"Thank you."

She goes and explains all of the everything to her sister. Lunch is had.

And Cadra comes by.

She yellows everyone's hair.

And they go back to the senator's office.

Do they have to wait for the senator again?

Not as long!

"Hello," she says. "My Oahkar is much better. I looked at the internet. I think I don't want to work exclusively with Calado, both because this country seems to have a reputation as a metaphorical writhing snakes' nest, and because there is apparently a war between the two largest nations on the planet that I would like to try to stop sooner rather than later. I would also like to make it worth your and the Adaros' while to have helped me. Do you have any suggestions?"

"- how are you planning to stop the war?"

"Hi I'm a magic alien who can solve the food scarcity problems that led to you declaring war in the first place, I may be able to terraform and season planets in the future and countries I like get planets sooner, maybe we can find a diplomatic solution to this war war is terrible, hint hint."

"You can feed a couple billion people?"

"...It'll be hard and take a while and be boring but I think so."

"Might work if Voa'd string up the instigator."

"Hm. Well, we'll see."

"Perhaps you'd like to learn Tapai or Voan or both before you go."

"I don't think I learn languages so fast that not needing a translator is worth the extra time while a war is going on."

"You have a Calador accent," he explains. "It'll be obvious you came here first. If you're not going to stay because there are some internet rumors I think I'd rather we be able to call in favors later, than try to settle up now, but that's easiest if nobody knows you came through Calado."

"'Fix my accent' is faster than 'learn a whole new language'. And I'm not not-staying because of some internet rumors, I'm not staying because there's a war on. And because given a complex sociopolitical system I don't necessarily want to be a national asset for the first country I happened to encounter rather than being helpful wherever that happens to be needed."

"None of the countries where Oahkar is spoken enjoys a very good reputation in Voa. Tapa will care less, but will still draw conclusions."

"That tells me I want to learn Voan or Tapap eventually, but not that it's worth the delay. I'm an alien, if they judge me because I happened to land somewhere they don't like first thing I don't know that I could avoid being judged anyway."

"I see. I'd rather you didn't mention me or Cadra or the Adaros in particular."

"I won't. And I won't forget that you helped me, either."

"Thank you." Smile.

Smile!

"I'm not leaving this minute," she adds, "since I apparently need to obfuscate my accent."

"I could find recordings of some people speaking Oahkar as a second language."

"That could be helpful."