Something about this nature of this place is attuned to the wind, however, because the wind doesn't flutter meekly about her skirts, and it doesn't die down. Instead it curls around her in a tight spiral, and then turns and races outward across the grass, vanishing into the distance.

POM

Other than wind, the things that stand out about this place are: bright, noon-time sunlight; an endless sea of rich green grass; a complete lack of trees and other structures;

POM

... and a deep, slow thumping that seems to rattle the earth.

She looks around curiously. A part of her was expecting to arrive near people but she's up for a bit of a walk. The thrumming is a bit more of a concern. She's also not sure if the wind was a dramatic part of her arrival or something about this place.

She has powers though she wants to experience those. She closes her eyes for a moment and her attention turns to her new inner world. She's standing on a wooden dock looking out at a lake and a distant shore. Over to the side she can see a rope swing hanging from a massive tree and behind her there's a cozy little house nestled among more trees. There's a kayak on one side of the dock that she could put in the water if she wanted.

Opening her eyes again, she looks down at her dress and it changes colors ane patterns a few times there's a white design with pink flowers, a swirly design with turquoise and light blues, a deep black with the sparkles like stars and then she returns to her original dark blue. The design shifts to, she ends with a strapless number that fits better than any strapless dress she's tried before. Clothing magic is wonderful.

What else to try... Oh right kid mode. It takes a few seconds to think in the right direction but she shrinks down to the size and shape of a child. She does a little spin with her new smaller shape.

And then returns to her adult form.

As a final test she sings a little in keys higher and lower than she could have ever reached before. That's a nice bonus. Her soundtrack kicks in to give her an instrumental accompaniment only she can hear.

Having these powers is fantastic.

And her soundtrack is supposed to be able to predict things just a little. She tries walking a few places in a few different directions to see if there's a hint in the music that one of the directions is better to walk in than another.

Yes, actually. If she goes too far in the direction of the sun, the strings pick up a subtle tension, as though building up to a dramatic crescendo. Stepping back away from the sun makes them resolve it back into a pleasant pastoral melody. Walking too far in that direction makes the music die down and become less lively. Walking perpendicular to the direction of the sun doesn't appear to have a detectable effect.

POM

Also, the thumping seems to be setting the tempo. And it's ... possibly a bit louder?

Well that's a pretty strong signal that the story is to be found by walking towards the sun. Is she ready to start the story?

Well if she's walking straight into the sun she'll want something to help with that. She manifests a small ring that gives her the benefits of a sun visor and sunglasses. She relaxes a bit now that she doesn't need to worry about the glare.

The tension does have her a little worried. She could try to make herself some sort of armor but without knowing more it might not work. She'll trust in the music there's tension there but it doesn't sound ominous.

Off to the next chapter in her story.

The grassland is ... repetitive. There are hills, but mostly there is grass.

As her path takes her around the base of one hill, however, she abruptly spots an explanation for the thumping: a giant turtle, perhaps a mile across, back encrusted with buildings. Brightly colored ropes dangle from the edge of its shell to brush along the grass. It's a little hard to judge its precise size and speed without some better reference, but it's path is easier to divine.

It's headed right toward her.

She just stares for a long moment. A city on the back of a turtle. That's both incredible and also a little intimidating.

Well it seems like the story wants her to get on the turtle. Can she see any ladders or similar signs of a way to do that? She can pull some binoculars from a previously non-existent pocket if she needs to.

Also is the thumping getting stronger? Does it seem like it's going to knock her off her feet?

It is getting stronger (and sending waves of motion through the grass), but the thumping is regular enough that it's a bit like having sea-legs: after a period of adjustment she should be fine.

The binoculars reveal that the ropes hanging from the shell are knotted around regularly-spaced wooden crosspieces, which seems to suggest that people can be expected to climb on as the turtle is in mid-stride.

Well... Hollow Legs is supposed to make her as athletic as a normal person can be when she needs it. She can at least try it.

She manifests a second ring to give herself at least some protection from a bad fall. Enough to hopefully avoid any broken bones or a concussion. And then she steels herself and makes for the nearest rope.

As she gets closer to the turtle, two facts become apparent. One, that it is only moving at a fast jog, so she can, with some effort, get out of its path and circle around to one of the ladders. And two, that it's big.

"City on the back of a turtle" doesn't really do a good job of conveying the visceral sense of scale one gets from being loomed over by a creature that has districts.

The most difficult part of climbing the ladder proves just to be catching it — maintaining an equal pace while running alongside the creature, and then jumping for one of the ropes. Once she's done that, it's more or less a normal rope ladder, although a bit wobbly. And whisking her over the tops of the grasses at a fast jog.

Yeah that's huge, especially with the music to emphasize the experience she has to just pause a little to process. But then she refocuses.

She hasn't run seriously in years but jogging she can manage she might even have been able to manage it without powers. She's a little surprised the ladder isn't swinging more but she doesn't spend much time focusing on how fortunate that is. She climbs.

The top of the ladder lets out at a sort of set of docks built along the edge of the shell. While the place is fairly empty at the moment, there are clear places for cargo to be stacked, and some manually driven cargo-cranes with thick ropes.

There is also a wall between her and the city proper, albeit one with a lot of doors. A sign on the wall points to the one open door, in which a bored-looking young man in neat blue clothing lounges while reading a book.

Beyond the wall, the buildings of the city rise with the turtle's shell, the sounds of industry and the smell of strange markets mixing and floating to her on the constant breeze.

She smiles, people and bureaucracy may not be quite the same everywhere but they rhyme. She probably doesn't speak the local language but that's what Omniglot is for.

"Hello." She doesn't wave but a closed mouth smile is probably going to convey friendliness.

He carefully marks his place in his book and looks up at her. He smiles a customer-service smile.

"Hello," he echos.

"You to Terrance what today brings?"

That's a more open question than she was hoping for.

"I," she gestures to herself, "Terrance today see," she gestures to her eye. "I to Terrance today bring."

... right.

He switches languages.

"? You more comfortably speak the-language-of-the-water-walkers?"

It's good that he speaks multiple languages but that's going to make this harder.

Maybe she can cludge something together though.

"You. You." She uses both languages words for you to attempt to demonstrate an understanding of what they mean she also gestures in his direction.

"You to more comfortably speak I today brings." She still doesn't have a first person pronoun so she uses English for that and again gestures to herself as she says it.

He blinks at her.

He knows the words of the forest because he's human. He knows the language of the water walkers because it's a lingua franca for traders. But he's not some endless repository of languages who is going to be able to guess what weird thing she speaks. He can't even wind-whistle and he lives on a turtle.

"So only Forest the-langugae-of-the-water-walkers and I speak. Either of those you can pick, my boss who could help I call you can wait or."

Oh good a first person pronoun.

"I could speak. You, you boss or could help."

"You could speak? You right-now can't speak but?"

He squints at her.

"Language-learning your special-talent is?"

Something about the grammar clicks for her.

"Should I just try to ask my questions, and you'll pick things up as I go?"

She smiles wider "Language-learning is my special talent," she confirms. It's not precisely accurate but it's close enough. "I pick up things as you go."

"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.

The entrance is fairly obvious: a big set of double doors at the top of some steps.

Inside, the room is divided in two by a long counter, at which three clerks sit. Two are occupied, but the free one waves her over as she comes in.

"Hello — what can I help you with today?" she asks, setting aside a sheet of paper covered in densely-packed numbers.

To the left, a man with a comically large backpack is arguing with the next clerk about the valuation of moleskins.

"I'm a new arrival and the person who welcomed me said I should learn what rules I'm supposed to follow here."

She sits up straighter and then turns to rifle through a stack of documents.

"You would be amazed how many people don't do that," she tells her. "I think you might be the first person to actually come for a reference this month."

She finishes her rummaging and comes up with a pamphlet.

"We have a complementary pamphlet covering the laws that apply to non-residents. If you cannot read, I am prepared to read it to you. If you want access to the full legal archive including case law, there's a 25 resh fee. If you want to speak to a legal professional about your obligations while on Terrance, I can sell you a copy of the merchant association's services directory for 150 resh, to cover copying costs, or recommend that you go to the market and peruse the central directory there."

"If most people manage without the pamphlet I think I'll skip the case law or legal professionals. Also, I don't actually have any resh on me. Is there a reliable way to trade for currency?"

"I can trade for silver or gold at a markup on yesterday's prices, but you can generally get a better rate in the market," Laniel informs her. "I cannot take mole skins as payment for city services at this time."

The man to the left shoots her a glare, but she keeps her eyes fixed on Sapphire with a slight smile.

She smiles a little at that. "I don't mind paying more for the convenience if there's something I need to buy from you. What other sorts of services do you offer?"

"You can convert currency, pay taxes, apply for a residency license, certify a document, or file a complaint," she replies. "I can also do more things for residents of the city, but you probably aren't interested in getting a fire permit. I can also give directions to various places in the city and help you with general questions, but those services are free."

"I think I'm good then. I could probably use directions to that central directory you mentioned. Otherwise I'll go review the pamphlet outside and come back to ask if I have questions I think you might be able to answer."

"It's always so nice to see someone who respects clerks' time," she remarks. "The central directory is posted in the center of the main market square, which is just tailward of the library, near the top of Terrance's shell. Look for the large open space surrounded by tie downs. And I hope you enjoy your stay!"

She feels a little bad for the mole skin guy but she's new enough that helping him isn't an urgent priority. "You're welcome and thanks."

She goes outside and reads through the pamphlet. Are there other things that she needs to know that weren't in the abridged list?

Terrance is the official head of government — which is probably fair, given that she's standing on him — and can theoretically make arbitrary edicts, but in practice mostly doesn't bother. Fraud, including selling certain things as 'authentic' without a license, is prohibited. Assault is fairly broadly defined, but has a component of intentionality. Bumping into people doesn't count. Knowingly walking around in a fairy or pixie plaza without extreme care does. Breeding breezes is illegal without a license, as is the sale of certain classes of magical artifact. There's a whole slew of regulations that only apply to her if she rents a market stall. Other than that, it's the sort of common-sense laws that you get in any civilized place.

So there aren't any sort of rules about what clothing you wear or how much of it you wear? She won't strip naked immediately but it's worth thinking about.

Well with that out of the way she puts the pamphlet in her pocket so it can disappear and starts walking towards the market and the library. It's convenient that those are close together.

As she gets away from the edge, it becomes increasingly apparent that this is because Terrance is densely urbanized. He's large, but cities are pretty large too. Away from the edge of his shell, the crowds become fairly close-packed. The square in front of the library, in particular, is highly trafficked, as people make their way up or down the avenue that runs along Terrance's spine, which splits in two to flow around the library like a stream.

The library itself is a much flatter building than the others she has seen — equally tall, but with a wider base. It, too, is painted that violent shade of green that seems to stand for officialdom.

Interesting. She'll head for the library first if there's a fee for using it she'd like to know that before starting to sell metal or gems for currency.

The entrance to the library opens into a room with a desk and a prominent sign.

The sign reads:

Welcome to Terrance's Library. You are welcome to read the books within, and so long as no damage comes to them, no damage will come to you. Policy enforced by defenestration.

Donations gratefully accepted.

On the desk is a smaller desk, behind which sits a four-inch tall person with wings and a tight grey bun. They appear to be reading a leaf.

Huh, so no fee. She'll take the opportunity to read a little then.

"Hello. Do you work here?"

Bwittertree glances up from their correspondence.

"Yes — I'm senior librarian Bwittertree. Can I help you find anything?"

"Yes thank you, I'm wondering if there's books about all the kinds of people there are and also if there's maps of the world."

Bwittertree nods.

"Human-scale books are accessible on all the levels with human-scale stairs. Don't try and crawl into the smaller sections; ask a librarian to fetch the relevant books for you. The main reference section is down that hall and to your right, Terrance's left. There should be a set of atlases in the section labeled 'Geography'. For species of the world, you'll want the natural philosophy section, which is one human-scale staircase up from there."

"I'm sure you saw the sign — but please do be careful with the books. If you tear, fold, mutilate, smudge, crinkle, or lose one, we will find out and it will be more pleasant if we find out from you. The choice of which window you leave the library by in that case is up to me. If you fess up and pay for a replacement, I will choose one on the ground floor."

"If you want to borrow any books, I will need some documents and a large deposit, but there are reading rooms at the central area of each floor that you may use so long as you are quiet. Please leave any tamed breezes either outside or bottled. Once you're finished with a book, if you're not certain about where you got it from, put it on a reshelving cart. We would much rather reshelve your books than have to track down a missing one because you put it back in the wrong place."

The defenestration thing is weird. "Don't damage the books got it. Is there any sort of fee I'm supposed to pay before copying one of the books? For that matter is copying things a service that the library would pay for?"

Bwittertree blinks at her.

"Is this your special talent, the application of an artifact, or were you planning to sit in the reading room for six months with a stack of paper and a quill?"

She shakes her head.

"To actually answer your question: there is no fee because it hasn't come up. If you start copying excessively then Terrance will likely look more favorably on it if you also make a donation in kind of some copies to the library. And yes, we would be willing for copies to be made of specific books, provided the copies were accurate."

"It's one of the special talents I have yes." Part of one but the details don't master that much.

That's a very weird answer.

"Well, wizardry is not forbidden in the library," she conceeds. Mostly because Terrance recognizes that he can't reasonably ask the librarians to defenestrate a wizard, but it counts.

"If you give me a few minutes, I can draw up a list of what books we would most appreciate copies of. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I am a little curious what a wizard is I've just started learning this language today so I'm not clear on some of the intricacies. Otherwise no, should I wait here for you?"

"A wizard is someone who can learn general magic beyond their special talent," Bwittertree replies. "If you have learned multiple special talents, you are certainly a wizard. Although if you haven't been to one of the wizard's colleges you may hear people call you a 'hedgewizard', instead."

"And no, there's no need to wait. I'll write up the list and set it aside for you to pick up once you've finished your research," they assure her. It doesn't do to keep wizards waiting.

It's not worth quibbling about how her powers work. She will be able to learn other people's special talents if she wants and whatever being a wizard usually is she can be that too. No wonder the person at the gate was confused.

"Thank you." She goes off towards where the books about types of people are.

The natural philosophy section is ... fairly poor by the standard of a modern library, but opulent by the standard of a place that has not yet invented the printing press. There are three bookshelves full of monographs, treatises, and compilations. There are also a pair of worn leather armchairs and a window to let in some light to read by. One of the chairs is occupied by one of those long silver fish, who is reading a book on a little stand and turning pages with tightly controlled puffs of air.

There is nothing that handily identifies itself as a complete guide to local sentient species, but there are books titled: Beyond the Mountains and Who I Found There, The Historical Populations of Sea-Peoples, The Hypothetical Subterranean People, A Population Census of the Unified Territories, and many more.

Alright, she'll gently pick a book and start reading. She'll try starting with the census. A part of her wants to pick up every book but that would be very marked and she probably wouldn't read most of them. So she'll refrain at least for the moment.

According to the census, the Unified Territories contains humans, fairies, pixies, whirl-the-winds, red caps, dragons, and turtles, in order by population. It also has a small number of water-walkers and polar bears who are not citizens, but are permanent residents. When broken down by territories, the most populous is the fields, and the least populous the desert, with the forest and grassland sitting between them. There are 78 registered wizards, not counting dragons. (The book does not elaborate on why one wouldn't count dragons)

Overall population statistics suggest, to someone willing to do the math, a moderately large, sparsely populated area with birth and death rates typical of a roughly medieval highly agrarian country.

That at least gives her more names but she was more looking for information about the kinds of people. She knows a bit about population statistics because of her classes but not enough to intuitively assess population numbers or birth and death rates. Wizards being rare is also a good thing to know given that she's telling people she is one. She didn't think she was claiming to be part of such a rare group.

Are there books that seem likely to tell her about what different types of people are like and what their special talents are?

Also while she's thinking about it, she focuses into her mind and pulls a copy of the census out of a bag and puts it on a shelf.

There continue to be no obvious guides to all sentient species, but there are books on each of them individually. Her options include: Fairy Plant Weaving, A Catalogue of Human Talents, The Aetherical Ecosystem: Practical Consequences of Wind Domestication, A History of Dragon Mountain, On The Applications of Water-Walking to Practical Alchemy, Polar Bears: Masters of Diplomacy, On the Migration Patterns of Cities, and several more.

Well, it seems like she has a lot of reading to do then. Starting out with an understanding of human talents seems like a good beginning.

Human talents are widely varied, which is part of why they have adapted so well to many different territories and climates. Although most scholars agree human talents are weaker than the magics of other species, the flexibility within a community makes up for it. Humans tend to be more community-oriented than many other species (fairies and pixies being an obvious exception; in fact, they often co-habitate with humans).

The book is mainly, as promised, a catalogue. It categorizes talents by whether they are divinatory, instantaneous, or sustained. (This is clearly an artificial taxonomy, not a natural categorization, because several of the special talents mentioned cross the boundaries of the categories.)

Divinitory talents include things such as "always knowing which way is north", "knowing whether water is safe to drink", "premonitions of danger", "knowing where to hit someone to hurt them", etc. Instantaneous talents are more varied, including things such as "cure an area of leather", "make birdcalls", "remove dirt from an area", "heat stones", etc. Sustained talents include "encourage the healing of skin", "see through nearby mirrors", "run more quickly", etc.

How people end up with their specific special talent is largely unknown, although it is always the case that someone's special talent is suited for them in some way. Often, it matches their chosen profession in some way. Less often, but still commonly, it matches their personality somehow. Humans never agree fully on anything, but they have a much stronger than chance tendency to like their special talents. When offered the hypothetical chance to switch with someone else, only about 10% of humans say they would take it.

Unlike many other species, humans are not born with a special talent manifested. While some babies do develop talents early in life, it's more common for a special talent to develop during puberty. A small number of humans never develop a special talent — although the author speculates that they actually have divinitory talents so subtle that they do not actually know that the source of the information is magical.

Humans are also noticeably more likely to be wizards than other species (except dragons; the author implies at this point that they are a dragon). This is also not well-understood, but some magical theorists believe that the human propensity for different forms of magic leaves them more mentally flexible when it comes to activating their special talents, which makes it easier to learn the magicks of other species.

So most special talents are less impactful than her spirit granted abilities. Well at least more than the most dramatic ones. She does remember that Snowglobe means that she could probably get her own unique special talent like humans usually have but decides not to do that right away. Now she's curious about dragons, there was at least one book she saw about them.

Dragons claim to be the second-oldest sapient species in the world — which is strange, because nobody can find evidence of any older species. Consequently, details of their early history are somewhat hard to corroborate.

As the dragons tell it, they were formed from the sands of the desert by the light of the moon. The first dragons wandered in the desert until they found the sea, where they learned to subsist on fish. Early dragons were solitary, but that changed once they discovered aquaculture. With their needs for food taken care of (rendered difficult by the fact that Dragons continue to grow throughout their lives), the dragons were free to indulge their natural curiosity.

A flock of dragons congregated on the tallest of the southern mountains, rapidly inventing speech, writing, formal magic notation, several early spells, meat-preservation techniques, and the calendar. This was the founding of Dragon Mountain, which remains the longest continually-occupied settlement in the world, since it predates the calendar.

Dragon Mountain has, at various times, been home to as many as 200 dragons, and as few as 7. Historically, approximately half of all dragons have lived in Dragon Mountain, with the remaining dragons living in their own solitary territories. Dragon Mountain remains the only settlement of dragons. Even solitary dragons usually make a trip to Dragon Mountain for some decades during their adolescence to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, magic, and alchemy.

Its status as a center of learning also attracts members of other species, who are generally welcome to study there so long as they study peacefully. The number of students is largely controlled by the difficulty of traversing the desert in modern times, although many centuries ago the dragon of admissions did have a policy of eating the least capable students when the mountain got too crowded. That policy has been repealed since the Seven Gorges Treaty on Interspecies Relations.

Because of its remoteness, most accounts of Dragon Mountain come from the dragons themselves, or from the dragon-bonded who feel a call to travel and bond with a dragon when they hatch. Both these sources are obviously biased, which is why the book ends with an extensive bibliography. The bibliography mostly seems to cite sources written in a language which gives her the impression of being whistled.

All these mentions of magical theory are interesting. Are books about that also in this section?

"Natural Philosophy" is a pretty extensive category, but does not appear to include magical theory. A little bit of wandering around the rest of the reference section will turn up a single shelf tucked into one corner, partially hidden behind a reading lamp, with some books on magical theory.

These books include: An Introduction to Magical Notation, The Importance of Psyche in Visualization, Every Known Variant of Firebreathing: A Comparison, Practical Spellcraft, The Design of Divinatory Instruments, Web-weaving: A Practical Tutorial, A Theory of Thaumodynamics, Theory of Thaumodynamics: A Response, Shortcomings of Academic Thaumodynamics, and Thaumodynamics: A Reconstruction.

So there isn't really an obvious place to start. She'll try reading a page or two from each to see if it's more clear which of them are actually written for beginners.

