Various skin tones darker than hers. Mostly men. Lots of layers of fabric, most of them white and very thin; it's very hot out. People are walking casually around her as if a foreigner teleported suddenly in is not very unusual or notable. 

It's a narrow street with the buildings all around mostly three or four stories tall, and more unsteady-looking the taller they are; the ground level is mostly shops.

She starts walking. She can't read the signs, but she can see if any of the shops look like they might buy her watch, probably as a curio since it operates on Valinor time, or some of her jewelry - she's got a few things in her hair that aren't holding the braids together, a bracelet, a ring, two necklaces, two earcuffs, and she wishes she'd loaded up a bit more now, getting dressed this morning she'd had some idea of not wanting to distract from the pretty trim on her robes with ten pounds of gold - and then she can see about getting her immediate needs met with whatever she collects that way.

It takes a couple of blocks of walking (past a temple and a watchtower and a grand gilded statue) but there are pawn shops and jewelry shops to be found.

She will try an actual jewelry shop first, a pawn shop will probably not get her as much. How about this one, it has plausibly Elf-aesthetic pendants in the window.

Excuse me.

The proprietor blinks at her but takes this in stride.

Can I help you?

I need cash more than jewelry right now. Do you deal in secondhand stuff at all?

Sure. He extends his hand for her stuff.

She takes off the ring - silver, a double rainbow of little stones wrapping all the way around - and her least favorite hair clip, the rose gold with the diamonds and the floral design, first.

These're quite nice. - I'll buy them but honestly you'd get a better price in the Old City, just across the canal from here. Direction of the dome. Where the rich people live.

- oh, that's very kind of you to tell me. I don't really know my way around the city.

You look foreign, yes.

She puts the ring and the clip back on. I'd offer to tip you for the information but I don't have any cash, I'm sorry.

The universe has a way of repaying its debts, he says peaceably. 

She shivers, just a little, though it's still very hot (she keeps being tempted to do magic about it but no.) Well, thank you.

And she goes out of the shop and across to where he indicated. She's so glad her boots work. She will still need to schedule time to panic, but with her boots working she can probably postpone that till she has an actual room at an inn to do it in.

Across the canal there's more space between the buildings and the streets are wider and have vendors sitting on the ground selling religious icons and jewelry (tackier than hers) and maps and so on. And there are fancier jewelry shops.

She picks a fancy jewelry shop and tries the same introduction.

This person is even less surprised and quotes her a price that's about half what similar things are selling for in the windows.

She supposes that's reasonable. She'll sell the clip and the ring but not unload anything else at that price.

Does she want it all in gold or does she want some silver too? 

Silver, thanks.

He counts them out and hands them over.

Thank you.

Of course. Come back if you decide to sell any of the rest!

I'll bear that in mind!

She goes looking for inns.

In this part of town they're very fancy. Elaborate architecture and spacious balconies and spacious ground-floor restaurants full of well-dressed people.

Hm. She doesn't know this city; the crime rate might be better or worse in the fancy part of town, since it's target-rich but probably also better policed. Not having to figure out food separately would be convenient. Things are prettier here and she's finding herself kind of flinchy about that. She eyeballs prices, picking up translations of numerals and currency from other people looking at them. It's harder to be quite that exact when she can't rely on people being used to osanwë protocol but she can manage without making any mistakes. How does a night at one of the upscale inns compare to what she has in her pockets?

She could make it a couple months even at the upscale inns on the value of the jewelry. Maybe a little less than that if food is similarly expensive.

Okay. She looks for one in this general neighborhood that looks like it has ever heard of being economical but honestly her sense of that is kind of shot, she's been in Valinor (she is not going to burst into tears in the middle of the street, no, she is going to get a room first) for a long time.

Hello, I'd like a room for one.

One crown a night. Two for a suite.

I don't need a suite. Does that come with meals?

No, but you can put meals on the tab for your room if you'd like.

Okay, thank you. I might extend my stay past a night but I'm not sure yet. She passes him one of the ones that's called a crown.

And she gets a heavy metal key that goes to a room with a nice four-poster bed and some artwork (of the city and of various ruins) that wouldn't pass muster in Valinor.

Now it's time to panic.

Is there... hotel stationery, or actually what she should really be checking for is a magic mirror or a crystal ball. But she'll settle for stationery.

Not in the room.

Weird. It will take longer to stop crying without anything to write with but she'll just have to make do.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

At least the place didn't smite her on the spot, her boots still work, maybe Fëanáro will be okay when he makes it here.

There's occasional noise in the hallways. Eventually the sun sets. 

She pulls herself together to go out and get dinner once she notices it's dark.

On the first floor they're serving drinks (probably alcoholic, because those people over there look drunk) and bread and cheese and seafood and stuffed birds. Someone is using illusion magic to tell a story to a moderately-sized, fascinated crowd. Someone else is playing music on a unfamiliar possibly-magical instrument.

She orders a "what he's having" once she has identified someone with a nice looking spread. She looks for a place to sit by herself.

Lots of tables in lonely corners of the room.

Lonely corner of the room it is.

The story concludes. People drift away. One drifts by her and says something.

Hm?

Raised eyebrows. Sorry, didn't mean to bother you. I asked if you were waiting for someone.

No, I'm by myself, why?

Are you looking for a party?

- I'm not actually an adventurer.

