"I read horrible romance novels."

He reabsorbs the dioramas. "I've never been one much for romance. Can I ask what you like about them? What brings you back to them, I suppose."

"Oh. Primarily, I like how the people in them make each other happy?"

Opero smiles. "That's probably the nicest reason to like a genre of novel I've heard yet. I suppose I wasn't really collecting those, but still."

Henry (followed by Gabe) decides to just leave quietly.

Thomas is still there. "Felix liked them since before he was capable of understanding what all the sexual euphemisms actually meant."

Felix doesn't outright blush, but almost. "In my defense, most of the books I read when I was that little were from the library or the ones I got myself. So, anything explicit had to be filtered. Which led to plenty of 'waves of shuddering ecstasy' or what have you."

Opero chuckles, but doesn't really formulate a verbal response beyond that. Instead, he finds a reasonably comfortable place to sit (or just sits on the floor) and begins to meditate. He's reviewing and reinforcing his vital heat, and hastening the regrowth of his soul-dew, but mostly he's just clearing his mind, getting a better hold over his emotions, and trying to think through how the negotiations are going to go and what he's willing to trade.

There is a chair in the living room space which is comfy enough for him to do that. It's also in a corner where people shouldn't be constantly moving too close and distract him. The tower is small enough that it's hard not to notice when people are moving around.

They largely leave him be. Felix and Thomas stay and talk quietly to each other. Mostly, about rescheduling things.

Felix goes over to talk to Henry and Gabe, making sure they are okay. Well, mostly Henry. Gabe is not the type to worry at all too much, even when things are literally on fire.

Henry is not exactly happy with the entire deception, but doesn't know what else they can do about it.

Felix didn't like it, but it's not like you can be dropped into a new world and just tell everyone their secrets. Still, Felix is here if Henry wants comfort or perspective. Or hugs.

Okay. He is alright for now.

The first thing Opero will do as he gets into the meditative state of mind is to conjure up a spirit to listen to the room and let him know when someone says something to him or there's something important to listen to. Once that's done he will adjust his armor to tune out most of the sounds before entering a much deeper state. He'll double check that his vital heat is sorted out, review his memories of having his magic stripped to make sure that they can be analyzed later to see if some kind of defensive measure can be devised, before focusing on simply calming himself and considering his situation.

He's not stranded, not permanently at least. His fumbled deception hasn't completely spoiled potential relations with the locals, nor has he gotten himself trapped in a box and made to dispense healing for sustenance. He was fairly clear path forward. The family's leadership...will have words for him, when he gets back, and harsh ones, but he will be back, and things will not be irrecoverable.

Once he's settled, he'll transition from purely internal meditation to some meditative sculpting, making miniature dioramas of various elements of the room he's seated in from his armor.

Thomas will look at the miniature with attention, but without much comment.

Fernando eventually returns, and waits until Opero looks interruptible to ask. "Do you mind staying overnight?"

"Not at all. Despite the...awkwardness, this is still certainly much more comfortable than my little construction project. I don't have any local currency to compensate you with but I'd be willing to trade."

"No compensation is required. We want to keep an eye on you as part of our job."

"What Fernando is trying to say is that we would looove to have you here and it isn't a trouble at all."

"Thank you," Opero nods. He'll continue his meditation. It will take much more than just a day and a night to rebuild his reserves of soul-dew, at least without expending his vital heat, so he'll be taking every spare moment for that.

"Do you happen to know the radiant flux-density of the...'stars', as it were, at night here?"

"Huh. Not as a number, but I know that they are adjusted to be as close as possible as Elan - and by extension Earth - mostly because it is easier on animals."

"It sounds like the sort of thing written down somewhere. Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering whether it would be worthwhile to find some open 'sky' for the night, since I want to recover some of the resources I lost in today's incident, and gathering light is one of the less effortful ways of reinforcing my vital heat."

He doesn't have enough soul-dew to extend collection fans anywhere nearly as large as when he was tree-running, not without making them so thin that they'd be worthlessly diaphanous, but he'll still turn a portion of his armor pitch black for demonstrative purposes.

"Huh, you can use light to recharge yourself." He tends very strongly towards a flat affect, so the relative curiosity in his voice is rather noticeable. "Would you expect it to work during the day?"

"Why it wouldn't? The local 'day'light is supposed to be normal as it gets."

"Entirely foreign magic system." Fernando shrugs.