The fruit-drying group is happy enough to let her move on, chatting with each other.

Katherine shrugs. "The burden of implied authority. I'm never not going to be the Baron's daughter, and we gave up official power but not all our money, and that generates mixed feelings. And a lot of people really don't like Father, and I can't really blame them either- That's a bit of a story, I'd rather tell it in private. But don't I sound vain, complaining about it?"

One of the couples lounging by the fountain gets up and follows them as Katherine heads towards the forest.

"Hello, miss Katherine! We need to head out to the commune too, mind if we walk with you?"

Katherine shrugs. "Well, I don't. I'm sorry, I can't quite recall your names."

"Mart, Jula," says Mart, pointing to himself (human except for a pair of big fox-ish ears) and his girlfriend (entirely human). "It's been a week, so we'll see doctor Sky about how my new form is coming in and trigger the next step!"

"I'm curious, and of course happy to listen to your complaints. Yeah, later."

"Hi Mart and Jula! Are the ears new?" She darts closer to peer at them. "What's next? How did you decide what you wanted?"

"Yeah, the ears are new! Next is nothing visible, deep bone and muscle work- I'm going to be gaining over a foot in height and a lot of muscle too, it takes a while. I have a prescribed diet."

"Gonna be my lovely big hunk." Jula kisses Mart's cheek and he scratches it, blushing.

"Eheh. So, what animal you choose is supposed to say things about your personality, right? To an extent, at least. And then obviously some animals are a lot more popular than others because they're correlated with things we think are good virtues... But I'm doing this more for the actual physical features. I'm gonna be a mutt- Not one specific other animal, just taking a bunch of things I like and mashing them together. Fox-type ears to hear well, a snout to smell well, bird eyes to see above-violet and snake receptors to see below-red, a prehensile tail, digitigrade legs and hooves for running on rough ground, fur that grows and sheds with the seasons to protect my skin and regulate temperature. Some reflexes and vestibular stuff inspired by cats, and some skull and joint work too. And probably more when I can afford even more work! I don't have the knack for Green work myself, but there's a sort of sub-community for taking it to extremes, you know."

"And I'm just going to pick up standard cleanups, myself," Jula adds at the end of Mart's excited ramble. "Maybe a tail? Seems like they get in the way as much as they are soft and cuddly, though. Mostly I like how I look just fine."

"Ooh yeah you're gonna be such a - good at hearing with those! So just for fun, then? Cool.

What personalities are associated with, hm, cats, wolves, eagles, and frogs?"

Jula shakes her head. "Cats are loners and a bit lazy, very blue, but fair and just. Wolves are all about their families, for better or worse. Also prefer straightforward solutions. Super red. Eagles? I don't think I've seen eagles per se, usually you go with feathers taken from a robin or a woodpecker or a jay instead, but birds in general are supposed to be carefree, wanderers. White. And can't commit to anything, stereotypically at least. Frogs are associated with contentment and sedentary life. Also wisdom, maybe? Common sense? Is it different where you're from?"

"Yeah, kinda. Cats are fair and just, I guess, but usually you'd say that they like following rules and arguing about what's fair; they work together fine but value being smart more than working hard. More white, I think? Wolves are all about their families, and friends, and distant acquaintances... Red, yeah. Eagle-specialized people live in flocks! The stereotype is that frogs all hate each other and never say an honest word, but I think that's made up, to oversimplify it... they probably have about the same amount of conflict and posturing as anyone else.

It's a pity. I was hoping your knowledge of animals might help us guess at untried specializations.

What do you do to make money, you two?"

"No, that doesn't sound quite right? I'd definitely say cats are distinctly blue, not white. White's - diplomatic, blue is clever and curious- And the animals aren't literally animals, more reflections upon the human soul of what we see in them- There wouldn't be a book of this since it's a tradition thing-"

"Untried specializations?"

"Miss Nefanie is from a different planet!" Katherine explains excitedly. "With interestingly unique magic! That, or running a pretty good practical joke and demonstrating high fidelity teleporting."

