"Lissa! Gods, girl, what are you even doing here–"

Yfandes shushes them with a mental hiss; Vanyel is currently asleep, entwined with Tylendel on the narrow cot. 

:You look like you just got out of bed and don't really want to be here: she sends privately to Vetareh. :Thanks for finding Van's sister, though - what is she doing here, sorry, not asking you. Did anyone tell you how to find the dining hall?: 

Yfandes is the best, and also her very most favorite.

:I absolutely just got out of bed and really don't want to be here: agrees Vetareh. :But you're welcome. They did not, no. Do your boys (and whoever this new lady is) need food, I will tolerate being a delivery girl in exchange for directions and a sentence in the native language telling them to feed me:

Yfandes cannot actually speak out loud in order to provide said sentence. :This is Lissa: she explains. :Dining hall is this way...: Flash of mental instructions. 

:Lissa: she adds to Vanyel's sister, :be a dear and tell this lifesaving lady how to ask for food, she's not from here: 

Lissa is so baffled on multiple levels, but she looks at Vetareh and carefully enunciates 'can I please have some breakfast'. 

:Don't worry about delivering us food: Yfandes adds to her. :I'll send Lissa for it later. I don't want to wake the boys for it, so might as well not let it get cold and stale: 

:Fair enough! Happy to have found you an opposable thumb minion, this place is set up terribly for you:

She carefully enunciates a slightly butchered version of 'can I please have some breakfast,' then repeats it to make sure she got it right. Upon confirmation that this is intelligible, she nods to herself and gives a little wave to go off to the dining hall. The mesmer hungers.

The dining hall contains some other unfamiliar people in white uniforms who stare at the oddly-dressed stranger. It also contains Herald Jaysen, who nods to her and then goes back to his previous conversation.

There's a table with tureens of food at one end and a stack of plates. A kitchen aide is standing there but it appears to be mostly self-serve. 

She gives a cheerful wave and a brilliant smile to her many onlookers. Hello, everyone, your baffled confusion is immensely cheering to this very strange woman!

Oh, well, if it's self-serve, then she didn't really need to bother with the phrase, did she. Oops. At least she has the phrase if she needs to ask for breakfast later. The kitchen aide also makes returning the plates she'd been carrying around very simple, here you go, kitchen aide, have some plates.

Then she taps the pitcher of water and tilts her head at the kitchen aide. Where does she get more water?

They smile warmly and show her where the water-pump is out back. Attempt to convey via miming that the water is safe to drink without boiling. 

That's sort of a weird concept that they're trying to mime at her, but, okay? She wasn't even going to ask that question.

She refills her pitcher of water, bringing it back over to the food acquisition area to set down on a nearby table. This done, she turns to consider the table of food and plates. Well, it might be kind of tricky to return to her guest room with as much food as she wants to eat and her pitcher of water. It'd be much easier to just eat right here, at these tables. But then someone might try to talk to her, which would be terrible. She already failed step one earlier, with Lissa. Best to take her prizes and leave, then, before anyone else can get the impression that it's okay to ask her questions right now.

Vetareh gets a plate, piles it on with quite a lot of food that needs to be carefully balanced for fear of a food avalanche, then retrieves her pitcher of water and saunters off with her prize. Bye everyone, she's going to go back to not being social. ... She could go not be social in a garden, though. Hmm. It's a bit damp, but her clothing's still keeping her warm and dry enough, and the scenery is pretty enough. Yep, eating out by herself in a pretty garden, that seems to be the way to go.

She finds herself a pretty and out of the way section of garden to have herself a picnic, sitting on the grass in her very fancy clothes and looking utterly unconcerned with getting dirt or grass stains on it.

A friendly gardener arriving to trip the rosebushes smiles at her and bids her a good morning at one point, but doesn't press when she fails to respond. No one else bothers her. 

She waves back and replies to the gardener with a very foreign good afternoon, but yes that's all the conversation she can (or wants to) manage.

Soon enough, her food's finished, and she's left with the decision of what she'd like to do next. Hmmmm. Bath? Bath. Time to see about having a bath! After returning her plates and putting her pitcher back in her guest room, she goes to the nearest person that looks like they're staff and illustrates what she would please like to have with a simple, flat illusion. Stick person with copper hair! Half-oval containing something blue! Stick person goes into the half-oval. Intelligible, yes? Where does she go to have this fabled luxury?

They are politely baffled for a bit and look impressed but not shocked by her illusion, and then nod and smile and start leading her somewhere. 'Somewhere' turns out to be what looks like a communal bathhouse. There's a big copper tank of water being heated over a fire, and it can be piped to one of a few clawfooted bathtubs, or obtained from a spigot in buckets and then poured over herself - there's a depressed area in the floor with a sort of sewer-drain where she can stand and do that. 

Nope, she's doing the bath, not the whatever-overcomplicated-thing that other thing is. She figures out how to make there be a bath soon enough, and has one. It's wonderful. She lets herself soak for much longer than necessary and she's not even a little bit sorry. Then she puts her clothes back on and pins her hair back up and refreshes her vanity illusions and generally feels more like an actual person that exists, now.

Okay! So, now does she want to be social?

... Eeeeeehhhh. Not really? But she probably should explain to some people in charge who she is, and submit to questioning or something. That's the responsible thing to do. Submitting to it early also means that she won't be ambushed by annoyed security that have had enough of her traipsing about like she owns the place without answering questions. So, okay. To, hm. The dining hall, she guesses? To try and find someone that looks like they're in charge of something?

The cheerful grey-haired man is in the dining hall now, and waves to her. :Heya! Did you get some rest?: 

Oh! She recognizes him! She sits across from him at the table, smiling a little.

:Hello! I did, yes. I'm not fully social yet, but I thought I'd submit to questioning about myself and how I do not intend to overthrow your country or kill anyone that doesn't really have it coming, or something:

He narrows his eyes at her, briefly. 

:Well, Gala and Yfandes both think you're all right, so we've been going off that. But - yes, people have some questions. Lancir wanted to speak with you - er, he's Queen's Own to Elspeth: 

:No idea what that means, but sure, I can talk to him:

She then also sends a packet-list of what would get her to kill someone in her current circumstances - mostly she's not? If someone were an uncontainable threat to (the vague impression of 'everyone') that couldn't be reasoned with or sat on, then: yep, she'd kill them, after trying other things first, probably. She was being flippant, it's how she stays sane. Ish. Sane-ish.

That's...kind of concerning...and Kilchas is perhaps going to not touch it with a ten-foot pole for now and let Lancir handle this lady, who's very lovely and helpful but also might be crazy. 

:He's second in command to our ruler: Kilchas translates for her. :Want me to take you to see him?: 

:Yes, please!:

Yeah, Vetareh thinks it's kind of fair to be concerned about her. (Just wait until they learn how long yesterday was!!!!)

Kilchas hums contentedly to himself and waves jovially at various other Heralds as he walks her to the meeting-wing. 

:- Oh, er, so I can introduce you properly: he finally thinks to ask, :you got a name?:

:Oh: she sends, along with the realization that she has not actually... told anyone her name at all since showing up here. She's just been marathoning problem solving. Wow. Uh. Oops.

Then she rattles off, :Vetareh (Her name), Professor and Spellbreaker of the Orrian Crown (Profession/Title):

:Lovely name! I like it. What a fancy title - should I be bowing to you?: 

:Thank you, and no, not really. It boils down to (concept of a professional scholar/researcher) and (single person magical mess cleanup brigade that His Majesty threw at weird magical problems to make them stop it), basically. I was conveniently located next to all of the other (scholar/researchers) and have opinions about messes. You probably noticed: