"We might pay for information, if you don't want to be security for her."

Shrug.

"Either way, how much does it pay?"

"I do not have a very steady income yet. I made more than five bells sitting and playing music for a while but I don't know if that will be repeatable or if it's the most remunerative thing I could be doing. I think the potential is high, it's just hard to connect to people who want what I have. - do you exclusively work for money?"

"Not exclusively. Sell me on your kingdom. Why is protecting you the most important thing for me to be doing?"

"...Amenta has thirteen billion people on it. They're tightly population controlled because there's no way to get anywhere else habitable. Also we have a caste system there; I'm blue, the governance caste, so even though I'm young I've had a lot of education geared toward growing up to run things one day. I also have time dilated access to the advice of people back home; I think I'll probably get replies to my first wave of messages in a few weeks, longer if they make some phone calls to check that I'm really missing and it's not a prank but then it'll speed up. Amenta has technology nobody's ever heard of here, including stuff that can be augmented with local magic like the way I'm able to talk to people back home. So having Amentans here will increase the standard of living for present day Arcadians a lot, and it will also give billions of people chances to have the families they want, and I think I'm capable of setting something up to receive them. What I need to do is attract magic users who will be able to bring Amentans to Arcadia."

"So your people are suffering because they can't have families, and you're the girl to fix that? Plus, you guys have all kinds of technology that we could really use here. Sound about right?"

"Well, I'm not who anybody would have picked to fix that, I'm two years old, but I'm the one who happens to be in Arcadia, so yeah."

She nods approvingly.

"Alright, girlie. I'll protect you from the threats I know how to work with, but those are only the ones we have on Arcadia. You'll still want an Amentan guard for Amentan kinds of threats. I prefer money, but for the first month, I'll work with the promise of a pretty title in your new government."

"When Amentans are ready to come over I can tell them to bring me Amentan security. Do you know what kind of title you want? - also what is your name."

"Iozhe. No last name worth sharing, although if the customs of your people are different, maybe it doesn't matter. I'd like to be the Royal- you are going with royal titles, yeah? Shame not to, if you're starting fresh."

"It's nice to meet you, Iozhe. In Anitam, the country I'm from, the custom is a given first name and then a job name that describes your job or your favorite thing about it or your attitude toward it. I might decide to be a Princess or a Queen but I might also decide not to, since democracy is more popular on Amenta. Maybe I will be a princess transitionally, like Governor Avalor."

"If you decide to be royal, I'll want to be the Royal Shield, or something nice and symbolic like that. If you're going with a democracy, maybe Minister of Security. And I'll take a job name, if Arcadians can get those."

"I don't see why not if you'd like one."

"What are the best ones for bodyguards? Do Amentans publish lists, or are you just supposed to know them?"

"You can use standard ones but you can make them up if you want. My dads's security's job names are... well, this will translate them, but they mean Shield and Watcher and Guard and I forget the others."

"I like Shield best. Maybe when you're not translating you can tell me. I'd love to have all my names be ones I didn't get from my parents. So, what kind of threats are you worried about? Lone archers, assassins, rival armies? Arcadia tends to be safer than all that, but we do sometimes have incidents."

"I haven't been threatened but I think it makes sense to prepare in advance given the scale and disruptiveness of my plans."

"Smart of you. I'd worry most about isolated incidents, personally; the Harmonium ain't likely to move against a new kingdom, and by the time you're more established, you'll have more than just me to protect you."

Lintalai nods. "I don't know how long it will take to attract people capable of, or research the ability to, open a portal to Amenta."

"Oh, you didn't come here on purpose? Thought it might be some of that fancy technology. Spellcasting isn't my specialty."

"Oh, no, it was an accident, I was on my way to school and the door to the building dropped me in Arcadia."

"Huh. You don't hear of that happening every day. Portals are supposed to be downright hard to find, and you went through one by accident! Still looking for spellcasters?"

"We're looking for those next."

"Keep any spellcasters you do find far away from me, I don't need the headache."

"...how do you mean? I'm going to need to talk to them, so if you're my security..."