An Introduction to Magical Notation and Practical Spellcraft are both clearly written for beginners. The Design of Divinatory Instruments seems to assume that the reader is already familiar with creating enchanted items. The Thaumodynamics books are perhaps more practically useful as a sleep aid.

More importantly, it's obvious from An Introduction to Magical Notation that the aforementioned magical notation is language-y enough that she can pick up parts of it with her Spirit-granted powers.

Omniglot is just fantastic. She'll put each of these back on the shelf where she found them. Her powers mean she can conjure copies and read them later. She doesn't want to spend her whole first day in the library as wonderful as the library is. Now it's time to go find the maps.

Right this is more like a map from a fantasy book than one ones based on satellite images she's used to.

The good news is that if she wants to visit the dragons they might not be too far away. She isn't actually sure she wants to visit the dragons. Does this section also have books about what the places marked on the map are?

It does! There are a handful of more detailed maps of specific places, as well as a surprising number of travelogues.

Hmm, if there's a map of Terrance that might be nice. Otherwise she's interested in a map of the plains he's wandering. As for books, she's just looking for a brief overview of the other cities and some explanation of who the oracles living up in the mountains are.

A Tour of the Continent provides some brief descriptions about each city:

Kingsport, capital of the Unified Territories, is a hub of learning and culture. As a port city, it has easy access to the interior of the north, as well as good sea connections to the rest of the eastern coast, even though water-walkers rarely visit it. The city is also home to the Royal Academy of Mages, and the biannual conclave.

Iceholm is the largest settlement of polar bears in the world. Most of the city is carved out of ice, leading to some truly beautiful architecture (about which the author rhapsodizes at some length). Its primary exports are fish and philosophy, and its primary imports are refined metals. The city is governed by a strange kind of foreign government — a "democracy", which gives each of the polar bears who has completed their education a say in the laws.

Remsfield is sometimes metaphorically called 'the turtle of the north'. Despite being stationary, it forms the center of a number of trade routes, and has the largest stationary market in the world. Exports include pretty much everything, although notably a lot of grain.

Treeholm is less urban and more dispersed than the other cities featured in the book, although its total population is actually comparable to Kingsport. Because of its position on the border between the north and south, it has a long history of distinguished battles. It is also the only non-human-majority city within the Unified Territories at time of writing, with pixies and fairies making up more than half of the population. Exports include living plant-based materials and artisanal goods.

Merriterra is fairly isolationist, and difficult for outsiders to access. Consequently, little about it is known. They maintain a trading post on the surface, where they mostly interact with water-walkers and the few human ships brave enough to leave the coast.

Crossing Ways is the largest mobile city, being more like a constantly changing network of barges, ships, and carts built on the surface of the ocean. When it ranges north, it can sometimes be seen from the coast with a telescope. It is technically accessible to humans, but most find the city hard to navigate.

Dragon Mountain is the center of dragon culture and learning. Carved from a single mountain, it is rumored that the tunnels extend deep underground. The mountain is also known to anchor potent protective spells. The fact that it is sized for dragons means that the buildings and corridors are uncomfortably large for humans to navigate, which in turn inspired the creation of a kind of cart that is hauled on a track up and down the mountain to provide access to the different levels.

On the turtles, it has this to say:

Theresa, oldest of the turtles, can usually be found near the southern edge of the grassland. She specializes in textile manufacturing, and has a fondness for tea.

Taylor is a mid-sized turtle. They enjoy swimming, and therefore tend to hang around on the eastern coast.

Terrance is the most far-ranging of the turtles, being found nearly anywhere within the grasslands. He specializes in glassworks, and collects romance novels. He features the largest library of any turtle.

Timothy is Terrance's younger brother. He patrols the southern border with the desert, and has a reputation as a formidable enemy of pirates.

Terra is the youngest turtle large enough to be called a city. She tends to haunt the border with the forest, and is unique for her high population of fairies. She has the most extensive gardens and living buildings of all turtles.

Thomas is also far-ranging, being found all over the west. He specializes in the spice trade, and boasts the largest merchant bank of any turtle.

Terpsichore is small for her age. She has the most restrictive immigration policies of any turtle, and focuses primarily on the production of art. She is famed for her great concerts, and follows a predictable tour schedule so that fans of the theater may know where to find her.

The grasslands are apparently largely unmapped — which makes sense, if all the settlements move about. Likewise, the oracles are hard to find information on. Everybody knows that there are oracles in the mountains, but nobody agrees on what they are, how they got there, why they live there, or what it is that they prophesize.

There is a city map of Terrance. Generally, his hindquarters are residential, sides industrial, and shoulders mercantile. The city council meets on his head. The market is a small ways tailwards of the library.

That's enough context for her to get started with... well maybe she should also try to find a book about how much things cost. She knows that can change pretty often but having at least a rough sense would help with trading.

Terrance's reference section does not appear to have that particular kind of information. There are books that will reference prices (although they are, as often as not, in currencies that she has not heard of), but no systematic texts exploring prices of common goods and services.

Oh well, she'll go back to talk to Bwittertree.

Bwittertree has compiled a human-scale list of books, including locations and reference numbers, and set it on the big desk beside their small desk.

When Sapphire returns, they're giving directions to a flying fish.

"... and then speak to the librarian there. But I'm warning you right now that the heat is metaphorical."

They catch sight of her over the fish's fin.

"Ah! Madam wizard — were you able to find everything all right?"

The honorific and the deference makes sense now that she knows how rare wizards are she isn't quite sure what to think about it though.

"Mostly, I was looking for a reference on how much things cost but it makes sense something like that doesn't fit in a library since it probably changes a lot."

Bwittertree thinks for a moment.

"No, I don't believe we have a reference of that kind," they agree. "I would check with the Merchants' Association if I were interested in historical prices, I think. If you just want to know how much things cost currently, the market is probably the best place to find that kind of information."

"That makes sense. So, do you have the list of books you wanted copies? And is that something the library can pay me for?"

Bwittertree nods, and points down at the list on the desk.

"It is, yes. We're prepared to offer you 6,000 resh per book for a general rate, and 10,000 resh for the ones I've marked with a star. Our budget for book preservation is only 78,000 resh right now, which, if you do books in order, will take you down to the line I've marked there. If you want to copy more books than that, or turn around and give any of that money back as a donation, we would be grateful, although of course you're not required to."

"I'll need to check how accurate your special talent is, as well," they add hesitantly. "But if the first chapter is correct, I can offer you an advance, pending verification of the rest of the books."

"Unfortunately, my only real reference for how much a resh is, is that the person at the entrance told me ten thousand resh was about their weight in bread and I don't currently have a talent for knowing the weight of things. Do you know how much more ordinary meals or staying at inns is likely to cost?"

"I mostly buy small meals, so my estimates might be a little off," Bwittertree cautions. They think for a moment.

"But I think a cheap human-scale meal goes for about 50 resh, and a fancy human-scale meal is about 800. A night in a cheap inn is about 1,000 resh, and a night in a fancy inn is about 2,600. Stays at inns usually include one meal a day, but it varies. Water is generally 5-15 resh per human-scale bottle, depending on how recently we stopped at a lake. Right now it's on the high side."

"Thank you. I'm willing to copy the books at let's say a third of what you said. I'm not really worried about having enough money and my ability means it won't take very long so it feels a little weird to charge a lot for it. And not giving it all to me right away is fine."

Bwittertree nods.

"That's very kind of you. Thank you. Do you mind going and getting the books off the shelves yourself? I would do it, but ..."

They wave a hand at their height.

"Or I can send for the junior librarian to round them up for you."

"Sure, I'm guessing you want me to bring the copy on the shelf and mine so you can be sure you have two of each book at the end?"

"Yes, please. And once you finish copying the first book, it should probably take me about 20 minutes to check the first chapter. We should have all the copies checked by tomorrow, so you can stop by anytime then for the rest of your payment," they explain.

"Okay, I'll be go do that." She picks up the list and starts walking towards the first location. Once she's out of view she pulls a canvas bookbag out of her pocket. One big enough to plausibly hold fourty books. She also creates it with dividers so they won't all be jumbled together.

Is it hard to find the first book?

Not at all; the books are laid out and labeled in a most orderly fashion.

The first book is a fiction book. A romance of some kind, judging by the title. It's well-worn, clearly having been much read.

Oh... it's well worn. Somehow she expects the librarian thinks she'll be producing copies in good condition. Actually can she do that?

She places the original into her bag and then reaches in intending to pull out a less damaged copy.

The result is better than the original but not exactly mint either. The binding is in better shape and the pages are mostly uncreased, but she notices one passage where the words are smudged and that smudge is reproduced perfectly in her new copy.

She places the book back in her bag and then returns to her list. She can continue in this vein for the rest of the books. She does want to get to other things today so she refrains from paying much attention to the other books.

The other books are also well-read, but if she's not paying attention to them there's not much more to say than that.

Bwittertree greets her with a wave when she returns.

"Hello, here's the books you asked for." She gently lays out all fourty books on the desk.

"Ah. Hmm."

Bwittertree scratches their head.

"Well, it will extend their circulation life, anyway," they mumble to themselves as they fly over to the first pair of books.

They shove the covers open with a heave, and start flitting back and forth to compare the title pages.

"This is a very accurate copy," they conclude, looking up at her. "If you give me a few minutes, I'll compare the first chapters and get your advance."

"It would actually be a lot harder for me to make a less exact copy. And sure, I'm happy to wait."

Bwittertree nods distractedly, and then returns to comparing the two volumes.

As promised, a few minutes later they dive behind the desk and come back up with three stacks of five coins each. It takes them three trips, but more because of the relative size of the librarian and the stacks, then because of the weight.

"3,000 resh," they pronounce, gesturing at the 15 coins. "Which should be more than enough for a room for the night; I'll have the rest ready for you in the morning."

A trumpet blast sounds from the direction of Terrance's head.

"Ah, you might want to hold onto something," Bwittertree advises.

She grabs a hold of the desk and spreads her legs a bit for easier balance. The turtle is about to move more dramatically isn't he? "Thanks."

There's a sensation like a rapidly dropping elevator, and then a gentle rumble that reverberates through the city, shaking the buildings and people. It's not particularly strong, but it's jarring enough that it makes sense to warn people.

Once the rumbling dies away, the almost imperceptible background swaying of Terrance's steps is gone.

Bwittertree glances out the window.

"It's still pretty early, so I would guess that we've made it to a lake," they diagnose.

"Is there anything else I can help you with, today?" they ask, turning back to her.

Yep she was right. She wasn't quite expecting the dropping though. The lack of movement is also a little weird. It's surprising how fast she's gotten used to it.

"I don't think so." She takes the coins and puts them into her bag. "Thank you for your help."

"It was my pleasure, ma'am."

She smiles and then leaves. It's time to go to the market.

The market!

What can be said about the famous turtle markets that has not already been repeated a hundred times in song and story? Doubtless you have heard already of the tight-packed market stalls, bedecked with colorful fabrics and selling all manner of materials, products, and devices. Terrance wanders the grasslands, from east to west and north to south, and so there is little that cannot be found somewhere in his market, for the right price.

Here, an alchemist hawking cures for exposure to poisonous metals. There, a baker inviting members of the crowd up onto a scale.

The scents of spices, flowers, tea, leather, canvas, clay, and a thousand other materials mix and twist into a wholly distinct aroma. The smell is lifted by the breezes that dart back and forth, fluttering the awnings of the stalls and carrying messages from one place in the market to another.

The flooring here is worn wood, not bare shell, the better to prevent shoppers from tripping over the thick cables that lie around Terrance's scutes and to which the stalls are affixed.

And at the center of it all, in the space kept clear of stalls (although nothing could clear it of buskers, hawkers, urchins, or miscellaneous other passers-by), sits the headquarters of the Merchant's Association: a small, cylindrical building through which stream the small rivulet of people who have not been distracted from their bureaucratic quests by the shiny temptations of Terrance's market.

So the thing about a person's weight in bread might not just be a silly example.

She looks around the market and especially tries to focus on how people seem to be feeling. The general vibe is pretty positive from a first glance. She was originally coming here to get money for an inn and that was solved at the library so she's mostly wandering aimlessly.

It does look like there's a good amount of food options and a lot of them smell appetizing so that's a good sign. Eventually, she takes a pause from her wandering to stop in the Merchant Association building.

The whole market is busy, but the Merchants' Association building is quite possibly moreso. Inside, a number of clerks sit behind a circular table. The lines, therefore, seem to naturally gravitate toward the shape of a stubby spiral galaxy: each customer lining up behind a current one, but just slightly to the side, so they can see if there's another line that's moving more quickly.

All the lines, however, are moving quickly, so she will soon reach the front; the clerks deal with the various requests with practiced efficiency.

It's weird in a sense how familiar but also unfamiliar this all is. People's clothes are different of course and the fairies and pixies flying at head height are very different, but the essence of this place is a lot like a farmers market or a bank back home.

She falls into the line almost by accident because that's just how the crowd is moving but once she realizes what's happening she decides to make the best of it. She remembers she can but a copy of the directory here and she's curious what other services the association offers. Are there signs around that provide more information on that? Alternatively can she learn about what happens here from people watching and a bit of light eavesdropping?

There are, in fact, slightly too many signs.

The building is covered in posters advertising various things. There are some large, red-painted cork-boards that seem to have official postings on them, but the rest of the wall is covered in a mixture of offers, notices, fliers, and the various other paper detritus of mercantilism. The official notice boards contain such things as current prices for renting a market stall, notices about taxes on certain kinds of goods, schedules for street cleaning, and, in a place of pride at the center of the board, a price list for various services.

If she's not interested in renting her own stall, it looks as though she can peruse the Merchants' Association services directory for free, buy a copy for her own use, arrange for escrow, arrange for an appraisal, arrange to receive notices if a certain good becomes available, or cell certain classes of good directly to the Association.

In the interests of keeping the line moving fast she'll stick to her plan of buying a copy. The appraisal option is interesting. A part of her wants to see what they would make of a small cube of aluminum or platinum. She doesn't think those were available in substantial quantities until industrialization on Earth. How much does arranging an appraisal cost?

200 resh for a quarter-hour appointment with the master appraiser (of which you can book multiple), or if you have a more complicated item you can drop it off and have it appraised for a flat rate of 350 resh when the master is between appointments.

Much as keeping a low profile is probably a lost cause she doesn't want to make that much of an impact yet so she'll keep to the copy.

She does want to make an impact eventually but she wants to understand this place so she knows what if anything she wants to change before she does.

Then her business can be concluded quickly and efficiently, leaving her with 20 fewer resh and a list of where to find various goods and services.

The market bustles around her; whither next?

Well, apparently merfolk tears are a common commodity can she find a stand selling them that might give her an idea of what those are and what they're used for?

She can!

There are, in fact, several stalls that offer them, in the same general area as a number of other raw materials for various industrial processes, such as tanning or glassmaking.

They do seem to be going in fairly large quantities; some customers are arranging delivery, and others are purchasing merfolk tears by the bottle. It's a clear, slightly viscous liquid. One of the stalls has a sample bottle that's marked as being a mixture of merfolk tears and water; the merfolk tears are clearly separating from the water and floating up to the top. The proprietor shakes it every few minutes to keep the display going.

She'll go to that one and wait for a convenient moment. "Hello, this might be an odd question but what are Merfolk Tears used for?"

"Why, they're useful for all sorts of things!" the proprietor exclaims with an expansive gesture. "They repel water, so it makes an excellent sealant. Depending on how it's rendered, it can also be a lubricant for wheels. It also helps soap deal with stubborn grease stains."

He opens a small bottle and invites her to smell.

"Plus, merfolk tears smell wonderful! If you're interested, I do also have pre-made soap, both pressed and liquid."

"Interesting. I don't think I need that right now but thank you for explaining."

"Well, if you do find yourself in need of fine soaps, soap components, or bulk cleaning chemicals, please do keep me in mind."

The proprietor sketches an elaborate bow and then turns to another passer by.

"You, sir! You look like a man who likes clean dishes!"

He was nice. What sort of food is available around this area?

There are a surprising number of places selling tea. A number of smaller people are eating berries. One place is serving slices of a single long carrot, roasting on a spit.

Other, more filling, options include roasted meats and hot sandwiches. Also available are a number of raw ingredients, such as honey, oat flour, regular flour, cheese, oil, etc.

She might find more traditional meals in a place where the kitchen can sprawl out over more than a few square feet.

Yeah she probably should have expected that. She's not urgently hungry just yet. Hmm, she should figure out where she's going to stay tonight there were some hints on the map she looked at but the directory probably has more details. What sorts of options does she have and how expensive are they?

There are five inns listed in the services directory. They range from listed rates of 790 resh per night up to 3,500 resh per night. The directory is relatively sparse on details of what sorts of accommodations they offer, but it's the nature of this sort of thing that those prices probably represent the full range of "seedy" to "overpriced".

Alternatively, there's a few boarding houses for longer-term stays, and the address of an apartment management company.

That's actually not that many options all things considered. She can afford the time to just visit all of those and walking through the streets will also help her get more of a sense of where things like restaurants are and larger stores are.

While she's walking around she'll pay attention to the people around her and the buildings. Are there substantial wealth divisions apparent? Are there groups of people who seem more worried than others? Are people talking much as they walk around and go about there business? Any recurring themes she can notice?

There is a noticeable difference in wealth between the area immediately around the market and the area closer to the edge of Terrance's shell, but it's no more than you would see in most cities, probably. The flying fish tend to fly over everyone else, but that's probably because they can, rather than any particularly sharp social division.

People clearly don't all know each other, but Terrance is relatively small as cities go, and there are people greeting each other in the street, or talking as they stroll along with their hot sandwiches and soap purchases.

... there is actually one group of people who aren't joining in the greeting and general market atmosphere. But it's hard to pick out what makes them a 'group', as opposed to just a bunch of individually anti-social people: they're all wearing long sleeves and long pants, often worn.

She notes that down for later mentally. Overall this place seems pretty idyllic. It's nice, though a part of her is wondering if there's some major problem she's just not noticing.

Anyway, onto the first inn on the list.

The first inn on the list is the Silver Boar, and is definitely on the seedier end of the spectrum. It's located off one of the main streets, tucked in next to a warehouse and a delicatessen. The inn itself is not painted, but rather made of stained wood that has aged in the sun into the sort of unremarkable brown that would make it hard to spot, if it were not for the large silver boar painted above the entrance.

But the sign hanging out front promises clean sheets, no double-booked rooms, and a sky entrance.

Presumably the sky entrance is for the various sorts of people who can fly. Sadly that doesn't seem to be a special talent so she'd presumably grow wings if she tried to do that and she's not quite ready to change that much.

She'll at least poke in to see it but she's probably going to stay somewhere else.

Well, the fish don't have wings, but presumably she doesn't want flippers and aerokinesis either.

The inside of the inn is much the kind of place you might expect, given the outside. It features a stack of furniture in one corner, a somewhat bored young girl with a mop, a desk with a rack of keys hanging behind it, and two doors leading further into the building.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm new here on Terrance's back and I'm trying to pick an inn, yours was one of the ones in the directory at the market."

The girl straightens up and leans on her mop.

"Yes! I knew the registration fee was worth it. We have several rooms available; how long might you be staying?"

Well she's eager. Sapphire wasn't actually planning to commit to the first place she visited but she would feel bad leaving for no reason now. "I'm not really sure yet. I'm still trying to get oriented. The library was nice and so was the market but I'm not really sure whether I want to stay long term. If I do I guess I won't stay in an inn long term so a few days to a week? What comes with the room?" She almost asks about the bathroom and washing situation but her new powers mean she doesn't actually need to worry about it.

"We have rooms with one or two beds; rooms with a window are extra, but there's one free right now. Each room has a bar for the door, and under-bed storage for your luggage. We also have a hot breakfast every morning from first light to second bell, and there's a safe where you can check valuables with me during your stay," she rattles off.

"And the rooms have excellent soundproofing," she adds, her eyes not flickering to Sapphire's outfit for more than the briefest moment. "We had a whirl-the-wind in to do them."

"Does that mean the soundproofing is magic?" The bar isn't that important to her she guesses it's a bit like a lock before locks were easy to make. And it's not like she needs to store anything in her room.

Is the girl attracted to her or judging her? Does her soundtrack have any hints for her there? She's not sure if that's something it would do yet.

"No, it's not active magic. They're just good at sensing where air can get through and sealing it up without killing the ventilation," the girl explains.

It's hard to tell, because the girl is now studiously focused on making eye contact.

The background music sounds ... sad, maybe. Like an establishing shot, perhaps.

"I guess that would do a lot to keep things soundproof." And thick construction instead of the cheaper materials modern buildings are made of on her world probably do the rest. "Is there a story behind why you went to so much effort for that?"

The girl's smile turns brittle.

"It was my father's idea, actually. I don't think he ever told me why he chose to get that done, specifically. I think it's just part of our long history of excellence."

Oh, so her father is dead. Well probably anyway. "Alright then. So is there anywhere that I should visit while I'm here on Terrance?"

"Oh, certainly! You should definitely make time for a trip up to the council building — the views are incredible when Terrance is on the move."

