"This Emperor does not sound like someone who cares for the good of his own people. I am willing to help you, for a short while at least, while I collect my own information. I will not take any drastic actions until I have seen the truth of things with my own eyes."

The rebel still doesn't quite trust her, but if she's being honest about looking for information she'll see the truth of the empire soon enough.  

The priest is upset, and that's making the mage upset.  It probably doesn't help that he's been watching the others staring at each other, having a telepathic conversation he isn't privy to.  Noticing this, the rebel hands him a loose set of clothing, taking the more fitted tunic for himself.

"We're going to need to seperate the mage and necromancer.  If you're finished with him, we can knock him out and leave before he gets up.  Otherwise, mage and I will have to go on ahead and meet up later.  We might need to do that anyway, unless your hope magic can do something about your clothing."

"It can. I'd rather he not see me out of my raiment. He doesn't seem to have much more information, so I'm fine knocking him out, and can do that safely myself."

Plus, her telepathy doesn't, actually, have a range limit if she wants to contact the priest later, and there's potentially no one to spy on the network here.

"I'm ready to leave when you are," the rebel says, squeezing past her to get to the ladder.  He does a quick burst of magic, looking out, before opening up the hidden door.  

To the priest: "I'm leaving with them for now, to see what I can discover from within. I may contact you later."

Then she'll touch him, her magic easily knocking him out, and will follow the rebel after dismissing her raiment in a quick glow of red light.

They take a mix of main roads and side streets, twice passing through buildings.  There are quite a few people bustling to and fro, going about various tasks with either an air of haste or sullen determination.  

Finally, they reach another secret entrance.  Two people are below, both mages, with their powers matching up with the feel of two of the rebel magic varieties.  They both have something odd about their emotions.  All of the feelings of "lacking something" are present in an anomalous cluster - hunger, exhaustion, boredom, loneliness - not quite at the point where they would interfere with normal life, but noticeable.

She notes that. Doesn't ask about it just yet.

(She's listening rather intently to the scraps of conversation she hears. She needs to pick up their language fast. First step is identifying the phonemes...)

"Is this the location?"

"Yeah.  There should be a pair of our mages coming by to talk to the new one.  We're kind of early, so I don't know if they're here yet."

This entrance is in a blacksmith's shop, accessed through the back entrance where the coal is delivered.  Down the staircase is a much larger room, full of rough furniture and the clutter of somewhere actually lived in.  There's a scent of strong soap along with the more expected smells like coal and ale, and the many stacked mugs look unusually clean.  

Both people Narangerel could sense are in the room.  One is a tall and gangly boy of about 19, scrubbing at a tabletop.  The other is about 18, not quite looking like either a boy or girl, dozing half-asleep on a low bench with their head propped up on a bag.  

"Hey.  Were there two magehearts?"

"No.  This is the mage.  This is a foreign magician of some kind who appeared out of nowhere in the middle of our operation.  Is Shi'Melaki still planning on coming in later today?"

"Last I heard."  The lounging mage waves to them.  "Hi.  I'm Nomo'Lessa, and that's Nomo'Vine.  We're two of the mages around here."

The rebel translates this telepathically for Narangerel.

"Hi. I'm Narangerel. I'm foreign," she says, slowly and with an accent. Then, telepathically, "If there is time, I would like to work on this language."

"There's nothing but time in here, at least on the day-to-day scale," the lounging mage says, eyebrows furrowing as they focus on sending telepathically and speaking aloud at the same time.  "We don't have much to do other than make the occasional charge-stone."

The tall one says something, looking suspiciously towards the newcomers.  

"He says to wash your hands," Nomo'Lessa translates, realizing that Nomo'Vine won't.  Then, both telepathically and aloud, "His mage-power lets him sense the things that cause sickness, and they can be on hands and surfaces even if they look clean.  Everyone washes their hands when they come in, before they eat, and after using the chamber pots."  

There's a basin and a few water barrels near the door.  The rebel who led them here goes first, presumably already used to the procedure.

"Is the water boiled? My people say that appeases the sickness-demons within it," she sends, but goes to wash.

"It's boiled with the heat from the forges," Nomo'Lessa confirms. "That's why me and Nomo'Vine are in this hideout - he uses more water than anyone, and it's hard to get that much water boiled secretly."

"They're more like..." Nomo'Vine begins, then tries sending telepathically.  "The things that cause sickness are tiny living things, not spirits.  Heat kills them."

"Yeah," the rebel confirms, shuddering.  "Anyone who uses the healing charge-stones has to see them while trying to tell the healing power what to fix.  That's why we're the cleanest people in the city."  Then, to just Nomo'Lessa, "I'm going to crash for the afternoon.  Tell Shi'Melaki the Sa'Len hideout's been compromised, if I'm not up when she gets here."

Tiny living things - 

Fascinating.

Her mind spins through implications, even as she nods. (And she recognizes several of the words used by the rebel, remembers the sentence for later analysis. A hideout was mentioned, though, so she can guess the topic.)

"There's much I don't know," she says aloud, having strung together enough meanings. Her accent's getting less noticeable. Then, telepathically: "But I learn fast, and I would like to know what I can."

"Most people don't know the tiny-life-form thing," Nomo'Lessa assures her.  "Just us and the nobles.  We're waiting on destroying The Ranch before we can start putting resources towards educating others - especially since the only way anyone knows about the tiny-life-forms is using Nomo'Vine's power and that would give the nobles a clue to where he is."

The new mage has been getting agitated, and is not interested in discussing medicine or letting Nomo'Vine tell him how to wash his hands properly. 

"Is anyone going to explain what's going on?  I was sentenced to death, had my heart ripped out, am somehow still alive and also have a weird new power, and have been carried and led around the city by people who are having weird telepathic conversations.  I just want to go home!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Nomo'Lessa says.  "I didn't realize you hadn't been caught up yet."  They begin to explain mages, all information Narangerel has already heard.  Halfway through they remember that they should probably send telepathically too.  Lots of new words, particularly for discussing magic.

"What's your power, weakness, and hunger?" they ask the new mage, when they're done with the explanation.  "I can see everything that happens within about a hundred feet, and my hunger is looking at the stars.  Nomo'Vine can sense and change things about his body - mostly healing, though we think that other things can be done too - and he needs to be cared about.  Uh, weaknesses are something Shi'Melaki says we should keep secret.  I guess don't tell us that one.  Also, I didn't catch your name."

"Zon'Ruth," he says.  "I can... if I'm riding a horse, I can tell it where I want it to go with my mind.  And I've had a weird craving for eggs since I was turned."

She hums. "There are a lot of things I do not know to ask..." she says, having picked up those words from the conversation. "New words are good."

"How long will I have to stay down here?" Zon'Ruth asks.  "Like I said, I do have places to be..."

Nomo'Lessa replies "You were arrested and sent to be executed.  It's not safe for you to return to where you were.  Shi'Melaki, one of our leaders, is coming by in a few hours.  Talk to her, stay the night, we can send someone to get whatever family or things you're worried about taken care of, then you can either join us or leave the Empire with whatever silver we can scrape together for you.  Okay?"

Zon'Ruth still doesn't look happy, but nods and sits down at one of the many tables.

Nomo'Lessa turns away from him sends Narangerel a translation of what was said.  "So, what about you?  What else can you do other than the telepathy, and does your magic have any costs we can help with?"

"I can do a lot. My wish makes me learn very quickly. Magicals in general can fly, move quickly, attack powerfully, defend themselves, heal. Using magic worsens my mood, which I suppose might be something that can be helped."

"Ras'Ezza's power is to manipulate emotions when she touches people.  Our power also has emotional side effects, so Shi'Melaki'll have some of those charge-stones with her when she comes by."

"That'd be helpful, yes."

Then all they have to do is wait for her to show up.  In the meantime, Nomo'Lessa can explain various things.  Unprompted, they talk about where the fabrics for clothing come from, the sorts of food the other rebels tend to bring down, what the blacksmiths above are making, and other things that might make for useful vocabulary.

She absorbs it all rapidly, and is soon enough sounding nearly fluent. (It'll probably take her another day and exposure to a wider variety of topics to be truly fluent, but she can hold conversations, now).

An incredibly beautiful woman walks down the stairs into the hideout shortly before sunset.  She places down her lantern by the door and sits down at a table.  The eyes of everyone else in the room are immediately drawn to her - clearly a necromancer.  As expected, she's carrying a number of chargestones with her.  

"Hello, I'm Shi'Melaki, one of the leaders of this group.  You'd be Narangerel?  I've heard a bit about you already.  How have you found your time here?"