"Belmarniss? If you intend to spend the day here, I'd like to check out some other places in the city. I do expect to profitably spend a lot of time in the library, later, but I'm not sure yet what I should be reading. Is that alright or do you think there's liable to be a security problem?" The library patrons are rude but seem to be well-meaning, but the next time she steps out for some fresh bread...

"I think we're good. I'm just trying to convince this person that it will be really academically interesting to Aura Sight me for free in the morning. Do you want in on that, it's area effect."

Tanya's immediate instinct is to refuse decline. But if the spell is really objective - that is, if it produces the same results every time, and not just whatever the caster wants it to produce - then it might affect how the locals treat her in the future, in which case it would be useful information. And if it's not objective and is merely the obvious scam of making people donate to the church to expiate their sins, then she'd better be there when someone tries it on Belmarniss.

"Alright. It can't hurt to know what people might think of us, if they're going to be thinking it anyway."

"I mean, they only will if it turns out you read as something and someone reads you."

"Well, yes, but that might still happen if people take it seriously." If you really believe in a spell that tells you if a person is law-abiding and unlikely to break their word, of course you'd use it in any high-stake negotiations! Which will penalize whatever population the spell disfavors. Ugh. But it's still to Tanya's benefit to learn what the spell reports.

"Yup. Won't be till tomorrow though, no one has it prepped today."

"I might not decide it's worth it," grouses the guy who's been going through the book on drow with her.

"Yeah, you could just decide to cut costs by finding a Nethysian paladin to stare at me, oh wait."

Grumble grumble.

Tanya doesn't ask 'what is a Nethysian paladin'; she doesn't want to seem too alien to the locals, and it might be something everyone on the planet is expected to know.

"Do you plan to spend the rest of your day here? I can come back here at or before closing time; if we miss each other we'll meet at our lodgings."

"Yeah, I'm good to park here till evening. Have fun exploring."

"Enjoy yourself!"

Can she find a price-quoting service (Abadaran?), bounty board (assassin's guild local government?), public executions (same)? She would also like to spot-check the prices of bread and other food, lodgings, visible police presence and activities, and anything else that stands out.

The Nethysian temple is in a pretty rich quarter of the city, near the magic shops and adventurer-oriented inns. Some of the temples are in other neighborhoods but the Abadarans are parked here, and they do host a job board including bounties (the safe return of so-and-so; assistance with the clam incursion for the coming season; wizards wanted for an excursion hunting gnoll raiders in the forest), and they have a price list marked up with daily availability modifiers for various spells, Share Language among them, for a fair whack of change going up substantially with each added circle. Public executions are not happening in this quarter, they apparently do those by the docks, but they're usually hangings, they only impale people if they do, like, treason or felony necromancy or something. Bread prices are consistent with this being a preindustrial but comfortable society that eats bread. She can get inn prices way lower than the quote she got with Belmarniss in tow if she asks around. There's guards in pairs in the rich areas and fewer but still in pairs in poor ones, patrolling or standing around.

What happened to so-and-so? What is a clam incursion - oh.

...

Are the clams possibly people? What season are they expected in? What season is it now, for that matter?

It's good to confirm that spells are openly sold and widely available but, yeah, that's quite expensive compared to the basic cost of living. What is the cost of credit, by the way, for nonspecific loans by locals with a good credit history? It's not what'll be available to her but it might a starting point towards understanding the local economy.

Tanya is briefly puzzled that they'd conduct executions only in certain quarters of the year before realizing it's a location designation. It's a relief to hear that they're mostly doing hangings. Maybe that town didn't apply the legal standard correctly.

She'll mention the prices to Belmarniss. In theory she could make a reservation and later show up with Niss and dare them to turn them away, but she's not looking for social conflict and it's not her money to spend. It might be unsafe, too. Still, they rented a room at the first place that let them and it might have been expensive regardless.

So-and-so went missing! They're not sure why!

Nobody she asks is sure off the top of their head if the clams talk (that's what she means, right, if they can talk?) Clams are expected in the summer, and not in the city proper but a ways down the shore, but they like to secure advance commitments because there's sometimes a lot of them; it's currently spring.

The acolyte of Abadar she can speak to without an appointment or any money to pay for someone more valuable's time is confused about why she wants to know loan rates for people who are not her. They will check if she's not her before loaning her any significant amount of money, you can't get better rates that way.

It's an indicator of general economic activity! If it's not public information that's... probably bad for the economy, but good for them as the lenders. Tanya isn't used to operating in an economy without a central bank and a lender of last resort, and that's in fact a useful insight.

