"Why are we still waiting." He paces in place, looks like he's not entirely sure if the minder is the sort of person he wants to glare at or not. Doesn't act like he's treating the mages as present at all, except to edge away from them a little.

The minder is mostly ignoring him, looking at her watch. The other mage is flinching a little. The minder taps her watch. 

"Go."

The mage does as he's told.

She knows what a teleport feels like, obviously. The teleport feels like that, and then it promptly feels not like that.

She can guess what 'landing anyway rather than dying in some bizarre accident' feels like, when that happens.

This hallway is probably not where they wanted to be. Unless they wanted to be in a hallway in another world.

He definitely didn't want to be in this hallway! (Since 'hallway in another world' does not happen to be communicated in any way to accompany landing in said hallway, he is currently completely ignorant of this information). Also, he's pretty sure the teleporter and the overseer were supposed to come along and they're not here at all.

He rounds on the remaining mage. 

"What the fuck did you do!"

Teleportation does not malfunction in this way. (If there was even the slightest chance it did, someone would absolutely have told them about it, while giving an exciting demonstration of how they'd better never do it.) Some sorts of energy discharges and the like can sometimes interfere with a teleport. 

He didn't ask her for an analysis. She surveys the hallway inasmuch as she can while not obviously looking anywhere other than down.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't the acting teleporter. I haven't taken any magical actions."

The hallway continues to be a hallway. It's in various shades of dull brownish red. There are a couple windows overlooking some kind of courtyard or garden or something.

His earpiece is refusing to connect at all. Pulling out his phone doesn't yield any better.

"Well fix it!"

She'd certainly love to - she's not expecting anything good to come out of this. But,

"I don't have permission for a teleport, sir." She doesn't think he actually has a proper control to her collar. Fairly sure he has an emergency control, though he doesn't seem to be reaching for it. She thinks there's supposed to be some primer on using it. Maybe he skipped it or something; if she understands correctly humans [can] do that sometimes.

(She's pretty sure having permission for a teleport wouldn't actually help, in this case - to her knowledge there's not somewhere like this within her teleportation range, and she can't exactly reproduce the accident in reverse. But she doesn't think he wants an elaborate answer.)

He does have a control for her net!

Of course he does. She has enough control to not suddenly scream in an unfamiliar location. He stops it about short of when she'd just fall over, which she supposes she appreciates in the circumstances.

"I'm sorry," she says, once she can talk. She should really have said that originally.

She continues to not be able to do anything about the situation.

He looks like he might go for another time, but instead rounds on the nearest door. Hammers on it. Pauses, looks back at Elvira for a moment, repeats.

"Open up! CIA!"

Well. This was the interagency-or-whatever sort of thing, she has the uniform with the little badge on it and everything. He's not asking her for comments on strategy.

A tall woman opens the door partway. She leans her head out a little. It's hard to see inside.

"You have ten seconds to give me a reason to hear you out."

The translator he's wearing is conveniently at the setting where, hearing a different language, it translates it right over. It is not at a setting where he wouldn't also hear the original.

"What the fuck are you speaking?"

(Her translator is similarly configured. She continues standing still and looking down.

She doesn't recognize the language at all.)

She slams the door.

He hammers on it again. "Open up this instant!" (He hasn't yet set his translator to translate in return, so this remains English.)

The door stays closed.

He hammers on the next door!

No answer.

Next!

Nobody else wants to open their door for the rude angry foreigner.

He switches his translator on the other way as well, goes back to the first door. "I'll have you arrested for refusal to render aid to a government officer! I'll have you deported! Open this door!"

A door opens. Something walks out that is tiny and cute and seems totally unaware that it is either of those things. It has long claws. Its voice is squeaky.

"And what do you want, oh supposed imperial officer?"

What the fuck -

His reaction to the situation turns immediately from 'dropped in some dump, fuck the CIA and its mages, just wait till I get back, and these locals are gonna hear of it too' to 'extreme illegal magical experiment!'.

He draws his gun. "Don't move!" 

She is taken by about as much surprise.

Collar? (It's an automatic sort of check. Of course mages-not-in-cover wouldn't tend to come out and say that sort of thing, but magical experiments she had no idea existed also generally don't.)

No collar.

"Oh? What exactly happens if I move?"

The creature waves a hand.

"You're under arrest! Lie down on the ground with your hands over your head! If you resist I may be forced to use lethal force.

You're under arrest," he calls into the apartment. "Come out with your hands up!"

(She's not even fucking in field cover.)

Nobody besides this creature even opens a door.

"I'm going to go get the landlord. Stay out of my place while I'm gone," says the little cute creature. It starts walking.

He may or may not be in the position of someone who's absolutely had firearms training but hasn't actually ever shot someone. 

...Isn't that mage who did get dropped here a field mage?

"You! Restrain him." 

This is going to end absolutely wonderfully.

She doesn't have any way of knowing if the experiment came with combat advantages, but she doesn't have any long-range weapons, either.

She goes to do as told.

She gets flung into a wall. Maybe the creature did magic.

"I'm so glad they can scry the halls, because you're the only ones who are going to be hurt after this," says the creature.

He is way too preoccupied to even react to that comment.

"Did he do that?" He remembers about the emergency control. He thinks he remembers how to do - something with it. "Defenses!" he snaps to her. (Is that even how you say that to field mages. He has no idea). "Restrain him!"

(Helpfully, defenses are one of the things set up to be easiest to do, with an emergency control.)

Getting flung into walls is not a new experience, physically.

Permission to try defenses comes with the permission for magical senses she could use for it. She doesn't exactly have the time or opportunity to set up a ward right now, but she reaches out to try to counter in realtime if that happens again. And figure out what it's coming from. (Repulsion is the sort of thing you can get to carry along for use. Possibly more than carry as a device or built into something, if you're an experiment.)

(She's perfectly aware she's getting hurt after this. Also, either this one is delusional, or the accident has actually dumped them abroad rather than in an apartment building with at least one foreign occupant. 

Which, well, probably means she'll be getting even more hurt, but if you'd get hurt by obeying something you'll be far, far more hurt if you disobey it. Rather how that works.)

She goes to do what she's told, again.

He'll just keep trying to walk out the front door. When she tries to tackle him again he tries to throw her again.

She tries to counter. This being a sort of attack she's never encountered before, she mostly doesn't succeed. It does, however, give her the answer to the question.

"He's doing it," she says, because of things that are out of the question enough that they won't really cross her mind, 'lying about other mages' is definitely high up there. 

He's been trying to get around them to block the door the experiment seemed to be heading for. At this he stops moving.

Illegal magical experiment apparently uncollared mage.

"Yield down! On the ground! Last fucking chance," he says, and if this doesn't have the reaction he wanted, shoots. 

He has no idea what "yield down" is supposed to mean.

He tries sprawling on the ground like it's his bed and he owns it.

It being an idiom, it didn't translate through very usefully. It being an idiom with equivalents approximately everywhere on earth, this isn't something that will occur to him.

Finally.

"Restrain him," he tells Elvira again. And, to the uncollared mage, "Don't move! If you try any more magic I'll shoot!"

She has no idea what the point of this is supposed to be. It's not like they have a spare collar. She doesn't even have anything to use as restraints.

She attempts obedience using her hands.

"Don't touch me," he says. "Are you trying to keep me from going outside? Because I was trying to go outside."

He is not the person here she is supposed to be obeying. She'll go to hold his wrists behind his back. And watch out for further magic. 

"Shut up!" Having succeeding at his previous aim, he now has to decide what to do next.

Uh-huh. That sure will be fun.

"TWENTY-FOUR RINGS TO CALL THE POLICE!"

She's pretty sure that's the same language as the first one. And he's obviously yelling for everyone. Her likelihood estimates for being abroad shoot up. (Wonderful.)

Also if he wants the police he's probably also a field mage or something. Not that this means much for her, aside from 'probably about to be arrested and then tortured by two governments'.

