She nods. She's familiar with the concept of having to...carve away parts of your soul, to fit into a life that's too small for you. Which...seems like it might get concerningly literal, when combined with cultivation.

Kedri considers asking whether the founder defeated Bitterness in a lasting way or just won her encounter with him, but isn't sure how to put it politely. Crane is describing him in a way that implies he isn't still a problem in the present, so that's a good sign.

"Anyhow, what classes are you taking? I'm taking the advanced Noble class for prospective captains, but - I'm not entirely sure how long I'll stick with it. Depends on if I can meet some good retainers, I suppose." 

"Practical Resource Extraction!"

(Crane only mentioned one course herself, so Kedri will not attempt to pre-emptively justify taking only one course.)

"Ah, a worthy field of endeavour, though one quite outside my own specialisation. I have no aptitude for the Arcane arts whatsoever. Do you have a background with them?"

"Not yet, but it looks promising! And I'm hopeful that some of my skill with cleaning fish might transfer in some places: if nothing else, it's experience with working through squeamishness.

I was never really in a situation where I could get a background with cultivation: we didn't have cultivators on my homeworld. It's probably the qi equivalent of how societies in places with very little metal can't really invent a lot of technology."

(She pauses for a few moments, trying to decide whether to mention the clan-trait situation.

But she was concerned that might be a touchy subject as it was, and she's already made at least one substantial misstep in this conversation. You have to crawl before you can walk.

...also, come to think of it, she's not sure whether any of it would be covered by the general secretiveness regarding one's capabilities.)

"Life without qi sounds quite unpleasant, but if nothing else you wouldn't get monsters as places with too much do."

"It's my understanding that Toojeon transition from mundane butcher-work to the Arcane sort without difficulty, but I don't know to what extent they depend on their secrets for this, they're very insular."

"I look forward to seeing how much of it I can get from the Bank's class."

"As for the lack of qi, it helps that there aren't any stains, so technology can get pretty complicated. It's-- I'd want to learn more about the Iron City to say for sure, but at a glance my host said the tech level I was describing sounded something like that."

She looks around at the hall.

"It does mean I've never been in a big communal feast hall like this before," she says with a slightly self-deprecating chuckle. "Non-magical disease protections can take you a long way, but they'd struggle in a room with lots of people eating together: normally, when we're indoors we wear masks designed to filter the germs out of incoming and outgoing breath. We have indoor restaurants, but each table for a person or family has its own booth to help keep the breath from mixing. Some of the booths are made of glass, though, so that if you want you can still see people around you and talk to them with hand-signs.

There are other measures we take, but still."

"The works of the Iron City are wonders without measure. One of my cousins journeyed there to get a prosthetic - even with the cost of the trip, it's still often cheaper. I am glad your world has such things, even if they lack qi, and that they are widely-spread."

"I think outlaws or barbarians who lack suitable lords or wards still dine in halls like this, but such folks do many foolish things - often because their cultivators are immune to the consequences anyway. It is good that you found a more civilized way, even if it had its costs. I can't imagine the process of court or government without communal gatherings such as this."

"Maybe for people who are living a dangerous enough life anyway, it hardly registers in comparison.

Courts were still held communally even before we learned to clean the air: they just took the risk. It used to be common to get sick practically every year, sometimes more than once." She grimaces.

"It'll be...

...I saw a city out of a window this morning, and...within my grandparents' lifetimes, living like that would have been a death sentence, or at best a path to spending much of your time convalescing from one illness or another. It'll be interesting to learn more about what that's like, what ways of life even mortals can have here that it hasn't sunk in for us yet are possible now."

"How awful." She says about the sickness, in the voice of one who can afford doctors of such quality that she's never been sick in her life. 

"Cities are wonderful, and this one is much larger than the one I grew up in. I'm sure there are a myriad fascinations to be found there. A shame we're all going to be so busy, but I'm sure I'll find time to at least visit the docks." 

"Maybe there'll even be practical benefits to going there."

"Never underestimate the value of connections and retainers. One man cannot make a ship alone, so one must always know people with specialised skills from whom one can obtain what one needs. Thus is the empire richer than petty barbarian states, and great sects greater than lesser sects." 

"Indeed.

The importance of cooperation is especially visceral when sharing a body, but of course two cannot make a ship by themselves either."

Crane nods, and any attempt to continue conversation is interrupted by the polite but insistent arrival of attendants with the next course of their meals.

Kedri and Jasmine get a meal served on two large platters, one an array of sliced fruits (with decorative whole examples) from around the empire, each with a distinctive flavour and aroma, alongside stories of their cultivation that the attendant can provide, and the other covered with neatly sliced roast pork, with a crisp skin and a spiced aroma. Between the two platters are a collection of dipping sauces of many kinds, suited for both the fruit and the meat. 

(Crane receives a grilled giant octopus tentacle that makes her gasp with delight, while the fellow on Kedri's other side has a huge mutton steak, doused in translucent pale brown mint sauce) 

!!!

Even the non-magical parts of this world are full of wonders. Like guava. Guava definitely qualifies as a wonder.

The pork is also tasty, if not as exciting as a fruit sampler. She particularly likes how the skin turned out.

(...the octopus tentacle is kind of weirding her out a little. She's...maybe not that bothered in her own right, so much as aware of how ethically controversial it is?

Maybe it's not controversial here.)

"You're right: fresh mango *is* even better than dried."

Jasmine is busy having emotions about the pork. A memory from her childhood, maybe, from the distant hazy days before her parents died, of ... some kind of celebration? The details escape her. 

"The pork is really good." She manages to say, her mental voice unusually emotional. 

"Pretty good, yeah. Though it sounds like you love it more than I do.

Maybe the idea is that the pork is for you and the fruit is for me."

"That would make sense..." 

"You should dip it in that sweet-sour sauce more, it's the best one." 

"Sure."

(Sometimes, the visceral importance of cooperation tastes like sweet-sour sauce. That's just fine by her.)

Then Jasmine will fall silent and enjoy the meal. 

Kedri tries putting a bit of starfruit in the sweet-sour sauce also. It's an interesting combination to try, but on the whole she thinks she appreciates the starfruit more just as it is. Ooh, this sauce seems like a good match, though...