"The Emperor... could be worse," she says consideringly.

"Oh?"

"He made Skygarden. He does helpful magic sometimes. But it's usually a bad idea to come to his attention. He—" (she really has not established sufficient vocabulary to explain the details) "—hurts people."

"Why?"

"...why does he hurt people? I don't know, I've never met the man."

"...when, who?"

"...people near him, whenever he likes. Well, not just anyone, that's one of the ways he could be worse. If you mind your own business and stay out of trouble, he won't bother you. But people who get in his way, or annoy him..." She shrugs and shakes her head. "And he's not very nice to his slaves, either."

"...it'd be a shame if you went up to Skygarden to bother him about it and he didn't like being bothered."

"What things annoy him?"

"I wouldn't know the details. Though I do know he doesn't like it when someone makes a mess of his empire. If I started walking up the river and flooding cities, he'd come down and stop me as soon as he heard."

"I suppose that's good."

"As I said," shrug, "he could be worse."

"Is there anyone he listens to?"

"I wouldn't know." She regards Ambela thoughtfully. "Are you going to go bother him?"

"I will try not to bother him."

"Hm."

Perhaps some vocabulary lessons on happier subjects.

(Kioh comes by with food for both of them and compliments Ambela on how fast she's learning the language - "you must be so smart!")

"I have a lot of things to help my memory."

"What kinds of things?"

"I don't have the words. We say 'blessings'."

"Well, are they magic?" he asks next.

"No - not really."

"Hmm." He squints doubtfully up at her, then scampers off and leaves them to food and vocabulary. (Fish! Delicious!)

Delicious fish!

Eventually the boats start coming back in, and Viasarae introduces Ambela to the rest of the village. It's a really small village. Most of them are kind of confused by this pointy-eared stranger, and content to let her stay Viasarae's problem, but a handful of Viasarae's children and grandchildren take an interest and join in the language lessons as afternoon wears on into evening.