She flips the mop from one hand to the other in thought.

"I would also take the time to stop by a tea shop if you can; we get much fresher stuff than the forests. Other than that ... what kinds of things are you interested in? The theater is frequently recommended."

She smiles at that. "The theater sounds fun. I enjoy meeting new people and learning about them. Other than that, I enjoy reading, exploring new places and learning new things." She expects she'll enjoy the last even more now that she has magic to help her pick things up faster.

"Well, Terrance isn't exactly a huge research center, but you might want to check out the Pickled Spectre. It's where the alchemists tend to hang out, and they're always talking about the newest writings out of the north," she advises.

"I'll have to keep that in mind. I don't know much about alchemy but it sounds like it could be fun to learn."

"Well, I'm not exactly an expert either. But if you're after intellectual types, that's definitely where you'll find them."

She leans in the direction of the counter.

"So can I get you a room for the night, at least?"

"Sure, it's 750 resh right?" She gets out that much money from her bag.

The girl nods.

"Yes — or 800 if you want a window," she confirms, before taking the coins, counting them, and then dropping them into a lockbox behind the counter.

"I'll take the window." She adds the difference.

"Alright, your room is just up here!"

She leads Sapphire through a door, up a set of stairs, and over to the corner of the building.

The room is small, but clean. It smells incongruously of the sea. The window looks out what seems to be a private garden, packed with space-efficient hanging planters and trellises.

"What a nice garden."

"Thank you. It's shared with the house on the other side, but we serve many of our own vegetables for breakfast."

"I'll have to look forward to that. Out of curiosity, what's it like running an inn?"

The girl crosses her arms, and then appears to think the better of it and just fidgets with her fingers instead.

"It's ... hard. Of course, you get to meet so many interesting people! I had someone from the mountains stay here the other week. But the competition is fierce, so there's always something to do."

"So there's more inn rooms than people looking for rooms a lot of the time?"

"I'm ... not sure how that follows?" she admits. "I usually have two or three empty rooms at a time — but I know I have cleaner rooms and cheaper rates than some of the other places. So I think it must be a marketing issue, but I paid to get registered with the Association, and this place has been open since my grandmother's time ..."

She shakes her head and refocuses.

"I'm sorry, does that answer your question?"

"Well if it was the opposite you would usually be full. Anyway, how are people from the mountains different?"

"Do you want to come sit in the front room?" she offers. "I'm happy to answer your questions, but I like to be available in case someone else comes in."

"As for people from the mountains — it's just really far away, you know? I guess they like the cold more, but generally they've just seen so much, to have gotten here."

"I'm happy to I go back down with you. So they had good stories then?"

"Oh, absolutely! There was one man who came through here who had actually been all over. Terrance was over to the east at that point, and he was stopping here on his way between the capital and Dragon Mountain. He said he didn't know why he needed to go there, but he felt sure that he did. Anyway, he had come from the capital, right? And he had the most wonderful description of the tower there — taller than Terrance and made entirely of white stone, hung with colorful banners, he said."

She pulls a chair down for Sapphire when they reach the front room and then takes up her mop again.

"And at night, it was lit up with wizard-lights in dozens of colors, so that you could see it from anywhere in the city. It looked like the aurora, he said, although that didn't help me much because I haven't seen one of those either. But he said they came during the winter to the mountains: great sheets of wizard-light left over from some epic duel in the past, drifting around over the north and painting the snows in pale greens and blues by their light."

She sighs wistfully.

"Sometimes I wish Terrance ranged further north, you know? I know he doesn't like the snow, but it would be nice to see."

"Auroras are very pretty, I haven't seen one in person but I've seen illusions of them. And snow is nice as long as you don't need to be the one shoveling. Shovelling is hard work. I can understand Terrance not wanting to carry a bunch of extra snow on his back."

"Oh, I think he also gets torporous in the cold. But I suppose the snow thing makes sense too. I've seen it on the forest when we've passed by in winter, but I haven't actually had to clear it up myself."

"I played with it more when I was a kid. We made forts and threw clumps of it around or moved our arms and legs while lying down to make patterns. Oh and we stacked big balls of the stuff and used sticks and things to make them look very loosely like people."

The girl smiles.

"That sounds like fun," she agrees. "Where did you grow up?"

"A very very long way away from here. It was a town called Arlmont."

Her knowledge of geography is nowhere near good enough to refute that.

"Is it up in the farmlands? It sounds like a farmish name."

She considers lying and accepting that for a moment before deciding against it. "I'm from somewhere a lot further than that. I'm pretty sure you couldn't get there without magic. I'm not actually sure how to go back, but the being who put me near Terrance promised I could figure it out if I wanted."

Her eyes go wide.

"Oh, wow! Was it a dragon? I thought we would have spotted a dragon, but maybe they didn't want to be seen."

"The Spirit is a lot stranger than a Dragon. I don't think they have a physical body."

She's heard stories about spirits, of course, but only stories.

"That's amazing! What were they like?"

"I didn't exactly meet them, when I say The Spirit promised what I really mean is that the magic notebook they sent to talk to me on their behalf promised. Being moved by the Spirit was... I don't think I can put words to it. It was both incredibly gentle but backed by this sense of power that it's too big to really describe. I'm not really sure if I had a body while I was being moved."

"... huh."

She finishes mopping a section of floor and starts moving the furniture over so she can get at the area under where it was.

"I don't think I've heard of anything like that happening before," she says, which is probably the politest way to phrase her thoughts. "Do you know why The Spirit sent you to Terrance?"

"Not really. They said it would be good for me somehow but why that is, I think that's something I'll have to figure out."

It's not the normal sort of quest, but it does sound like a quest, so that's fair enough.

"No wonder you were curious about where to find things here," she says, for lack of anything better to say. "What do you think you'll do next?"

"I'm not really sure, I want to get a better handle on things but after that I might stay on Terrance or I might go to Dragon Mountain. I'm pretty sure I count as a wizard or that if I don't I could be one without a lot of work."

The girl freezes, trying to find some mental framework with which to grasp the idea of Sudden Wizard.

"Well, I ... I hope that you find things to your liking," she settles on. "I'm sorry, I think I've gotten carried away. Did you have more questions for me? Ma'am."

Her face falls. "Do wizards have a bad reputation? You're the second person who reacted like I was dangerous when I told them I probably count as one."

"It's ... not a bad reputation," she replies. "Do you — in Arlmont, did you have, like, a mayor? Someone important, who it would be unsettling if they suddenly showed up? That's wizards."

"They mostly live in the capital, and they're all involved in government, and they can set you on fire with their minds and copy your special talent. So ..."

She shrugs.

"That makes sense. I can't set anyone on fire though. I can copy things like special talents but I haven't actually tried to do that yet. On a related note, is there etiquette around asking people what their special talents are?"

If you haven't done it, how do you know you can, the girl doesn't ask.

"I don't think so? Or —"

She mentally adjusts for a visitor from much further away, who hasn't heard of things like what wizards are like.

"If someone doesn't want to tell you, it's rude to press. It's also rude to judge someone on what their special talent is. But it's not rude to ask. Mine is that I can tell when people are asleep from a good distance."

"Huh, that sounds useful for an innkeeper, well more for a bartender really but maybe those aren't too different. Do people resent wizards for copying their special talents?"

"I've found it so," she agrees. "And it means that if you tell me what kind of tea you like I can often have it ready in the morning when you come down."

"And ... it's not that people resent wizards, exactly," she says to the self-identified potential wizard. "It's that your special talent is, you know, special. It's the one thing that you can do that nobody else in the world can do. Except wizards. And dragons, but it's hard to resent dragons because they don't really get involved and also they're all ancient, deeply magical, and have very pointy teeth."

Oh... the talent works through walls that would make it more useful.

"I can understand that. I don't actually have a special talent like that but I could get one if I decided to. Do people just know what their talent is immediately or do they need to figure it out over time?"

"People usually have a hunch," she replies. "Or they use it by accident, or can't help but notice it. But sometimes people do go a long time before figuring them out. Are you sure that you don't just have a subtle one, like resistance to disease?"

"That would be a bit redundant but it's possible. I guess the only way to know for sure is to try to get one and see if it works. And even then I might not know if I already had it and just hadn't noticed unless it's really obvious."

Well, the girl doesn't really know much about wizardry. So ... sure?

"I guess maybe your special talent could be whatever is making you so sure that you could be a wizard even though you haven't tried it?" she suggests. "Although 'feel as though I ought to be able to be a wizard' is a pretty specialized talent."

"Oh, that isn't a feeling. I know what powers I have because I picked them. I have them all written down. I think I'm curious enough to try out this one." She reaches inside herself in the same way she controlled her shape shifting but instead of a new shape she focuses on getting a special talent.

A new sense unfolds within her. The proprietress of the Silver Boar would do well in a relationship with someone who shares her dedication and tenacity, especially someone who enjoys gardening.

Acquiring a special talent in this way makes her a Wizard; ripples of her presence spread out through the paths of magic that flow through and around the planet.

In a high tower to the northeast, a delicately carven runestone activates for the first time in two years, tying her into the permission set.

A fast-moving, high-flying object to the south-south-east makes her aware that she can redirect its path anytime in the next fifteen minutes before it passes out of range to the south.

"Well that definitely did something." What sorts of changes can she make to this object? Does the music have any hints on whether she should divert it?

She can bring this object to her location. She can cause this object to urgently return to Kingsport.

The music has swept into a bold, orchestral piece that conjures feelings of exploration. But it doesn't sound particularly ominous or urgent.

Well it's a limited time thing and the music doesn't seem to have a strong option so she'll try to bring the thing to her and see what it is. She's a little surprised that moving obscure fast moving objects is her special talent but if it is she wants to understand it better.

"Well, that definitely did something."

The fast-moving object makes a wide turn in her direction and starts heading north. It will reach her in about an hour.

"So what do you think your special talent is?" the girl questions. It's not every day you see someone do bizarre wizardry.

"I guess I'll find out in about an hour. That's when the strange fast moving thing I just felt will get here. It was going somewhere else originally but I asked it to come to me."

"Huh. That really doesn't sound like a typical special talent," the proprietress, who, it now seems clear, could eventually be decent-but-not-best friends with Sapphire, responds. "I think usually people have smaller ranges than that."

"Okay... now I think that my special talent is about friendship. I can feel that we could be friends but probably not particularly close ones. That fits better with how I thought special talents worked so maybe the fast moving thing is wizardry related or something else that's reacting to me using my powers."

She really doesn't know what to think, at this point. At least she'll have another story to tell, no matter what happens.

"Is that something you want?" she finds herself asking. "To be friends with me?"

