Well that's anxiety-inducing! Why do people keep having souls, it doesn't really seem to help with literally anything!

Down go Nelen and his wholly reductionist team. Except Zanro. But that's different.

Nelen and his wholly reductionist team appear in a very large city*! It's nice, though still below average by Elfy standards; there's a lot of pretty old wooden buildings and well-mowed lawns and some nice pagodas, and sanitation has been invented and implemented. Some strong, sleek animals that might sort of resemble horses, sort of resemble bulls, and sort of resemble giraffes are dragging fast-moving carriages down the street. The streets are fairly packed, but the people look healthy and not, on average, unhappy - the default clothing material appears to be silk, though mixed in is some unbelievably light and fluffy wool, and it was raining earlier and many of them are carrying colorful umbrellas.

They are somewhat surprised to see the Vanda Nosseo team immediately appear, but not, like, completely shocked, as if it was a thing previously unthinkable.

(*By the standards of people who are not Vanda Nosseo or Elendil.)

Well, if they're not notable enough to be questioned, they will have to do the questioning. Who looks interruptible?

There's people giving them curious looks! But nobody is going to rush up and bother them. This woman over here (short hair, knee-length skirt and slightly baggier version of a T-shirt, looks to be in her thirties, backpack full of books) is looking particularly curious.

Nelen drifts in her direction. "Hello! I'm Nelen Utopia."

She's interested in talking to him if he's interested in talking to her! "Hello! I'm Vidis i Nethra. - Forgive my, uh, lack of knowledge of your customs, are you from very far away?" May as well take the risk, right?

"Yes, we are! We're envoys from another civilization very, very far away."

"I'm pleased to hear it!" she says in the voice of someone to whom ambassadors from very far-off lands delivering royal gifts is, you know, unusual, but if you live in the capital it's something you sort of just see. "Did you just stop being invisible?" That's much rarer.

"No, we teleported."

"Wait, really?" Okay, this is interesting! "From another land? I thought that was impossible even in theory - the godwebs aren't linked, are they, they're separate systems..."

"The godwebs? - it's possible depending on what kinds of visitors you've had before that we're from farther away than that."

" - Each [untranslatable 6] has its own godweb - or thing like it - and you use the godweb to do magic," she says. "Is that not how it works where you are?"

"It's not," says Nelen. "Actually, the thing you mentioned as having godwebs didn't translate at all, and our translation magic is usually pretty thorough."

" - There are these things," she says, grasping for the basics, "that are very large, you stand on, rising out of the ocean individually or in a cluster, and each has their own sort of magic and sort of things living there. Uh. Land? Continent? Island?"

"So, an area of solid ground, surrounded by the ocean. Continent, island. And each one on this planet has separate magic?"

"There are contiguous landmasses that consist of multiple [untranslatable 6] but otherwise, yes?"

"Okay, I'm going to tweak my translation magic to call that concept a 'zone' for the time being, though of course if that proves inaccurate we can change it again." He does a sort of neck-rolling gesture to accompany this action. "Thank you for explaining. We are not from this planet at all."

She blinks repeatedly. "Wow. Does the Bureau of Diplomacy know about you?"

"Nope. We didn't know where to find it. Is that where we should go first?"

"You might want to skip them and go to straight to the Saviors* or something, but I think the Bureau of Diplomacy should tell you that, not some seeker of eternity.**"

(*: Connotations: "90% of the way to just being a proper noun but the literal meaning is still legible".)

(**: Literal translation. Cultural translation: 'Grad student'.)

"You want the Blue District back two turns -" she points "- it's mostly government offices and fancy restaurants, does your translation magic let you read as well as speak Mirran?"

"It does, yes."

"Then keep going until you see a Bureau of Diplomacy sign and that'll do it!"

"Great, thank you so much," says Nelen, bowing a little bit, and they all turn and head that way.

The day is hot (well, fairly; they're not that far from a coast or near to an equator) but not too bad. The streets remain both full and fairly clean. Large clocks are sometimes visible, displayed at intersections and in town squares with the craftsmanship and centrality that suggests someone who is really proud they made clocks and wants everyone to see.

The Ministry of Diplomacy building is where it was said to be - large and formal, a sort of oversized, tall, we-can-do-clever-tricks-with-architecture-and-you-can't-so-be-impressed that counties often build when everyone else is much poorer than they are, with a large park in front of it. The door to the building is huge and massive-looking, and a muscular doorman stands by in a fancy uniform, ready to open it on presentation of appropriate credentials.

"Good afternoon! We're envoys from offplanet," Nelen says to this doorman.