He shrugs and turns to leave.

She finishes dinner and asks the receptionist if they have a magic mirror or a crystal ball anywhere.

They do not have those, those are super expensive and rare.

Okay. Do they have a world map or know where she could find one?

Oh yeah there's probably one of those in the materials for tourists that're here somewhere behind the desk. 

She finds it after a moment.

She stares at that for a while and then asks if they could translate the scale for her.

A mile is the diameter of the great dome outside, or a tenth the distance a soldier can march in a day, or about ten city blocks.

Okay. This is a side plane then. That's complicated. She thanks the innkeeper and asks about where she could get paper.

There's a shop right down this street.

Then that is where she will go.

They have regular paper and ink and also paper and ink for spellbooks which is ten times as expensive and also some spell scrolls.

NOPE not touching those just some normal paper and pen please.

Sure, that's cheap, here she goes.

Back to her hotel room to write all evening and then try to go to sleep to get on local time.

There aren't other women in the streets on her way back. The city quiets substantially at night.

She's not paying that much attention to the gender balance.

She bought a lot of paper and will need a significant fraction.

Fëanáro is certainly going to try to come after her but will probably not be able to get anywhere on that for a long time so he's not in immediate danger. She doesn't dare cast anything, but her boots and watch work and haven't caused any problems yet. It'd be... pretty darn antisocial... to sell the boots and buy locally enchanted replacements, because if she did that it'd be because she was worried they'd explode on her or something. She can't do without very effectively, so she will tentatively hope these continue to work.

She doesn't dare try to go back to Arda, but it's probably safe to try to get back to the Imperium. That will just take planar transit instead of an airship. That's going to be expensive, probably more than the value of all her jewelry even if she doesn't eat through any more of it with room and board expenses. She's not an adventurer, but the idea deserves a few minutes' thought, it'd be the fastest way to make money... she isn't an effective enough psion to adventure on that basis and certainly can't lean on being a wizard, and she doesn't have a therapy license and even if she did she wouldn't have a local one. Plus going on an adventure in her boots would be more dangerous than walking down the street in them.

The Valar are stupid and terrible and she HATES THEM.

It is probably not safe to predicate any major action of any kind on Valinor's existence. That means no message for Rúmil (sending one to Fëanáro probably wouldn't even help). She can almost certainly keep braiding her hair and wear these robes till they fall apart and try to reproduce Tirion street food when she has a kitchen but nothing else.

She's been gone for a long time, so everyone back home thinks she's dead or worse, so she doesn't have to be in a particular hurry because the issue's moot from their perspective.

She needs to know how much a plane shift casting costs around here and maybe look into getting a local therapy license. Or she could do translation, maybe, she hasn't sensed any other subtle artists and while it doesn't seem unheard of it may be rare on this plane? So maybe that's a niche.

She could fall asleep now. She goes to bed.

No one interrupts her.

She goes and gets breakfast in the morning. She asks if the innkeeper happens to know how much plane shift castings cost.

Four hundred fifty, five hundred crowns, some people will quote her more but unless she's in a roaring hurry she can generally find something at that price if she asks around enough. 

She counts what she's got, after returning to her room post-breakfast.

Thirty eight. Selling all the jewelry might get her reasonably close.

She'd really rather not, but she'd better find out if she can finagle it that way sooner than later. Out she goes to try to find quotes from wizards.

Couple people will quote her five hundred.

She goes back to the jewelry shop to have everything on her appraised.

They'd go as high as, like, four hundred ten.

Okay. She will try a few more wizards and a few more jewelry shops and have lunch and try a few more but if she can't make ends meet she will spend the second half of the afternoon inquiring about such a thing as a therapy license or a niche for her translation services.

What's a therapy license? She can ....therapize people... if they want to pay her to do it. Is this associated with the counseling services offered by some churches? This country's leaders are chosen by Abadar and Abadar is lawful neutral but all non-Evil and non-Chaotic faiths are allowed here and many of them have at least a little bit of a following, she could probably find hers. 

Comprehend Languages is a first-level spell and doesn't require an intermediary so it seems unlikely that'd be very lucrative? Telepaths are definitely wanted in the civil service, though, for interrogations and so on, and one expects it'd pay absurdly well.

She can get an offer for the jewelry as high as 430 and a offer for the plane shift as low as 450.

...therapy doesn't require a license here? That sounds like a terrible idea but convenient. Are there existing practices she could hire on with?

No one has super heard of therapy so...probably not? There are, like, business license requirements but they're not specific to therapy, they just mean you have to tell the state what you do and pay your taxes and make them aware of your skills so they can conscript you in an emergency and so on.

Oh. Where does one do that and how do freelance types advertise?

At the courthouse or a temple of Abadar. People might advertise in newspapers or with posters?

Okay. She will look for a temple of Abadar.

There are lots of those! They're bigger than the other temples and more gilded.

But do they have obvious reception desks, that's the question.

They do!

Hello, I was told I need to go through the temple for a business license if I want to open a therapeutic practice.

You are actually also allowed to go through the courthouse but we can certainly help with that. Do you have money on hand to pay fees?

Some, but I don't know how much the fees are.

Two gold, or seven weekly payments of two silver if that's easier. I can make it fourteen payments in cases of hardship.

I have two gold. I'm not going to be able to fill out forms without help because I don't know the local language.

