"The hours-or-Kisses setup is intended to serve as an escape means for the first two issues. The third is … hmm. My understanding is that you are capable of performing valuable tasks while injured. Is your concern that you will be unable, or that you would want additional recovery time?"

"I am not actually concerned about being unable. If I am injured, it will either be severe enough that I die, and hence will be wholly physically unable to work until or unless I am resurrected, or it will not be that severe and I will be able to repair myself in several hours to a day provided with support.

However, there does still exist some chance there will be a situation which is neither. Such as...perhaps I am injured in such a way that I suffer from mental changes or damage, and this mental state prevents me from healing myself. Or that something goes wrong with my healing processes such that they become much slower at healing me.

In any case, it seems good to put in something so that the whole contract can always terminate gracefully, even if the situations that would trigger that eventuality are very, very unlikely."

"Oh, sure. That's what the clause for converting to a solely financial obligation is for."

Conrad thinks about this for a bit.

"I think there are no more amendments I want to propose."

"Lovely. Do you want some time to think it over, or shall we head to a notary now?"

He thinks about it for a few minutes. Part of him wants to hold out to see whether Zamira or Clothildis will contact him, but part of him wants to get this over with so that he can be under a matron's aegis already.

"We should head to a notary now."

"Excellent. Take my hand, I have a portkey there."

Conrad doesn't know what a portkey is, but Saffron told him to take her hand, so he will.

"Yes, Lady Saffron."

Well, in this case, a 'portkey' seems to be a something in a small cubby on Saffron's desk, maybe? She reached into the cubby, and a few moments later, an effect tried to transport Conrad.

Ooh. Is it Portal magic? He thinks it is. He'll ask Cumin about it later.

He will not try to resist the effect.

In that case, he's now in a large hall with all visible walls covered in shelving which appears to exclusively be for small wooden tokens. Some of the shelves are empty, and some tokens visibly disappear or appear as he looks.

Saffron leads him towards an exit.

There's a guard in the hall. Saffron greets her in some language Conrad can't parse, and the guard ruffles Saffron's hair, which she looks irritated by but bears with good grace.

Follow follow follow. The arbitrarily disappearing tokens are mildly unsettling!

Conrad has no idea how to interpret the hair ruffling interaction and will remain silent.

Now there is another room with some seating and a woman at a desk! Saffron will have another conversation Conrad can't follow, hand over some shiny metallic discs that don't actually feel like metal to Conrad's metallurgy, then take a seat and gesture for Conrad to do likewise.

Conrad sits. He really wants to understand the people but he can't! It's probably in a different language. He wants to learn all the languages now.

Huh. He hasn't seen anything like that before. He will continue to stay silent, though.

He's so polite like that.

Eventually, in response to what's probably a Sending, she'll lead him to another room.

There's a pointy-eared woman there, with blank paper and some feathers with most of the barbs removed and pointy tips, and a sealed jar of some deep purplish liquid. Unlike some other people here, she'll speak English.

"Greetings, Lady Saffron. Show me the contract for copying?"

Saffron hands it over.

The notary skims it. "I'll need to add the usual statement that you don't intend for this contact to deceive Lunabella or your counterparty."

She looks to the counterparty. "That also applies to you, actually. If you wrote any terms deceptively, now's the time to say so and we can get them fixed, or alternately now's the time to leave."

"I don't know what it means to write a term deceptively, Madam."

Blink.

"Well, if you speak truly, then you ought to be able to sign an agreement stating you did not do this."

"I am able to sign an agreement stating I did not do this."

"We'll see when you try to sign it."

She gets out three sheets of vellum of the same length and touches them, after which they develop what may be slightly glowing purple runes at the corners. Then, she opens the jar, dips the tip of the feather into it, and starts … writing with the feather on each of the sheets. Apparently you can write with feathers, or at least she can. Her handwriting is very precise.

"You are going to sign three magically active copies of the same contract. Each of you will receive a copy to keep on file, and Lunabella will retain a copy as well, for our records." She looks to Conrad. "We cannot make more magically active copies without both you and Saffron participating, so keep good hold of the copy you have. If Saffron attempts to damage or steal your copy, that's a serious crime and you should report it to her matron or any Lunabellan government office or official, who can redirect you to the right place."

"Both of you will read over these copies before signing. You will get a portion of the notary fee back if you're willing to read aloud to the camera."

Oh! It's not new to him, exactly, though he only now realizes this. When he did the exam at Hawthorne, they also had a feather mixed in with the other pens. He thought that it was some sort of mistake, but now he understands that you can write with feathers.

"I will sign three magically active copies of the same contract. I will keep good hold of the copy I have. I will report Lady Saffron to her matron or any Lunabellan government office or official if she attempts to damage or steal my copy. I will read over these copies before signing.

I am willing to read aloud to the camera." He's actually kind of surprised they had to ask, but given previous conversations it does seem that you're not supposed to record people without them agreeing to it in Lunabella. Indeed, it seemed so even in his first interaction outside Alphazon, with Madam Einodia.