Fere tries to punch the magic snake in its weirdly reflective face. It turns out this doesn’t work at all but solves the majority of her problems anyway.
Somewhere other than Sesat, a very skinny person appears. She has facial tattoos, what might once have passed for a short dress, and a spectacularly awful haircut.
Some rigmarole later Jackson is handing her a phone! Then before she can take it demonstrating how to hold it next to one's face. Then offering it again.
...Okay. She can hold the phone as demonstrated.
"...Am I supposed to start talking in Sesati now?"
"Yes! Thank you," says a woman's voice on the other end. "Isabella said that you're a refugee from a magical accident looking for work with someone you'll be able to understand, yes?"
...Huh. Why is Fere being addressed so politely? That's weird. It might be a good sign, though.
"Yeah, I have no idea how I got here or how to get back and I don't speak anything but Sesati yet. And she said you wanted cleaning and maybe gardening."
Fere is kind of confusedly following this person's lead in marking both of them as each other's and Isabella's equals.
"Possibly also cooking, though I really think that's one you need a talent for, do you cook?"
"Um... yes but I don't know what any of the foods I've seen here so far are made of so maybe not?"
"Oh, I don't mind exotic cuisine, though I guess it might be hard if you can't read for you to shop for ingredients. Right now my sub cooks but she's been thinking of getting back into the workforce now that the kids are all in school. We'll have to see how it shakes out. Presently I have a cleaning service, they can show you the ropes there, and a gardener who comes by once a week but I have to water all my own houseplants, and it'd just be lovely to have a live-in helper there."
"Well, how much hand-holding are you going to need? Are you quick enough to pick up what the cleaners do watching them once when you won't be able to talk to them, are you going to be lonely and antsy without being able to talk with anyone except me. Are you good with kids or are you going to need to avoid them when they're home. If we get Chrissy a puppy for her birthday will you be up for helping with that."
Fere has to force herself to answer that and it comes out choked up and wistful. "...I'm. Fine. With dogs. And kids. And I don’t know how long I’ll take to learn how you like things done, I don’t know how different it'll be." And of course she’ll be lonely. She'll just have to pretend not to be if this person doesn't want her to be. And if she fails she's no worse off than if she gives up now, right?
"Well, we'll give it a good try, shall we. I'd wonder why Isabella didn't hire you but she lives in a shoebox..."
"I went there one time, it's lovely but it's tiny, she wouldn't know what to do with a maid. I have a nice big place in Greenwich Village and right now it feels like there's more hours of work than there are hours in the day sometimes but probably if you're really on top of it it'll be a pretty light job."
"I... don't know who those people are."
"I don't know everyone who knows Isabella. She told me you were flying in, they can't even live nearby."
"I... guess... not? I guess I thought doing magic was a... was like... like owning a lot of land or something, like everyone like that knows everyone else like that."
"Oh, no, I don't even know all the other precogs. I do know many of the other omniglots because there's some fun you can only have when everybody speaks thousands of languages but I don't know them all!"
"Anyway, it's lovely to meet you, Fere - did Isabella give you my name, I'm Tonia Wright, in my convention you'd call me Ms. Wright or ma'am though that's more formal than average so if someone refers to just 'Tonia' that's me."
"That's my last name. Family name."
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