You can also get a Comprehend Languages here, but if you choose not to I can help you when I'm not helping other visitors.

Are they expensive?

One gold and three silver unless you'd like to join the temple, in which case it's free.

I think I'll just wait for your help if that's all right.

Of course. 

And she points someone else in the right direction and then talks her through the form.

What is her name and species and is she a magic user and if so of what type?

Isabella Mariel Swan. Human. What's the legal definition of a magic user?

You must be, with the telepathy? A person who can channel arcane, divine, or less-understood forces to achieve magic.

I grew up in a place where the telepathy is considered technically distinct from magic, but if you count it I guess I'm a magic user. The variety is called "subtle arts" where I'm from but there might be a different local name.

I know some arcane magic but for reasons I would rather not explain I am not going to be casting any arcane spells for the foreseeable future.

I haven't heard of anyone who can do telepathy without the spell. I'm not an expert on magic, though. I will make a note.

I'm also telekinetic through the same mechanism if you need to note that.

Better to be thorough, probably. 

God, if any? National origin, if it's not Osirion?

None. It's called the Imperium. If you need a more distinguishing name "Magisterian Imperium" is acceptable.

Do you want an introduction to Abadar and to Osirian theology? It's free.

I guess that would be prudent.

Great! There's a morning class, an evening one and a weekend one, and we can make another time slot work if none of those do, though if we make one for you you have to commit to attending.

Is this every day, would I just come back after dinner tonight?

The morning and evening classes are every day, yes.

What time?

Third bells and fourteenth bells.

Okay, thanks.

For sure! Intended form of business?

In the Imperium subtle artists are often trained as therapists, I thought I'd try doing that here.

Okay. Does this involve the sale of weapons, magic items, magic texts, religious texts...

None of those.

Can you summarize any risks you perceive from your business?

It's possible to make errors in implementing telepathy-based therapeutic techniques, some of which I can fix and some of which I wouldn't be able to. A wide variety of mental side effects are possible. I'd inform patients of those risks before going ahead with any procedure.

Do you understand that if you have reason to believe someone is accessing your services in order to commit or evade detection for a crime, you are required by law to make a police report within two hours for a serious crime and twenty-four hours for a minor crime?

Uh, I've taken an oath of confidentiality. I'm not actually sure it conflicts with that because I'm not sure how accessing my services would help someone commit or evade detection for a crime, but it could result in me knowing about crimes I'd be forbidden to report. - And I guess someone might try to access my services as an accomplice after the fact if they wanted to be made to forget they'd committed a crime or something, in which case I wouldn't have to provide the service but the confidentiality oath would still apply.

Huh, okay. 

I - should probably get that cleared with someone with the authority to clear it. Priests of some religions are permitted to hear and not report confessions of crimes so there's probably a form for it but I don't know offhand.

Okay. How long will that take?

If you come back this evening I should have it then. We can fill out the rest of the form and then it shouldn't delay your processing any.

Okay. Thirteenth bells?

That's right.

Thank you.

And she goes back toward the inn, a little circuitously, to have lunch.

Deviled eggs and eccentric fruits and a spicy curry fish thing! Someone is shapechanging on a different table, to general applause.

She claps. She eats deviled eggs and eccentric fruits and curried fish. She goes to her room and has a crying jag and pays for another night at the inn but then goes for more of a walk looking for longer-term accommodations.

The Old City surrounds the enormous black dome, and is encompassed by the old city wall which is now pierced through in many places by streets connecting it to the rest of the city. There are plazas and fountains and large temples like the one where she's signed up for classes, and the apartments in narrow alleys behind all of this tend expensive. Across the canal is what's called the canal district, where she landed, and it's cheaper, with the streets narrower and more crowded. Northwest of the canal district there are mostly artisans. 

Are there apartments near the artisans?

Yep! Somewhat expensive (and nice) towards the canals, cheaper as you go farther out from the canals.

She economizes a bit in her search. Asks passersby where there are apartments to rent, since she can't read the signs.

The telepathy makes people a bit jumpier, out here. But they know who has a spare room or a empty apartment and can find her a reasonably nice place for 8 gold a month, much cheaper than the inn.

She apologizes for startling people and promises she isn't reading their minds past what they try to say to her. Asks if the place will be available in a few days. Does it have furniture?

Can be if she wants to pay first month's rent now. It does have furniture.

Is the lease month to month?

Yes.

Then yeah, she can pay a month now.

The apartment is on the third floor and looks out on a little courtyard where children play. The people below it are glassblowers. 

It'll do. She'll come back when she's meant to move in.

Walk walk walk so she can be at the temple for thirteenth bells.

Then they can fill out her form before the class starts! 

Is she married? Widowed?

Neither.

Relatives in Osirion?

Almost certainly not but she hasn't been in touch with her family in about twenty years.

Okay. That works since she's a magic user.  

What is the oath she took, exact wording?

The exact wording's in a language called Pax, will the telepathic translation do?

Ideally I'd write down both the original and the translation.

Bella can write the original and translate as she goes for the person to write in the local language. Not supposed to reveal any information she comes by via telepathy without subject's consent defined thus, not supposed to make any changes without subject consent with the following exceptions.

All right. And with a few more administrative questions she's set to open her business, her license valid for a year "unless you get married or adopted, in which case the head of your family would need to come in to get a new one."

