"Thank you. I would also appreciate more information about - so, I’ve been assuming, apparently correctly, that you’re having someone check up on this conversation, and I’m aware of things. And I don’t mind spending extra time chatting in this garden, as long as it’s just for things like making sure you don’t accidentally give us all a horrible alien plague or the other way around, but if it were a different time or a different person..." Shrug. "But maybe that’s silly and prophecies don’t really happen?"

"I haven't made a report yet, although I believe Zua's written in about your having a local alt -?"

Zua nods.

"But since I will make a report later that would hardly prevent a precog from letting us know if you get, yes, a horrible alien plague that I can't just cure on the spot without issue. I'm - not really sure I followed what you just said."

"I mean... do the precogs go into a real future or is it more like a dream about people who aren’t really there?"

"The way they experience it varies by precog but my understanding is that it's more like a dream about people who aren't really there than like time travel. We do have a time traveler but she only works in her neighborhood."

"I see. Anyway, we were going to tour your worlds? I want to check if I end up understanding people there without Allspeak."

"Sure! Do you want to narrow it down any or should I just pick out a sampler?"

Well, there’s no point in using the trip to try to verify their honesty, so it’s really only useful for trying to understand things that aren’t clear. Or for entertainment.

"Whatever you think will be most enlightening."

"All right. Whenever you're ready. Zua, can you manage things here while I'm touring?"

"Sure thing."

He’ll just pass the job of talking to Zua on to some other Azani official and then they can leave whenever.

A series of pops, and:

They are on Beach, on, appropriately enough, a beach. There aren't many buildings; there are a lot of shorefolk fishing and flying and building sandcastles and grooming each other's feathers and napping. The most architecture there is to be had is a narrow shed with a shower spigot on one side.

"They don't like buildings much, around here," says Melda. "They can control the weather, and they were Stone Age when first discovered, and they don't have much need for privacy. So they live outdoors. Their language is sung through - did you wind up getting it?"

"I don’t know anything about it that you didn’t just tell me but I don’t think anyone noticed speaking Azani till they tried talking to someone."

"Well, you can go ahead and try introducing yourself to someone. They're a pretty friendly lot."

He’ll flag down whoever looks like they’re doing the most droppable thing and say hello.

This one is combing sand out of her hair with her claws. She chirps at him with a sunny smile.

He has no idea what if anything that chirp means. "Just testing something," he says, shrugging.

She giggles.

"No luck?" asks Melda. "She just said hello."

"Yeah. I can’t explain myself until I get magic for it but you can, I guess, if you think she minds."

Melda says, in a fashion perfectly comprehensible to Valan, "He's checking a translation theory!"

The shorefolk giggles and whistles and waves at him and goes back to combing her hair.

"Do you want to hit someplace where we can get you Allspeak next?" Melda asks.

"Yeah."

Pop pop.

It's a shining towering city, achingly beautiful in every curve and sparkle, full of Elves like Melda, woven through with parkland and water features.

"This is my world," she says. "It's called 'space Arda', conventionally, even though that's not a very pretty name, because most Ardas are lower tech and everyone in them stays on one planet."

"We haven’t had nearly enough time to make Azan look like that."

"Human cities often don't even given lots of time! It's pretty high-maintenance and there's competing priorities - humans often need various safety signage in bright neon colors that clash with everything around them to stand out enough to human vision, for example. But I like it here." She flicks her fingers through some fountaining water. "Allspeak's that way." She sets off through the foot traffic.

"I don’t think I’ve noticed humans needing that." He follows.

"Well, need under the most commonly preferred risk management polices. We can hit a human city after this."

"...Sure. Are you planning on pointing out anything you think would call for a neon warning sign?"