Absolutely nothing of thoughts like that goes through his head.

"I said shut up!" (Why is the uncollared mage calling for police? Probably some sort of trick. Maybe a secret code.) "Whoever you are," he calls to the rest of the hallway/apartments. "We've found you out. Surrender right now or you'll make it worse on yourselves."

Nothing happens for a bit.

"I think they're force and knowledge!" says the creature. And if they don't shut him up: "The one assaulting me is a slave!"

She assumes 'slave' is a translator mistake for 'mage'; that happens sometimes. Nonsense mistakes like the first part also happen sometimes

"Shut up!!" (Is it more codes?) What does he do - he's not trained for fighting uncollared mages -

-field mage, field mage-

"Knock him out!" he orders her, and tries to figure out if the emergency control lets him have her do that.

There are some various constraints, but it does!

She is totally trained to fight field mages, but she really needs more affordances than she has to do that well. 

She's pretty sure he's going to counter her, and she doesn't know what permissions he has. She attempts to render him unconscious anyway.

He doesn't counter that.

But someone starts trying to magic the blood in the handler's body much, much colder than it should be. It's impossible to tell who's doing that. It's like the answer is hidden by some kind of magic.

Unconscious mages can't do magic. He's pretty sure of that. That means there's another mage here!

"Defense on me!!" 

She reaches out. She starts countering.

(...Someone who can do that from a distance is going to be rather higher weightclass than her. Definitely higher than her-without-more-effective-permission.)

(Honestly she's somewhat hoping they hurry up and hit her with a stun dart or whatever they have. Not that she enjoys being arrested by foreign governments, but if they are abroad it's pretty inevitable at this point, and they're not going to gain anything by stretching it out.

She does not, of course, have particularly anything she can do about this.)

The woman from before tries opening her door. If they don't stop her she'll just quickly walk to the front door like it's the most reasonable thing in the world for her to go about her business.

"Stop!"

"How many rings do you want to just go away and leave me alone?"

He's not dignifying that with a response.

"Don't move! 

Were you aware of what your neighbors were doing?"

(Is the other mage still trying the cold thing? Have they done anything new?)

"Aisan, help me, she's a heat mage!" the woman in the hallway says.

Does Elvira react fast enough to counter a ward preventing any new spells of hers from affecting anything in the hallway?

Still the same language. Yelling for help if there's a not-your-government mage fighting in your hallway is the opposite of a surprising thing to do. She has no idea what adjective for mages the translator just messed up that way, but that's hardly the important thing at the moment.

She has very good reflexes, and magic deployed against her working hers is the kind of thing she's familiar against, even as this manifestation isn't at all. She has to put in effort to keep it from taking effect, but she can keep it from, in fact, taking effect. 

From the power level she's guessing that'll be the local Authority of Mages, which means this isn't going to be lasting much longer.

"Be quiet! 

If you're not involved you have nothing to be afraid of. This is a very important investigation. 

Were you aware of what your neighbors were doing?"

"Tell me what you're investigating and I'll tell you whether I know anything about it."

She glances at the door, considering, but decides to wait for now.

"Illegal magical experimentation and the presence of renegade mages.

Don't worry, we are now aware of the situation and in the process of handling it. Your building should be safe again soon.

That one," he indicates Elvira, "is under my authority and won't do anything to you as long as you're not involved and cooperate."

(Apparently thinking her building has renegade mages running around has made him like this woman better, or something.

Or maybe he's also realized they're probably abroad, even if he hasn't made the connection to the mage possibly being a field mage in that case. (She cannot, of course, attempt to suggest it to him.))

"I'm not involved in any illegal experimentation and I hadn't heard of my neighbors doing any either." She tries to keep a straight face. She only mostly succeeds. "Anyway if you don't want me leaving, do you mind if my man goes out and does our shopping for me?"

"No one leaves! This is an active crime investigation!

And give me your phone."

"I don't have any of those." And if she did she'd have sat at home and used it to get whoever had the other end to call the police.

...And now she's won, she just needs to wait however long it takes. She sits down.

He needs a phone. Maybe there's one in the apartment the renegade mage came out of, but he's not going in there alone...

...the mage out here is unconscious now. 

"Go into his apartment and find me a phone," he tells Elvira. "Keep defense on me!"

...that's far away enough that especially without set up ahead of time she's going to be much less effective defense. But not enough that she'll be no defense. 'I can't do that' is something she can say if she has to; arguments about strategy remain not generally that sort of thing.

She goes.

The small apartment has no sign of a phone. There is something, maybe some kind of screen, on the wall showing what looks like probably a human being eaten alive by a... leopard? Jaguar? It's sort of hard to tell what species of big cat it is. But it sure is eating him and he sure is screaming.

There's a bed. The apartment has a loft and things under the loft. It has windows. It has a bathroom that wasn't designed for humans. It has a fridge that is silent and doesn't seem to be plugged in but is working great and full of fruit. The walls and ceiling are decorated with a stylized pattern of overlapping yellow-green leaves.

There are some closed boxes but there aren't any visible electronics at all.

(She keeps senses out in case there's anything further magically violent in here.)

She doesn't know enough about what human apartments some place she doesn't recognize the language are supposed to look like to find anything about the apartment particularly surprising. (Nor is she going to guess that the screen and fridge aren't electronics.) She does have even more evidence for 'abroad' now though.

She wonders idly if they let the local mages watch that particular show. 

People don't generally keep their phones in closed boxes and she's not opening closed boxes in the room of a magical experiment (whether they in fact belong to the government or not) because she's not an idiot.

She leaves again.

"Couldn't find a phone, sir." 

"Search him for one."

The small creature is not carrying a phone.

If Elvira's aware of the wards on the building she might notice some of them go off.

She has been given neither permission nor orders to magically survey the building, and is therefore generally not.

"None, sir."

The front door opens at the same time as two holes are torn in the wall. There are a lot of people visible. A lot of people and one cat. The cat doesn't have a collar. One of the people shows them a badge. It's not a familiar badge.

"You two," she points to Elvira and her handler, "are under arrest. Please drop your wards and set all enchanted items on the floor."

He draws himself up, though he does stop pointing his gun at anyone. "I'm an agent of the American government. You have serious illegal magical activity and a renegade mage in this building. I have been attempting to contain them. I suggest you render assistance, and help me contact my superiors."

That sure seems like the (local, presumably) government. And he was not actually appointed her mission handler, he doesn't have the authority to tell her to fight the government once they're definitely declared as such, if he decides to do that.

She drops any magical efforts. They didn't tell her to get on the ground, so she goes for no-sudden movements. Kneels carefully, so it's clearer that she's acknowledging. Hands down and visible and away from her body.

Someone goes to put bracelets on Elvira.

The one with the badge stays where she is. "How would we contact your superiors?" she asks.

She gives no resistance.

She wonders somewhat about the question - actual renegade mages rather obviously wouldn't try to get anyone to call the police, so she's pretty sure that was indeed a field mage, so presumably from the locals' opinion he just attacked something of theirs and is now talking about nonexistent renegade mages. But maybe they think he's talking about something else, or there actually happened to also be a renegade in the building (someone tried to do that odd thing with the cold, and if they were a field mage too it would have made much more sense for them to try to fight her). 

Or they don't want to argue with the gun-holding mage-controller says-he's-CIA-agent till they've gotten him handled, that could be it.

"I'll need a working phone or an internet connection."

"Okay. I can have someone bring something like that. And how would your superiors get here if you contacted them?"

What a bizarre question. But of course if this is some nothing country they might not be equipped to deal with such a serious situation.

"I assume if you needed support with such a serious situation, someone could be delegated, once everything is sorted out."

He isn't giving much concern to what they're doing with the mage. Of course people might want to be sure the mage is properly contained, even if he's had her under control.

She is in fact finding what they're doing somewhat of surprise - they've obviously not just decided to let her carry on under his authority, but they haven't put their own collar on her, or even separated her from him so that her collar would lock her down in response to distance from any controls. 

