Water doesn't turn to look at her; presumably their owner is controlling them too tightly. :Talk to me?:

:I'll just be a moment! I, um, I've been trying to rescue elementals and I want to figure out if people are suspicious, have you heard anything from your owner or from other elementals about that?: 

:Yes, someone reinforced all the amulets yesterday evening:

:Huh, is that an existing technique they would do sometimes or a new thing?: Jisa peers in closer with mage-sight, trying to get a peek at the amulet that this Water's mage-owner is wearing and see if it's different. 

:I think they make things harder to break all the time: It looks a little more elaborate to mage-sight now.

Jisa can't tell if that'll make it harder to break and she obviously shouldn't test it right now. :All right, um, thank you for telling me. I'll let you know right away if I have a new plan for rescuing more elementals, all right? ...Er, are you - all right - does your owner mistreat you a lot or anything, I mean...?: 

:I don't think more than usual?:

:I guess I don't know what's usual. Can you manage for a few more days?: 

:I was assuming I'd just be a slave forever. He's going to leave me to his daughter:

:All right. Well, I'm not going to let that happen, I promise. I don't know how long this is going to take me, but...I'm going to do it: 

:Or die trying? They're very upset about the thefts:

:Well, I'm going to have to be smarter now. And hopefully I can figure out how to get to the world I came from so I can bring more people over to help, some of them are a lot more powerful than me and everyone I know will think the slavery here is awful and needs to be fixed right away: 

:You have free elementals there?:

:Er, our magic seems to work pretty differently. We have elementals but they live in the Elemental Planes, not the material plane where humans are, and they don't look like you do. But Valdemar, the kingdom I'm from, is against all forms of slavery: 

She feels a little bit smug about that. Hardorn has slaves, but Valdemar never has in its entire history. 

:There are human slaves too but they don't keep them all their lives:

:Huh - how does that work, then, what makes them free those slaves: 

:They have a custom that they don't keep them longer than twenty years:

:Weird. Do you know why they have that custom for humans but not elementals?: 

:Because when they tried freeing elementals it turned out to kill them, I think. Also we're more valuable in the first place and can't have slave rebellions:

:Oh, right, because mages can put magical bindings on elementals but not on other humans?: 

:Yes:

:Mmm. Anyway I'll stop bothering you now, er, take care: 

And she and Wood can keep walking. 

The city is a weird mix of poorer than she's used to papered over with a layer of extremely abundant magic. The distinctions between houses that have seen the benefit of magic and houses that have not are really obvious - the former are made of mud and thatch, don't have even candles inside, contain poor families in shabby clothes. The latter are made of wood or stone, have glass windows and metal roofs, have healthier gardens and healthier occupants and magic lights. The streets are nicely paved with stone, new in the last couple decades, or they're dirt, nothing in between.

Huh. 

:I'm worried it'll be bad for the humans' quality of life if I free all the elementals and don't do anything to replace your magic: Jisa muses to Wood. :It seems like they use it a lot, and not all of them are responsible for slavery, I mean, the children are innocent and I'd feel bad if they stop getting healing and things: 

:They can do some magic without us: