Is that... oh the money is green here, Chelish bills are red.

She has a lot to say. There is probably some chance she will keep saying it if he blows his Comp Lang. He takes the money and casts it.

Power what did he just say to her -

Said Comprehend Languages. Now comprehends languages. Can understand English, cannot speak. Limited duration, limited uses.

What is with this guy and his ridiculous time-limited use-limited time powers -

"Guys he can understand us!"

They give her an unimpressed look. 

(Brian still has a capsule up his nose that will turn him into a deformed monster once Bakuda replaces her toe-rings and remembers he exists! He is very grateful for the heal but he still needs to get to an actual doctor!!!)

"...he couldn't a minute ago, he doesn't speak English, he has a power that lets him understand but not speak it and it won't last much longer. So we have to be fast."

To Raimon: "my power lets me figure things out. I can figure out your native language later but it's limited, you'll need to talk in your language to give me words."

"What the hell? You're unmasking u- uh, you're unmasking to this random guy?"

"He probably just saved our lives!"

To Raimon again: "I can tell you're running from the PRT - the guys who had you locked up, they work for the government - you don't know the language here, you don't know anyone. We can help you. Give you money, a place to stay, make introductions, tell you stuff. It'd be worth it just for the healing you already did! You can sell healing for money but not if you know nothing about the language - shit, about the country? You're not from - anywhere I've heard of. But you're stuck here for now. We can help you find your feet."

How is he taking it? After the past hour she's very - stressed, let's go with that, and the sudden healing just gave her more energy to express it with.

"I'm from Cheliax. You haven't heard of Cheliax? Awful lot of humans around for this to be a different planet. I guess maybe it hasn't gotten to fucking, Arcadia or whatever. Yeah those guys were assholes and way worse at figuring out what to do with a Comprehend Languages than you. I was planning to get the fuck out of town and try Detecting Poison on random berries and trapping rabbits for supper but I'm not amazing at that, if you're offering."

"They didn't - ha, they didn't know you could understand them! Idiots."

He was going to - leave the city, and what was that?

Planned to use power on plants, animals. Power checks if edible or harmful. 

Huh. That... probably tracks with healing? Not super useful in normal life.

"He was going to leave the city and look for - plants and hunt animals to eat? - but he's willing to stay with us," she reports to the others.

"We'll definitely feed you! Gods, I thought I was -" she shudders. "I'll feed you as much as you want, you probably did save my life just now." 

Why was he being held by the PRT? The heroes aren't perfect but they wouldn't arrest someone without a good reason. The other guy who escaped them today is Lung! (Which, wow, she did not need that on top of all her other problems.)

"I still need the doctor - uh, you healed my leg but the villain we were fighting stuck something up my nose and it's still there, I need someone to pull it out ASAP. Can you come with us? If you're in a hurry Lisa can go with you - uh, I'm Brian. Thank you, really. What's your name?" 

"Wow, yeah, I don't have a great way to get something out of your nose unless you want me to dig around in there with a sharp object 'n Cure you after. I can go with you guys. I'm Raimon."

"He says he'll come with us," Lisa reports.

"Why are you riding a horse? Lisa, please tell me the horse isn't also a cape."

Sporfle. "No, it's a Mount, I'm a sorcerer too."

Why in fact a horse? If he just escaped the PRT - power, what did he just say -

Power created horse. Different power from others.

Oh, a projection, that makes a kind of sense but who even has so many unrelated powers?

Real horse, not projection. Power created real horse. Limited duration horse. Limited use power.

... is his power's theme actually 'Anything, but limited duration and uses', and also healing which unlike the horse sticks around?

Limited powers. Chooses powers daily. Limited choice.

This guy's an actual mini-Eidolon! Lisa barely manages to keep this revelation to herself until she has time to think, she is suddenly physically fine but is not mentally fit enough risk running her mouth. 

"...It's a normal horse but he made it with his power and it will... stop existing sometime soon?" Case in point: Lisa, stop exposing the guy's power to everyone, he hasn't had time to process yet that you can do that!

Brian has known Lisa for a long time and is coming to the same conclusion. If you already know someone's a cape you can just ask what their power does! You know, like a normal non-psychic person!

"So what does your power do?" he asks, leading the way. "Healing, languages, horses, I'm not seeing the connection..."

He's not pissed off about her explaining the horse to everyone because while he's starting to get the picture that there is evidence to the contrary, he emotionally expects most everything he can do to be, while not commonplace, common knowledge as a thing that exists and plenty of other people also have. (Which is why it was so aggravating that the PRT didn't know a Comprehend Languages when they heard one.)

"Yeah, the horses are separate, that's a sorcerer spell, the healing's 'cause I'm a priest, comp lang can be either one but in this case it's the priest kind."

Two kinds of powers, Lisa's power translates, horse one, healing and languages another. First kind is being a person with powers. Born potential, powers awakened later. Second kind is being given powers. Someone chose him, gave him powers.

Mind reeling, Lisa dutifully translates this.

He what?

Taylor thought - obviously there are always rumours and conspiracy theories, there would be whether or not it was true, there are websites where everyone knows someone who knows someone who bought powers, but, but -

But a fundamental - convention of the genre, is how she'd been thinking about it - is that people who supposedly bought (or received) powers never admit it!

"When you say someone gave you powers. What exactly do you mean." Alec's voice is very flat.

"I mean I'm a Calistrian cleric, so if you've got beef with my goddess the Unquenchable Fire patron of lust and revenge, we can simply fuck off our separate ways."

"He got his powers from someone called Calistria and - apparently there's people who don't like her and he wants to be sure we're not among them? I've never heard of her. He called her a 'goddess of lust and revenge.'" 

Alec snickers.

(Nobody but Lisa can tell what he's really thinking, he's very affectless when he's being serious.)

It's actually more believable that he got his powers from a power-granting cape and not from a fantastical vial, especially if he already had his own powers before that. She thinks she read something about a cape like that who was Birdcaged, and the Chinese seem to do something like it.

Does that means his healing (and language, but she doesn't care about that) will get weaker or stop working? Permanently granting powers would be a really big deal, like real-Eidolon big!

Powers granted, ongoing. Granted every day. Could be withdrawn. Will be withdrawn if he acts against her will.

A-ha. So he's being controlled by someone, whether consensually or otherwise. "What does Calistria want you to do?"