If she just wants to know for purely informational purposes what a random city resident would be able to get termswise that depends on all these things that affect how good a risk someone is, and the acolyte can in fact go through all of the math if she wants to stipulate age/sex/occupation/savings/banking history/marital status/etc. for a hypothetical person but she's not that hypothetical person!

It makes sense that in the absence of a guaranteed rate all they have is a complex formula. The next step would be statistics but she can't ask him for statistics about the loans they make; without any regulation that's definitely a trade secret. Tanya thanks him and leaves.

Most of this is objectively good news! There's (almost) no public torture, prices are generally lower than they first assumed, and the financial system seems well-developed (although unregulated).

However, there's no conveniently mindless dragon-equivalent she can kill for a lump sum of gold and no questions asked. Or if there is, it's not a publicly posted bounty and would probably require private negotiations where she'd need to explain her capabilities.

What can she do, though? Her magic and her knowledge from another world are the only valuable assets she has; she could retrain for a normal job here, but it would (presumably) take too long and she needs an income first. Even if she comes up with a demonstration of something like radio, it will become clear to any prospective investors who do their due diligence that she's not from this planet.

She can either reveal this fact or hide it forever. To reveal it, she needs to be able to trust people: both not to turn on her and to help protect her against any other actors. Tanya doesn't want to live such a high-stake life! It's nice to fantasize about uplifting this world until it matches up to her standards, but that's frankly unrealistic even if everything goes well, and she can't even tell in advance whether it would be a net benefit to other people; the nature of technology is that it proliferates. And while slaying a few dragons might be a net improvement Tanya doesn't trust the locals to decide which non-humans ought to die, no matter what they accuse them of, and she definitely shouldn't be deciding it herself.

The alternative is to borrow money from Belmarniss for a period of retraining. Tanya can probably find herself a white-collar career of some kind. It won't pay as much as Belmarniss makes because she wouldn't be using her magic, but it might be an option? Maybe there are career advisors here? ...but they might not want to stay in this city long-term, and any career opportunities will be local, or at least local to Taldor. Certainly Tanya shouldn't make any career commitments after just a few days in a completely new country.

The only person she already trusts is Belmarniss, who isn't in a position to recommend anyone else on the surface.

When faced with several bad options, one must choose the least bad one and not wait in indecision. In a foreign country where no-one is known to be trustworthy, one must choose the people with the best reputation and incentives and then take an unavoidable leap of faith.

Is the risk of revealing anything at all about herself, likely attracting attention, and moving quickly to secure resources and safety greater than the risk of trying to stay under the radar, going into debt, while unavoidably leaking some information about herself? Tanya can't really judge that, but it's probably greater. Of course, the upside is commensurate. Who dares, sometimes wins.

Preserving herself is rational, but Tanya is aware that her natural inclination isn't to maximize her safety at all costs. She didn't put off enlisting into the army while looking for a way to stay poor and anonymous. And she doesn't want to hide forever in this new world. Other people already know about her novel magic and knowledge; she has a long life ahead of her and it's likely to come back to bite her at some point. Better to ride the tiger so she has a measure of control.

She'll still consult with Belmarniss before doing anything. She values her opinion, and her decision may come to affect Belmarniss as well.

Tanya returns to the library a little before closing time.

Belmarniss is just re-shelving a book in a language Tanya doesn't have Shared. "Hi!"

"Hello. Did you have a good day?"

"Yeah! How was yours?"

"Informative. I didn't find everything I hoped to, but that also means I have fewer choices to make." Tanya briefly recounts her day. "So we can try to find cheaper lodgings tomorrow, or I could reserve them for two and then turn up with you and see what they say. I don't have a good sense of whether that's actually risking anything besides people being annoying and turning us away."

"Besides that - I know I need an income. And I don't think I can get a well-paying civilian job quickly, because I don't know anything about this country and culture, besides the actual profession I'd need. So I'd need a loan for at least a few months of study and training. Or I can use my relative advantages - my magic and my knowledge - at the cost of revealing my origin and risking a betrayal or someone else trying to capture me to get that value for themselves. I don't have any good way of picking who to trust with something big, and I imagine you don't either although of course I'd be happy to hear otherwise. It's not that I think most people are criminals given the opportunity, but enough might be to present a risk. State organizations might even conceive of themselves as benefiting their country at the expense of a foreigner they have no obligations towards, although I do hope they'd negotiate a deal instead of jumping straight to kidnapping. I'm still leaning towards risking this, but I wanted to hear your opinion first."