Haven't even demanded (or asked) that he rescind all permissions or anything. (She also doesn't seem to see anyone with a shockstick, but maybe they just use something different here. Haven't so much as kicked or backhanded her, not even yelled at.) 

Foreign police procedures are, obviously, the not-your-business kind of thing. She continues being still and cooperative.

"I mean, would they fly, would we need to clear space for them to land? Would they teleport into this hallway? Just how many mages could they capture if they came in force?"

"I presume the details can be worked out between agencies. Maybe they have someone in driving distance, I wouldn't know."

And then some horror. "Is this a known situation? How many are there?"

"I just need to know your people's capabilities so I know whether to call them in now or wait until we're stronger," the cop says. For an ambush, to destroy this threat to the imperial peace, she doesn't say.

The lady sitting in the hallway is still sitting in the hallway and looks confused about that for a moment before she gets it.

He has no idea what that's supposed to mean. Maybe it's some weird local police jargon. 

"I assure you, we are fully capable of dealing with renegade mages." And there can't be too many of them anyway can there, or they would have killed him already and stolen the mage.

She is looking down and giving no outward sign of how attentive she is to the conversation.

Those are indeed rather odd questions. Possibly given that she's a field mage and he's mentioned the CIA, they think he's got a team around, and he hasn't noticed that's what they think. "Or wait until we're stronger"? That doesn't make sense in that interpretation either; the reason to wait until you're stronger to call someone would be if you wanted to fight them, in which case why would you tell them that's what you were doing.

She keeps listening. (She wonders meanwhile what the idea of these bracelets is. They're not acting as a collar, obviously, she'd have noticed; they don't come with chains so they're not going to be good restraints. Trackers? Some magic or tech they use here?)

...it occurs to him that if they have some den of renegade mages here - 

"Additionally, I believe these renegades may be responsible for sabotaging my teleport. My government will take that very seriously."

That doesn't make sense on several levels even if there are renegades here, from 'you really can't do that at this range' to 'if they could, why would they do that'. She obviously doesn't volunteer this input.

"Sabotaged your teleport? How could that happen?" the cop asks. She sounds suitably alarmed and serious.

"I'm not in that division. Our routine trip was hijacked to drop us here. Might not just be a coincidence.

Maybe the field mage'll know something about all the details." He jerks an indication at Elvira.

Flinch. (Internal, lest if be taken as something.) She doesn't think she's going to be very helpful here, and if they do think there are renegade mages involved it is all sorts of likely to take a while for them to believe 'can't' over 'uncooperative'. 

"Okay. We'd like to question the field mage... somewhere other than in the middle of this hallway."

"Of course."

"Please come with me," one of them tells Elvira and starts leading her out through one of the holes in the building.

Internal flinch at 'please'. (Tone is weird for that but this is a new language.) She follows.

"You want me along in case you need her to heal herself or something?"

"Actually it would be more convenient if she were under our control for the moment. Is that possible, with the setup you have?"

He has ever watched like, a thriller, and is aware of the concept of putting multiple collars from different parties on a mage.

"If you put your collar on her, I can just leave permission for self-healing on with ours."

Is Elvira within distance to hear this question?

Yeah, they haven't yet whisked her away through the air. She should be able to hear that.

"We can do that - I don't know what other commands she's under right now, do you have a list? In case any others might be inconvenient."

"more convenient if she were under our control for the moment"

That's not necessarily a rather suspicious question - might be standard Authority of Mages policy here and it hasn't occurred to this particular person that someone she thinks is from the CIA might take it badly. Might be a rather suspicious question though. (Either way he can't, obviously, give them said controls even if he was stupid enough to decide to. They're as keyed to him as collar controls generally are.)

If this place is hostile (and not just in the 'objecting to the sovereignty violation/attack on ours' way) - well, they're still very much outnumbered and in fact with no way to contact anyone, so it's not as though it would have been very useful to resist arrest.

Flinch and shiver some, still internal - she knows what that would mean for both likely upcoming interrogation and debrief back home whenever that happens.

...He should probably revoke those permissions he gave her, shouldn't he.

He does that. Then has the net give her a shock in case she got ideas from having them when she wasn't supposed to.

She flinches externally this time, lest he think that didn't work. Manages not to trip or anything.

"Oh, she doesn't have any permissions right now, it's just at default settings." Do random nothing countries have the same default settings on their collars? Maybe they don't. "No magic, of course. Not too much of that senses thing they have. But she's not gonna start throwing up or anything, default's all safe."

"I see. Thank you."

The people in charge of Elvira take off with her. Flying. Flying quickly.

The city they're in seems to only mostly be populated by human-shaped people. In fact there sure are a lot of very big snakes around. There's a body of water to the southeast, a really big one, might be the ocean.

...

If they had merely taken off flying - well, that's to her knowledge not in fact possible (or, wasn't), but maybe they got something useful out of their magical experimentation or something.

That seems not a really likely explanation for the rest of it at all.

Whatever went wrong with the teleport somehow - took them to another planet...?

Meanwhile back in the hallway they still have the other one to deal with. Someone, without any fanfare, commands him not to use any magic. Since he isn't magic it's unlikely he'll even notice that, though.

"How long will he be unconscious?" the cop who's been doing most of the talking asks, pointing to the creature on the floor.

He sure doesn't notice that!

They can ask the field mage? He didn't give her specifics. 

"Okay. I think we're done asking questions."

And unless there's some kind of magic preventing it, the devices he's using to control Elvira go flying over to a big cat lurking just outside the building.

They have magical protections but the protections aren't concentrated against that.

"What are you doing?!"

Finding out if he has any magic protecting him from being turned into a statue, for one thing! Does he?

He has some minor protections but it won't be enough to stop something of that magnitude.

After not too long, the people flying Elvira land outside a building. Another tiny cute creature meets them out there.

"If that's the human from the apartment incident they want her in Mar Geru now. And get the collar off her," says the cute creature.

The woman who was flying with her sighs and tries to take the collar off. Anything preventing that?

Yep! Very much so! It's not coming off at all.

"It'll explode, ma'am," she says quickly. Not ideal politeness but that is better than the alternative in this case.

('human' as they said it has successfully translated as the biological species and not its non-mage subset, and that's not too uncommon to hear in science fiction or fantasy type media so she doesn't have a reaction to being referred to that way.)

Sigh. "How will it do that?"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

If this is a different planet - 

Either - Earth, she supposes, though more relevantly the American government - have already made contact in some way and not told random CIA field mages or functionaries (hardly out of the question). Or this is in fact the first instance of contact. 

In favor of the first: the translator is working, and an accident sending them somewhere with no connection at all seems even more bizarre than otherwise. But it's bizarre either way, and maybe there's something about whatever happened or about whatever this place is that affects the translator.

The first bodes fairly horribly - whatever kind of contact is being attempted, this can't really be a helpful incident for it.

The second bodes probably more horribly if they subsequently make contact, and bodes as a complete mystery of the future otherwise.

She tries to keep any shaking internal; they haven't attempted to do anything to cause it and thus might not like it.

"Okay. I think we can work around that." And not addressing Elvira: "You can keep it from damaging anything, right?"

"Yeah, probably," says the other officer. He tries turning Elvira into a statue. Anything preventing that?

Being talked about and not to is the opposite of an odd occurrence.

Yep, Elvira is not statued at all.

(She has enough senses allowed to her to tell that they threw magic at her. It doesn't do anything, something like water thrown on a water-proof and repelling object. She flinches and braces.)

"...Can you drop your anti-defense wards?" he asks. "So that we can get that off you safely."

If there'd been contact, it would definitely have involved explaining about mages, and they wouldn't be trying to take her collar off to begin with (why are they doing that?). But that might have happened and just not reached these people in particular. 

If it is another planet, she doesn't at all know how they class or handle their - power-users - here. (In media some aliens or elves and the like have their own mages, but some have 'wizards' or 'fairies' or 'empowered' who count as human-and-such).

