"Do you need anything or to be anywhere else to try it?" Montoya asks. "If it doesn't work and you'll be here a while, then we should talk about your options and what you'd like to do in more detail."

"No, it's just the same thing again with a different target, and then if that doesn't work another ten minutes trying to contact my party and tell them I'm stuck."

The second Plane Shift, it transpires, doesn't go off either, this time in the manner of someone trying to go to the plane they're already on. And the Sending fails again.

"Hmmm," Montoya says. "Well, then. I'm assuming that means this is going to be even more complicated?"

"I'm afraid so. Though possibly for someone else or not for very long; in the medium term I'd like to buy passage to somewhere magic is more welcome."

"I can imagine," Montoya says. "I may need to spend some time today with our legal advisors reviewing what help we can offer, and what your options might be if you don't want our help and just want to...go about your own business or travel. You have no legal identity in our systems, and your status as either Mundane or Mage under our laws is unclear. Em. Forrester tells me you can't read our language without magical assistance like you are hearing me through now, and even then currently only for short periods of time, and that you've never used a computer"

"All of those matters and inexperience with our general society would put you at a risk that means I want to offer you protection and support on general principles, but lack specific existing directions that dictate how I should. If you were one of our Mages, I would know how to help you find work at going rates or to provide you the stipends for unemployed Mages between employment or to help a newly identified Mage by Right leave the system for training and work with their family on making any decisions involved in that...but if I were to identify you as such, you would also be bound by laws which you have not been educated about. Somebody could program a wrist-comp for your language and teach you how to use it, so you could navigate this station or other planets, but it would take some time and thus money."

"Em. Forrester tells me you are skilled in healing magic which sounds like it may far, far outstrip our own. I can imagine the hospital in the next ring or any one like it in another system could use every spell you have as long as you were willing to offer it, but negotiating rates would be a question since no comparable services exist, and similarly your combat abilities might make you able to offer skills as a bodyguard, bouncer, or even Sanctioned Hunter, but in many of those cases your status as a Mage or not might be brought to the forefront over questions of magical self-defense or use of magic in pursuit of sanctioned law enforcement. I know I would like to start by offering to pay you for use of your Sending spell tomorrow, if it works within our worlds, since being able to directly discuss this with some superiors would let me unlock resources I don't have here to hand or am uncertain I can authorize without clarifying your status."

He claps his hands together. "I definitely need to review today's schedule, arrange to speak to legal, and figure out what we can offer to do for you or to get you on your way alone. I can, for the moment, at least compensate any meals you would like, within reason, or anything at our canteen, and offer you a room to stay in and a guide anywhere on station. I can be certain my government would expect us here to offer nothing less than that. You've been up all night, Samora, as has Em. Forrester from their shift, do you need to sleep? I think I will have better answers in another few hours."

She is grateful to Abadar that she finds herself among honorable people interested in trade, and to Montoya for being so thoughtful about it. 

"If you take a census of everyone and want to include me in it, or if I need travel documents, assistance with that would be much appreciated. So would a copy of your laws, which I'd want to be much more educated about before taking any work that might involve combat. I very much want to sell healing if the hospital can be convinced to take an interest in it, though I should get a better sense of the local currency at some point. I'd be happy to sell you Sendings--does half price if it doesn't go off sound alright? I don't sleep and only eat recreationally, but I'd be excited to try the local food if there's plenty to go around." Especially if it means meeting more local people in the canteen and giving Montoya somewhere convenient to stash her while he does all the extra work she's making for him.

"Food is...very much not in short supply," Montoya said. "I think an introduction to our economy might also be on that list of things to do, but also an introduction for us to yours, with magic being common I suspect a lot of what I might assume about the details of Lastwall's economy may be wrong, and bias how we expect you to think in ways that are wrong. Things that can be produced by machines are abundant and incredibly cheap, unless very complicated. Food, clothing, clear air and water at least on planets. Things that require human labor are more expensive, like live music or hand-sewn clothing. Even here, which is...quite far from the center of the Protectorate's good side and which must import many things a planet might grow or another station could more easily import from the local planet, I'm not aware of any true famine in any time I know of, back decades."

"I would say on an individual level, you personally would almost never find yourself in a situation where you couldn't find food to buy, and that the cost of basic nutrition that's...probably a tiny fraction of an hour. Spices are also pretty cheap, so things like spiced curries, fancier cuts of meat, all that is available still for less than an hour or two's typical labor per day. And...as a Mage, or at least somebody with magic, your economic value is much higher than typical labor, Samora. Similarly, if you wanted to change clothes, I could issue you something from our Marine's store of exercise clothing, or Em. Forrester or somebody could take you to clothing shops on the station's markets where for...probably less than a day or two's wages, certainly less than I'm probably going to propose to pay you for your Sending, you could buy a week's worth of clothing and an automatic suitcase to carry them."

"I know what we would be allocated to pay by the minute for live broadcast to another world at a Mage Testing station in a system with a Runic Transceiver Array, and I'm thinking I can within my instructions base what I offer you on that, plus some multiple for being here and not in a system with an RTA. A ticket on a Jump ship for you is more expensive, but not impossibly so. I'll need some time to put that together, and for our legal advisors to suggest me better options than I can think of off the top of my head. If you don't need to sleep....Em Forrester?"

"Yes?" they say.

"You look like you're going to hang around whether I point out your normal shift is over either way, yes?" Montoya asks the younger clerk.

"...Probably," they admit.

"Would you be willing to play tour guide a bit? For a breakfast without too many surprises, the canteen food is solid and plentiful, or my favorite off-ring diner is Frank's, up by the docks, and you can maybe show Mage Samora the docks a bit. You can discuss what of our food sounds familiar to her and what she might like to sample 'recreationally', maybe show her the gym and recreational facilities? I can see about reaching out to the hospital, anything will seem more formal coming through our office." Montoya says. The Marine Corporal still lurking in the corner very carefully adjusts his posture with a minor click of armor panels against one another. "Ah, and I would like to ask you both to take a Marine escort if you leave this ring, for my piece of mind. Better to avoid getting too caught up in any local trouble until we've sorted out self-defense rights and everything. A few hours will give me time to sort out some more solid options for plans."

"...Sure, Mage Samora, if you're interested?" Forrester says, and then they chuckle. " 'Recreational' eating, I feel like I'm going to be asked to offer you special brownies." Montoya glares disapprovingly.