"Okay! So my first question was: what brings you to Terrance. And what I really need to know by that is: are you here for a specific purpose, such as trading or accessing our library, or are you wandering?"

As he speaks, he reaches around the side of the door and comes back with a two-inch-square bamboo token.

"I am wandering. I did not know about the library before. I want to access the library now that I know. I like libraries."

He nods.

"It's a good library! We're proud of it."

He mentally works through his flowchart.

"Are you carrying any incendiaries, magical artifacts, or trade goods with a value exceeding 10,000 resh?"

She's not sure how to answer that. She's not carrying incendiaries and she can't share her cosmetic equipment so it might not count. She isn't currently carrying anything that valuable but she does have Pocket Dimension so she could easily change that.

"I'm not carrying incendiaries. I can't say a thing that isn't yes or no. I don't know the value of 10,000 resh."

He'll answer the easier question first.

"10,000 resh would buy about 300 tael of silver."

He holds his hands about ten centimeters apart and mimes a cube.

"Or forty pounds of merfolk tears. Or, like, my weight in bread."

Merfolk tears being available in large amounts is a bit concerning.

The question is whether she wants to tell them about Pocket Dimension. She settles on something that's not quite explaining but will hopefully answer the question.

"I could have more but I will trade less."

Argh. This is going to be one of the complicated cases.

"It's not about how much you want to trade, it's about how much you're carrying. Terrance is a reputable trading hub — the merchant's association carries a limited amount of theft insurance in the name of promoting trade. If you want to enter with more than 10,000 resh of trade goods, you either need to buy supplemental theft insurance or waive your right to make claims against the merchant association's policy."

He leans in a little.

"I recommend the supplemental insurance. I won't tell anyone you're carrying that much, but you're, uh."

He glances at her sundress.

"Clearly traveling light. So whatever you have must be small and valuable, which means easily stolen."

She giggles at that. "I am hard to steal from. I have magic for that. I can maybe pay insurance anyway but I don't know the value of what I carry."

Dolen rubs his forehead. So she either has magic artifacts or is a wizard.

"... right. Are you a wizard?"

He's not technically supposed to ask that, but if she is then he might be able to avoid the whole artifact-registration thing.

"I'm not a wizard but I have other magic in me. If I met a wizard I could learn to be a wizard." Maybe she's disclosing too much but she doesn't want to go around with careful lies or omissions.

"... are you human?"

He's not supposed to ask that either, but that is ... not a thing that humans can do. Unless she "language learning" is hilariously underselling the power of her special talent.

"Uh, not that there's a problem if you're a shapeshifter," he quickly backpedals. "Terrance welcomes all species except dragons and water-walkers, the latter because they're at too much risk of falling off and the former because they're too heavy. If you're a dragon you should probably go talk to him about it, honestly."

So the giant turtle is a person. This reminds her of the beehive thing.

"I'm a human who has been changed by something more than a dragon. I can shapeshift some."

At this point he should really summon his boss to sort this all out because this is clearly above his paygrade even if she's not exactly a wizard. But his boss is a stickler, and she probably wouldn't make it into the city without filling in about fifty forms.

"Okay. So do you want me to try and do an appraisal of whatever you're carrying, for insurance purposes, or do you want to waive your right to make a theft insurance claim in light of being hard to steal from?"

His tone of voice expresses a certain amount of hope that she's going to pick the second option, if only because if he has to appraise a "maybe magical artifact" he will definitely have to summon his boss.

"I'll waive my right." Having something stolen mostly doesn't matter. It might matter for sentimental things but the money won't matter in that case.

He makes a note on a clipboard hanging by the door.

"Okay — that just leaves the matter of magical artifacts. Are you carrying any? Where, for the purpose of this question a 'magic artifact' is any item which, if someone else came into possession of it, would allow them to cause a magical effect?"

Oh that's works. "No. I'm not carrying anything like that."

Dolen sighs in relief. Either that was remarkably straightforward or she's started lying, and in neither case is it his problem.

"Great."

He hands her the bamboo token.

"Space on Terrance is limited, so he imposes a per-head tax of 100 resh per week. In the name of trade, the merchant's association has graciously agreed to waive the first week's tax for new arrivals to the city. Keep this token with you. If you lose it, you can inquire at the clerk's office about a replacement. If you leave before a week is up, you can just hand the token to one of the guards on the way out. If you leave after a week, they'll calculate the number of partial weeks you stayed past your arrival and tax you on exit. If you decide to become a permanent resident of Terrance, you'll need to provide this token to the city clerk along with your application."

He says this with the practiced cadence of a man who has said this multiple times a day for a year and a half.

"Water is currently being rationed until Terrance reaches the next lake, so please be mindful of your use. We should have plenty, but nobody likes the price spikes if we have to import rainclouds."

"Fire magic, weather magic, and necromancy involving non-relatives are all strictly prohibited within city limits. As are theft, murder, and a list of other crimes which you may view upon request in the city clerk's office. Knowing the law is your responsibility. Thank you for visiting Terrance, and I hope you enjoy your stay. Can I give you directions to anywhere to help you on your way?"

"The city clerk's office. Also directions to the library and somewhere to stay if the clerk office won't give those."

"The city clerk's office is about 500 meters headward of here and 100 meters hubward."

He points down a broad road running along the inside of the wall.

"It's the big green building with the horn in the bellfry. And the clerk's office will certainly give you more directions, but the library is at the highest point of Terrance's shell, and there are many fine inns and boarding establishments throughout the city."

And he's not allowed to recommend any of them since the boss started cracking down on bribery.

"Thanks. I appreciate all the help you gave me." She puts the token in her pocket and if he's watching very closely he might notice that there's no outline of it visible. Then she steps through the door and into Terrance proper. She starts walking towards the clerk's office. If she's supposed to follow the laws she wants to know what they are.

The majority of people here are human. But 'the majority' is far from 'all', and even among the humans there's a certain amount of variety. As she walks along the street, she sees people wearing trim linen clothes fastened with wooden buttons, people wearing long coats made from wool, people wearing crop-tops and loose cotton pants, and one person who is completely obscured by fog. She passes what appears to be a miniature sky-scraper full of people with wings about three inches high. She sees a long, narrow silver fish swimming over the rooftops, apparently pulling a train of clouds behind it.

It's a bit hard to tell what area of the city this is, the architecture being a weird mix of warehouses and shops. There are no street vendors, but there are colorful wooden signs with pictorial representations hanging above the shops. In most cases, it's easy to figure out what a place is selling, but a few of the pictures, such as a circle covered in eyes, are a bit more puzzling.

She looks around in wonder. She tries not to stare at anyone but who exactly is a person isn't clear to her. The eye covered circle is intriguing. Inside her mind, she goes to find some paper and starts drawing a rudimentary map. Juggling the two tasks is a little hard so she pauses a few times somewhere that doesn't seem to be in the way.

A local would tell her that you can usually tell people by the fact that they're wearing clothes and using tools or language. Then again, Terrance himself doesn't wear clothing unless the whole city counts, so it's not a perfect rule.

For her part, she doesn't seem to attract a second glance from anyone except a small ragamuffin child who turns and whistles into a drainpipe when she passes, and a cat who regards her with some mixture of disdain and hunger.

The city clerk's office is right where it is supposed to be. It is almost violently green, presumably in an attempt to stand out from the surroundings because no other nearby building has been quite so bold with its coloration.

Great! Is the entrance obvious? If so she'll go in.