jumped without a jump drive

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick, in a full environment suit like any sensible person would wear in untamed wilderness, is overseeing a small swarm of robots harvesting various useful plantlife from the uninhabited parts of a sparsely settled planet, when something suddenly comes tearing through the undergrowth towards him and it's not showing up on scanners-

He raises his hand-phaser, notices it has a mirror for a face and hesitates a little too long. And then he is in a clearing, cut off from his ship and 'bots, with all available sources of data telling him he just went through a jump.

What.

Comments

[segreant]

"Huh. Still, more efficient than having even a retired paladin follow you around."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Automation is excellent. I should probably learn at least a little Cirth before wandering around the city. Is there somewhere I can get a meal around here?"

He takes off his helmet, and puts on the sigil-necklace.

[segreant]

"If you'll come talk to the Bright Sister I will be able to offer you the use of the campus cafeteria for the time being, at a minimum."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It seems polite to explain myself to her, to the extent that I can, since you've just ferried me into her compound."

[segreant]

"I'll get my armor off first and see to Ragnar if you don't mind waiting."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Not at all."

[segreant]

Off she goes. He gets looks from paladins milling around but they're pretty satisfied by the sigil he's wearing.

Kaja comes back forty-five minutes later, looking much smaller without her armor. "Bright Sister is this way."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick has been standing in a corner, doing computer things. He follows. "Any rules I should know?"

[segreant]

"Be polite, call her Sister - that should cover it, more or less."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He nods. "Let's go, then."

[segreant]

Kaja leads him to an office, where they wait outside for a bit and are then admitted to see an elderly lady whose surcoat, like Kaja's, bears the sigil of the Winter Light.

"Sister, this is Nicholas. He appeared inexplicably near me a moment before I destroyed the lich."

The sister looks at Nicholas. "Appeared? From where?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I am from another world, Sister. I was attacked by some sort of monster, a giant snake with a mirror for a head. When it 'ate' me, I suddenly fell directly between Kaja and a lich she was fighting. After that was resolved, I introduced myself, touched her sigil to show that I am human, and she offered to carry me here. I thank the Order of Winter's Light for its kindness, and I hope to find my way home, but it will be difficult to reconstruct the technology that allows me to cross between worlds here."

[segreant]

"Hm. Well, Kaja, you may exercise your discretion in looking after him for the time being," says the Bright Sister.

"Yes, Sister."

"If you need to accompany him out of the compound or move your patrol or point-taking talk to Ebbe about your schedule."

"Yes, sister."

"Dismissed."

Kaja bows, and leads Nicholas out of the office.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

After being led out, he says, "I'll want to tell her about the communicating devices, once I'm sure I can make them."

[segreant]

"It'll be helpful. People send us messages when they think a mage may be turning to dark practices or if they think someone they know is plagued by a woke shadow or if they notice an imp active somewhere or see zombies coming. But it's not as fast as we would like."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"So about that food. If it's a cafeteria, I assume there will be other people chatting in Cirth, my computer can get a head start."

[segreant]

"It's between main mealtimes now, but yes, there will probably be some people getting porridge for an afternoon snack. I can speak Cirth to you as well, for that matter, if I ignore the words the Winter Light supplies me in your language."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"You should start speaking in Cirth, yes. Within half an hour I will understand a sufficient amount of it."

[segreant]

She gestures for him to follow and chatters in Cirth. "I don't understand how a machine could possibly do what the Winter Light's gifts do, or even a facsimile, but I can't think of a reason for you to make it up..." The cafeteria is serving porridge and bread; there are cooking smells for forthcoming dinnertime coming from the kitchen, but none of that food is out yet. "Help yourself to as much of this as you'd like." She herself takes a roll. There are some younger paladins (who call Kaja "Sister") and some older ones who are also eating the supplied food rather than wait for a real meal.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He takes porridge and a roll as well. "It will help if you name things, like," he points at a bowl, "bowl."

After that he listens and watches and eats silently for a while.

[segreant]

Kaja helpfully identifies objects in the room - bowls, tables, benches, novices, initiates, bread.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick repeats the names and composes simple sentences with them. But a demonstration of proper Cirth grammar from him will be a while yet.

[segreant]

When she's run out of things to name she goes back to talking idly about things like places in town he might find a moneylender, the local currency, where he might find a mage to send him home if that's a thing mages can do (she doesn't know), possible applications for his joiner, another language spoken by a local minority that he might want to add to his computer if he can do that but she can't speak it right now because the paladin language thing only works with a target...

[rockeye_stonetoe]

After another bowl of porridge, he says in Cirth, "I know some Cirth now. It is good enough. I will go find a moneylender and show him my devices."

[segreant]

"Do you want me to go with you?"