"...okay."

Anything else? We have a bit of time before the class gets started. Oh, we should get you a language spell for that.

The instructor objects to telepathy, or there's written material?

It's a group class and it seems like it'd be tricky for the instructor to send and speak at once and to get all the students to send their questions. There's also a little bit of written material but it's not required, not everyone can read.

I don't need people to actually send if they're also speaking aloud, usually, "the thing I'm saying" is a distinct enough thought. I won't turn down the spell if it's free to use for the class, but I'm not sure I want to spend money on it.

It's free for the class. 

Okay then.

So they get her her unnecessary language spell and then the class can start.

The class is her and some teenagers in identical dress. 

The topic today is the nine afterlives. (They seem to thnk there are precisely nine, or at least nine that 99% of people from this plane get sent into). The goddess Pharasma sorts everyone into the appropriate afterlife by alignment when they die. 

The chaotic evil afterlife is the Abyss, full of demons which torment you and then eventually consume you, though the details vary by which demon rules whatever realm you find yourself in. There are illustrations and some harrowing tales from resurrected repenting former evildoers. The neutral evil afterlife is called Abaddon, and its monsters called daemons. It's dim and foggy and the daemons eat you. The lawful evil afterlife is Hell, where people are systematically tortured for eternity by devils aiming to destroy their capacity for free will and make devils of them. 

The chaotic neutral afterlife is the Maelstrom, which shifts too much to build anything in it but whose souls are incorporeal and can therefore endure it, though eventually having all your experiences be totally unpredictable and unrelated to your actions leads to madness. The true neutral afterlife contains the option to instead grow in character and pick an alignment, or to be a bureaucrat of the afterlife, or to just wander around. 

The lawful neutral afterlife is Axis. It's a city, or a million different cities all tucked in neatly around each other and connected by portals that means no two are ever far apart. Each has their own laws, and so each forms its own distinct, safe and peaceful culture. There is no scarcity. Many gods have realms there. Abadar's realm is Aktar, one of the largest districts of Axis, and at its center is the First Vault where he has a copy of everything that anyone has ever made. 

People can visit Axis. It's expensive but it's a good idea for many people who struggle with faith and need to see something to be motivated to get there. Abadar makes Aktun so safe that even mortals can travel there, for the cost of a plane shift, and encourages this so they'll take away ideas of architecture and city design in addition to inspiration to be lawful.

...okay, maybe this plane has some of its own afterlives.

The lawful good afterlife is Heaven and it is a very large mountain with different levels that correspond to your spiritual needs. In one level, for example, they teach philosophy. ...lawful good people tend to claim that Heaven is better than Axis, just harder to describe, or alternatively to acknowledge that it's not as pleasant as Axis but it does the important work of combatting the forces of evil. 

The neutral good afterlife is Nirvana, and it has angels that guide you to enlightenment. It's reportedly restful and beautiful. The chaotic good afterlife is Elysium and it has harsh wilderness with no civilization but this is reportedly less disastrous than one would expect since its residents are mostly good and self-sufficient. The main problem is that it's really hard to get to a good afterlife, and no civilization anywhere in the world gets more than 30% of their people to Good (it can be as little as 1%) and the chaotic afterlives that aren't good, suck.

In light of that, where you want to go as an individual might vary but the obvious civilizational default is lawful neutral. Most citizens get to go to Axis. Only about ten percent are evil and damned to Hell, lower than anywhere else they know of. That's Abadar's wisdom - he created an afterlife that's good for ordinary people and that relies on virtues that can be taught in the material world. More about that next class. Questions?

Bella wants to know how the statistics are collected!

Scrying on a sample (from birth records) of two hundred now-dead citizens of Osirion, every year.

...that's honestly pretty cool.

How far does "everything anyone has ever made" go?

It contains a perfect copy of all the works of mortals; some people say that it also contains concepts, or also objects of the natural world, but this is less certain. It is said that Abadar created it when he saw early mortals first attempt to put their possessions in safe places to survive harsh weather or other mortals. It's disputed whether that means the very earliest works of mortals aren't there; the church holds that they are, but they didn't hear this from him personally. 

Okay but does that include, like, people's diaries, or just their attempts at prose in the sort of medium that gets shared?

It includes things like diaries also, those are works of mortals.

...'kay.

Some other people have questions about the various afterlives and about why other places aren't lawful neutral ("well, if the laws suck then most people aren't very good at being lawful just for the desirable afterlife, and if you try to be lawful according to some code other than the law or the code of a religious order it's too hard for most people to succeed. And in most places the laws are quite bad. Abadar is loved across the world, though.")

As things wrap she asks if there's a syllabus for the rest of the sequence of courses she could have a look at.

There is! 

She joined partway through a cycle. The remaining classes are:

Teachings of Abadar: war and peace

Teachings of Abadar: wealth and commerce

Teachings of Abadar: when to disobey a law

Teachings of Abadar: why injustice?

Laws of Osirion: towards what ends is law designed?

Laws of Osirion: the Pharaoh

Laws of Osirion: divine guidance

Laws of Osirion: comparison with other societies

Then it starts again with:

History of Abadar

History of Osirion

The Book of Numbers

First Obedience

The World To Come

She writes this down in Pax to allow prioritization in the future and thanks the teacher for her time. When will her business license be ready?

