"Eeep!"

Daphne is also startled! That is definitely not normal cat behaviour! 

The robed woman is likewise taken aback for a moment, but then she recovers and bows to the cat, greeting it in the local language.

The cat responds; whatever it says seems to reassure the humans a little, although they still keep their distance. 

"I'm the Wizard Lord, the ruler of this land," the cat explains to Daphne, switching back to Rennish. (The word "wizard" translates to Rennish as a word for a fictional type of magic user common in folklore.) "I'm speaking to you through the body of this cat—my real body is in my palace about fifty miles away." 

...well, that explains why there is a talking cat. Sort of. 

"I'm honoured by your presence here, milord, however you choose to manifest it," she ventures, copying the woman's bow. "My name is Daphne Gage Whiteraven, I have never heard of Barokan in my life before today, and I've no idea how I came to be here." 

"That makes two of us," says the Wizard Lord. "That's a pity; I was hoping you could tell me how you managed it. I can tell you that it wasn't the work of anyone in Barokan, either spirit or wizard." 

"Sorry, could you clarify what 'spirit' means in this context?" Daphne asks. "And, actually, I probably shouldn't assume that all my intuitions about wizards are accurate either."

She decides not to mention that said intuitions are based on folktales. She's not sure this wizard would react well to being told that his kind is nothing more than a tale for children in another world.

"Everything, either living or dead, has a spirit—called ler in most Barokanese dialects. A wizard is someone who has learned to speak to some spirits and learned their true names so that he or she can command them," the Wizard Lord explains.

"Village priests, such as the woman in green over there, can also speak to their local spirits." 

"Huh. That's..." 

She reconsiders what she was about to say. "If there are spirits—ler—where I come from, I don't know about it. If a place didn't have wizards or priests, would they be able to tell whether they had ler?" 

"...do you know," he says, as though he's never considered it before, "I'm not sure they would! Is there a reason you ask?"

"Well, there are no wizards where I come from," she says, since he's probably already guessed as much from her question. "Not of the kind you mean, anyway. By the same token, we have people we call 'priests', but they don't claim to be able to speak to anything like your ler." 

"Hmm. You landed in the woods, and had to walk through them to reach the village, yes? Did you notice anything different about them compared to the woods in your world—did they seem wilder, more difficult to navigate, more hostile to your presence?" 

"...I thought it was my imagination at the time, but—yes, now that you mention it. That's the ler?" 

"Indeed. Ler in the wilderness are generally hostile to humans," he says in a disapproving tone. "You're lucky you were not worse injured." 

"I'm not human. But that sounds like...a problem...for people who are." 

The cat goes very still for a moment. 

"...no, you're not human, are you? Interesting! Do your kind have a name for yourselves?" 

"I'm a vampire. This world doesn't have them?" she guesses.

At his nod, she explains. "I used to be human; vampires can turn humans into more of our kind. The relevant differences, assuming humans are the same across both our worlds, are that I have magic, I don't age, I need to drink human blood to survive, I'm a little stronger, faster, and tougher, and I have better senses."

"Fascin—"

He pauses to cough up a hairball. 

"Sorry, I think I've been abusing this poor cat's vocal cords long enough. I'd better let it go for now and find a different animal to speak through." 

"Alright." 

She will...wait right here, she supposes, for lack of interesting alternatives. 

The cat runs away, hissing.

And shortly a little bird comes and perches on her knee.

"Where were we?" 

Daphne is trying not to let her opinion of the Wizard Lord be swayed by the cuteness of the forms in which he's talking to her. Seeing the cat's distress provided a counterweight in the opposite direction.

"We'd established that my world probably doesn't have ler and yours doesn't have vampires," she says to the cute little bird that is probably equally upset about being possessed by the Wizard Lord.