"You seem nice, but I don't want to impose. I don't know how much it applies here but back home people who worked at inns and restaurants had a lot of pressure to be nice to customers and I don't want to pressure you into being friends."

She chuckles ruefully.

"Yes, there's definitely an expectation that I greet customers with a smile," she admits. "That plus the long hours makes it ... difficult to make friends."

She shakes her head.

"Well, I'm glad I could answer your questions about special talents, at least."

She'll take that as an answer. "I appreciate it. It was good talking with you. I'll get out of your hair for the moment and be back this evening."

The girl gives her a customer service smile.

"It was my pleasure. Please don't hesitate to ask if you need anything during your stay."

"I'll do that," she agrees. Then she walks back out. Does her directory have enough information about restaurants to give her a sense of what they serve?

A sense, yes. For the restaurants where the fare is not obvious from the name ("Mench's Meats"), there is a short description. Her options include "Traditional mountain cuisine, made fresh each day with wild greens", "Rich stews, served in a bread bowl and with your choice of milks", "Water-walker-style salt dumplings, seaweed chips, and sea wine", and various similar offerings.

Soup in a bread bowl sounds reasonably predictable. She'll go have that.

The restaurant is a little ways back toward Terrance's spine. It's tucked into the corner of a building shared with a tailor's shop, but the soup smells good.

An elderly man with a cheerful grin and a ladle — who would click well with someone who enjoys shaggy dog stories — waves her in and goes about ascertaining her soup and bread preferences.

"I'm not sure, what would you recommend?"

He considers her with a surprising intensity.

"Beef and onion stew in a rye bowl," he concludes with a decisive nod. "That'll be 145 resh."

"I'm never wrong about soup," he explains, tapping his nose. "You'll like it."

"Sounds good." She hands over the needed payment. She looks around, does it look like she should wait to be seated or just claim a seat. If it's not clear she can just ask.

The restaurant has half-indoor, half-outdoor seating, with the side of the building open to let the fresh breeze in (and the smell of the soup out, the better to attract passers by). It seems to be the sort of place where she can claim a seat.

She'll sit in the outdoor seating area then.

Her soup is lighter than the typical stew, but full of rich flavor with a hint of spice. The people passing by exhibit the same mix of styles, sizes, and species that she's seen elsewhere on Terrance's back — although now there is an added dimension to watching them, because she keeps getting impressions about who would make good friends with whom.

Between finding the restaurant, ordering, and savoring her soup, it has soon been almost a full hour.

A black, crystalline orb drops out of the sky, arresting it's motion about a foot above her table. People in the street startle, stop, and stare.

The orb unfolds into a shallow bowl containing several letters and a book. It makes her aware that its next stop is Dragon Mountain, after which it will travel to the Great Market, before returning to Kingsport. Total travel time will be just over a day. None of the letters are addressed to her.

Huh, some sort of mail carrier. She doesn't actually have anyone she knows in those places to send a letter to and she's not going to super rude and open other people's mail. Can she just send it on its way?

The orb obediently folds back up, and then vanishes back into the sky with a rushing of air.

A young boy (who enjoys getting enthusiastic with people about knights) hesitantly steps forward out of the watching crowd.

"What was that?"

"It's for sending mail but none of the letters were for me and I didn't have a letter to send."

The adults in the crowd say things like "... like a scrap of darkness ..." and "... haven't heard of it ..." and "... wasn't alive, but it was fast ...".

The young boy, on the other hand, perks up.

"That's really cool! I can't be a mailcarrier because I'm going to be a knight, but maybe I could be a mail-knight if mailcarriers can zoom like that! Imagine if you could fly like that with a sword."

This has proven a bit more dramatic than she was expecting. But she smiles at the kid. "It was cool wasn't it. I'm not sure if people can learn to move that fast. You might need to be a wizard for that and I'm not sure if wizards also work as knights."

The boy looks thoughtful.

"I don't think so? Maybe they just don't mention that part."

With the spectacle having gone, the people on the street mostly resume their journeys to their various destinations.

"Do you have a particular knight that you want to be like?"

"Sir Percival! He's so strong that his sword is longer than a river is wide, and he can cut the tops off of hilltops by spinning around," the boy informs her, spinning in a demonstrative circle.

Whether this is fantasy story, propaganda, or truth is not particularly clear.

"Wow, that's so long for a sword! And cutting through rock must take a lot of strength."

The boy nods.

"That's why I help Papa with loading and unloading," he explains seriously. "Even though there are lots of people on the ropes it's still heavy, but Papa says if I keep helping then I'll get stronger."

"He's right about that."

When no more cool magic or questions about knights seem to be in evidence, the boy nods goodbye, and runs away into the crowd in the way of over excitable children everywhere.

The background music slips into a calm, background idyll sort of tune. A group of friends order a sampling platter of soups in bread rolls and seat themselves a few tables over.

More that's the immediate ruckus is over she turns most of her attention to appreciating this lovely soup. In the corner of her mind though she's thinking about the magical mail flyer. Where should she go to find out more. A part of her thinks the obvious answer is the library but she's not sure that it'll work given the lack of a card catalogue. The other option that occurs to her is trying to talk to Terrance. A couple people have implied that's possible.

So after she finishes her soup she heads on the direction of his head to see how feasible that actually is.

At the headward end of the city, things narrow to a point. At the nape of Terrance's neck, on the edge of his shell, a jutting wooden walkway turns into a wide, gently swaying rope bridge. The bridge follows the curve of his neck like the chain on an elderly woman's glasses up to a small pagoda perched on his head like a hat.

A woman with a fancy hat of her own leans against the railing of the walkway with a book. Beside her, a small hand-gate closes the bridge itself off from the general pedestrian traffic. Her general pose suggests a public servant with a terribly boring job, who is at least professional about it.

She'll walk up to the woman. "Hello there, I have a question about a wizard thing and I'm guessing that Terrance is one of the most likely people in the city to know about wizard things."

She blinks and straightens up, closing her book.

"Ah! Well you're certainly welcome to go ask. The council session finished up a few minutes ago, so I believe he's free."

She pulls a pocket abacus from her belt, and slides a bead over before lifting the gate.

"If he's in another meeting, please wait your turn. Also remember that he cannot see you, because he can't see the top of his own head, so you'll need to make your presence known audibly. And please return promptly once your business with him is done — he can carry a lot of weight, but he doesn't like people loitering on his head."

"Thanks for the pointers. I don't know if I would have realized those."

She'll go through the gate and towards the pagoda.

It should really not be surprising, that Terrance is large. She's been walking around on his back for a while. But in the tight-packed wooden buildings of the city, it's sometimes easy to forget one's sense of scale.

His head is of a size with his body — which is to say, large. But it's a comprehensible amount of large. It's an amount of large that one can easily visualize, as one climbs the gently swaying rope bridge. And that comprehensibility drives home the absurdity of Terrance's mass in a way that the cramped city streets do not.

The pagoda is mostly empty when she arrives, save only for a young man lying full-length on a long cushion and reading aloud.

"'... the honor, Mrs. Brigsby,' the captain declared, bending low over her hand."

He looks up as she reaches the pagoda, and cuts off his reading.

"There's someone here to see you, Terrance. A young human lady in unfamiliar clothing."

The voice comes rumbling up through the floor, more than it comes through the air. It's a deep, slow voice, with a hint of an accent.

"Good afternoon. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"Hello Terrance. I'm Sapphire Wilson."

"Pleased to meet you, Sapphire."

Terrance pauses for a moment in thought, the whisper of wind and the gentle creak of the bridge providing a counterpoint to his bass rumble.

"What brings you all the way up here? Is everything alright back on my back?"

"As far as I know everything is going well. I've only arrived today though. I came to talk to you because I think I've become a wizard though an unusual path and I thought you might know something about wizards being as experienced as you are."

"Oh! Well, that's certainly an unusual request," Terrance muses.

Far below, the grassland passes in a swish of green.

"But yes, I've known a few wizards in my time. Pull up a cushion and tell me your story. Margrave, I have a feeling this will take some time, so you might as well take your lunch break."

The young man rises with a stretch.

"Alright, Terrance. I'll get lunch, check whether the library has an update for you, and then circle back."

He gives Sapphire a nod, and begins to pick his way down the bridge.

"My story is a bit fantastical but I'm from another world. A very powerful being gave me an opportunity to become a lot more capable and more true to myself and also the opportunity to visit places I could never have reached on my own and the first of those places is here."

"... they weren't a dragon, were they?"

Terrance's voice is mildly apprehensive.

"I never met them in person but I'm pretty sure they weren't a dragon. They called themself The Spirit of Femininity Unleashed."

"Ah. That's alright, then," Terrance comments, his voice relaxing again. "So the Spirit ... taught you wizardry?"

"Not exactly, they gave me an ability that I think let me become one. When I reached out and got a special talent something happened and I was able to control a flying mail carrying construct."

"... got a special talent? Hmm ..."

"Anyway, yes, the Magic Mail isn't exactly common knowledge, so I can see why you were confused. I'm not a wizard myself, but I did help carry a group of wizards who were lugging a bunch of equipment down to Dragon Mountain a few years ago. I asked why they needed to send things the ordinary way, when I'd seen their orbs zipping about, and they told me that the Magic Mail is one of the great old spells, and nobody understands the operating manual anymore. Apparently it only does letters and small packages, but those it does very well."

"Huh, so wizardry is more than just being able to copy people's special talents?"

"Er. Sort of? Bearing in mind that I'm not a wizard myself, and so my knowledge is second-hand: Wizards copy other people's special talents, but they do so through study. Which means breaking down and understanding them. So if a wizard has studied several related talents, they can sort of ... bridge the pieces, I think, and put together something new out of those pieces," Terrance explains.

"They also write these things down for future generations of wizards, of course. So there are some classic spells taught to young wizarding apprentices that may once have been someone's special talent, but that are now just so much pre-digested theory. Wizards spend a lot of time working on their theories."

"Interesting. I can copy people's talents a lot easier than that but I don't get the understanding that it sounds like they have or at least not immediately."

"What do you need to do in order to copy them?" Terrance inquires, his voice tinged with curiosity.

"I haven't actually tried it to test it but when I picked the ability it said as long as I see it in action at least once I can copy any form of magic or special ability."

"Well."

He's silent for a few moments.

"You say you haven't tested it, but you did gain a special talent ...?"

"I did, one of the smaller pieces that make up my ability lets me get my own unique ability from systems where people have unique powers. And I used that to get a special talent like the ones people have here. I got an ability that lets me feel what sort of relationship I can have with people." Speaking of that, what does that ability tell her about Terrance?

Terrance is old.