"There are two concrete things I want to try. First, if I could find a bounty for a target that's easy to locate but tough enough that others haven't already dealt with it, it might provide enough capital for a while all by itself. Ideally it would be a nonsentient monster, because I really don't like the prospect of trying to figure out whether any particular assassination contract on a person is justified, even if I can finally find one that has a target more specific than 'anyone of that race'. There weren't any such bounties here, but if I'm not carrying you I can fly to other major cities in a few hours and check there too. I could pretend to be an adventurer from the other side of the world, the Nethysians seemed to buy it, but I expect that wouldn't withstand serious scrutiny."

"I don't even know if there are such monsters. Nonsentient, dangerous enough to command a high price, and actually easy to find. And ideally not immune to fire. I suppose if there's a bounty out for, say, a dangerous serial murderer, who clearly committed capital crimes and evaded justice and is still a public menace, I might take it but - there are just too many ways that could go wrong."

"The other thing is building a prototype radio, unless I think of something better within a day or two, and getting an investment or a partnership from someone. If possible, without revealing where I'm from, or at least keeping it close. That will probably require a few weeks and some funds and has a less certain payoff. If I can pull off the bounty, I'd probably use the money to do this next."

"A third possibility is finding someone who wants to buy uses of my non-combat spells, but I haven't come up with any good ideas. I could do flying deliveries quickly, but I'd need to be trusted first. I could record images from the air and replay them as illusions, which is great for map-making, but the people who'd most want to buy that are governments, and I don't want their attention yet because they'd probably want me to do espionage next. I can make lenses that magnify things by a lot but I don't know who'd pay for a microscope... It might be a failure of my imagination. What do you think?"

"...I think at some point you should be taking some leaps and using some of what you know or can do in some capacity somewhere, but I'm going to be able to make steady money here - like, I'm still working out exactly how and what spell trades I need to do, I'm going to go talk to some Abadarans tomorrow morning, but I will be able to - and I don't think you need to decide who up here to trust with any of that, like, this week, maybe even this month. I think it's possible you should get over some of your resistance to fighting sapients, like, I get why that would be an appealing line to draw but if something's picking off villagers somewhere it's not actually practical to give it a full trial or whatever just because it might be able to pronounce them yummy in language. ...I could front for a courier service ostensibly running on Phantom Steeds if I get Phantom Steed and you could actually run the deliveries yourself but that's a little more, uh, customer-facing, than I expect to have much luck with."

Tanya doesn't want to go into debt to Belmarniss!

Why not? A month's living expenses loan is a small amount. They hadn't even made a contract for nonessential expenses on their way here. ...maybe that's why, it's because Tanya feels there aren't enough guardrails, if she doesn't make the loan explicit and bounded.

...she's aware there a different social script here, though. At least on Earth, people don't always sign contracts for small loans because that takes them out of the sphere of social relations and into the realm of business, and sometimes you'd rather keep making progress in the social sphere instead. This is essentially the same reason why people give each other small gifts without keeping accounts; you can impress someone or make them feel indebted to you with a gift, but you can also simply strengthen the relationship by signalling that you're willing to keep investing in it without counting the costs.

If Tanya had to guess, Belmarniss doesn't seem like someone who'd rather move their relationship to a more explicit business-like footing. Tanya will just have to adapt to that, and hope she doesn't make any major faux pas.

She will accept this implicit gift gracefully, and look for opportunities to repay it.

"I don't have a hard line of not killing sapient creatures. I spent half my life as a soldier killing fellow humans. But I need to have some hard line, some rule to follow, and I don't trust the Taldane authorities with setting this rule for me. If I let them convince me to kill some people, then the rule becomes not 'what did the people do' but 'how convincing are Taldane people'." How can she put this better - "it's not just that they might accuse someone falsely. Even if someone is guilty, say of killing villagers, the appropriate response might not be to kill them in return. There might be mitigating circumstances. Maybe they should be captured and brought in for questioning or a trial, or imprisoned or exiled instead. The problem is that I'm not equipped to do any of those things, and I suspect the locals default to asking everyone to be killed without considering any alternatives because they - don't care about individual responsibility. They don't care about justice and equality before the law, or at least that's the impression I'm getting. One of the bounties today was for 'hunting' gnolls."

"Does it help if you suppose that the gnolls have been failing at internally policing their people in such a way that many of their subjects have committed acts of war and the humans are responding in force to that with regrettably limited ability to identify uninvolved civilians and will find themselves motivated to continue until the provocative incursions stop? I don't know how whatever war you're from started."