"Huh. I guess at least if you're doing that you don't run into Aroden's error but it seems like people would end up much less informed about whether they wanted to follow you."

"Aroden's error?" 

"Aroden was a god. An ascended human, actually, the first one of those - there were others, after him. And it was prophecied that in the year 4606 by the Absalom Reckoning he would return to the world and usher in an Age of Glory and - address all of the evils that it's kind of mysterious the gods who care about humans don't really address -

- and on the appointed day something went wrong. There were thunderstorms, and fierce winds, all over the whole world, for three weeks, and earthquakes destroyed five cities and a hurricane a hundred miles wide formed west of here and - sank two countries into the water - the hurricane is still there today -- and the storm surge flooded most of Osirion's cropland with salt water, caused a devastating famine, and a hole was torn open between this plane and the Abyss and demons invaded, and Aroden's clerics stopped getting spells from him. So we assume the gods went to war and he lost and he's dead."

"Huh. I know - someone, who would agree with the sentiment there. That it's mysterious that gods don't address all the problems in the world and someone should change that, I mean." 

"It is a pretty sympathetic sentiment but in light of what happened when someone tried it I am inclined to say that the gods have their reasons."

"Mmm. Anyway. I should go find the city, but I think I'd better ask some more questions first so I don't want into anything unawares. Er, are there other kinds of magic than god-miracle-magic, here? I guess you said wizards. What can wizards do?" 

"There are lots and lots of kinds of magic, I'm sure someone has tried to catalogue all of them but it'd be like trying to catalogue all the stars. Wizards are arcane casters, rather than divine casters; their power comes from the magical energy inherent to the world, rather than from gods. Anyone educated enough can learn to be a wizard, so it's the most common kind of magic. Wizards can do - most things, really, arcane magic is very very flexible. Relevant to you there's such a thing as an interplanetary teleport and wizards can learn it, though it requires exceptional power and I don't know that there's anyone in all of Osirion who can do it. Absalom will have someone, if Sothis - Sothis is the capital city of Osirion - doesn't. 

There are also sorcerers, who have some access to arcane magic through an inherent ability that requires study to refine, but not to use in the first place. Some sorcerers are part dragon or part angel or part demon and their power comes from that. I think there are more than a hundred kinds of sorcerer catalogued, though. There are also bards, who have powers through music, and druids, who have powers through communion with the natural world or maybe an extremely subtle god who doesn't want to admit to being one. There are people who get magic through pacts with extraplanar entities that aren't powerful enough to be called gods. - I do not recommend doing that, many of them are malicious and the pacts give them a great deal of power over you. There are people who get magical abilities through secret traditions I know no more details of.

My magic tells me that both of you are powerful but not - any more detail than that, I couldn't guess just by looking whether you are one of those things or some other sort of thing."

"Huh. I have magic through an inherent ability. It's hereditary, in our world, although I don't think it has to do with being part anything-nonhuman - er, what are demons in your world, I'm assuming being part-demon means a human parent had to - do things - with a demon parent and the thought of that with our kind of demon is deeply appalling." 

"Demons are from the Abyss, another plane from which we can summon creatures by magic and from which they cross uninvited at the Worldwound, ever since Aroden died. They are appalling. They're varied in form, at least somewhat, and some of them were once human -- humans condemned to the Abyss when they die can eventually be transformed into demons, if they survive long enough -- but I don't know very many details."

"Our demons are from the Abyssal Plane, which sounds not ridiculously dissimilar, and they can be summoned - I don't think we have any holes in reality that just let them through, that sounds awful. Anyway. I suppose the main thing I need to know is whether there's local etiquette I should know to avoid offending people, and whether I'm likely to be attacked if I do offend people? Or in general. Are there bandits here?" 

"Osirion is a lawful country, with a temple in every city of more than three hundred," she says, with a touch of national pride. "I cannot guess at all the cultural differences between our world and yours but I can name cultural differences between Osirion and other countries I have heard of, in case they are illustrative. We permit the worship of all deities but prohibit proselytizing for evil or lawless ones. It is illegal to use magic on other people without their knowing agreement, except in self-defense or in emergencies. Men and women who are unmarried and not family avoid being alone together in Osirion; not in some other places. Necromancy is not illegal here and the rules against killing except in self-defense do apply to the intelligent undead. Killing children, in the womb or outside it, is illegal here. If you mistreat a slave they can sue for redress; if you have a child by one you have to marry them. The use of magic designed to ensure that someone is condemned to a specific afterlife is illegal. If you do magic in a fashion that affects the local climate and weather, you need to clean it up or pay a fine to the local temple which they can use to arrange for someone else to clean it up. You have no legal duty to aid people in danger you didn't put them in. You have a legal duty to obey orders from church authorities in an emergency or in the course of an investigation into a criminal matter.