He is fond of the little people that run around on his back. Especially the ones that will come to discuss literature with him, or that take the time to ask for stories of what the world was like when he was smaller. He certainly counts such people as friends.

But they are friends made with the expectation that they will be gone in a handful of decades.

To say that a 'true' friend would need to have a lifespan matching his own would be to cheapen the relationships that he does have; those friendships are not less true, for all that they burn brightly. But he would get on well with someone who could stay in his circle of friends for longer.

"Hmm. How very curious. I've certainly never heard of something like that before, which is a rare treat!"

The breeze flows through the pagoda.

"You must have run into a number of people on your way to talk to me. What held you back from trying your newfound power?"

His tone is one of light curiosity, as he tries to take her measure.

Well she knows she's immortal at this point but she's not sure she wants to commit to staying on Terrance in the long term yet. That deserves more thought.

"It's a combination of politeness and not wanting to change myself too quickly. I feel like if I was going to copy someone's abilities I would want their permission and I've mostly talked to people in a professional context. And new abilities change your perspective and I'm trying to take that shift gently."

"Ah, wise."

Terrance doesn't nod his head out of respect for her footing, but contrives to make his voice sound like someone who would nod, if nobody were sitting on their head.

"I think many people are in too much of a hurry," he remarks. "To be who they imagine they ought to be, instead of being who they are. Still, I must admit to a certain amount of curiosity. If you wish to copy the magic of turtles from me at some point in the future, you may. I'm interested to hear what you might think of it."

"The same being who let have me the ability to copy magic also promised that I was immortal so I have time to spare. Could you tell me about the magic of turtles?"

It's an extraordinary claim, but sometimes the world is extraordinary. It's an interesting story, at least.

"Well, there's some debate about what is our magic and what is our physiology," he begins. "As is often the case for species with more physically focused magic. But the core of it is our ability to grow without suffering ill effects. I eat about twice what I did when I was half this length — but if you think about it, I carry four times the weight of city and eight times the weight of flesh that I once did. The new weight troubles me no more than the old weight did."

"The magic also clearly does something to my footprints — I do leave footprints, but they're only a meter or two deep, when you might reasonably expect my feet to go all the way down to the bedrock. The dragons, for all that they also grow throughout their lives, don't have the same advantages at it that we turtles do."

"I hadn't thought of the footprints part that's amazing. I don't think I want to grow forever but I already have an ability that lets me change size so I don't think that would impact me."

"Ah, well. If you can already change size on your own, perhaps turtle magic won't be much help to you," Terrance muses. "I had foolishly assumed that you would need to copy people to get any magic — but I take it that your benefactor gave you some already to start with?"

"They did, there's honestly enough little things that it's hard to remember all the specifics. I remember the important ones though and I have it all written down."

"How extraordinary," he remarks.

The sunlight slants into the pagoda in silence, the sounds of the city rising from behind.

"Well, I think we may have wandered a bit from the topic that brought you to me originally. Remind me, did you have any other questions about wizards — or other matters on which an old turtle may share his wisdom, for that matter?"

"Is becoming a wizard something that anyone can just choose to do? If they're willing to invest enough time?"

"Hmm. It's a curious word, 'enough'. There are plenty of people who have tried to be wizards, and failed. Who's to say whether they could not do it, or whether they didn't spend enough time on it?"

"I think that answers my question. There's isn't a way to tell if someone can become a wizard except them trying. And also there isn't a guaranteed path anyone can follow."

"I believe those are both true, yes," Terrance agrees. "The college in Kingsport does prefer applications from people who are good at rhetoric, logic, and mental arithmetic — they supposedly have a higher success rate. Dragon Mountain accepts any student who can make it there, but it's not a journey for the faint of heart."

"Why is it hard to get to Dragon Mountain?"

"Just the desert. I've never been through it myself, but my wanderings occasionally take me past the border where the grasses fade to scrub and the scrub to sand. It's a harsh place. Cold enough at night to freeze your shell off, and hot enough during the day to turn you into soup, as my mother once said. The few people who call it home aren't terribly welcoming either, and you hear stories about the landmarks moving around of their own accord, but it's hard to know whether that's just because the storytellers suck at navigation."

She laughs at that. "Maybe I'll find out some day."

"It's a good deal easier to cross if one can fly, I'm told," Terrance adds. "I'm not sure if that's among your many talents, but what trade I have with Dragon Mountain is usually done via Whirl-the-wind caravans."

"It's not something I can do right now but maybe one day. Where I come from we had flying machines that anyone could pay to ride. It'll be a bit of an adjustment, how much more time travelling takes here."

"Like the Magic Mail, but large enough to carry people? Goodness! No wonder you have so much magic yourself, when your world has so much available."

"Where I come from we don't see that as magic. It's using the same principles that birds use to fly and sailing ships use to catch the wind just with a lot of effort and cleverness."

"Hmm. I would quite like to see one," Terrance admits. "Because I can't quite picture the thing, myself."

"If I had illusion magic I would show you but I don't have that yet. Maybe with enough time I could make one or explain the ideas well enough that someone else could. The ones I'm used to are very big and complicated but they weren't always that big or complicated. Some of the first ones were made by two brothers working on their own."

"What goes into making one? I don't like to boast, but I have some fairly fine artisans who might be interested in the project."

"I know the ones I flew in were made of a very light metal but the first ones were mostly made out of wood and canvas. The simpler ones spin a propeller which is a little like a windmill very fast. And then they have a fixed wing that works like a sail to help keep it in the air."

"Hmm."

Below her feet comes the sound of a turtle pondering hard. It doesn't sound like much.

"I don't have any shipwrights, for obvious reasons, but we aren't that far from the coast — probably another three or four days. The propeller might be harder, but I do have some clock makers that should be able to design a gearbox. Do you know how the first ones powered the propeller?"

"I'm not actually sure what fuel they were using back then but it was probably a kind of refined oil in an internal combustion engine. I kinda understand how those work but they're a bit dangerous to experiment with because they run on small explosions and if you do them wrong instead you get bigger explosions."

"... ah. That might be why we haven't discovered them. It's not the kind of experiment I'd want to permit on my back."

"I fully support that choice. I think I'm making it sound more dangerous than it is but I haven't actually read a lot about the history. I know once you figure them out they're actually very stable and almost never explode in a way that's dangerous but almost never isn't never and I have to believe that figuring out how they work is more dangerous than following a set of precise instructions."

"That makes sense," Terrance agrees. "I'm not sure who might be best placed to do experiments like that, but ­— with your permission — I'll mention the possibility to a few of my correspondents, and see what they think. It really would be nice to have easier transport through the forest and desert."

"Of course." She pauses for a moment. "It's a very long term thing but I still feel like I should mention it. If people burn too much material over too long a period of time it could change the weather on a long term basis to make things hotter everywhere. It's really hard to get to that point with just wood and easily accessible oils but there are other fuels in the ground that make that easier."

"Huh. Well, it's something to keep an eye on, certainly. When you say long term, how long exactly do you mean? There's a big difference between what people who only live a few decades mean by 'long term' and what people who live a few centuries mean by 'long term'."

"It depends on how much people are burning of course but even as we burned more and more every year it took over a century before it became a problem. The issue is that we got used to burning things to power everything so people weren't willing to stop even when it became really obvious it was making things worse."

'Over a century' meaning 'it will be a problem for Terrance's nephew, at the very least', he thinks.

"I can only hope that people here have a bit more sense than those in your homeland, as unlikely as that may be," he says.

"Although that does make me curious — you've seen a bit of how my city runs, in your time here, yes? Have you spotted any mistakes we're making that your people have managed to avoid?"

"Nothing obvious. I haven't been here for long though. I'm a little surprised by how much things cost relative to each other but a lot of that is probably based on how hard things are to make or obtain being different. Books for example are a lot cheaper where I come from."

"Oh, if only!" Terrance complains. "Good, high-quality paper can make a book last for a few hundred years, but it's also quite expensive. Plus the labor of getting people to do the copying. A decent chunk of my discretionary budget goes on maintaining the library — I have the largest mobile collection in the world, you know. Although the stationary library at Polar University is larger," he grudgingly admits. "Mostly philosophy and history, though, so I'm not really sure it should count."

She adopts an exaggerated joking tone for clarity. "I don't know history and philosophy are pretty important." She laughs a little. "On a more serious note, I don't know the details but we had ways of turning wood into paper using massive machines. We also had ways of printing the same text onto sheets of paper over and over again so making a hundred books wasn't much harder than making one."

"Oh, now that sounds worthwhile. I don't suppose these machines were prone to exploding too?"

"Nope printing presses are entirely stable and the concept isn't too complicated either. The core idea of the simplest ones is that you carve out wood metal or clay so the shape of the text you want is standing out and then you cover that shape with ink and press it onto paper.

"The next update to that was that you carved a bunch of letters that were a consistent size and then you can just rearrange them which is much faster than carving out a whole page of text from scratch every time."

"I see! That does sound remarkably straightforward. I know that there are artisans who use stencils for applying even carvings to furniture and so on; I suspect they would be able to carve these pages as well," Terrance muses. "Of course, it's a lot slower to carve than to write, so it's not worth it to make only a single copy of the book, but if we were able to undercut other providers to recoup the costs ...."

He cogitates momentarily as only an experienced mercantile turtle can.

"Yeah it's mostly useful for when you want to print a lot of copies of something. With moveable letters there's a lower investment but one of the early common uses was to print either books that hundreds or thousands of people wanted copies of or things that were only a couple of pages so the upfront investment was low."

"The Merchant's Association might be willing to fund the experimentation — they run at a loss making their flyers and advertisements, and make it up in membership fees," he explains. "I'll ask the chair of the association to come around later and discuss it."

"Well I'm happy to try to remember more details if that would be helpful. I'm staying at the Silver Boar. I..." she paused for a moment. "One of my incredible powers might help but it's a bit disruptive. I can duplicate anything I've held and also create things out of nothing if I understand them well enough. There are some limitations but I've already used it to make copies of some books for one of your librarians."

"That is ..."

His mind spins through the possibilities, first mercantile, then industrial, then magical, and then dangerous.

"... a talent that I think you should keep inside your shell," he informs her. "There are a lot of people with unique artifacts who would want to get their hands on you, if they knew."

"Okay," she says a little faintly. She hadn't really considered being targeted for that power but maybe she should have been. "I'll try to keep my uses of it restrained."

"I'm not trying to scare you," Terrance adds. "And my Watch will come down hard on that sort of thing so long as you're here. But it's still better to be cautious."

"That makes sense." She agrees still a bit subdued compared to before. "And if there's ways for me to be helpful to you I'd be happy to help. Aside from what we talked about most of my abilities are focused on understanding people and helping them find their best lives."

