"You earned it," ey demurs.

"Haven't seen Remi cry like that in years." Darya pats the big guy - Remi - on the arm, that being as high as ey can reach.

Remi shrugs off the touch, mock-indignant, and goes to 'sulk' in a corner for about five seconds before rejoining the group, laughing louder than any of them. 

"I'm glad you liked it."

"Yeah, you'll be able to make good money that way, back on our world," says Faisy. She's the one who lent Peka hair dye. 

"Especially once you learn some songs in Common or Neustrian or whatever, for people who don't have magic translation."

She taps her chin.

"Wanna learn The Fisherman's Heart? It's about the only song I know well enough from memory."

"Sure!"

Faisy starts clapping a beat, which Darya picks up by stamping eir feet in time. She then switches from clapping to singing.

Listening to someone with magical translation sing in a language you don't naturally speak is an interesting experience. The meaning of the words comes through, but so does the sound, and paying attention to both at the same time isn't trivial. It doesn't really help when a few of the others join in for the chorus. 

Peka records it on her everything and nods along.

The chorus is designed to be fairly easy to sing along with. By about the fourth or fifth time it comes round, everyone in the room is at least humming along, and Peka's probably picked it up enough that she could join in despite the language barrier. 

Even Darya is singing, just for the choruses, with a different accent to the rest. A few of the others have joined em in keeping the beat, stamping or clapping as they choose.

Clap clap clap clap and yep she can warble the chorus now.

Faisy grins at her in a gap between lines, and keeps going.

The song ends. The fisherman, whose heart turned out to be leading him back to his one true love all along, lives happily ever after. 

Faisy and Darya - and Peka - receive a round of applause from the gathering. 

Giggle.

She plays back some recording; does it still translate that way?

Nope. But she might be able to remember what some of the words meant, especially the phrases that repeated a lot, and she can ask her new friends for help. 

"You should learn Common anyway," Darya points out. "Better than relying on magic." 

"Sure I will. But the recording being phonetic'll make it easier to learn to pronounce everything, now I know what the story is."

"I guess understanding the words is less important when you're just singing." 

This sparks a debate among the group about whether it is, in fact, important to know what it is you're singing about. Darya is on the 'no' side, along with Remi. Faisy is on the 'yes' side. 

"Peka, what do you think?" asks someone from the 'no' camp. "You're a singer, would you sing something if you didn't know the language?"

"I sing things where I don't know what every word means but I want to know what every line means and the important words."

People mostly seem to accept this, Peka being seen as an expert on such matters. The debate winds down, and the conversation moves on.

Time passes. The merchants are doing well, having mostly worked out how to deal with Amentans, but a few days after she joins them, Peka is called over to help deal with a confused purple customer. 

She checks her roots in the mirror and comes over. The purple repeats his problem to her and she answers him and he takes a food item and leaves.

And eventually the merchants have exhausted either their stocks or the local market for them, and are ready to go home. 

"Still want to come with me?" Darya asks Peka. "Most of the others would take you with them instead if you wanted." 

"That's very flattering! I'll come with you."

"Good." Ey nods, and carries on packing. 

"I might take you to stay with my mother, in Versizo. She would help look after Katin." 

"That'd be really nice."

"We'll do that, then." 

Now they just have to explain to the border guards why there is one more person in their group than they started with. Plus a baby. Thankfully, they'd only be in big trouble if they had fewer people, since Corth isn't yet blocking immigration. They can explain Peka as Darya's purple girlfriend who has dyed her hair early because she wants to fit in when she gets to Corth. Most of this is even true! 

Is the part where she's eir girlfriend true?

Darya shrugs, and smiles at her.

"If you want! Only if you want." 

"Well, y'know, why not?"

"We're different species?" ey suggests. "I'm shorter than you? You don't know what's 'in my pants', which humans always seem to care about for some reason..."

With a gesture at Katin, "You either had a previous relationship or a bad experience or both?"