"Huh. I wonder if we could help you get a cutting of it sooner. Depending what forces he has staking it out."

Nayoki frowns, thoughtful. Leareth wanted the strange nonhuman not to know anything of his existence until they'd established a bit more of what was going on, here, but she's starting to feel like they're getting to that point. 

She takes a deep breath. "I work for someone who sensed the magic from your sudden arrival in his territory, which is why people quickly came to retrieve you. He was alarmed at first, most sudden incursions from elsewhere in our world would be hostile, but your landing here seems unrelated." She's not sure of that but it doesn't sound like something any of the gods Leareth knows of could have arranged. "Separately he is very curious about your magic and particularly about the indication that other worlds exist, and - I believe would be willing to trade substantial resources and aid in exchange for knowing more."

"I don't think it's wise for you guys to tangle with Thorn."

"Noted. Was he - even using your magic for anything to advance his goals? He did not seem to have left you very capable of doing things." 

"I was capable of more things when I went through the tear but doing that triggered some anti-escape contingencies. He has lots of sorcerers, lots of them better than me."

Sigh. "I do not like the sound of this person at all, but L–" no names, "but the person I work for will not go fight him if it is a stupid idea. What are sorcerers and what kinds of things can sorcery do?" 

"A sorcerer is... someone who knows how to do some things with sorcery, pretty much. You saw me heal myself. I can do lights and gates and transmutations and grow plants and purify water and candy dewdrops and stuff."

"So a little like a mage in our world, except your magic is clearly different. Candy...dewdrops...?" 

"They're tasty."

"That is so odd and specific! Does feeding them to someone make them your vassal?" 

"No, pure-enough water is safe and the candying magic doesn't change that."

"Huh. Are there kinds of magic user other than sorcerers, in Fairyland? Or, hmm, kinds of being other than fairies?" 

"No and not except for captured mortals."

Well, that's simpler than it could have been. "Who captures mortals and why?" 

"They're a sort of status symbol. Can't eat anything safely, so if one wanders through a gate someone'll get them sooner or later."

Nayoki makes a note of that and frowns again, confused. "But you can eat the food safely there and not here?" 

"Fairies can occasionally get each other foodwise but not usually, it has to be a strong claim pressed promptly. Mortals eating fairy food or vice versa it's much stronger."

"That is so odd. Is the food magically different?" 

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"What is the mechanism of the food having different effects on fairies versus on mortals? Is it something mage-sight could observe or is it - somehow not that kind of thing?" 

"I don't know what mage-sight is."

"Do sorcerers have an ability to sense other people's magic when it is being done near them?" 

"Not if it's... I don't know, on the other side of a wall? I'd notice if there were a light in front of me and I didn't put it there."

"But you see only the light itself, not the fact that magic is happening directly?" 

"Right."

"Hmm. Well, we have another kind of sense that is specifically for magic. I think your tear must have showed up to it, that is what the wards detected. Your orders from Thorn did not show up as magic but they were visible to my Mindhealing Sight, which is a different kind of Sight - like Thoughtsensing, which is blocked right now by your talisman, but it shows only the structure of minds and not any of the content."