Inn forty-seven

Basaltine took it upon himself to add, after relaying Helmine's message, "That and dry feet. If they're the real deal, they'll take care of their feet."

And there was something in the body language too, quite apart from stance or posture. That was a little too esoteric to discuss with the women, though. Two-leggers could be remarkably dense.

"Speaking of dry feet, I should water that shrub I planted."

"You work here?" Helmine asked, tilting her head.

"Yes." Sylvie's look said "why do you ask?"

"Curiosity. It wasn't readily apparent from what Basaltine said."

Sylvie shrugged, wondering why exactly Basaltine had been so enthusiastic, and turned to leave with a polite wave. "I should get back to work."

"Of course," Helmine said. "Have a good day."

Then she turned to Suitov, almost accusing him of something just by looking at him while Basaltine translated.

Basaltine, who had given Helmine a puzzled look when she said his name, relayed this last line for Sylvie.

He would rather have been outdoors right now.

Suitov had been observing the conversation without butting in. The look he gave Helmine in return was open with the usual hint of friendly curiosity.

Sylvie left the building through the kitchen, to first get some cool water from the pump for herself.

Helmine had actually been curious about something herself, but it wouldn't do. It just wouldn't do. She suspected it would take lots of practice to get a hang of these... differences and gaps in communication. "Hello again."

Suitov spoke and Basaltine relayed: "I hope you are settling in. Do let me or Basaltine know if you need anything further."

Basaltine looked directly at Helmine and blew a smoke ring while the human spoke further. "Sylvie is another traveller far from home. She recently started work as a gardener here."

"Plants, I tell you!" Basaltine put in -- after a pause to signify the change of speaker, in case the speech patterns themselves didn't make it clear. "I heard she restrained a grown man and a giant mutant chicken-beast using only vines and a tree branch. Brilliant!"

Outside, beyond the gardens, a somewhat familiar confused "bwok" could just be heard from the forest. At the moment the foliage had shifted itself back to the same selection of plants it had been when the great chicken-hunting expedition had set out.

"Thank you. I will remember that," Helmine said finally, trying to decide whether or not the... dog itself was trustworthy. She decided that he wasn't and only made a non-committal sound. "How many employees did you have again, sorry?"

"I assume you mean here. At present, only Sylvie, Zoekla and her husband. And a few contractors recently."

"And are you an entrepeneur elsewhere, too?" she asked, setting her rifle down against the wall.

"Goodness, no. And not strictly speaking here either. It was more a case of this place needing some neutral ground; or as neutral as anyone can make it, anyway." All right, so it had been a gap in the market in that sense, albeit not a profitable market to begin with.

"No, elsewhere I'm a researcher and military commander."

That certainly got her attention. Helmine blinked at him lazily. She of course had no way of being sure that he was speaking the truth, but his 'service record' so far persuaded her to admit that he probably was. "I won't ask you about the military, as I do not think it's polite and because I'm frankly sick of the military. Other than this place, what is it that you research?"

He brightened convincingly at the question. What mage didn't enjoy being asked about his research? Not Suitov, anyway.

"In general, various applications of magic, for purposes both polite and impolite. Along with anything else that interests me. Recently that has included a few early systems of writing from one of the species on my homeworld, along with their early magic use. They were among the first to attempt systematic notation for recording spells, which is very exciting because -- well, of a number of reasons." Basaltine rolled his eyes just once while translating all of this.

She just couldn't stop herself from grinning at the mentioning of impolite purposes. Soon her face was the same mask of slightly tired frustration. "Do you think you might be willing to tell me about elsewhere?"

"Of course. My elsewhere of origin is called, by Mendel's people..." Basaltine stopped, waiting, then at a prompting look said "Oh, right:"

The dog then spoke one syllable that somehow unfolded in Helmine's head into meaning The shade of a grove of trees by a still pool dappled with early summer sunshine and the sound of birdsong.

"A little difficult for the rest of us to pronounce, so we've taken to calling it Shade. That is the world. My particular part of it is a place of forests, mostly deciduous, green countryside, rivers, fields and orchards. Moderately hot in summer, around thirty days' snow in winter. Populated mostly by people who look like me, except not quite as pale. Villages, small and large towns and two crown cities. It is ruled by two kings and currently involved in impoliteness."

He waited to find out if Helmine wanted to hear more, or if he could ask about her own home.

Sylvie had been working the soil between the roots of the shrub, which she had pruned down to an easily manageable size before transporting, when she heard the bwok. She got up and looked in the general direction of the sound, but then shook her head and went to fetch water from the fountain.