Probably tomorrow but maybe the next day what with the confidentiality waiver.

Okay.

She goes back to the inn, pays for until her apartment will be move-in ready. Has dinner.

This time no one bothers her.

"War and Peace" isn't one of the most interesting sounding courses but she doesn't yet have other things to do with her time, so she shows up, after spending the day scouting around in the vicinity of her apartment's neighborhood for where to get groceries and a change of clothes and such. (She knew Prestidigitation before she left but doesn't think she'd better use it. Not for laundry.)

Abadar's teachings on war are that it is very bad, both because it leads to lawlessness and because it destroys commerce and wealth. There are gruesome historical examples of the lawlessness and evil of war, which the teenagers mostly seem intrigued by.

This does not mean Abadar is never willing to go to war, and there is a digression into the history of various attempts by the forces of evil to destroy Axis and how Abadar led the other gods of Axis in repelling them. But it means wars are usually bad and Osirion should only fight them at gravest need and not just to be expansionist like some other countries. When there is a war, Osirions needs to remember to be lawful anyway; it's much harder but Pharasma, who sorts the afterlives, does not care how difficult you found your circumstances, only whether you rose to them. If you are a soldier this means you need to obey orders even if they lead you to certain death (and if you die heroically, you might be resurrected, maybe by the pharaoh's own hand, anyway). If you are a civilian this means you need to continue to obey the state if it's legitimate and the church if the state isn't. (The state is legitimate as long as the pharaoh, Abadar's embodiment in the world, still commands it.)

There are laws of war. No breaking parley or falsely surrendering. No use of spells that damn people to an evil afterlife regardless of the alignment of their soul, or that destroy or entrap the soul; no poisoning the water supply or salting the fields; no rape; if you take slaves all the usual rules about that apply; don't kill people who surrendered or who can't hurt you, except if they've been duly tried. 

What are the usual rules about slaves?

The children of slaves are born free, and you have the same duties to them as to other children of your household, until you free their parents. You can't rape slaves or maim them and if they complain of this and are found to be telling the truth they'll be taken away with no compensation.

Okay. That's not enough of an emergency to take her life into her hands about. (...she needs to stop thinking like that before something is.)

There's a citizen's interest group called the Council of Freed Slaves. Its members have five seats on the pharaoh's advising council and she could involve herself if she has opinions on slavery policy. 

Involve herself in what capacity, she isn't a freed slave.

The instructor has a vague impression some people show up just because they feel strongly.

Noted.

They spend the rest of the class talking about the merits of international trade. Abadar is really enthusiastic about international trade and so it's been greatly expanded under the present pharaoic dynasty and especially under the present pharaoh. They explain the principle of gains from trade and why it is important and list off various goods that Osirion only has due to imports, such as chocolate and various spices and various magics.

Nod nod.

That's all for today, any questions?

Nope.

She goes and sits in the inn dining room to have dinner, and try to pick up some of the language once her spell wears off.

People are telling tall tales and complaining about the prevalance of foreigners bidding up adventuring necessities and making crude jokes about women and planning their next trips.

Acceptable for vocabulary acquisition, anyway. Sigh.

She goes to the next day's class a little early. Is her business license ready yet?

It is! She can go be a therapist anywhere she pleases in Osirion. 

Okay. Can she get help writing a newspaper ad before she gets her language spell for class?

Sure! 

The ad should mention that she doesn't speak the language and will communicate telepathically, and the confidentiality thing, and some stuff she can help with like missing memories and flashbacks, and subtle artists are rare enough she can imagine people dropping in for the caffeine thing as a quick-and-cheap option so let's mention that.

Can she do, like, removing temptations and compulsions, people'd be really interested in that.

I don't have clinical experience with that but I could try.

Then she'll write up an ad with just the things she mentioned and another mentioning the other stuff if she decides to use it.

Cool. Where will she go to get this in the paper?

She will circle a couple newspaper offices on the map.

Thank you.

Of course!

And she will sit through wealth and commerce, though didn't they cover this yesterday?

There's a lot more theological teachings about wealth and commerce that they barely got into yesterday. Some highlights include that Abadar and his clerics do not give charity, because if you don't ration things with money they get rationed some other way, and that the church does not have tithing but does encourage everyone to buy insurance against various ills that might befall them, as a religious sacrament; the insurance enables the church to provide for them should they end up in a position of need and provides them the security to go about their lives.  Here's how insurance works, conceptually. Here are some examples.  

Here's a little bit more introductory economics about how prices are established and why Abadar prohibits price gouging only under certain circumstances (it's allowed when it might increase supply; it's not for things whose supply is entirely fixed). 

Do they... have charity around here? Or any non-insurance-based social safety net for kids or anything?

Some other churches do charity.

Okay.

There are, like, incentive problems there, but if you're going for Good then charity's useful and it'd certainly be an inappropriate overreach to make it illegal. 

That is an interesting perspective.

Any other questions?

Nope.

The next day she goes to see about putting her ad in, starting the day the address therein will become accurate.

The people running the newspapers are perfectly happy to run her ad in exchange for money. Not even that much of it.

Oh good.

She kills time and attends classes till she can move into her apartment and see if anybody shows up.

Some people show up!