"A different planet?!"

"Yep! A different planet, that doesn't spin, and doesn't have days or seasons! I live on a mountain where it rains all the time and I've never seen the sun - our sun, I mean. And we don't have the five colors, and no dragons, at least as far as I know, but maybe that's just because we have no oceans. And no magical objects like this disk, but we can use our magic constantly without using it up!

What's low fidelity teleporting? Sounds unpleasant!"

Mart snorts. "It's inefficient. Koshay, uh, he's basically the town's police, he can teleport around town, and is understandably quiet about whether he can do it once, twice, or more each day. But it's probably once. It's completely impractical for regular travel, you can walk anywhere you could teleport in fifteen minutes and it burns up a huge amount of magic that you probably want to use for other stuff. Maybe if you had a secret underground house or something?"

"I think we've got the better deal," Jula muses, making a face. "Limited but flexible. No dragons are a blessing at least. They're pretty terrifying, let me tell you, they hit the coasts sometimes. Katherine, do you know the one in sixty-eight? The one that rained caustic metal?"

"The Hateful Tears. It went back out to sea after passing over us. Was over land for maybe a day at most."

"Yeah. Honestly I'm surprised the oceans aren't completely fucked up given how many dragons still haven't been killed- I guess it'd be even harder than usual with that one, since it's constantly raining explosive poison-"

But what does fidelity mean? She doesn't want to bother these people with pedantry; she'll ask someone else later.

"Huh, you believe me! How did Koshay get his job?"

"Council appointed him. One council seat is up for election every five years, there's three."

"Mm."

walk walk walk wave her big fluffy tail around in front of Jula walk walk

"So, Katherine, what exactly are you hoping to get from the visit to the healers' commune?"

"Confirmation that you're definitely not human! And joy at seeing all the excited stupefaction that results from that. Also, maybe they'll have ideas for how we can better pay you. Some doctors can get pretty creative when they're given license to, isn't always a descriptor most people," she gestures, and Mart laughs, "Want in their medical care, but still."

"How can you be sure that I'm not kaleid? Are there changes that green can't do?

I'm happy with my body! ...but, hm... green tufts of fur on my ears would be cool! And would help me convince people at home, even if they didn't meet me before, since people-of-my-specialization's fur is always a uniform color."

If she wants Scope to benefit from more than one kitsune, she should get pregnant and give birth here. Maybe green magic can accomplish that? But she's not going to strand a child here until she knows more.

"Yes! You can check the inheritance of things with Pale Green* magic if you're really good at it. You'll have recognizably kaleid inheritance under your form if you're actually a kaleid. We can do green with actual dye, no magic necessary, if that's still cool? Or would it have to grow in that way?"

"I think the council is pretty stupid," Mart comments. "They're always so fussed with things like trade and money and talking to White Forest's representative. They're supposed to be just like regular folk, not always eating fancy gifts or talking about arcane tax stuff."

Katherine purses her lips and does not comment.

*This is a grammatical construction that just means 'Green and White'. 'Pale' for white, 'Dark' for black, 'Grey' for white/black, and then yellow, cyan, and magenta for red/green, green/blue, and blue/red respectively.

"Gifts are usually edible here? I thought that was just a [kitsune] thing - people-of-my-specialization - since it's hardly a gift, for us, to make someone carry around an object. Ohh, wait, it's to hide the evidence?"

"Yeah, even if the dye stayed, we have dye too. But we can't make fur grow a different color."

"Exactly, it's easier to point at a new shirt or potion or jewelry than claim officials are having excessively fancy food."

"I think they could probably manage it," Katherine shrugs. "They'll be very enthusiastic about studying another thinking species! Maybe even pay you about it! I'm certain I'll pay you for the bothersome experiments Father's no doubt devising right now."

They can see a clearing and a cluster of buildings coming into view ahead.

