He doesn't know whether that's good or bad. Probably good, because nothing is happening to him right now. And he could get food and shelter at Arcadia, later. If he wanted to.

The concept of wanting things and doing things to get them is very new, and he likes it.

He can relate! He doesn't need to breathe either. Not anymore.

"I can answer questions about Alphazon, Madam."

“I am now recording this conversation. What is the first interaction with Alphazon you remember having?”

He is mentally taken aback at Einodia saying that, because he had assumed that she already was. It is very surprising to know. His face doesn't show that, though.

"I have an eidetic memory because of my implants. I think they took out some of my memories because there are gaps in it. The earliest memory I can recall is Dee teaching me how to read, but I didn't know him by that name at the time. My earliest memory is also my earliest remembered interaction with Alphazon. That was one thousand nine hundred and ninety five days ago. Do you require more precision?"

He is probably going to get in so much trouble for talking, but he is already going to get in so much trouble for destroying the base and leaving, and he thinks at some point you just reach the maximum value of trouble and can't increase it anymore.

“When you say ‘day’, do you refer to a cycle between periods of sunlight and darkness on Mars, or a 24-hour cycle, or something else?”

"A day is 24 hours, Madam. I was taught to use days except when we went outside, in which case we used sols. Sols are 39 minutes longer. Dee said that people used days on Earth, and Alphazon came from Earth, which is why we used days."

He really liked going outside! There is a lot of space outside, and he likes having lots of space.

"Do you remember any time prior to having access to magic?"

"No, Madam. But in my earliest memories, I didn't know how to use my magic, and I had to be taught how."

"When you were instructed on how to use magic, did this cover the physical tolerances of unaugmented humans, or any explanation of the Veil and Masquerade?"

"No, Madam."

Madam Einodia seems nice, so he won't just answer her questions with the bare minimum.

"I knew of non-witch humans before, but did not know about the fact that they must not be allowed to learn about magic."

You are not supposed to awaken a witch without explaining the basic rules to them. It is straightforwardly in Alphazon's interests to keep this in mind, because Alphazon lives in reality, which is, interestingly, the same place that would start to break down if the Masquerade came undone! Perhaps Alphazon has somehow managed to avoid realizing this. It is, after all, run by the sort of people who aggressively pursue immortality while rarely thinking about any time further than at best a decade into the future.

It is possible that, as-written, educating someone you Awaken and then wiping their memory is permissible, but if so, that is an oversight which was probably caused by the common but false belief that people wouldn't actively sabotage their own safety for no real gain.

The O.R.C. really needs to stop letting Alphazon's behavior slide and agree to help coordinate a raid. Yes, it is true that interfering with Alphazon would probably irritate a lot of modern witches who like HexVPN. Yes, it is true that Alphazon runs critical portions of Earth communications and transit infrastructure which could be very costly to replace and which some people would die from interruptions to. Yes, probably a bunch of dangerous projects would get loose all at once instead of at a slower pace. However, Alphazon shows no sign of seeing reason, and all of these costs will be worse, not better, if things continue as they are indefinitely.

This case probably isn't actually going to convince the ORC to cooperate, though. Raiding Alphazon without their cooperation would either fail or cause massive masquerade damage, so it's probably not going to happen this decade, and they're just going to all be stuck waiting for more idiocy like this. Still. Most people these days like children, right? Having more documentation of Alphazon mistreating a child might sway some audiences who don't care about the masquerade-enforcement side.

"For clarity, it is the case that the overwhelming majority of non-witch humans must remain unaware of magic, not that any specific non-witch human that a magic-aware person deeply cares about cannot be told. It's like how – you've probably never seen a stone wall, have you. Never mind. The information desk worker should be able to explain or direct you to someone who can, don't go around telling people on Earth things in the meantime."

"Did you want to go to Earth solely for your own purposes, or did Alphazon in any way encourage you to go?"

"I have built and seen stone walls. That was one of the Earthmoving exercises I did.

I will not cause the overwhelming majority of non-witch humans to become aware of magic."

He doesn't know why, but Madam Einodia wants him to do it, and it seems very easy to do, since it only requires doing nothing.

"I wanted to go to Earth because it was the only other place I knew that had witches in it, previously. Dee and Grandma – two witches who were part of my trainers at Alphazon – told me about it, but they did not tell me I should go there. They merely said that that was where a lot of witches lived."

"Ah. In that case, I will explain. The masquerade, where humans on Earth generally do not believe in magic, is like a wall, in that it prevents various hazards from entering our reality. Like a wall, if it loses a lot of components, it will cease to function as a barrier and instead function as a disorganized mess. However, again like a wall, losing a few components here and there is survivable as long as it's maintained regularly, and Earth regularly produces new uninformed humans. Thus, magical beings permit each other to inform the occasional Earth human if that human is trustworthy, but do not permit each other to do so for arbitrarily many humans. This is a vast oversimplification, but when I've tried to explain the un-simplified form, it just confuses most people."

"I understand, Madam. The masquerade is metastable and can tolerate a nonzero but limited amount of disruption."

A pause.

