That sounds Bad. Hawthorne sounds even worse. It sounds like Not Getting To Do Things and Having To Do Things all over again. Can he have Not That.

Hm. Since he is visiting, he could probably talk to people about potentially being so indentured, but like, not actually doing it until he finishes visiting. That complies with what Madam Einodia said.

It sounds like he can choose to not be indentured but he wants to confirm that.

"How do you meet a matron? Can you choose not to be indentured, even if you've met with a matron?"

"Many people on Lunabella are matrons. You can choose not to be indentured, even if you've met with a matron. Becoming indentured in a manner that Lunabella law respects requires that you formally sign a contract, on physical paper with a special purple ink, in a witnessed ceremony. It's possible for particularly skilled Covenants practitioners to make an agreement be magically binding through other means, but if someone does this to you, Lunabella law will side with you should you escape her or she be otherwise caught, and will force her to pay you fines. Still, we advise that you not make agreements you do not wish to keep, especially not in writing, with someone whose eyes are glowing, or with a handshake."

"There are many matron-client matchmakers who interview prospective clients and then schedule meetings for them with interested matrons. In this plaza, Clothildis has her client Zamira – greenish dragon-headed young lady, tends towards wearing a bit of armor, hard to miss – taking interviews."

Oh good.

"I will not make agreements I do not wish to keep, especially in writing, with someone whose eyes are glowing, or with a handshake."

In that case he would want to meet matrons and see what they're like, although he won't agree to any contracts until he has finished his Witch Tour.

"Thank you for your service. Goodbye."

He will turn on his heels and walk across the plaza, his minor electric field traveling with him as he goes. It feels so so so good to be able to walk around like this. He will do a cartwheel. And a walkover. And a split leap.

Okay. Greenish dragon-headed young lady, probably wearing armor. He is going to look for her. Does she seem busy? Is she currently talking to someone?

Well, there's some metal around with greenery viewable behind it, and a woman with green skin and a face that's humanoid except for the tusks.

Aaand there's a greenish dragon-headed young lady wearing armor. She's at a stall, and someone's walking away from it.

Cool! He has never seen that kind of witch before. He has heard that there are many different kinds, but that most are Neutrals.

He will approach her stall.

"Hello, Madam. Are you Zamira?"

"Indeed I am, sir."

"The doll at Visitor Information said that there are many matron-client matchmakers who interview prospective clients and then schedule meetings for them with interested matrons. I would like to know more about what life is like for clients and what life is like being a client of Clothildis."

"Typically, a client performs domain-maintenance tasks and other labor, is encouraged in her skill and social growth, has some organized rest time which must be spent on her matron's estate or with her matron at social gatherings, and has some time during which she may do as she chooses. In this modern era, indentures will permit a client to leave and have no obligations other than regular payments, and specify that a client who develops the ability to break Covenants may retain her standing with Lunabella simply by breaking illegal Covenants on their behalf."

"However, the typical client is a mortal who takes on an indenture with significant debt in exchange for her immortality shortly after the beginning of service, or otherwise acquires significant up-front investment. More established clients take on agreements with significantly fewer obligations on either side. Also, many agreements are much shorter-term – the shortest I've facilitated was for twenty weeks and a day. Clients in these agreements typically have somewhat similar duties, but don't receive training in skills aside from domain maintenance, and spend more time being introduced socially. It's generally understood that a client in a short-term arrangement is interested in figuring out whether there's anywhere in Lunabella it makes sense for them to be."

"Being a client of Clothildis, for me, is going pretty well. I'm studying Domain magic under her, so I'm very good at maintenance, and I got enough power to change charge methods, which was very important to me. And, well, as you can tell I spend time doing interviews like this, which is light work and I get to meet a lot of people. But I spend more than half of my waking hours just … at her estate, reading a book or having friends visit or flying the aerial course or such. It makes her look good to her friends if I seem to be around and having fun."

Hm. So having a Lunabellan matron mean sometimes you can do what you want, and not do what you don't want, but sometimes Not That. Okay. That seems better than before, although he wants to minimize the amount of Not That.

He's heard about Covenants magic from Madam Einodia! He is Learning.

People at Lunabella seem much nicer and much more amenable to answering questions. It is So Good.

"I don't know what a 'payment' is. I don't know what 'debt' is. You don't have to be a mortal to be a client, right? I don't know if I'm a mortal or not. Or whether I have immortality. That is the inverse of being a mortal, right?" He thinks he got the affixes correctly.

"I've done maintenance before, but base maintenance, not domain maintenance. But they stopped having me do it, so I think I was bad at it.

I think I would be interested in a short-term arrangement. I am interested in figuring out whether there's anywhere in Lunabella it makes sense for me to be."

Oh! Domain is a kind of magic. And he didn't know you could change charge methods! Well, he supposes he can too. Sometimes he gets pellets, but sometimes he gets batteries. And he can eat both. So he can change charge methods too, he supposes.

"What do you mean that it looks good to her friends if you seem to be around her estate and having fun?"

Zamira looks taken aback. Some of this she knows how to handle. She Sends her friends to if any of them can do a species Identify in Chasmapolis Arrivals Plaza on short notice.

"You don't have to be mortal to be a client. I … how did you get to Lunabella? I've never handled a natural awakening, and it's rare for them to not understand payments or debts. Do you understand, uh, having more resources versus having less, I'm not sure how to explain why having happy clients makes a matron look good without that."

"That's good! I was traveling from Mars to Earth on my motorcycle when Madam Einodia told me to stop and come here instead, if I wanted to meet witches. I know what an awakening is, but not a natural awakening.