"A potion is an object with magic of its own, like the language disk, but you have to drink it to get a single-use effect? Why can't an official drink it in private? Do potions always have effects that can't be hidden and can't be claimed to have some other source? For that matter, are permanent modifications used as bribes, say, better hearing, which is even more useful if you keep it secret?"

"I'm happy to help! ...I'm also happy to be sure of my ability to pay you back.

Are you wondering if I think differently from you? Huh, I suppose I might not notice if the language disk is having trouble adapting to my mind.

On Ansaf, all our specializations have equal ability for poetry and math and memorization and social perception, on average, unless their magic specifically interacts with a mental skill, or they've put a lot of effort into breeding. Fundamentally, we all want status and companionship and interesting work, but those things feel different to people with different bodies and magic. Like, all mammal-derived specializations cuddle - and birds I think? - but the others don't. The ones who mentally influence people don't have a lot of friends, while the ones who read minds have lots of friends. Well, okay, I should say that it's my opinion that there are no fundamental differences in how we think; not everyone agrees. I wonder if the mind-reading ones know for sure? They're new and still rare.

Do the scientists of Scope know exactly how much a person's mind depends on their body? Is it impossible to modify children, or just prohibitively expensive to keep adjusting them as they grow?"

As they approach the clearing, she calls out. "Hiii healers! I'm Nefanie! I'm an alien and I'm really excited to meet you all!"

"Yeah, I dunno, I'm just griping about the potions. They can, I guess, but mostly you save 'em for a bad day. People who have power will go corrupt unless everyone else coordinates to stop it, but we're really bad at that."

Katherine says, "You'd think differently even if you have a 100 percent Kaleid brain in there, because you grew up different! And the temple types love learning about that kind of thing, enough that they'll pay people to answer questions, sometimes. Old nobility has been sort of trying to breed intelligence like that... Or, some would say, inadvertently trying to breed mania and derangements for more magical power. Oh, and different body-shapes can find different sorts of things comfortable even with no mental changes, Joocha works in the tunnels- We saw her, she has octopi arms- And she loves rain now, and can't stand being cold."

Jula shakes her head. "It's a bad idea to modify children because there's a lot of developmental changes that we don't fully understand and experiments on children tend to get people really really worked up when they inevitably hurt them. So they're mostly just... Not done, and perhaps for the best."

The healers' commune is a cluster of wooden buildings with a fair amount of activity. The nearest one looks a lot like a catfolk, except he also has a human head of hair, and he has furless hands with six fingers. He zips right up and nods to Katherine. "Hello, Mr. Mart. Your next set is today, isn't it? We're a bit busier than usual but nothing too bad, good luck with Doctor Kingfisher. As for Miss Nefanie, oho! An alien, you say? Do tell me more."

(Oh right, putting objects away to use later: normal behavior for non-kitsune.)

Seems like an expansive definition of '100% kaleid brain'... "Yeah, I'm not really sure if breeding for 'intelligence' actually works; our cat-specialized people, who try it, maybe mostly breed for obsession with math and poetry. Although if that causes more actual skill later why shouldn't that count as intelligence?"

"Hi! I'm from another planet with different kinds of people. I have innate teleportation and no other magic. I'm not supposed to be able to go places I haven't been before, but I was at a trippy party and somehow managed it while delirious! Hopefully there's a way to do it again that makes it easier to aim. I mean, I can go back and forth between here and my home now, but I want to get other people-of-my-specialization to be able to do it too!

I want to get a physical change that couldn't be done with our magic, to prove my story! Maybe make some of my fur grow a different color? If that's easy. I can't carry things when I teleport, that's why it has to be something with my body.

One of our specializations can make medicine for people. For individuals, although general-purpose medicine usually works for a lot more people than just the target. They don't need to physically contact a person to target medicine for them, so maybe, just maybe, they might be able to target people on Scope! Of course, the medicine they make is  stuck on my planet, but we can tell you what it's like, and so there might be research or even diagnostic use for it?"