"- I'm not sure my magical translation is capturing the distinction but that sounds like such an interesting story, I hope at some point it's convenient to give the long version."

"There isn't a distinction - I mean, the words are the same - they thought we wanted some regime change and for them to serve as unfree labor, but actually we wanted to destroy their country and keep them as chattel. There's a history in the royal library but I can also tell you about it any time."

"All right, thank you."

And he goes off to talk with Dama.

The envoys hang around in the street, out of the way, smiling at people.

Some of the people approach them with questions.

Fox guy returns and waits for an opening, bouncing on the balls of his feet and fidgeting with one of his glowing fox ears. When he disturbs his hair enough in so doing, it's possible to see a human ear too, although the fox ones don't look like they're on a headband and do move like real appendages.

Shila Kolen snakes her neck down to his level. "Hello!" she says.

"Hello! You look really cool."

"Thank you! I'm a Hork-Bajir. What are you?"

He sighs dramatically. "A human, I guess."

"Huh. Do humans here just sometimes have ears like that? Humans from Stork don't have belly buttons and most humans do."

"Noooo, these are fox ears, humans never have fox ears or tails. I bought mine because I wanted to be a fox."

"Oh. In my world there's a technology you can use to be all the way a fox, if you want."

His eyes go wide and he grins broadly and then two seconds later he gets very dignified. "Perhaps if it doesn't conflict with my duties here."

"What's your job?"

"Um - stuff? I'm a page here, I run messages and carry things do whatever random thing isn't someone's full-time job and doesn't need the king or the council to handle it but still needs to be done."

"Cool! How long have you done that?"

"A few years." He seems pretty young now; he probably started as a child.

"I bet you pick up all kinds of cool stuff that way. Do you get a lot of time off? I can ask some people about getting you a chance to be a fox but it'd help if I knew when would be good."

"Um, I have time off but is it temporary or permanent?"

"It can be either. You can turn back if you're within a few hours' time limit, and you can't if you go over without doing some more stuff but it's doable stuff, and you can't change back outside the world neighborhood, like here, because it only works there. Oh, also it makes you able to talk to people telepathically."

"Just while you're a fox or forever?"

"Just while you're not in your original form. But if you wanted to turn into a slightly different fox-human hybrid I think it would still work."

"Wow. I... really really want to do that but would I live as long as a human if I turned into a fox or would I live as long as a fox?"

"Huh. You know, I don't know that off the top of my head, because people who do this usually live in my world full time and morph younger whenever they feel like they're getting on a bit."