- a magical researcher who has never heard of subtle artists and would like to know about them 

- an adventurer cursed not to remember his past who would like to remember his past

- a man who wants to know if women can be treated, he'll pay for it

She will teach the researcher about subtle artists if he'll pay her hourly rate.

She can try to work around the curse, but she isn't a cursebreaker per se, so it will depend on the exact mechanics of the curse whether it will work or not; she should be able to tell pretty quickly.

Women can certainly be treated, they have minds.

The researcher will totally pay her hourly rate. 

She can access the adventurer's past and tell him things about it which he can remember but not straightforwardly give him the memories back. 

The man brings his wife. She almost died giving birth to their last child and doesn't want to do it again and they are both hoping that therapy will help.

Up to the adventurer if this service is worth it in this limited form.

Have they done all the commonsense things already, like making sure there's a competent midwife with healing ability lined up? The anxiety can just kind of grow back if the grounds for it are still there.

Yes, they can have someone on hand (they meant to this time, but she had an emergency elsewhere).

Okay, then she can work on this if the wife wants. The husband should leave though.

Sure, fine.

Double checking that the wife would actually like this addressed qua anxiety? Bella can be like "nope, intractable case, sorry" to the husband if she does not.

She is kind of surprised to be asked this. " - honestly I hate everything about being pregnant but I don't want him to marry someone else. I think you'd better, if you can."

...okay, if that's what you prefer all things considered... I can also try to make whatever else you hate about being pregnant less of a big deal but it'll take more sessions. Maybe some boosters once you're actually pregnant if I'm still in town then.

"That'd be great. He's willing to spend money on it."

Okay. Then let's see how far we can get today.

She works pretty slowly, this not being something she addressed before. Miriel didn't have this problem quite.

This person honestly has a pretty unhappy life but this particular thing is addressable.

Bella avoids upselling her on the various unhappinesses of her life. She does not plan to be around that long and "has unhappy life" is not best treated with subtle arts.

Word spreads, a bit, and she gets more customers. Head injury causing forgetfulness? Terrible anxiety about going to Hell that has resulted in this person repeatedly spending their savings on castings of Detect Evil? This person would like to be more loyal to the government because it will help their career advancement. 

She cannot fix the head injury but she can route around it for partial improvements. She can work on Hell-anxiety though she will be less effective if this person has ever actually turned up Evil. What is preventing this person from being non-artfully as loyal to the government as they might desire?

He just kind of has a very skeptical temperament so he can't truthfully say he never thinks about who'd be a better ruler than the pharaoh or never doubts his divine origins or whatever. But it's not like - like, to be clear he also doubts whether Rovagug really existed and whether the evil afterlives are bad and stuff, it's not specific to loyalty, it's just like that about everything.

I'm not judging your temperament, it just might be relevant to how much I can do. Do they check that sort of thing somehow?

For really high-trust government jobs you answer a lot of personal loyalty questions under a truth spell and he hasn't dared to apply. 

A problem with some arts interventions is that they can knock loose, especially if whatever caused the original characteristic is still there - if you're scared of dogs, and I make you not scared of dogs, and then dogs growl at you a lot, then my work can just come undone. I'm a little worried you could wind up in a situation where that happened after you'd achieved some sensitive position and you'd get in trouble, if they ever re-check anything.

- oh. Sigh. I guess that makes sense.

Sorry.

This person died and was resurrected and has trauma about the death. This person has kleptomania although they are really quick to assure her that they have absolutely never stolen anything they just think about it constantly. This person has really horrific nightmares. This person was possessed by a demon. 

Death trauma is both straightforward and something she has experience with in practice! Kleptomania's pretty easy to block. Nightmares she knows how to handle. The demon is gone now? She can't work on someone who currently is possessed.

Yeah the demon's gone he's just kind of a mess now.

Then she can try to work on that with him, sure.

Pretty soon she has a reliable flow of interested parties. It seems like they really don't have subtle artists here though they have enough magic-users who can imitate some part of what she does that it's not obvious to people at first she's doing something entirely different.

Her classes continue teaching her about how Abadar imbues the pharaohs with as many of his essential characteristics as a human mind can hold and about how laws ought to be just and consistently enforced, and it's permissible to ignore ones that are contradictory, ridiculous or unenforceable but important to obey even unjust ones, lest you endanger your afterlife. 

They certainly do have a culture here, don't they. She attends most of the classes in the sequence.

They're very pleased about that and wonder if she'd like to be a member of the church, or buy insurance from it.

...what do they sell insurance against?

Crime, natural disasters, legal trouble if she doesn't commit a really flagrant crime, sudden illness or injury, death but that one's very expensive for obvious reasons.

Assuming these are all affordably priced except the death one she is in the market for them. She probably should not buy death insurance considering her likeliest causes of death.

Death insurance pays out if you're resurrectable and weren't executed by Osirion's government. The rest are all very reasonably priced.

How much is an alignment check, actually, she hasn't had one in a while and turned up neutral good when she was a volunteer test subject for someone practicing the spell.

Ten gold. Temples do seasonal discounts sometimes, for the holidays of repentance and so on.

She'll skip it at that price. (Puts in context that one guy, gosh.)

She goes home.

The streets are blocked off. Some officials are escorting people around the disruption.

What's going on?

Member of the royal family passing through. 

The people in front of her turn away and she can see more clearly. Everyone is kneeling very low to the ground. There are six guards around, and -

Presumably the member of the royal family. 

