She'll lead him on her broomstick to a mildly isolated bubble with a large, stately house in it surrounded by gardens.

He will look at All The Things.

"May I know what your role is in Madam Saffron's estate? What work do you do? Do you do domain maintenance?"

"Oh, bits of this and that. Some domain maintenance, some potions work, I'm on call if the estate is attacked, that's the main bits I suppose. I'd like to say I play guitar for her but that'd be lying, she doesn't think I'm very good and so I have to practice away from the main estate or in a soundproof room. Maybe someday."

Oh yeah. He would probably be called to defend the estate if he signs on with her. He can't just run away. He should learn how to use his powers defensively, like putting up traps or something. He has no idea how to approach that whole new field of Defensive Magic.

"That sounds sad," Conrad says. "I like dancing. And moving around. Do you think Madam Saffron will permit that?" The gardens have So Much Space.

They can land on a tiled area in the back garden.

"Oh, definitely. The thing with playing music is that it's hard for people to ignore it if they don't like it, because they can't close their ears! But dancing and running around aren't like that, and as you can tell from where you met me I do spend time off the estate."

"Really? Other people can't close their ears? I'm surprised.

Oh. You don't have to be on the estate all the time? How big is Madam Saffron's estate? Is it this whole bubble?"

"Yes, young man, most people can't close their ears. They can cover them or put insulation in but it's inconvenient. Saffron's estate is this whole bubble, and I don't have to be on the estate all the time. You likely won't either, though for defensive support it'll be best if you don't get too far away."

Conrad will walk alongside her.

"I didn't know that. And I can travel very quickly on my motorcycle and with Metallurgy and Windkeeping. But I understand why it would be better if I was closer."

"Good, good. Now, if you can't clean yourself magically I'll show you to the baths, and you should refresh your garments, and then I'll show you to the hall."

"I can clean myself magically. I don't know what a bath is. Do you want me to change my clothes?"

He will breathe out nanites and they will swarm his body and remove dirt.

"A bath is when you clean yourself with water and soaps. Or sometimes you just relax in the water, I'm a fan of it, but now's not the time. If you're wearing your innate clothing it'd be rude to ask you to change, and it just needs to be clean, but if it isn't I'd recommend you summon and put on your robe, or borrow one from the house."

"I haven't had one of those before. Yes, it's my innate clothing. Why is it rude to ask me to change? And yes, I have cleaned it.

When I visited Hawthorne, they said that students have to wear a uniform. Does Madam Saffron do anything like that?"

"Oh, she'll criticize your outfit if she finds it ugly, and she might make getting it tailored a condition for being at her important events, but if it's really important to you she's not going to force it. And it'd be rude to tell you not to wear them because they're part of your soul, and almost anything else would be less comfortable."

"Oh. Do you think Madam Saffron would find it ugly? Dee said that it's very important for things to be pretty. I can change them." Although he would prefer not to.

"What are the important events?"

Cumin will inspect his outfit, since he's asked.

"Important events are … when the king visits, when someone else Saffron considers important visits, when she performs a fire show and invites a lot of guests, that sort of thing."

He is wearing a brown leather vest – just the vest – with no collar or shoulder coverage. It has two pockets at the bottom of the front. There is stitching in shining black and red metal thread at the hem, and near the collar and neck, there is more stitching of a pattern depicting fire and wind, with the same thread, with the tips of the flames and gusts in sparkling bright red. However, they're not filled in like embroidery – only the outline is shown.

His pants have the same stitching, but have no ornamentation otherwise. His cowboy hat is similar, though there is a corded metal braid with the same material around it. They're both also brown.

His mid-leg brown leather boots have the most elaborate embroidery. It's made with finer thread, and is also filled in, with a similar pattern to the vest above.

Aside from that, he's not wearing anything else.

"I see, thank you. I have not attended any important events before.

I don't know who the king is. Madam Einodia is a woman, and she only told me she was the founder of Lunabella, not the King. I would like to be able to watch one of her fire shows. I want to try dancing with elementalism more."

"Oh, you've got nice embroidery, Saffron's a big fan of detailing. She might try talking you into seeing what your outfit looks like in black, or adding a bit of gold thread, or something like that, but I think she might well like what you're wearing. She may ask you to wear a shirt under that vest if people make assumptions about her, I'm not sure."

"Einodia's the king's sister, which I guess you could say makes her a princess, I don't know. She's Einodia. Her talking to anyone is rare. The king is Culicarius, I think Saffron's got a painting of him visiting."

And Cumin can show Conrad in.

"Thank you. I can change my outfit to black or add gold thread. I made this outfit back when I didn't know how to make lead into gold yet. Now I can. What assumptions would people make about her, and why might I have to wear a shirt about it?

I see. I didn't know that it was rare."

Conrad will let her show him in! He will await Sent instructions.

Well, first she'll walk him over to see Lady Saffron, and tell him to bend his knees and look downward for a moment, while doing something similar while holding her robe.

"Ah, Cumin, you've arrived. And this is our guest?"

Saffron is adorable, in the same way that a kitten might be, if Conrad had ever seen a kitten. It's intuitively tempting to pat her head. It does not seem intuitively plausible that someone like this is capable of offering him meaningful protection.

He will follow very precisely! So precisely in fact, that he will move her hands similarly to Cumin's, even though he has no skirt.

Sadly, Conrad has never seen a kitten, and he has seen very few people and even less media and has no calibration on what things are capable of protection or not. He does not pat her. But he does get that harmless vibe from her, which is very confusing. His understanding is that matrons are powerful, and Cumin did say that she was very good at Firecalling.

He supposes that he can just find out more during the dinner – it's not like he would be signing himself over to her by virtue of eating at her house. If it transpires that she really cannot protect him, then he'll leave. Or get captured by Alphazon. Hopefully just the former.

"Yes. Lady Saffron, this is Conrad."

«And you can straighten up now.»

"Conrad, this is Lady Saffron."

«If you can say something positive and true about her, here, like that you appreciate being introduced to her and that you think her estate is lovely, this is a good time to say it. But don't lie.»

Conrad instinctively looks at Cumin when she Sends at him, but then returns his head to the right position. He wants to reply, but his control over Sending isn't good enough to be able to do this mission and Send at the same time.

Conrad will straighten up! And not lie!

"Thank you for inviting me to your house for dinner, Lady Saffron. Your gardens are very spacious and beautiful. I haven't seen any garden like that before."

"You may wish to know that I've designed a substantial number of the plants in the gardens myself. Please, take a seat." She'll gesture to a Conrad-sized chair next to a corner of the table, which is dressed with a lovely embroidered tablecloth, and features foods artfully arranged on platters.

She probably means that she requested that some actual genetic engineer did the work and she suggested what color the flowers should be, right?

Conrad will sit! It's very good that it's sized for him, because usually he has to make his own versions of things because they're too small.

He has no idea how difficult working with plants is, having done precisely zero (0) of it, but yeah, it does seem to him likely that she had one of her clients do it for her.

It's very pretty! Everything is so pretty.

"It's very pretty! Everything is so pretty," he will say exactly as he thinks it.