Yes, having more resources is like having more mana or more metal, and having less resources is having less of that. More resources means you can do more things. Is that correct?

Possible Alphazon project mess, huh. Well, he can't accidentally break the masquerade over here. This merits Sending Clothildis about the conversation so far.

"An awakening is when a potential witch becomes a witch. A natural awakening is when nobody walks the witch through the process and she gets power on her own, which might leave her pretty confused. If you're from Mars you're probably not a natural awakening who awakened there, it's more likely that your memory has been tampered with. Still, the information desk should have booklets for natural awakenings somewhere, and you might want one, I'll tell the doll she should send one over."

"The, uh. The insights you may be missing regarding resources are, well, probably several. But one of them is that if you have, say, metal, and you want, oh, air, let's say you want air, you could tell someone 'I will give you metal if you give me some air', and they might agree. And another is that if you show people you have a lot of resources, especially in a way that looks nice and like you're making wise decisions, they might be impressed. Having clients who are enjoying your estate is a way of showing you have resources, looks nice, and often looks like you're making wise decisions, because we're all going to be around a long time so it's wise to avoid making enemies, even of people who are mostly going to be weaker than you."

"I'm not sure if I had a natural awakening or not. I think my memories of my awakening were removed – I have an eidetic memory otherwise.

Oh, that makes sense. I can't create air. They really wanted me to but I couldn't, and it was very sad."

He considers the last thing for a moment.

"I think that makes sense. I like that having people like your estate is good." It's a very good system! It's a much better system!

"I might have an enemy now. Because I ran away from Alphazon, so I'm in a lot of trouble. Madam Einodia said that getting a powerful Lunabellan matron was one of the the things that could protect me. I did a lot of combat training but I don't know if I'm good at it."

This is the point at which something which seems kind of like a pigeon, but moving more rigidly and with different-looking eyes, flies over, drops a booklet on Zamira's desk, and leaves.

"Ah, here we are." Zamira passes the booklet to CoNRAD.

"And apparently you're a cyborg-sword hybrid? I don't know how cyborgs work, but swords don't senesce, so you should be fine there."

"If you have enemies and you're this confused, you might want a very short-term contract with someone powerful who's specifically offering a lot of protection while you figure things out. If you're not good at domain maintenance … there might be some tasks that take power more than skill which you could still produce value with on short notice, or you'd probably be able to provide sexual services, there's a lot more people who like men than there are men around."

He will immediately put up his Guardian's Wall in response to the pigeon!! And crouch behind it for half a minute before he responds to what Zamira has to say. He has really good reflexes.

Hm. Apparently it was only a courier? He will revert the shield to its normal form at keep it in its place on his back, attached to him.

"I see, thank you. So if I don't senesce, I'm immortal? I didn't know that me being able to turn into a sword was a species thing – I thought it was a wild magic.

Yes, that seems like it would be a good idea. But I'm planning on visiting Hawthorne and Arcadia too, before agreeing to anything, because signing on will prevent me from moving.

I don't know anything about Domain magic and don't know if I'll be any good at it.

Dee said that he likes having sex but he didn't tell me a lot about how it works. It didn't come up in my training."

"If you don't senesce, people can kill you, but you won't just die on your own from time passing. Swords are a species. It's very understandable that you aren't immediately interested in a contract – I don't have a lot of matrons who would be ready to interview you this second, either! If your background regarding sex looks like that, there are a few matrons who would see it as a plus for sexual services, but it's a category of service it's not incredibly rare for inexperienced people to feel unhappy about selling."

"Alternately, you could sell that shield, if it's not soulbound, though if it's stolen that'll limit the market. Also, booklet's for you."

Hm. That is so interesting. Why wouldn't they be upset that he is unexperienced and can't do things well? Usually that means people get upset and angry at you. Is it simply because people in Lunabella are nicer?

"I am not unhappy about selling it – I was just surprised that people would pay for me to do something I'm not experienced and skilled in doing. Usually if I'm not skilled at something people get upset and angry.

I don't know what it means for something to be 'stolen'."

He will accept the booklet and thank her!

"You're welcome! When there's a masquerade breach a lot of people get upset at anyone who had a cheap opportunity to prevent it and didn't take it, so it's in my interest to give cheap advice. And. Something is 'stolen' when you take it from someone else without their permission. If you took the shield away from Alphazon without their permission, Alphazon will likely try to get it back from anyone who buys it, so that makes it less nice to have."

"Oh. It was given to me, along with my motorcycle, but I don't know whether they'd want it back now that I left.

It's not soulbound though. Dee said that only warlocks can soulbind items and I'm not one. I'm a sorcerer.

What types of things does Clothildis want from her clients? Both in terms of behaviors and skills. I'm not sure what skills I have that others would find useful. Should I put up signs? Well, I wouldn't know what to put on them anyway..."

"I don't think Clothildis in particular is looking for new clients, the way this works is that I tell her about promising people and she recommends them to her friends and such. I have a list of useful skills I can ask you about. Matrons vary in terms of expected behavior, but you're respectful and open to instructions and that goes a long way."

"Understood, Madam. What are the list of useful skills? Or do you think I should just say what I can do?"

It's good that he's not acting incorrectly!

"You saying what you can do would be a good start, but given your ignorance I may want to ask follow-up questions to see if we're missing anything."

"The magics I have learned are Metallurgy, Integration, Gadgetry, Firecalling, Windkeeping, Hexes, Witchery, Earthmoving, Aethernautics, Waterworking, and Psychotics. I did very little work in Waterworking and Psychotics though. I think mine is bad because they made me stop doing it, even though it had only been for a little while."