Tarwë will set about reading it. If there's nothing else to do here Cassiel will go back out to where Zanro's waiting and resume making swag for passersby.

There isn't anything else to do here unless she wants to talk with the vicar or check out some public records.

The book explains that Tey has multiple cultures (a culture is a collection of habits and technologies, such as language and stories, shared among a group of people), and that drawing sharp dividing lines between them is difficult but the administrative divisions known as countries are useful, as are some broad geographical regions. Many human cultures have concepts such as friendship, contracts, laws, commerce, art, and sports.

Humans sometimes like telling stories for reasons besides how true they are. There are complicated cultural rules about when this is okay. Some stories that might be true or might not be true, but that humans really, really, really strongly care about, are included in the book, because some humans think that understanding humans must involve understanding these stories.

In a geographic region called Strell, they tell probably-mostly-true stories about a historical figure known as Lyrial Imperator. "Imperator" refers to Lyrial's administrative role and "Lyrial" is a personal name. Strell at a certain time about two thousand years before the writing of this book was divided among many countries, some of which had just one dense collection of human habitations and some surrounding land being used for food production, and the people in them frequently caused each other injuries. Laws and customs permitted some humans to injure other humans, who were not allowed to injure the humans who were allowed to injure them. Most humans were allowed to be injured by some humans and allowed to injure some humans, but it wasn't cyclic, so there were some who were allowed to injure any humans in their country and some who were not allowed to injure any humans. Often, decisions were not made predictably and according to rules more stable than "what this specific human decides shall be done". Lyrial Imperator, through a combination of persuasion and coercion, changed all of these things. The Imperator's memory is something known as "sacred" the writer hopes someone else will manage to define in the third draft. The Imperator introduced the concept of "rights" which are things that humans try to make sure other humans have (and are interested in extending the idea to aliens, though what's good for humans might not be good for aliens, so maybe aliens should have different rights). The Imperator's original list was a right not to be forcibly caused to totally stop engaging in metabolic activity other than after a specified-in-advance human or group of humans concluded that they had probably done something against a law or if they were trying to forcibly cause some other human or humans to totally stop engaging in metabolic activity; a right not to have strongly dispreferred sensations inflicted on them; a right not to be construed as having entered into a specific type of contract called a "marriage" without having actually chosen to enter into it; and a right not to have certain (unspecified in the book) body alterations done. People have since thought about other things that might make good rights and have some more recent ideas.

And then the next section is about the myths from some different area that isn't where they're trying to do diplomacy right now.

And then the last section explains the types of administrative structures countries on Tey use (there are some parliaments, a few monarchies, some executive-and-legislative with separate court systems, some executive-and-judicial with separate legislatures, a few weirder things), though Linver isn't any of the handful of specific examples given for any of them, and attempts to give the beginnings of a sense of what kinds of things humans on Tey do (farm, arrange fibers into fabric to drape over humans, fix it when humans experience pain and lethargy due to overgrowth of microorganisms, produce rhythmic noises that other humans find pleasant, engage in this sport which seems to be a cross between golf and backgammon and catch...), and mentions other works that are considered culturally influential (some fiction, some nonfiction about ethics, some nonfiction about history, the not-edited-for-aliens versions of the myths mentioned earlier...).

Wow, if this is the sort of thing these folks thought aliens might find useful when they have aliens in their star system they have already met the teams on that other planet must be having a time.

He returns to the receptionist when he's skimmed through the book and asks for a meeting with the vicar.

He can have one.

"Hello, vicar. I'm Tarwë and I'm a representative of Vanda Nossëo, an interdimensional organization consisting of many states and peoples aimed at universal sapient flourishing."

"So I hear. That sounds like a noble goal."

"I think so. My team has arrived in Linver - simultaneous with other teams in other places in the star system - to see what the best route might be to opening relations, trade, and possible eventual membership."

"Provided all applicable laws are followed, Linver welcomes foreign trade. Our laws are available for the public to read at the library you just visited."

"Are there many you think likely to be relevant for this situation?"

"It depends on what sort of trade you're interested in establishing."

"With lower-technology and especially lower-literacy places we often establish shops where we collect and record cultural tidbits - personal anecdotes, songs, fables - in exchange for imported goods, but places more like this there's no single strategy; wealthier cultures vary much more in what they care to buy and sell."

"You can't truly come to understand the needs and desires of a people just by talking to one person."

"Of course not. I'm here for now, but I have four teammates, and we can all talk to many people."

"Of course I support the development and sale of products that improve people's lives, help people grow wiser and more learned, and make people healthier, and I'm against products that are dangerous or illegal or harm the environment. But personally, I'm fond of shoes that light up."

"We do have those. ...should I just go read the legal code before attempting to have any less generic discussion?"

"I would encourage you to do that or have someone in your organization do that if you're going to be doing business here. My guess is that volumes one and three contain everything immediately relevant to you, but volume one should make it clear what else you might need to know. But I also don't know that we would be having a less generic discussion right now if you had read all of it."

"I'll let my teammates know - they'll actually be able to get a copy without going through the library -" He looks at his computer, then puts it back in his pocket. "The last person I talked to wanted verification that we were... real, would that be of interest to you?"

"Well, yes."

"I don't have a good sense of what would be convincing to you. I know several magic songs that can do things like warm up the room, detect lies, enable me to walk on water... or I can call someone in with more impressive abilities."

"If you can walk on one of the fountains outside it'd be evidence."

"All right." He gets up and starts singing the song so it'll be in effect by the time he gets there.

They can follow and observe and not interrupt the nice singing.

And he steps onto the water in the fountain and paces around it, singing the entire time.

The vicar watches impassively but one of the visible security people is visibly impressed. Even if it's fake it's all very well faked.

When he's gone around three times he steps off and concludes the song.