"Then we can keep the translation for a while longer. I think it might turn out to be important that you have the ability to communicate without help."

Nod. "I can try. I'm paying attention. But it took me a lot longer than this to get good at Ansati. I mean, there was no helpful magical effect, there, but..."

She nods.

"If there's any specific phrases that would be a good idea to learn I can probably memorize those."

"I don't know if there are specific phrases... I just expect that if things go wrong, you will have a much harder time around my father if you can only make yourself understood when he goes to the trouble of having a translator present. And somewhat the same with Nahira."

"You make an excellent point. Well. I'm paying attention."

"Do you want to know how to manifest your soul?"

"...Yes. Are there any downsides to doing that?"

"Anyone who looks at it will see what kind of person you are. Different souls do it to different degrees, in different amounts of detail, but they all do it truthfully. Once you manifest your soul, it will exist in that form for as long as you are alive and some time afterward. If someone touches your soul, you will be incapacitated with indescribable agony until they let go. As far as I know, neither my father nor Nahira has ever touched someone's soul, but I would not be inclined to rely on them not to try it if they had the chance."

"...I'm not sure I want to introduce a vulnerability like that if you don't think you can hide me from them. On the other hand, I could probably leave it with you if it looked like I was going to get caught and it didn't have good enough relevant powers."

"I could probably keep it safe."

She considers. "...Statistical odds that I'd get something useful?"

"...Everyone gets something that is useful in some sense, because everyone gets something that is suited to them in particular. But you might not get anything that applies to this situation. Soul powers are very hard to predict."

"...Okay. Well. Never let it be said that I am risk-averse for a good cause. How does it work?"

"I have not personally done it but I know the theory as well as anyone. You sit quietly in a context where you don't expect to be distracted, and think about what kind of person you are and what you expect your soul to look like, and imagine reaching for it. If you guess the correct way to reach for it and a correct aesthetic detail and contemplate a correct characteristic of yourself, you will find your soul. Then you imagine bringing it from your mind into the world, and guess what it will look like and think about what kind of person you are in more detail. If you guess something wrong, you have to start over. It takes most people a few hours, and some much more than that if they don't know themselves very well or aren't very good at guessing their soul's aesthetics."

"Okay. ...Should probably wait until the translator's gone, though."

"Yes, that's reasonable. How much more Nuimena do you want to absorb before you try it?"

"...Much as I hate to admit it, I think I might be nearing my retention limit for the relevant amount of time."

She nods. "I'll tell him he can go, then."

And she goes to the other room and dismisses the translator.

"Should I go somewhere else to try it or does here work?"

"There are safer places. I'll show you to one."

"Okay."

The safer place in question appears to be the princess's bedroom.

Are there any chairs or does she have to sit on the bed?

There are chairs.

"I'll leave you here," she says, in now-harder-to-understand Nuimena. "You can come out when you succeed or give up."