"The one assaulting me is a slave". They do have some form of slavery-and-such here though, and have classed her in that category.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." And, this one's a risk but if they don't know that's all sorts of risks. "Would you want to know what it is?"

"Yes," says the woman who flew her here.

"I'm a mage. The collar is made to contain us, so that I cannot work magic without the permission of someone with the controls. It's an involution of energy, and has protections beyond that also."

"Does anyone ever take these things off where you're from?"

"They exchange them for a different one sometimes, ma'am." 

(And if they do manage to take the collar off, the Authority of Mages will -

but she doesn't expect that to be either a compelling 'argument', or one she should attempt to make. Doesn't think she should be trying to drop to her knees and beg them.

Trembling may be getting to the point where she's not entirely succeeding in keeping it internal.)

"Do you know how they do that?"

"Not the details, ma'am. Once another is on the first one can be removed safely more easily." And, since they might not realize that, possibly: "there is a time in between when both are active, but not a time when none are."

"If the collar were encased in something that could hold in the force of the explosion, would it be safe to remove?"

"No, ma'am. It is the bonding against me that causes it, not the collar as itself." ...there are a lot of reasons not to try asking, but, "Might I know why it is important to remove it?

That is illegal, where I am from."

"Why is it - "

"Tracker," says the cute creature.

"There you go. I guess they don't want you wearing one wherever they want you."

There is probably no way to ask this that won't get her tortured later, but possibly a way to ask this that's better than other ways. And at the moment might be better than not asking. "Might I know why blocking the tracker might not be what is desired?" (She is pretty definitely not allowed to volunteer information about the other trackers, if they don't know it already.)

"Because putting spells on you is so easy and works just like we expect it to, of course. Have you ever heard of anyone getting a collar off without another collar to put on first?"

"Might I know if there is a reason it would need to be on me, and not only around me, or between me and anything that might be a receiver?" Very much getting tortured, but even without balancing that against 'going around without a collar', she does have a rather high preference for not dying in an explosion if they can't figure it out right and try anyway.

"I know it does happen, ma'am."

"If you're going where I think you are they'll do that too."

"She warded the hallway during the fight," says the little cute creature. "Or something. It wasn't normal."

The female officer sighs. "Okay, look. Have a seat somewhere while we have someone scry the collar and figure something out. Do you want some vegetable juice?"

She doesn't have a stronger reaction to being talked to that way only because she's been trained to and in field cover before. As it is, it's odd and then some to get it when she's arrested in uniform with her collar visible. (If they have their own mages she really needs to figure out how to comprehensibly communicate that she is one, in case saying she was a mage and wearing a collar didn't do it. The longer it takes till then the worse she can obviously expect of it when they get it.)

"Yes, thank you, ma'am." And, yet more bad ideas to say that are probably better than not doing that: "I didn't ward the hallway, ma'am." (That's a weird to think happened when it didn't. Was there someone else there who did or something?)

(The collar is pretty scrywarded, they might find, if they try.)

"What... never mind, they'll ask you about it in Mar Geru."

Someone brings her some juice.

It's not too long before their knowledge mage reports on the failure.

"If we just took it off, would you expect the explosion to be fatal?"

She drinks juice. This is really the nicest arrest she's ever experienced aside from the part where she's going to be tortured for it later. And the part where they might be about to kill her.

"Yes, ma'am. And to anyone around me without enough protection."

"We're going to have some people do some research for a while," says the woman who flew her here. "And while we're waiting I'm just going to sit here and not do anything as long as you don't try to go off on your own or do any magic."

Being told what's happening is also odd. Being threatened conversely is very familiar. She stays on the floor where she sat down and makes no attempts to go elsewhere and is not able to do any magic and doesn't.

It is, in general, not a good idea to try and check if you have permissions outside of people saying (or otherwise indicating) they're giving them to you. But given the circumstance she has kind of an unusual amount of attention on her collar, and so she notices when it starts feeling like this is in fact the case.

...Is the handler in range and using the controls again? Why? But the permissions don't seem to match well with that -

A minute later there's more of them. Then again. Definitely not matching well with the handler and at this point she recognizes the pattern -

(Sometimes this happens, which is of course why they have instructions about it. In which case of all the timing. Or it might be something they did, given.) She doesn't put her hands over her head because she's sitting and they won't see her hands there. Doesn't kneel because it's moving and she doesn't know if they'll recognize the gesture. She goes very, very still. 

"Ma'am? I think my collar is failing."

"That would be convenient. How can you tell? Did you do something to break it?"

Shudder and it gets into her voice because if someone thinks that - 

"No, ma'am. I didn't, ma'am.

I'm - able to do magic that it would keep me from, and this is progressing." Still, still, still, hands visible, not moving.

"We were instructed in what it would be like, if it occurred. Sometimes there are failures." (Given the timing, did the teleport issue somehow do it? She'd certainly not heard of something like that, but she'd also never heard of this planet, so.)

"Does that mean we can take it off now?"

It would still probably not be helpful to drop prostrate. It would definitely not be helpful to stop functioning in terror.

"No, ma'am, but - as the progression continues you will be able to. Or it might - disintegrate."

"How long should that take?"

Usually if a collar starts failing slowly measures will be taken before it actually finishes at it. But extreme situations happen, and she does know how to -

"An hour maybe at this rate, ma'am."

"Okay. In that case we'll want to be in the air in about a quarter of an hour or so and it can fail on the way. Then we'll have it off before we land, I think."

"Yes, ma'am." They don't seem at all concerned about this fact and what it means, which runs so utterly counter to the entirety of her life, experience, or anything like expectation thereof that it's somewhat hard to process. 

(She isn't, of course, going to do anything, not now, anymore than she was going to lie to them and not just because they might well have a truth spell somewhere. If her usual government isn't here already (and they might be) they might proceed to arrive at any next ten minutes.

And she continues to retain a rather strong preference for not being tortured to death.)

After a while it's time to fly.

The aircraft doesn't seem to have any engines.

This is not her area and is not going to register particularly. (Even without comparing to the previous method of flying.)

She goes where she's directed.

(Not-actually-permissions have continued to expand. She is definitely not succeeding at not trembling outwardly).

They fly north. Her minders keep an eye on her collar.

She is still and compliant and hands visible (and terrified).

And, partway into the flight:

"It can be taken off now, ma'am." (It hasn't in fact disintegrated, so from a physical perspective will have to be broken if they don't have a way to unlock it. But that's all, now.)

After some trial and error that will probably sound really weird to Elvira, the collar unlocks itself. One but not all of her minders takes it and jumps out of the aircraft.

And they keep going north.

The point at which it can be taken off is past the point where the collar is in fact not doing much containing of her magic. It isn't, technically, that much of a difference to have it off. But she has had permission for magic before, even a lot of it, and she has worn a collar every second of her life in her memory - learned from earliest consciousness what it meant and to sort people by it, worn an invisible collar for field work and had it beaten into her to make it visible if this or that - if someone knows and might think -. 

It feels (horribly) enormous. It feels like literally any second someone from the Authority of Mages will appear directly in front of her and. (That doesn't make any sense. Even if they're here and find out where she is they won't translocate in front of her as first step. It still feels that way.)

It feels like she'll suddenly do something - some bit of magic somehow without thinking. And that'll put her across the line into volitional transgressions, and she's worked for the Authority of Mages, she knows what that means, and she doesn't want to find out what it feels like to be set on fire, to be torn to pieces literally and not metaphorically.

No one seems to want anything of her so needing to be functional isn't exerting force enough, and she sits there and shakes and is terrified and still and does nothing, nothing, nothing.

They land. If she can't follow where she's led they'll just levitate her.

Conveniently there has been a complete absence of physically torturing her until she is unable to walk. She can follow.

This city has more cats and fewer human-shaped people than the one they were in before.

They take her to a very imposing building.

She may have different standards for what buildings have what psychological effects and why.

