raise a single eyebrow in consternation. 

"And is that true of the rest of the locales?"

"Not quite. The First Master, in his Wisdom, has placed certain constraints around temporal relationships within the sphere of his influence through his astrological workings, and the Summer Emperor's domain has a number of protections that limit the scope of ontomediation within the area. Additionally, the Black City constrains some of the most precise manipulations we could otherwise accomplish. In practice, within the Summer period of the cruise, your visits will be relatively evenly spaced perceptually, while the rest of your trip will be free of such issues for the most part."

"Makes some sense, though I assume that's similarly true of some other places I could have gone, or perhaps something that might incidentally crop up in places that you'd traverse?"

"The serendipity matrix and temporal systems allows us to work through that sort of issue fairly readily, so you need not keep that concern in mind." 

I nod slightly. 

"I was also just thinking about... if there's any standard recommendations, for all of this?" 

"There's a wide variety of titles in our library that include recommendations around sudden empowerment events. You're also free to consult experts on the wide variety of subjects that we have on retainer, or get additional opinions from the other guests."

"I suppose it makes some sense that it'd be relatively freeform, and that the amenities are too numerous to readily scpe out, though do confess that can be a rather unsatisfactory answer." 

I sigh heavily, and drink up more. 

"I suppose I should also ask about the expectations of the other guests, in terms of mingling?"