"Thank you." 

She shares a glance with her envoy, not quite saying what comes to her mind given the apparent magic in play and the use of the word "Imperial."

"You have paper on you, right?"

Thorn fishes in her backpack and pulls out a blank journal and a ballpoint pen.

The envoy takes them, and looks around for a seat - they must have benches at this bus station, right?

They do! The nearest one is being used as a jungle gym by some orc children who apparently aren't discerning enough to use the better ones outside but there's an empty one a bit farther along.

The envoy sits down on the bench and sets the book in her lap. She writes, carefully matching what's on the sign: 

Mir Imperial office miscellaneous/other rabbit sparkle fork

I, Planetary Envoy Morning-Glory, am a diplomat representing a transplanar polity, the Origin Trade Consortium, which has just come in contact with Patalon. I would like to exchange basic information about our respective polities and discuss the possibility of trade. At present I am at the Randkokan bus station along with the scout who first made contact. Please advise on local procedure at this point.

There is a delay of 38 seconds.

Then there appears a short, hairy person with a beard. "Planetary Envoy Morning-Glory?" he says.

She smiles, stands, and bows formally. "That would be me, yes. And this is Thorn," she gestures to her, "of the Exploratory Branch."

Thorn also bows.

"Good to meet you. Do you mind if I teleport you from here to the Imperial office in an adjacent world?"

"Not at all."

They pop into a lovely office, very Art Deco. The Dwarf gestures at them to have a seat. "Welcome to Mîr," he says. "It's one of three sister transdimensional polities that collectively span a couple hundred worlds. What brought you to Patalon today?"

"I was sent on a routine exploratory mission to assess a potential world; when I discovered that there was an interdimensional polity here, I identified it as such to the OTC and asked for an official envoy. That would be Morning-Glory, here."

"OTC maintains an exploratory corps to contact alien worlds, establish trade, and in some cases - primarily those of widespread slavery, torture, or unlivable local conditions - defend the welfare of their inhabitants or ensure evacuation to a safer world. Most worlds receive an official envoy or envoys within the first month; in this case, because there is an interdimensional polity being contacted, I was brought in almost immediately. The OTC consists of a densely-settled central plane - Origin - surrounded by a broad halo of around a hundred Trade worlds, which have local governments but are also considered full members of the Consortium for purposes of travel - a single passport allows access to anywhere in the core - and then around that there are a thousand or so affiliated worlds, either Half-Tamed or Refugee, which are not administrated by the OTC but have some degree of regular contact and accept Origin Trade Credit. Last census estimated our population at around 10 trillion in our core worlds, and around 100 trillion including all affiliates."

"Do you mind repeating that under a truth effect so I can be sure of the next step in inviting you to meet Empress Isabella?"

"I do not mind repeating that under a truth effect."

The Dwarf turns on some soft music. "There it is now."

Morning-Glory repeats herself precisely to the word.

"Thank you. I'll put in for a priority appointment with Empress Isabella." He taps his computer. "Do you have any very short-term questions or needs I can address for you?"

"I am a Persona mage and have various abilities to detect truth and help others express themselves honestly, whether physically or mentally. Naturally I would not use any of my abilities without consent, but I don't know what security precautions are taken regarding your Empress. Is it acceptable for me to meet with her in person?"

"She'll make the final determination, but I expect her to want to see you. This doesn't happen every day."

"In that case, I have only one other request. Thorn is unlikely to participate in the negotiations, but I know for a fact that she loves to explore alien worlds and interact with new cultures. Would it be possible for her to spend some time getting to know Mir on the street level, so to speak? She would likely need a diplomatic visa and some form of stipend in local currency - we'd be happy to repay it if trade is established."

"Yes, I can do that." He does some more computer tasks and a peripheral spits out a card-sized device. "That's got some spending money, a bus pass, and the kind of visa we normally give visiting Federation folks... anything else we can do for you?"

"Do you have local internet? If you do, can I have an internet-capable device to browse on while I wait?"

Thorn takes her card and tucks it into her belt pouch.