"Whoof."

Terrance lets out a sigh, and the wind rustles the grasses as it races away in front of him.

"That's a generous offer. I'll have to think on what you could best help with — although please feel free to suggest something, if your understanding provides an insight. I'm half tempted to ask you to duplicate a sample of my favorite tea; I do go through a lot. That seems like a frivolous request, though."

"I don't mind frivolous but I also expect it would need to be a lot of tea for you to taste it. I haven't actually tested how fast I can make things."

"It would, yes," he agrees. "I buy it by the bale from the travelers when I pass near a port. But if it's small things ... tell me, have you heard the tale of the mountain-queen's jewels?"

"I haven't, what's special about them?"

"Well, please remember that these are folk tales, so I'm not sure exactly how much truth there is to them. But the story goes that back before the forest grew, when the world was young and everything was possible, the king of the desert fell in love with the mountain-queen. He dove into the sands, and surfaced with three beautiful rubies as large as a fairy's head. He folded them into a love letter, and tied them to the leg of a seagull, who promised to take the letter across the plains to the home of the queen."

"But seagulls are treacherous creatures, and work for the sea. So the letter was lost, and the king of the desert thought his love unrequited. Eventually the mountain-queen, curious as to the cooling relation between their peoples, and eager to avoid a war, sent her champion, Harrat the Just, as an ambassador to the king of the desert. She learned of the sand-gems, bright like fire, and told the king of their loss. He charged her to recover them, and see them safely delivered, the animosity between the two kingdoms to mend."

"So Harrat searched the land for a year and a day, from Dragon Mountain to the coldest reaches of bear country. And not one trace of the gems did she see. She ended up sitting on the sea side, lamenting to the world the hopelessness of her task, when along the shore came a traveler, with his green skin and his bright blue hair, and asked her what troubled her so. Harrat explained her task, and the traveler pointed out that, though she had searched the land, the gems might still be found in the sea, and offered her a place in his cart to take her to the city where the mermen dwelt."

"Over the course of the journey, they fell in love, and Harrat later gave birth to the first dolphins — creatures of the sea that nonetheless breathe the air, and show their ancestor's kindness in helping lost sailors — but that's not the important part. The important part is that she did eventually recover the sand-gems, and returned to land to present them to her queen."

"But when she arrived, she found the continent engaged in a bitter war, for she had gone too long, and relations between the kingdom's had decayed. Seeing the pointless slaughter, she turned to the sea, and accused it of causing this strife. For five days and five nights she exhorted, and her words were so beautiful and persuasive that around her the battle stopped, and peace spread out over the land once again. At the end of her speech, the sea itself was so touched by her words that it made a solemn vow to never again touch the gems that she carried."

"Over the next months, she saw the gems delivered, and a lasting peace brokered, and the demilitarized zone between the two kingdoms was left fallow, and eventually grew up into the forest. And from that day to this, the sea has kept it's promise, and whoever carries the gems will see the waters draw back from them, letting them walk directly where few land-creatures have seen. But the sea is as fickle as its gulls, and though it keeps its oath, it promised only not to touch the gems, and one gem alone is not enough to see it part."

"And in my treasury, in the most well-guarded vault, I have exactly that: one of the mountain-queen's gems. The other two are lost to time. One is known to have been eaten by Torgelps, the mad Dragon. Of the third, nothing is known, save that nobody claims to have it," Terrance explains.

"I have fond memories of swimming, as a child. Of diving into ponds and lakes where my mother would stop. But obviously I can't do such things now — it would be most dangerous to my citizens. But if I had another of the mountain-queen's gems, I could expand my wandering, and take people to see the land under the sea..."

He trails off, a bit wistful, seeming to have forgotten his audience.

"Well I'm certainly willing to try but I don't know if it would count to just duplicate one of the gems. I'm curious if the story of dolphins is something that's literally true. We also have dolphins in my world but we have a very different explanation for how they came to be."

"It's, ah, hard to be sure," Terrance tells her. "Certainly new species have to come from somewhere, and intelligent people of different species can have children, but they normally end up taking after one parent or the other, not becoming a completely new thing. Or, at least, all the accounts of that sort of thing come from very old stories, and not from something like a historical census."

"On my world we had a lot of evidence that all animals in the entire world were part of a single family that had been around for billions of years. The first members of the family were thought to have lived in the ocean and gradually as the family grew it also grew apart turning into ever more diverse beings through a very gradual process until there were millions of different types of beings that typically couldn't have children together."

"... huh."

"Well, our record keeping isn't that good," Terrance muses. "So if the process were slow enough, I suppose it might be possible. But what kind of evidence could you find, for that sort of thing?"

"We had several lines of evidence, the first thing is that we observed groups of the same birds that had been stranded on different islands and changed in response to the conditions on those islands. We found other cases like that over the years especially when we started looking for them.

"The second line of evidence is that very rarely animals die in a way that lets their remains turn into rocks and then much much later we found those rocks and we could analyze them and use information about where we found them and how deeply they were buried to determine how long it had been since they were alive. 

"Our third and most recent line of evidence comes from understanding part of how animals inherit traits from their parents. A lot of the way that inheritance happens is encoded in an enormously complicated substance we called DNA. And by comparing the DNA of different animals we can determine which animals are more or less related to other animals and use that information to put together an enormous complicated family tree."

"Well, your home certainly has the advantage of us as far as natural philosophy goes. It would be curious to see whether the same thing holds here."

"Yeah I am too. My world had a lot less types of people who could communicate with humans effectively. I'm not sure if that's evidence one way or another though."

"My initial guess would be that you'd have more types of people who could communicate if they were all related, but I also recognize that I know next to nothing on the topic, so it's probably pointless to speculate," Terrance muses. "What kinds of people do you have in your world?"

"That's something we debate because none of them can communicate complicated ideas in ways we humans understand. Some people think that Humans are the only people because of that. I think there's compelling evidence that dolphins, some other whales and some other types of Apes are people. It isn't enough to be definitive though."

"Well, if you do have dolphins too, and everyone on your world is of a family, that suggests that they probably aren't descended from Harrat the Just," Terrance points out. "Although I'm not sure what an Ape is, and I'm pretty sure whales aren't people here, so the whole situation is a bit confusing. If you ever go back to your own world, you should take a polar bear — their special talent is understanding and being understood, so they might be able to help you translate."

"Ape is our word for a collection of types of animals similar to humans that includes humans. We have something we call polar bears but they aren't people. That sounds like a special talent I would really like to copy though. I already have some powers like that but redundancy is good."

"Well, they can't really tolerate the heat, so if you want to meet one, you'll want to head north at some point," he advises. "There's regular ships between Kingsport and Iceholm, so that's probably easier than trying to cross the mountains."

"I'll have to go there at some point then."

"Have you found a reference for all the different species and their talents? I don't know whether that's something hatchling wizards normally look up, or whether they're just expected to know it."

"I tried to look for something like that in the library but I didn't find any one book that had that so I pieced together the talents for a number of sorts of people across a bunch of different books."

"Ah; yes, I'm not surprised. I don't recall any scholars who tried to do a broad-but-shallow overview like that. They mostly prefer to specialize. There was that one fellow ... oh, what was his name ... Dolman, I want to say? Who tried looking at the patterns of different special talents, and claimed that there were clearly a few possible ones that were missing, and hypothesized that there were undiscovered species to embody them. I'm not sure if I have his book, or if I traded it to Thalia ..."

"That's an interesting idea, I wouldn't really expect special talents to have a clear enough pattern for that from the ones I know but there's a lot I don't."

"I think his project was primarily based on the observation that — hold on, this is one of the times when I envy people with hands. I'm going to try describing a table, the columns of which are 'air', 'water', and 'land'. The rows go like this: whirl-the-winds breathe and swim in air, drink water, stand on land; mermaids neglect air, swim in and breathe water, stand on land; dolphins breathe air, swim in water, and stand on land; water-walkers breathe air, stand on water, swim in land; humans breathe air, drink water, and stand on land."

"So his theory was that there should be people who stand on air, who breathe land, and so on. He thought that travelers — that is, water-walkers — whirl-the-winds, and mermaids were cousins of a sort. Anyway, he was largely considered mad, and nobody really believes his theories. But his book does have the kind of comparison you might be looking for, although it leaves some species out."

"I'm not really sure what swimming in land or walking on air would mean but if it describes a bunch of talents in the same place that does sound useful."

"If I recall correctly, he eventually died while exploring a bunch of caves to see if he could find places where the grain of the stone had been disturbed by the passage of a swimmer," Terrance remarks. "Because water-walkers usually stay near the surface to avoid drowning, unless they're diving for gems. But, as I said, he was largely considered mad, so I wouldn't read too much into his theories."

"The interesting thing about dolphins and whales at least in my world is that they're more closely related to dogs and other four legged creatures like that then to fish or creatures like frogs. They even have tiny bones where the rear legs they don't grow anymore would be."

"Hmm."

He thinks for a moment.

"I'm afraid we've strayed rather far from my areas of expertise," he admits. "I don't know anything about dolphin medicine. Or funerary practices, for that matter. I occasionally exchange letters with a book collector in Merriterra, though; I could write and ask her if she has anything about dolphin skeletons, if you'd like."

"It's not really what I'm focusing on either. It might be interesting to know if bits like that overlap but I think it's pretty clear there's also a lot that's different. One question did just occur to me though. Have you tried to become a wizard or do you know turtles that have?"

"Personally I haven't; I considered it, but I don't really have the head for it. Plus, as a turtle you learn the value of relying on your citizens. I don't have a wizard in residence at the moment, but I did have one a few years ago, before he moved away to study alchemy."

"My niece Tara wants to study to become a wizard, though. She's just gotten her first building, so she's a bit young for it, but she's enthusiastic. I will say that wizardry is not as common among turtles, though. It's hard to get resources and tutors out here when we can't really visit either of the major centers of learning. My ... let me see ... great-grand-uncle Thomas was a wizard, though. He disappeared in mysterious circumstances a hundred years or so before I was born, so I can't tell you too much about him. Why do you ask?"

"Mostly just out of curiosity. Some of my abilities also make me better at teaching and passing on magic to others. I haven't really tried using that yet though. I could give you a copy of my special talent if you're interested though it might require us spending more time together first."

"That's a tempting offer," he admits. "I'm not sure how useful I would find evaluating potential relationships day to day, but I could see it being useful when doing hiring interviews. How would the teaching process work?"

"I only notice it when I try to think about it. As for the teaching process I think I would just need to try to give it to you."

"Well, if it doesn't require memorizing complex diagrams, I'll probably fare better than an attempt at normal wizardry," he jokes. "Please, go ahead."