"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.

To elaborate further on things which are pretty:

The room. There's a large geometric pattern on the floor, and nearly-flat sculptures on the walls depicting various topics, and paintings on the ceiling, depicting stars overlaid with people and animals.

The table and chairs. They're carved with loving detail from richly stained wood, inlaid with metal, and in the case of the chairs, upholstered with embroidered cloth.

The tablecloth. Mainly a light purple (and unstained), similarly richly embroidered, including with a bit of metal thread.

And, of course, the dishes of food. The plates are quite colorful and detailed, and are topped with olives, bread, cheese, some fruits, crab cakes, deviled eggs, and nuts. People at the table are requesting foods, and some kind of force within a translucent empty robe is serving them.

"Well, of course it's pretty, it's my estate. I'm glad you can tell."

«This is the appetizers, there will be more food later. Is there anything you recognize? If not, you may want to ask to be served a small sample of everything.»

He is glad that she is glad!

Conrad's cell at Mars was very clean, and every place he has visited was also very clean, so he does not find the cloth being unstained to be notable.

He does not recognize any of the foods at all! The only food he recognizes is nutrient paste! And words which he has read in books, and from Dee's stories...which do not contain any images.

"I do not recognize any of these foods. May I be served a small sample of everything?"

Why, yes, he may.

Cumin will give him advice on how to eat politely. She does not exactly seem to be following this advice herself, but Saffron doesn't look more than mildly annoyed by this.

Hooray! He will make A Lot Of Faces about the food. Current Conrad opinions:

• Olives: Ambivalent.
• Bread: Dry. He sees other people putting stuff on it. Probably he should too.
• Cheese: Salty! He kind of likes it.
• Fruits: Sweet! Sour! He likes the sweet ones and not the sour ones.
• Crab cakes: It's really good. He will also say so.
• Deviled eggs: He doesn't like the filling.
• Nuts: Crunchy! He likes it.

Why yes, he is eating each item of food individually.

Conrad doesn't really have an opinion over Cumin not following the rules – he kind of doesn't notice it actually. He is very distracted about Eating Food and Tasting Food. He will obey Cumin's directions on using utensils with his hand and not using Metallurgy for them.

Using metallurgy is fine, actually, if you don't warp the utensils. The issue is more along the lines of not shoving tasty things into your mouth at speed and getting them on your face. And which fork to use, that matters too.

«You can ask for more of the stuff you like, though it's polite to not eat so much food during this part of the meal that you don't want to eat more food later.»

"So. Tell me about your current work in Firecalling."

Ah. Well, the other people are using their utensils that way, so he will persist. There is no risk of Conrad merely shoving food into his mouth, because he doesn't really feel hunger per se, and he is savoring each food item carefully. He will totally listen carefully to Cumin's advice on which utensils to use for which tools, though.

He will then eat all of the samples he's been given but not eat any more than that.

"Yes, Lady Saffron. I have not used Firecalling recently. My most recent work in Firecalling was heat concentration. Both in focusing heat into a point, as well as projecting it like a ray, or laser. Currently, I can reach Firecalling rays of 1.5cm ± 0.5cm in diameter, achieving temperatures of 1200°C ± 50°C."

"Decent, decent. A bit hotter and you could fire porcelain just by sorcery. Precision like you've got might be good for blowtorch-y sorts of work."

One of the invisible robed forces peels a grape and serves it to her. She eats it.

"So, what is it about you that's gotten Alphazon into such a tizzy? If you're interested in joining me, I need to know."