They are probably going to want her to do something, here. Which means she does, indeed, need to be functioning. She can't not be terrified, but she can push it places other than 'literally taking the entirely of her head'. 

Walk, walk.

They take her aside in a comfortable room with yet another person (this one is a big cat) and explain some things. They're going to want her to drop all her spells and enchanted artifacts before her audience in a heavily warded area. That will make the translator a problem.

"...So can you translate without it?" the cat finishes.

She might have more at least internal reaction to the cat if it weren't for all of what is taking priority. TV and such has non-human-shaped aliens/being sometimes. Apparently so does this actual planet.

...did they think she was using magic before? And - didn't care about that, somehow? (She's pretty sure that even if you have non-mage power-users you're probably going to not want them to do that when they're arrested.)

She was letting herself keep some senses active before - there's a level that's allowed by the collar on default, isn't forbidden, still magic of course but close to her other senses in use and permission. She drops that completely now, in case it counts, here.

Looking down. "No, sir."

"We can handle translation into our languages but not into yours. If we have to give you a list of topics we're interested in beforehand how well do you think you can remember them?"

"I have an above average memory but not a perfect one, sir. Might I know how many topics there would be? If there are many, might I write them down?" 

"Oh, you can read? We'll have someone bring some writing implements we know couldn't be enchanted."

...She thinks she remembers from history that teaching everyone to read wasn't always happening. Apparently it still might not be here, or happened recently or something.

"Yes, sir."

Someone brings paper and a slightly chewed-on brushpen with a handle that isn't really designed for a hand.

The list of things they want to know about is long and concerning. They want to know about everything there is to know about the other world's laws, customs, magic, technology, population, and when they're likely to notice Elvira and her handler missing and come after them. Among other things.

She takes notes, carefully and as neatly as she can given the writing utensil.

...Probably no one from Earth here yet, then. Or there is but they haven't been very forthcoming, or the locals want to double-check what they've been told. 'Not very forthcoming' would be the worst one, there - much easier for her to end up saying something they wouldn't want her to.

Her instructions on interrogation were not intended for other planets. 

If she refuses to tell them anything at all, they will presumably start torturing her right away (that one happens to human agents too, so them not knowing she's a mage isn't going to help there). Usually if she was captured she'd know the CIA would be either coming to get her or changing anything she might reveal in a few days. She doesn't have that, now. She highly doubts she's going to be able to hold out under torture indefinitely; even knowing the CIA will do worse when they get her back if she breaks probably isn't going to be enough after a while. And at that point she'll be in much worse condition for making any kind of judgements on what to say. 

She finishes her notes. She tells them so, waits to see if they'll be reading them now or later.

They'd like her to explain all this out loud, actually, in person in an entirely different part of the building, to yet another person she hasn't met yet, with none of her spells or enchanted objects. None of them can even read English, the notes are for her convenience since she can't do Hari-to-English translation for them to ask her questions in real time.

She is expecting this from what they said before. The notes are just notes on their list, like she said. She is fully assuming they'll read what she writes (that is as inextricably a part of writing as using letters is) - not now just means they'll do it afterwards. Wouldn't have dared to ask to take the notes, if she didn't think from what they said that they could translate.

If they don't do it for her, she takes the translator earpieces out of her ears, unclips the piece from the collar of her shirt, takes the controller-and-processor off her waist. She goes where they take her. 

(She fully continues to assume they have lie detection.)

They will notice Elvira and her handler missing right away, but she doesn't know how long it'll take them to realize what happened and to act. 

She doesn't know about population; it's a lot.

She mostly knows laws about mages, like her, though she knows some things about other laws. Do they want to hear about either of those? (She's remembered a word for mages that shows up in tv shows sometimes (used by aliens and humans to talk about both their mages a lot, and when they're trying to figure out what kind of power-havers someone new has), and uses that one; it'll come across as something like 'magic-haver/inherently bad and can't be trusted/needs to be controlled').

Where they take her is an ominous dim windowless room with a woman in flowing black star-speckled clothes sitting on a dais.

Someone managed to figure out from hearing her speak to her translator how to say "why?" and "more this explanation please" in not very good English. The woman on the dais tries these phrases a few times.

They try to get everything they can out of her but that might not be obvious to Elvira since it doesn't involve any torture.

Well, on the list of things that can be in dim windowless rooms this is definitely not the worst of them.

She continues to take it completely for granted that they will start torturing her if she stops telling them things before they want her to.

She's pretty sure mage laws are the opposite of a secret, and can't see any reason human laws would be a secret.

Mages wear collars and aren't allowed to do magic without permission, resist their owners and minders, raise a hand to anyone except under orders in relevant situations, be defiant or disobedient, communicate in secret... Humans also have laws. Humans who break laws are arrested by the police and put in prison. Some things she's pretty sure humans are not allowed to do are murder, robbing banks, terrorism, not paying taxes, torturing without stopping mages who aren't designated for that, taking collars off mages... (she's sure about those last two). 

Also sometimes instead of the police the CIA kills people or takes them prisoner, but she's not actually clear on what the distinction is.

There's also laws about what the government of the country she's from isn't allowed to do. Some of these things are having slaves and stealing people's houses.  (Her knowledge of the law comes basically entirely from media and some lessons, mostly some social studies, anticipation that some mages are police mages when they grow up, and lessons for field cover).

Technology isn't really her area. Some technology she's seen here that her planet also has is aircrafts, refrigerators, and tvs. 

She isn't sure what customs means. She can talk about some holidays celebrated where she's from. Also humans where she's from like sports games. She can describe a variety of sports games. (Her knowledge of these things also comes from media and lessons for field cover).

The woman makes an attempt to ask for more information about mages and humans.

She's a mage. The person who was with her is a human. She's a female mage, he's a male human. Humans and mages generally look like each other. Humans and mages can have babies together but it's illegal. Humans are born from other humans. Mages are born in artificial wombs. Humans and mages are babies and then children and then adults. In the country she's from mages are owned by the government or sold to other people. 

She wants to know more about that last part.

...She doesn't think that would be a secret. If people from Earth come over she doesn't think that'll help the locals attack them, and if the locals go to Earth they can find it out in about fifteen minutes anyway. She's not really sure what they want to know though.

Mages are born in artificial wombs and raised in magehouses. The government runs both these things. When mages grow up the government either keeps them and moves them to different jobs the government uses mages for, like police mages, or they get sold to other people who want mages, like if someone wants their own medical mage.

The woman has apparently been sort of starting to pick up some English from listening to this. "Remove collar illegal why?"

A mage without a collar can do any of their magic at all without permission. They could run away, or attack people, or do other damage, and then the government has to come deal with it. (That can sometimes happen anyway, but without a collar is dangerous in highest magnitude.) Keeping mages contained is part of public safety for the government.

"Human collar?"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"Collar keeping mages contained. Collar keeping humans contained?"

Terror spike.

Collars are for [that other word for mages]. Not humans, never humans. (And, because that might not be clear enough, given that they might notice humans wearing collars (terror spike) would also be practically pointless -)

In fiction sometimes humans get powers some way, and they're still humans and wouldn't have collars. In fiction sometimes humans meet aliens, and sometimes the aliens have [that word for mages] but sometimes they have some other kind of power haver, and those also wouldn't wear collars. Collars are for [that word for mages]. Definitely not anyone who isn't.

"More mages explanation please," she asks, using that word with the negative connotations.

Flinch at please (she's pretty sure she's conveyed pretty clearly which thing she is, by now...)

Mages are terrible and treacherous, so they're kept contained and with strict rules and punishments, and that way they can be useful and be kept from destroying things.

(It doesn't at all occur to her to try to tell some other story, or to avoid that one. Still doesn't want to be tortured to death, when the CIA finds out what she's been doing here. And that's been in media too - one movie she remembers with weird underwater people who grabbed a mage from a boat that went under, and the mage went renegade and tried to deceive them about mages. And obviously they were suspicious pretty quickly, and then humans showed up and everything got sorted out, and the renegade got taken by the Authority of Mages and that was that (lots of shaking in the mages' hall, at that part).

Other things in that vein. No one's ever fooled for very long, or reacts to it as anything other than deception at the end, or objects to actual reality when they hear it (unless they're also been taken over by renegades or something like that). Not on her radar, as fantasy let alone reality.)

"Contained with strict rules and punishments. Why collar?"

(Great, did something about her explanation not make sense? (How ?))

Without a collar it would be easier for a mage to break rules, avoid getting caught for longer, run away, destroy things, because they could do any of their magic. More mages could do that. (She trembles.)

"Mages break rules, punishments?"

(Looking very down.) Mages who break rules are punished, yes. 

"Mages break rules why?"

(...they still probably have a truth spell of some kind.)

She thinks sometimes by accident or because they tried not to but failed, but it might always be because they actually wanted to break the rule because of the inherent treachery or trying to do something else worse, and also they need to be taught and have it reinforced that they'd better not do it, so it's punished anyway.

Sometimes because they want to. They want to try secretly communicating with someone so they try it and things like that. (She does not mention running away here...)

Sometimes mages will say it was because they were upset - and that made them want to argue with a minder or destroy something and so on. That might always also be because of the inherent treachery.

Mages who are overly bad at following the correct rules are killed in childhood, but that still leaves everyone else. And they're taught a lot but that still doesn't do everything.

(Truth spells don't generally check for completeness. So she's not going to mention her co-field-mage who she's pretty sure has a habit of breaking minor rules to get minder attention on him and away from someone else. Or anything else in that vein.)

(She says things carefully and she keeps eyes on the ground and she shakes.)

"Humans break rules?"

...humans break laws sometimes? She thinks some places humans can be have non-law rules and humans sometimes break those too.

"Humans break rules, punishments?"

(Didn't she already talk about this... Well, repetition is better than all sorts of other things.)

Humans who break laws are arrested and can go to prison or have to pay fines. Or sometimes the CIA comes after them, she's still not clear on the distinction. Humans who break rules of specific places can be - kicked out of a place? Or have to sit in a specific room, in a human school? Or some other things she thinks.

Humans are not punished like mages, that is completely not allowed (tremble).

"Humans are not punished like mages why?"

(Tremble). They're not mages. It would be bad.

Things like that happened more in history, like humans used to have human slaves in history, but now it's not allowed. (...Also if she understands correctly humans don't heal the same, but she is not saying that.)

"Not allowed human slaves why?"

It's bad (tremble). Humans - have human rights and things? (That's mostly from field cover classes, again.)

"Bad? Have rights?"

(How is that first one a translator problem.)

Not good? Not acceptable? 

There's a list of things humans should get to have because of existing and being humans, like um, property and freedom of speech and freedom to travel. Actually more than one list, they're not all the same; as she understands that's partially because people disagree and partially because they're just talking about different parts of things. 

"Mages should get to have rights?"

(Shaking shaking shaking they probably don't want her to kneel, it'll be an unexpected movement -)

No. 

"Humans should get to have rights why?"

If she understands correctly they just should. She thinks some people have different other reasons.

"No mages should get to have rights why?"

It sure is turning out unexpectedly difficult to get her to explain whether this is about some sort of impulse control deficit.

(Shaking shaking). "Because they're mages. [The other word]." And, because apparently at some point terror and the need to say it, something, becomes just too much -

"...We've been taught better, please-"

(It has not occurred to her at all that that might be what they're trying to get at, even as a possibility.)

"Taught better?"

It's not allowed for mages to think things like mages should have rights. They might get ideas and get above themselves. So they're taught how that's not allowed, and punished if it looks like they're doing it.

That's probably all they're going to get on that topic. Time for more productive explanations.

If they do ask more about magic -

She's is designated to the CIA and does magic for CIA teams. Like in the hallway before, though she wasn't in field cover then and the human wasn't actually an agent. (Possibly not a good idea to remind them of that, but it's not like she thinks they forgot.) (She doesn't mention field-mage-ness).

They still want to know more about her magic.

This isn't a very fun tightrope.

She does wards, and teleportation if needed, and fights enemy mages if needed though that's rare because it tends to get you arrested. And does some healing. (She thinks those are all things they're already seen, except for the healing and that she has something about healing will be obvious as soon as they hurt her at all.)

"Humans magic?"

(...that might be something they shouldn't know right now, but it's a yes or no question and she can't avoid it and they'd know if they somehow showed up on earth and they have the human as well anyway.)

No. They can do some things, like the collars, but they don't have powers, and she doesn't know anything about that.

She keeps trying to ask things.

If she's asked about more magic she'll try saying that she generally is just taught magic she needs for her job, because teaching her other magic would take resources for no reason and be more dangerous. (This is true. Also she needs more magic for her job than she mentioned, and she used to be in the magehouse where they were taught a greater variety in preparation for different job possibilities. But she's not going to say that, if she can avoid it.)

If she's asked more about technology she'll say that technology isn't her job area and she isn't taught technology information she doesn't need to know. She doesn't know much about technology. (It's not, though it's sure more a part of it than that implies, and she isn't but it's a different line than that sounds like. Compared to how much she think there is to know she sure doesn't, so that's true. And, likewise for the not saying if she can avoid it.) If needed she'll volunteer information on random (hopefully) mundane technology - toasters toast bread! Airplanes have oxygen masks! Climate control systems make rooms comfortable temperatures for humans!

She is scared and repeats she doesn't know things at whatever opportunity. (She is, in fact, scared, though she doesn't know if that affects them in any way.)

She'll try to pull up more random information about rules and laws if they want. It's illegal to walk around naked in public. It's illegal to smoke near no smoking signs. It's illegal to have sex with human children. In some places it is against the rules to have meat.

She'll tell them all sorts of more things about holidays and sports if they want, and also assorted games and pieces of media.

Her voice is kind of getting tired from all this talking but she doesn't imagine that's important any more than she imagines it's important she's been standing this whole time. (She's stood longer. She doesn't usually talk this long.)

Eventually the audience is over. The woman on the dais gestures for her to leave. Someone will lead her back to where she left her translator.

She follows. She waits to see if she's allowed to put it back on.

Yup.

Once she's done that the woman who flew up here with her asks if the translator works on writing.

No; they have translators for that but she doesn't have one. If she learns reading in general she can try reading outloud to herself, that can somewhat work.

"We can read to you," says the cat from earlier. "We have some laws you need to follow while you're here. Some of them will be the same no matter what. Some others will be different depending on which part of the empire you live in."

"The place you landed earlier has more buildings designed for people shaped like you than this place does," says the cop. "It's where I'd go if I were you and stranded here."

She doesn't know why they're saying the last thing to her but of course is hardly going to object or ask about it.

"Might I take notes again?" Not needed-for-their task but it's probably worse to forget something than to ask.

She notes the bit about an empire with parts.

"Yeah, that's probably a smart plan if you can't read Hari," says the cat. "I've got copies of the imperial laws, the laws of the state of Har, and the laws of the city of Mar Geru. If you decide to go back to Anavel Sani that'll mean you need someone to find you their laws and read them to you. Anyway do you think you've got enough space left on that paper?"

That presumably depends on how many laws they have. She thinks humans can have a lot.

"I don't know, sir."

He leans out into the hallway and calls for someone to bring more. And shortly there is more paper.

"Tell me if you end up needing more."

And the cat starts reading her the imperial laws. She's not allowed to murder or assault people or keep other people from using public areas, mostly that kind of thing. And no freeing slaves who can't be expected to follow the law.

"Is all of that clear so far?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then we can cover the state laws next," says the cat.

"She might want to move south," says the southern cop, "you don't need to waste time on northern laws if she's going to come live in Anavel Sani. Elvira, I will pay you 1152 rings to go live in Anavel Sani."

"And the Hari state government can get you a job by tomorrow and give you a room for free tonight if you're staying," says the cat.

What.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"You have a thirteenth type of magic and now more than one faction in the empire wants you. Up to you which of us you let have you. If either," says the southern cop.

...

(She manages not shaking outwardly again.)

She is pretty sure she did make the mage thing clear. More than once and everything. And their translation seemed to be working fine.

"I'm sorry, would it not be up to - whoever is in charge of me?" That's really too close to questioning, but the regular recourse for confusion hadn't helped and this is rather important.

"Well, no, how better to buy your loyalty than by freeing you?" says the cat. "When you're clear on the laws of whichever state you're going to live in, at least."

Automatic terror and she really needs to be functional right now -

...alright. Maybe they - think managing her this way would be better for them for some reason, and it's not like there's fellow mages here for her to be a bad example for (earth mages, at least; she's still not sure how exactly they do things. Though she noted the '13th type' thing). If they don't have another collar for her maybe they think managing her normally will be too expensive or something. And have noticed she hasn't started magically jumping anyone so think it's worth the risk to have her just walking around.

Or they - want to set a trap if people do follow her, or something, and think it'll work better if people aren't obviously supervising her and need a setup for that.

If she'd somehow been teleported to a black market mage trafficker and they kept her, she could consider herself kidnapped. She can probably consider herself the same, here. And she's a field mage, 'go pretend to be a human' is in the job parameters. 

If she's kidnapped she's got the four day wait on being allowed to use magic for her new owners, but there's not a restriction on obedience. If they want her living - somewhere, then she does that.

"Might I know both laws, and more about the states? I do not know the differences." Translators usually manage amounts alright; how much is that many 'rings'?

"Of course," says the southerner. "Which first?"

1152 rings is about $230, if she's familiar with the US dollar.

She's familiar.

...The one they're in right now, since she is in fact in that one right now?

The cat reads her those. They're fairly minimal, too. There are some truth in advertising laws that actually have teeth. There are some laws about protecting the natural environment and remaining wild areas. There are state taxes, too, which will also be detailed in a separate document.

Is he mentioning penalties?

Nope, those aren't considered essential to know. She could ask?

She's not asking that, that sounds like she's thinking about breaking the laws. She will assume they range from 'torture' to 'tortured to death' at least for her, as is generally the case. She works on memorizing laws.

Fortunately due to field cover lessons she knows what taxes are.

Will she get the other laws after that, or some more info about the state?

If she doesn't ask anything about the state of Har, the southerner will read her the laws of Anavel Sani, which have a strong focus on public health - there are laws about alerting the proper authorities to any cases of certain contagious illnesses, there are laws for sex workers, that kind of thing.

...do they not have medical mages?

She takes notes and works on memorizing.

"Well, do you need to know anything else to decide?" asks the southerner.

She takes this as a 'hurry the fuck up'.

"Might I go to Anavel Sani?" Money is better than a job if it might be a magic job since she can't do that yet, apparently it has more humans and her field cover lessons were not about cats, and it sounds like they're having some weird medical problem and might find her useful. 

She braces in case the cat is angry or in case they're generally angry because of her trying to make decisions.

"Great! Do you think you can follow the laws there?" the southerner asks.

"I've been taught well to obey the law, ma'am." She's pretty sure the cop wants a yes. She thinks about field cover - humans may say they can follow the law, they can think that about themselves. It's still not exactly easy to get it out - she's not in field cover now. But, "yes, ma'am."

"Okay, give me your hands? Just so I can get those bracelets off."

She's still unclear on what the point of the bracelets was. She gives her hands.

And the southerner takes the bracelets off her. "You're free to go. If you come with me I'll take you on the next flight back to Anavel Sani."

"And if you change your mind we'd be glad to have you," says the cat.

...Lack of anger is unexpected but that is just seriously bizarre. 

"Thank you." She follows the southerner.

Then she can go on yet another flight. On the way the southerner asks her what kind of work she'd be interested in doing now that she's free.

She doesn't know what kinds of work exist here? She's only seen the one apartment hallway, the aircraft, and the government building.

"Doctors, cops, teachers, tailors, journalists, working mages, farmers, fishers, hurricane tamers... people do all sorts of things. Does any of that sound like fun?"

Might she know if there something that people would particularly want from her, that they 'invited' her?

"The thing is I don't know. No one here knows exactly what the best use of your abilities would be. I just imagined telling my clan head there was a thirteenth kind of mage and I let the northerners take her and I could just about hear her chewing me out. So you'd know better than I would what you're good at."

...Might she have a few days to orient? Maybe walk around and see what things are like here? That would probably help her have a better understanding.

"Of course. ...You know, if you want I can get you a meeting with someone high up in the Varoran clan, now or after you've had a few days to get oriented."

Orienting first, please, if that is alright.

"Might I know what that is?"

"The Varoran clan? We're one of the caralendar clans that rule Anavel Sani."

"Thank you." The cop probably wouldn't ask if she didn't want it to happen, and she'd mentioned earlier the clan head was interested in Elvira. So likely that is something she ought to do.

Their flight lands. Elvira gets her rings, a promise that she can come to the Varoran clan if she needs anything, and an invitation to visit for lunch tomorrow.

Does she get a way to carry the rings? She is in her mage uniform and it doesn't have pockets. Does she get told where that would be, and when lunch is, and how she'd be able to know when that time happens?

The rings come on a string. The invitation includes all those details.

That is useful.

Where is she? Does the woman leave after that?

They're at the Anavel Sani City airport.

The woman gives her directions to the two cheapest places to stay the night nearby and then asks if Elvira needs anything else.

Is there anything important she might need to know and might not have thought of or been told already, that the woman can think of? Also what would be the cheapest way to get food.

Also, might she know how long it's been since they took her away from here before?

She definitely knows how long it's been and can answer that question. "...and anything I could think of I would have told you already. ...Food, uh, what do you eat, I've been assuming you can eat what I do but maybe that's wrong..."

If humans can eat it she can also eat it (if humans can't eat it she might be able to). She can also rattle off various things she's eaten. Rice, noodles, potatoes, bread, meat, chicken, beans, vegetables, fruits, nuts...

"If you can eat fish and you're a force mage - if whatever you are is close enough - you don't have to pay anyone anything if you fish, as long as you don't sell the fish or transport any too far inland. That's your cheapest option, other than that just buy things at the market, I guess."

She thanks the woman. Waits to see if there's anything else. And if there isn't -

It seems like what she is supposed to do is go off into - 'Anavel Sani'. So she does that.

(Once she's far away enough, she pauses for a moment. They didn't say anything about field cover, but they might not really know how it works, and if she's supposed to be wandering around town -. She's in her mage uniform, which is unideal but she can manage it, and it's not like anyone here should recognize it as such. Her body language, the way she carries herself, change. The way she's set to move, the way she's set to talk. 

(No collar, now, rather than the invisible kind. She's not used to it, not at all, but from outside they won't be able to tell.))

And she goes.

The city is fairly small for a city. She's not all that far from the apartment she teleported into, which looks as if nothing happened to it. By now there's no sign of the man she came with.

It's not a very friendly city. No one tries to talk to her. People avoid looking straight at each other. But if she watches people closely enough then besides making them angry she'll notice an awful lot of pointy ears and she might notice that people's faces look a little different. It's hard to say that any one face couldn't belong to any ordinary human, and maybe it's just normal for whatever ethnicity these people are, but in the aggregate they look different from any group of humans she's ever seen before.

That and there are all the people who are clearly not human at all.

Well, it would be odd if they just stood there with him this whole time.

She isn't going to go staring at anyone. She notices that no one else is doing it ('observing cultural behavior to blend it' is in field cover lessons) and it's not really a good idea in most places and she definitely doesn't want to make anyone angry if she can help it. But she has other senses available (using them, collarless and on her own, will be pushing around fear, but 'use default-collar-permitted amount of senses that could make a serious difference at succeeding in this job' currently seems a better risk than 'mess something up in a way senses might have helped her avoid'). 