She startles, for a second, before she sees him.

But - no, it's not Fëanáro, this is clearly a human adult, they don't look anything alike, they just register the same to arts - but then why -?

She's a little too distracted to notice that everyone else is kneeling. Should she be trying to osanwë him, or - what would even cause this? - it can't be him though, on so many levels, why would he be in disguise, in this disguise? -

"Fëanáro?" If it's not him it'll just sound like a random foreign word, right - she doesn't yell, if it's him he'll hear her loud and clear -

He turns to look at her. 

Several guards step in to interfere with this. 

"Stop that, I want to know what she said." Three quick steps that have his security running to keep alongside him -

"Where are you from?"

Oh! Okay! Apparently people who are just sufficiently Like That ping the same way and now she has fucking royal attention! Again!

- the Magisterian Imperium, your, uh - grace?

"What do they speak there?"

      "Please," says one of his guards frantically. "We can send for her later -"

"That word, what does it mean?"

It's, uh, they speak Pax, but it's a name, and it's not from Pax - it - She looks nervously at the guards.

" - if you manage to misplace her -" he says to the guard. The guard shakes his head vigorously. 

"Please come talk to me," he says pleadingly, and then allows himself to be tugged off. 

...Bella holds very still so as not to be, uh, misplaced.

Uniformed guard. A different uniform than the city guards. "Foreign?" he asks curtly.

Yes sir.

"Come with me, please."

She follows along.

They enter a big cool stone building with a lot of corridors. The guard meets more guards. They speak in whispers, which might be intended to keep her from overhearing but does not in practice do that. 

"She said something unfamiliar to the prince in the street. And just stood there. We didn't detect any magic. Could conceivably have missed it, we didn't see her coming. He wants her because he doesn't speak the language yet -"

        "He can't have all of them."

"I thought he did! And yet. He'll ask after her. Even if she's dangerous just - hold tight and don't lose her while we figure out what's going on. And - send someone to reassure any family, maybe, because -"

        "Yeah." Sigh. "This way, ma'am."

She goes that way, shivering a little. Reassure any family about what?

That you're all right, haven't been charged, can be chaperoned to see the prince if they want that, will be released if you weren't trying to hurt him. Who can afford a permanenced telepathy and not a permanenced Tongues? 

I was born with the telepathy.

Huh. Well, sit here, we'll get some truth spells, then we'll talk. Do you have family here I can send for?

No.

Have a church here?

I took classes at one for a while but don't belong to it.

All right. 

Some more people come in. They cast a spell that's disorienting and sort of - demoralizing, or something in that genre, very unpleasantly so.

They cast another one that doesn't feel like anything. 

"You'll need to speak in your language for this. I'll have Tongues up so I can understand you."

She sort of shrinks in on herself at the first spell. Resists the urge to analyze it. "O-okay."

"What's your name?"

"Isabella Mariel Swan."

"To your knowledge, is there any present danger to the prince you spoke to or anyone in the royal family?"

"No."

"Were you trying to hurt him?"

"No!"

"What did you say to him?"

"It's someone's name. I was confused for a moment."

They ask variants on the same thing for about five minutes. 

"If we bring you to the prince so he can ask you some questions, will this endanger him?"

"No."

"Where are you from?"

"The Magisterian Imperium."

"How do you get there from here?"

"I had a magical accident that sent me to another plane. The gods there tried to send me back, or that's what they said they were doing, but they missed."

"And their attempt landed you here?"

"Yes."

"What have you done since you arrived here?"

"I sold some jewelry because I didn't have any cash on hand, and got a business license and started a therapy practice. It's common in the Imperium for people who are born with telepathy to train as therapists."

"To your knowledge have you broken any laws?"

"Not to my knowledge, no."

"Why didn't you kneel when Prince Fe-Anar was passing through?"

"I was distracted by the aforementioned confusion and then once he was addressing me I wasn't sure if I was supposed to."

And a few more variants on all of those questions and then they undo whatever they did that left her distracted. 

"All right. You won't be charged with a crime. Price Fe-Anar still wants to see you; are you up for that now, or do you need a rest first?"

"...I could use a minute or two."

"All right." They wait outside the room.

She takes lots of deep breaths and does a caffeine thing to herself.

And they walk her down more hallways. When they come out of the hallways they're inside the great black dome. It's cool and pleasant, with the illusion of a breeze. The whole place is stunningly, magically lit, and there's a palace. 

They walk to the palace.

Well. Last time she showed up in a palace it turned out okay. Mostly.

This one is about as magical and about as pretty, though in a completely different style. It does not have any cute tiny children running around. It has - women who aren't wearing much, and guards, pretty much.

Walk walk walk.

Lack of cute tiny children is definitely a drawback. Sigh.

They open a door to a big spacious room. 

He's in there, pacing. When he sees them, he bounces. "I told you there wasn't anything to worry about," he says to the guards.

       "Yes, your grace."

"Shoo."

       The guards flee.

His mental signature is almost precisely Fëanáro's, it's not exact but -

Well. She drops into the kneel everyone else was doing.

"Come sit down and teach me your language. I'll pay you. You mustn't mind them, they're all rattle and no bite really."

She gets up and sits down wherever it seems like she's supposed to sit. I speak two.

"Then speak in them!"