There are sometimes bandits on the roads, this far from a major city. Not on the river, if one of you weren't a horse I would recommend you join one of the river barges and get to Alexandria from there but maybe that's uncomfortable for a horse. You are permitted by the law to defend yourself; you should go to a temple afterwards and explain, if there was violence, and they'll have you state under a truth spell that you didn't start it and did not unreasonably escalate it. It is not unreasonable escalation to kill someone with a weapon who is threatening you; it is unreasonable escalation to kill a pickpocket."

That explanation gives Vanyel several new layers of questions. Focus on the practicalities first. "Right. Er, is it unreasonable escalation to use magic - in self-defence, I mean - that temporarily incapacitates someone but doesn't do any lasting harm? Or to put up magic wards on a campsite that would harm an intruder but leave passers-by alone?" 

"That would be reasonable in both cases."

Nod. "If I do weather-affecting magic I can clean it up myself, assuming it works similarly enough to in my world. Can you, um, explain necromancy more? I don't think we - have that - in my world...what are undead...?" 

"It is possible both to animate a dead body once the spirit has fled it and to tie the spirit with magic to a body too injured to sustain it ordinarily. These things are illegal in most countries but they are not illegal in Osirion, though obviously you have to own the rights to any body you are animating. Undead people show up differently to magic, typically, and they're harmed by healing spells and healed by harmful spells, and you're not likely to run into one but if you did and they were minding their own business it would be illegal to disintegrate them just on account of their being undead. If you really want to see an undead I'm sure there's a zoo in Absalom, or you could go to Geb where they use them for almost all their labor."

That has Implications, several of which are horrible and at least one of which is very painful to think about. Vanyel takes a deep breath, and cuts off that train of thought. "Thank you. Er, am I going to go back to not being able to communicate with anyone after this, since they haven't cast Tongues?" 

"Yes. In a city you can pay someone to cast it on you, and then you can talk to everybody. - I could also have done that but it's Will-defended and I didn't have a good way to communicate that you ought to let me. Until you get to a city the best anyone's going to have is Comprehend Languages, which will let them understand you but not permit you to understand them."

"Right. Thank you, again, I really appreciate your casting it for me. Um, would it be possible to get a map and directions from you all the way to the city, so I can hopefully make it without needing to understand instructions from anyone else?" 

"You just follow the river. I can try to find you a map, though -" 

As she stands up to do that someone bursts through the door. "Ciceronethere'sadragon."

"There's a - an adult one -"

     "Idon'tknowhowolddragonsare!" 

"Sothis will need to know to send us help. How big was it."

      "Idon'tknowverybig"

"Blue?"

      "Yes."

"Wait a moment, please" she says to Vanyel, and runs into a back room. 

Vanyel follows her. "Do you need help? I'm pretty good at fighting things - granted we don't have dragons, I don't think, but I've taken on very big magical creatures before..." 

"We definitely need help, I'm going to try to Send for it, I do not know if it will arrive in time. Fighting an adult dragon on your own is - there are maybe two people in the country who could do it are you that good -"

And she opens a locked chest with a flash of magic and pulls out an extremely magic piece of parchment and starts reading from it with an air of intense concentration.

Well, it really looks like she ought not be interrupted, so Vanyel runs back out to the bystander who brought the news, and - oh, right, they haven't cast Tongues on themselves, how is he supposed to–

:The dragon: Yfandes jumps in, pushing through a lot of reassurance and calm with her mindvoice. :Where is it? Can you point the direction, tell us how far, and - think an image of where you saw it? Then we can find it and help fight: 

The person looks back at her, startled, and then nods and steps out the front door and points. 

The dragon is flying along the river towards their village, still about half a mile away but closing the distance quickly on those enormous wings; it has perhaps a thirty or forty foot wingspan; the air around it is crackling with lightning -

 - it is the same bright blue as the morning sky -

- people are fleeing in a panic.

First things first. Vanyel, squinting, flings up a shield over the biggest cluster of people, and then opens all of his Othersenses, focusing both his mage-sight and Thoughtsensing in particular on the creature, while directing part of his attention to search for anything node-like he can use to draw power.