People around looking somewhat different from humans is the sort of thing that happens when you're on another planet, she thinks.

The better she can manage the 'be in this city' part of what they apparently want from her, the more chance that she can maybe deflect them on doing magic until the four days are up. (She thinks she can probably hold out that long under torture if they insist on magic anyway, knowing what'll happen if she doesn't, but maybe they have something creative or maybe she's overestimating herself and maybe they won't stop at that point once the days are past and she can obey about magic, and anyway she doesn't at all want to do that.)

She mentally divides up the money among the days she has left, with some left for after that because 'may do magic' doesn't actually mean 'will have more money'. She goes to look at the places the woman recommended, to see if she can afford to sleep there, and to find and look at a/the market, to see if she can afford to eat.

She keeps an eye out for things like 'jobs' and 'local power-havers and what's going on with them'.

She can stay somewhere. She can eat, but the selection isn't very appetizing. There's a lot of fresh produce available, though.

The want ads are publicly available, but they're all written in Ilan. There's someone flying over the ocean but it's not clear why, might just be going for a joyride.

She pays for whatever the somewhere entails (What does it entail?) 

She may have different standards for 'appetizing'. She's confused by literally all the fish/meat being raw, and also by their lack of bread or anything resembling it. Or rice. Or noodles. Or anything else of the sort. Wonders if they have something against grains. No, there's something that looks like a grain. She thinks. Maybe it's the wrong kind of grain? And this planet doesn't have other kinds? Or they didn't - invent them? Or invent the making things out of them? (She's pretty sure that's something that's invented.)

'You eat what you're given' can't exactly apply since she's wandering in field cover and not in a mages' hall being given anything, but it applies close enough. She buys nuts and produce, eats. (She's guessing the cheap place to stay doesn't come with cooking facilities.)

Does she need to buy water, or do they get water some other way?

The cheap place sure doesn't come with cooking facilities. It does come with faucet access and climate-controlled dry private space with a one-way window looking out on the water.

She wanders the city, goes back to where she's staying, sleeps. Wakes, wanders the city some more. Spends allocated money on further food and eats it at appropriate times and intervals.

She's been in small private spaces alone in field cover before. For hours at a time and overnight, even - it doesn't come up often, but it does ever.

She can't say she likes it very much. She's taking it for granted that she's being watched - by scrying or something, probably, unless they watched to see what room she got and had someone put in a camera while she was out. But she doesn't get any feedback off that like she might of a minder or a handler in the room. Even wandering around the city, which was weird enough for that long a time period in a row, she could presume that people might react somehow if she started doing something at least they knew she wasn't supposed to.

And given what circumstances are usually involved in being in small private spaces alone out of field cover (not that this place resembles a punishment cell much, at least), the associations are really not helping matters.

But this is what she has, so that's what it is.

There's some kind of matt on the floor, which she does appreciate. She's a field mage, and she's trained in and used to sleeping in beds in field cover as needed, just as she's used to sleeping unanchored, no waking up panicking from the lack of the chain from her wrist to the floor. Given everything she's managing at the moment, it's still rather nice not to have one more thing.

She sleeps. She wakes. She goes out.

They definitely have more local power-havers here. She watches someone at market turning things different colors for people, watches someone else heating some food items for customers, watches assorted people move objects without touching them. With senses can spot magic around - something on some of the food (she thinks some of it is keeping insects and the like away.) On the window in the room.

By the time she's wandered a while, between the 'thirteenth type of magic' thing and what she's seeing, she's developing the hypothesis that power-havers here have way stronger specialization constraints of some kind (maybe something like the 'superpowers' sort of power havers?) - plenty of people casually do something, but she's yet to see anyone at all both heat things and move their crates without touching them, or the like.

The bracelets of unclear purpose turn out to be a rather common feature. Conveniently possibly clarifyingly so - from dynamics, she has a guess that they're the local slavery marker, which would be consistent with her own personal experience of them.

Also literally all children seem to be wearing them.

She also keeps an eye out for signs of their possible weird medical problem. She's been in countries with poor universal access to medical mages - people with non-fully-healed old injuries, major scars, nerve damage, etc?

There are people with scars. There are also people with congenital disabilities and old people. There's a medical office but presumably she can't read the sign.

The really important people don't do magic in public (but it might be hard to tell, since they do use enchanted items) but not all the people who do use it are slaves. Lots of apparently free people think nothing of casually using magic for their own convenience.

Old people is not relevant to this particular analysis, though she notes old power-users looking like old people she hasn't seen doing any magic. She can indeed not read the sign.

Yep, she's basically sure they have non-mage power-havers here, though not entirely sure if they also have any who are. Also if bracelets do indeed mean slavery she thinks it possibly looks more like that humans-enslave-each-other kind of slavery, based on how everyone's acting.

She may not be able to tell who's important. She partially reflexively watches for anything that looks like law enforcement.

And when it's time she follows the cop from the days before's directions to the lunch.

Law enforcement isn't obvious.

Lunch is just the two of them (this time). Everything's human-edible, but it's all mostly vegetables. Elvira's hostess takes the chance to ask her what she thinks of Anavel Sani so far.

You eat what you're given, not that she in fact has anything against vegetables. 

Field cover lessons covered small talk but this person knows she's a mage; presumably what she wants is a report or something. Which would be easier if she was surer what she might be supposed to report on, aside from probably the job thing.

She's walked around. She's gotten a beginning acquaintance with the market. She's trying to look at things so that she can better understand possible jobs. She's still not really sure how the local power-haver situation works.

(She's hoping bringing it up like that gives somewhat higher chances of an answer vs the possibility that they won't like her doing all this agent-thinking on her own.)

Her hostess gives a summary of the twelve kinds of mage. Mostly. She writes void magic off as useless and illegal and doesn't give an adequate description of how it works.

The concept of everyone being a power-haver is - somewhat staggering. (Sometimes in movies dryads can all magically grow plants or something, but she doesn't think she's seen anything of this level. Even in a movie). 

Well, that explanation of kinds-of-mage certainly matches and explains what she's been seeing.

Might she know more about this illegal magic, in case it's something she can do, so that she knows to avoid it? Are any other kinds of magic illegal?

It creates vacuum by destroying things. No other kind of magic is illegal per se, but if she telekinetically stole someone's property or used magic to cook someone to death, say, that could be illegal.

Nod.

Well that would be the opposite of surprising (of course, in her experience it tends to be the case that doing the same thing with magic would in fact be worse.)

She's not very sure what else she should be reporting. Attempts some more strategic information getting -

Her translator seems to be continuing to do well in helping her speak and understand, but she's been having challenges in some areas due not not being able to read at all, since she doesn't even know the alphabet. She's noticed people tend to act differently towards those wearing the particular bracelets, is that something she should know more about? (That kind of observation is within work parameters for field mages; hopefully they might also not mind it.)

She explains that they're probably the command bracelets slaves and prisoners have to wear. And maybe Elvira would like to learn the alphabet? It's the same for Ilan and Hari, sort of, except that some of the letters are pronounced differently. And written differently.

She knows what command magic is now, gets the probable idea behind command bracelets. It's a kind of horrifying idea. (That's possibly not entirely rational - it isn't as though being watched all the time for the possibility of doing forbidden things, and tortured for it, actually leaves much ability to do them, nor is especially pleasant.

The feeling still remains - she wasn't going to choose to do anything to get herself tortured to death if she could avoid it. But she could have, if she decided otherwise (and hadn't been killed in childhood for being that sort of person, but there it is). And at least they did have to put in all that effort, for the watching. (That seems like a weird thought to be having. Apparently she has it anyway.))

Practice at keeping various thoughts internal seems to apply just fine to weird ones.

Might she know about how slavery/prisonership here works?

(Internal) flinch at 'would like'. But they want to be pretending they freed her or whatever of the sort. The alphabet seems rather useful and possibly needed for what she's doing (also she would indeed like, but).

Yes, thank you, she would like.