"Sorry! Sorry, I just - I don't know which one you want first," she blurts in Pax, sending along a translation. "You were asking about the name and that's in Quenya and this is Pax."

"Which one you want first. I know which one I want first?"

"That's grammatical, yes," she murmurs.

"I want first Pax? I want Pax first? This is Pax, you were asking in Pax which one I want first."

"'I want Pax first' is right, 'first Pax' wouldn't - wouldn't be." She swallows.

"First Pax wouldn't be grammatical," he says triumphantly. "I want Pax first and Quenya - Quenya which?"

"Second."

"Pax first! And Quenya second! Yes. - first, second..." He holds up three fingers.

"Third," she says, and she bursts into tears.

He looks startled. 

He rocks back and forth for a second and then goes to the door and calls in a servant girl who has fancy handkerchiefs and ice water and truffles.

- it's all right. I'm not angry - you can't mess this up, really -

It's not that, she says, gulping water between sobs.

He waits. Not very patiently but he is in fact waiting.

She pulls herself together. "Sorry."

"I'll tell them off. They shouldn't go around terrorizing people."

"It's not that."

" - fine, then, what?"

"You just keep reminding me of the person you - psychically resemble - and I'm worried about him -"

"Psychically resemble?"

"I can distinguish people by how they telepathically feel, it's sort of like recognizing faces usually except it'll work through walls. You don't look like Fëanáro, he's a child and not a human and so on, but for some reason you read like him - I'm not reading your mind, I don't do that except to pick up on what people are trying to say to me and for my job when people want me to -"

"Huh. And he's in danger?"

"Longish-term I think so yeah."

"From what?"

"I think he's going to try to come get me back and I think he'd get himself killed in the process."

“Is there a very hazardous plane in between?”

"In between? No. But here or the one they were supposedly aiming for would disagree with him. Maybe unless I distract him with foreign languages long enough."

"Osirion's really not very dangerous. Anyone with a plane shift should be able to stay out of trouble."

"His plane's really different."

"Is he a demon?"

"No! They're called Quendi, or Eldar."

"Thus Quenya?"

"Yeah. Quendi means speakers."

"Are they the only intelligent creatures on their plane?"

"No, there's their gods and then on another continent some people called orcs I didn't meet."

He pulls out a pad of paper and starts taking notes. "Unusual as in different customs or different physical laws?"

"Well, both."

"Which one's the problem, though? Is it dangerous for us to visit there?"

"...that depends, it's possible that the circumstances of my departure constitute a general no-humans policy."

"You're not really explaining very much here."

"I'm sorry, it's complicated, I was there for about twenty years."

" - since you were a baby?"

"No, I'm older than I look. Quendi don't age and everyone was very startled to find that I expected to do so and while the gods were still friendly I got a not-aging blessing. I don't know if it's still working, I haven't been here that long."

" - huh. How did you end up there in the first place -"

"Magical accident at my school. Walked into the wrong room and tripped."

" - into a plane shift?"

"Apparently but I don't know exactly what they were doing and they never followed up in any way."

"They didn't try to get you back? Wow."

"It's possible they tried? But not so I'd notice. My parents aren't important or anything."

"In Osirion they could sue anyway. I think. I'm not really an expert on normal people on account of it barely being permitted to talk to them."

"I'm not sure if they were allowed to sue. I mean, there's a background risk of something happening when you send your kid to college, I think they had to sign forms about that. But I don't know since I haven't spoken to them in twenty years."

"Pax is the language spoken there?"

"It's the most common one in the Imperium especially among humans and the only one from there I know more than a few words of."

"Are humans the dominant species in the Imperium?"

"Yes. Though by a much smaller margin than it seems like is the case here, I think the population's only about - seventy or eighty percent human, something like that?"

"We're just over ninety but people self-segregate a little. What else have you got -"

"Uh, elves and dwarves and orcs and ogres and gnomes and nagas and mermaids and dryads and... stuff, I don't have a list memorized. Golems, some of those are people. Demonbloods as long as they have any human ancestry are allowed to go to school and stuff. Kobolds and goblins and hobgoblins. Yokai."

"Huh. That's - more than we have in civilized society, I wouldn't know if there are some of each of those on an isolated island somewhere."

"I think my native plane is higher magic or something than this one."

"Huh. What else do they have that we don't?"

"Mostly conveniences - I haven't seen any enchanted carriages here, I haven't seen magic mirrors or crystal balls or magical laundry boxes, that kind of thing. Also it seems like I might be the only subtle artist in town, that'd be weird in a city this size on my plane."

"We have magic mirrors and crystal balls but they're very expensive specialty items for exceptionally wealthy people. Maybe your world discovered a way to make them more cheaply? That'd be really useful."

"Maybe. I don't know how they do it there beyond the 'hire an enchanting-major college graduate and have them do it'."

"Is there some reason we shouldn't do a plane shift, say hello, import their stuff -"

"Don't do that, it's - the kind of thing that might count as cheating, you know? They don't have interplanar trade on any kind of scale even though it'd be cheaper there than here if they wanted it. The place I was last month has some of the conveniences but extra don't go there, it's, I don't know if you even have the genre here - it's a science fantasy world, I'm lucky I didn't just kind of die on the spot when I landed here and I still don't know if that was maybe in part their gods protecting me or not."