"...Daza be-Vai em-Adorao."

"Oh. Okay."

He waves her into the elevator.

She goes.

And out and down the narrow little street to a rowhouse. He knocks.

She waits.

Eventually a tired red lady comes to the door. "What is it?"

"Do you know this guy?"

"...no."

"Found him wandering the Abda building."

"Name?"

"Says it's Naol."

"Where's he from?"

"Didn't say."

"Hiya."

"That's not a city. Where are you from, Naol?"

"'Nother planet."

"Very funny. Where are you from? Why are you here?"

"I'm from another planet. I'm here by accident." She changes her face to be feminine again, but not hers.

...Daza is struck somewhat speechless.

"It's nice to meet you. My name isn't really Naol. Who're you?"

"- Daza, uh, ma'am."

"The whole concept of castes and cleanliness is honestly ludicrous, you don't need to do the thing you do to the other castes to make it seem like you're meek and helpless. I'd—rather not give you my real name, because some of the blues I'm working with would be rather upset if they found out I came here, so you can call me Sam. And it's actually better if they don't find out at all because otherwise they'd panic about you having magic."

"- we. Don't have magic."

"But I do. Why'd he think you'd know me, are communities here that tightly knit? I suppose they would be wouldn't they."

"Please don't try to give us magic. They'll kill us all."

"Okay.—uh, the magic I'd give you would actually give you all an afterlife. But I'll listen to you on that, most of the point of coming here was trying to figure out how to do right by you instead of listening to a blue tell me how to do that."

"...so you went into an apartment building in the middle of the night."

"I couldn't very well walk in without absolutely terrifying everyone."

"Well. Everyone who doesn't know you're here will not be terrified."

"Yeah. So I tried to minimize—probability of contact. I was not expecting someone to be using the elevator past midnight."

"A lot of us work nights."