"That's..."

He trails off, pauses, and then just smiles instead of finishing the sentence.

She smiles back.

Aww, that's nice.

"...have you seen the viewing pool?" he wonders.

"I don't think so. What is it?"

"It's..." He shakes his head. "I can't explain, but I can show you."

He walks toward a wall, and by the time he reaches it, there is a Tarakova-sized door waiting for him. (Maybe that's why all the architecture around here is so big...)

That would explain it. She descends the staircase down to his floor and follows him through the door.

And on the other side of the door, there is a big round room with a very large round stone table in the centre, and the top of the table has a very large shallow indentation, making the whole thing into a kind of giant dish or bowl; the bowl is full of water, and the water is covered in shifting reflections.

"Huh. What's it do, exactly?" Presumably something to do with viewing, but that's awfully non-specific.

"It shows things. Any part of the world I want to see. Or I'd still be speaking Telindi," he explains.

"Oh, I guess the language would have changed over two thousand years," she agrees. "What kinds of things do you look at?"

"Landscapes. Towns. It only shows public places, but there are plenty of those."

"How do you work it?"

"Tell it what you want to see."

She hesitates, and then says, "Show me my guardians."

...Her guardians are apparently looking for her! In non-Valley forest, mind, but still. She shivers.

Tarakova watches the image in the water thoughtfully.

"...I shouldn't have done that. How do I make it go away?"

On 'go away', it goes back to being strangely reflective water without any pictures in it.

"Oh, good."

She is still trembling a little.

...he looks at her. His tail sweeps back and forth.

"I know they can't actually get in here and find me--but they'll be so mad, if they ever got their hands on me again--"

"They won't."

She nods but she still shrinks in on herself. "Making them mad isn't--wasn't--safe."

"I want - I would - protect you," he says, sounding a little surprised about it.

She looks at him.

She looks at all the things about him that are, looked at from a certain point of view, scary.

"Thank you."

He smiles down at her.