"I think Alphazon will be, or is, very angry at me and I will be,or am, in a lot of trouble."

"I think Alphazon has behaved in a way which will cause other people to be very angry at them, both regarding you and under other circumstances. It's possible that you could use that to get those people to protect you from Alphazon being angry at you, though in practice this would be complicated and easy to do badly. In particular, I am powerful and very angry at them, but I am offering advice, not my personal protection. You do strike me as rather combat-capable for a new witch, though."

"More specifically: Awakening a witch, especially a powerful witch, without explaining the masquerade to her is the sort of thing that predictably damages the masquerade. …Removing a powerful witch's memories of the masquerade also predictably damages the masquerade, but is significantly rarer, so people who want to work with Alphazon may find it easier to excuse the behavior if Alphazon says they did that. I'm hoping they didn't."

He is going to ask A Question.

"In what way is it easy to do badly?

I did a lot of combat training but I have no calibration on whether or not I'm powerful or capable."

Also he's going to start decelerating now!

"Do you want me to go to to Lunabella now, Madam?"

"Since I'm still here, I can make us a rift, it'll be faster. I may want you to answer more of my questions in the future, but I expect to be able to contact you if you take any of the options I've recommended."

And now there is a rift.

The rift is opens out onto a large plaza. The sky above it is blue, with clouds. The plaza itself is paved with a colorful mosaic, depicting patterned borders surrounding broom-riding witches and strange golden twisted-cones with fruits and vegetables pouring out from them. The mosaic extends up the sides of slightly raised planters featuring colorful and elegantly arranged arrays of plants, some of which are in bloom and many of which are very tall. What might be the center of the plaza has a fountain with water traveling pretty high into the air and falling more slowly than water would on Mars, and some kind of lighting setup that illuminates the jets with an array of colors, including near-infrared and two shades of ultraviolet. The edges of the plaza have some paths, a lot of vendors, and a booth whose very large sign labels itself as 'Visitor Information'.

"Put away your vehicle before you go, it's a busy area." Einodia gestures expansively towards the rift.

"Yes, Madam," he says.

Wow! Madam Einodia is indeed powerful. He has never seen anything else like that. Well, aside from the rift she made earlier.

"I will put away my vehicle before I go." And his motorcycle disintegrates into the same sand and goes into his hat, which he has held out for this purpose. He'll use Windkeeping to bring him through the rift.

It is so colorful. He has never seen anything that colorful in his life! And so much of it! His room at the base was all grey and white with the faintest ultraviolet from the lights. And plants!!!!! He has never seen plants in real life – only that which Dee showed him with pictures. And water! There's so much water. He's never seen that much. Mars is very dry and there is no water outside, and very rarely is there water inside. Only when there's Waterworking practice, and he only did that for a little bit. He didn't know lights could be colorful like that, either.

There are so many thing he hasn't seen and he is now seeing! It feels very good to look at it all. Very, very good.

He is going to spend a quarter of an hour looking at things before he realizes he should go to Visitor Information, unless Einodia interrupts him.

No, Einodia is going to head home as soon as the new witch is in an informative and somewhat secure environment. She'll write an email to her usual ORC point of contact with recording attached.

The ORC cannot make any commitments at this time but will investigate.

Visitor Information is staffed by a young woman who appears to be made of white ceramic. As CoNRAD approaches, she turns to face him. "Welcome to Lunabella. How can I help you?"

"Hello, Madam. Madam Einodia said that I should talk to you for directions, especially directions to the portals to Hawthorne and Arcadia."

"Hello, sir. Einodia personally–? Never mind. Welcome to the Chasmapolis arrivals plaza!" The doll gets out a colorful, glossy folded paper brochure and unfolds it. "Here's a city map, we're here and the portal hub is here. The portal hub will have clear signage and its own information desk. Would you like verbal instructions on street-level travel, verbal instructions on flying there, me to highlight the route on the map for you, or anything else?"

He's very good at navigating from maps. There was a lot of training about that. He doesn't really need to, but he realizes that he doesn't need to ask for permission to make things now! It is So Good.

He will make a 1:1 copy of the city map by embossing it on a thin steel sheet. It's monochrome. He could use Hexes and Metallurgy to change the metals on the sheet to correspond to different colors, but he doesn't feel like doing that right now.

He can just choose not to do things because he doesn't want to do them. It is So Good.

"No thank you, Madam. Madam Einodia said that I should not get a Lunabellan matron or enroll in Hawthorne before visiting all the places I want to visit, because doing those would prevent me from leaving or moving around. How does getting a Lunabellan matron stop me from leaving or moving around?

"Lunabellan clients are indentured to their matrons via Covenants, so that a matron may be confident in her investment in her clients. Covenants magic can be used to bind people to follow agreements they make. The details of these Covenants vary, but many of them would enable a matron to restrict the movements of her client, at least to the extent of preventing a client leaving Lunabella entirely. At least aside from holidays, of which there are none immediately due. Hawthorne also requires students to sign enrollment Covenants. These typically provide for a day off per week, but this can be and often is restricted in response to student transgressions and failures."