"Yes."

"Will you tell Ayabel that I bought her to meet a threshold for another vote, don't need anything from her, and would be delighted if she were to make herself comfortable here, draw if she likes, learn the language, teach you hers, in six months we can revisit and figure out what makes sense. And ask if she needs anything."

"Are you sure -"

"That this is the least horrible thing I can do? No. I'm not sure. But I'm committed."

She switches to Ancient Sudre. "My daughter is our representative to the Civic Council. She wants to explain that they're one vote short on something important to her, and you get a vote per twenty slaves, and she had a hundred seventy-nine this morning, and this is why she went out to buy one."

"...okay."

"She additionally wants to say that you don't have responsibilities here and should make yourself comfortable, draw if you want, and learn the language. And she wants to ask if you need anything."

"I haven't been fed in a few hours."

She translates this. Amait nods and leaves. 

"There were cheaper ones," ventures Ayabel.

"I can ask her why if you'd like. Might've been to cheer me up, I like languages and don't speak Esevi and the reason Amait's running the household is because my mother died unexpectedly six days ago. Might've been something on the card, do you know what was on it? The thing she wants an extra vote for is public education, maybe she thought it was neat you'd taught yourself to read. In two languages."

"I'm sorry about your mother. I think the Ancient Sudre thing would have been the most interesting item on the card."

"Well, I can ask her if you want, she won't mind - I'm not going to try to tell you we're actually good people deep down but we're correct about which things are bad, even if we're trading them off carelessly -"

Blink.

" - there are several ways in which that could have been unclear."

"It was unexpectedly abstract."

"I'm not great at people stuff and have since I was seven refused to live in a building with slaves. I don't know what you need to know."

"Where am I staying?"

"You're here. I might leave. I'm not sure."

"If you leave how do I go about teaching you Esevi?"

"That's the reason I'm not sure."

"Oh." Sigh. "I meant more specifically, where do I sleep, where do I get meals -"

"Kitchen's that way, quarters that way. I don't know if there's supposed to be a particular room for you, I haven't been paying much attention." Sigh. "Amait'll know."

Nod. "Thank you."

"She says twelve years."