"It'd be just one more trip, you can arrange grocery delivery and so on once you've sold whatever it is you brought to sell, and then you can stay in the cottage as long as you can afford it. You can probably make money by giving interviews, or doing telepathic relay, or whatever other magic you have available, and the cottage is listed as rent-to-own optional, if you want to stay there for a long time."

Nod. :I could use some more specific instructions on how to sell things here - is there a market? Is it only open on certain days? How do I get there?: 

"Kro said you have gold? I can try to sell that for you if you want to trust me with it, it's not a standard social worker thing but we often have to be a little flexible about stuff like that. I'd sell it online, wider range of potential buyers, and it might want to wait until you've been more widely confirmed to be magical sliders* in case it turns out collectors like that more than commodities traders like gold for its metal value. I'm on retainer from the hospital but would expect a cut from the sale for that service among others - for example, I'm fronting you the money for the cottage out of my work budget. If you don't want to trust me with that you could take the bus - bit of a hike from the cottage to the nearest stop but not untenable - and try to figure it out yourself, but I'd expect it to be pretty hard."

* This language has separate words for space aliens and interdimensional visitors. Like "alien", the word here translated as "sliders" doesn't specifically require that the entity in question have actually personally "slid", but this translation works for this purpose.

Melody has so far only been understanding Dree at all by reading her surface, and certainly hasn't seen anything there to indicate that she would cheat them on this - and Leareth is presumably reading her mind a lot more thoroughly, and currently looks calm and not at all freaking out, which is a good sign. 

:I trust you with that and I really do not want to figure it out on my own. I suppose it makes sense to wait a little while - er, how would people want us to confirm that we're from another world? I assume the Mindspeech is self-evident at this point; I suppose I don't mind demonstrating Mindhealing as well, but it's a lot more invasive and I don't make a habit of flinging it around without making very clear to people what it does and being certain they're all right with it: 

"Mindspeech will do the trick. I'm thinking of contacting the office of the Premier's affiliated Committed of Truth* and get one of theirs to confirm, and then that'll get plenty of attention and most people will believe them. Can I take a picture of one of the gold coins?"

* A Committed is sort of like a monastic. Many governments have some attached to corroborate their statements.

Melody is mildly curious about the 'Committed of Truth' and the institution they work within - it sort of rhymes with what Heralds do, but also it must be very different? 

:Yes, of course. Go ahead: She plucks out one of the gold coins and holds it up between her thumb and forefinger. 

Dree snaps a photo of the coin, both sides. "Can I take pictures of the two of you?"

:....Sure, I think so? Unless there's some risk about having pictures of us taken that I don't know about: 

(Melody feels like it's deeply unlikely that there is any such risk, but Leareth would worry about it, and since the actual Leareth is currently in one of his not-interacting-at-all moods, she feels responsible for covering all of his usual worries. Which is maybe stupid but whatever.) 

"It's not going to hurt you," Dree assures them, "some people just don't like pictures existing when they haven't had a chance to neaten up, or at all if they don't care for how they look." Pic, pic.

Melody is definitely not feeling at her neatest right now! This doesn't seem like a good reason to avoid having her 'picture' taken, although...

:- Can I see the picture? Just, I have never had a portrait done and I am curious how I look in one: 

"Of course." Dree turns the phone around again.

Melody squints at the screen. :...Huh. Is that really what my chin looks like? I think I've gotten stouter than I realized. Anyway, are you going to send those to the Committed of Truth, or do something else with them?: 

"I'm composing an email to the premier's Truth attaché, and I'm including the pictures because it's the sort of thing a prank would be less likely to produce."

:Ah. Is that, um, a common problem - people doing pranks where they pretend to have met visitors from another world, I mean?: 

"- no, not at all, but it's much more common than real sliders."

Melody nods. Looks thoughtful. :Have you ever had visitors - sliders? - like us before?: 

"No, never, which is why even a very weird prank would be more likely. Sliders are historically a strictly fictional concept."

Leareth has been huddled silently on his gurney throughout this conversation. He badly wants to ask several dozen question, and he also desperately wants to be alone in a quiet room - and he misses Vanyel and he wants Maitimo to hold him and sing him to sleep - and the result of these conflicting desires is that he feels very stuck.

...That bit is fascinating, though. 

:You have it as a concept in fiction despite the fact that it has never actually happened before?: he jumps in, without actually moving or looking at them. 

"- yes, why wouldn't we?" says Dree, who is rather thinking that if your fiction only contains things that have actually happened before you're confused about what fiction means.

Velgarth's fiction, such as it is, has plenty of things that didn't happen, but - it's not actually very common to have things that couldn't in principle happen, except sometimes by accident - in ballads written by Bards who didn't especially understand the constraints of mage-gift, for instance. 

:It just seems very specific! And like it must be a rare coincidence, for it to match so closely with our situation. ...I suppose it might be less of a coincidence if you just have much more fiction than us. Your world seems wealthier and you do not have any gods who will try to assassinate people who attempt to introduce printing presses: 

Leareth's mindvoice is remarkably calm and level, given the fact that he is currently curling up and visibly trembling. 

"- we sure don't! The printing press in its original form has been obsolete for hundreds of years now."

:Because you replaced it with 'phones'? And the Internet? ...It is really very impressive: 

"There were some intervening steps - physical books do still exist, also - but yes."

Leareth still has questions, but also his head is buzzing and the walls of the room feel both too close and too far at the same time and he is rapidly running out of willpower or cope to push through any more of this. 

:Thank you: he says, and then dives under his blanket and hides there. 

:- You didn't say anything wrong: Melody quickly clarifies. :He does that sometimes: