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]

"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?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I don't think it will be very interesting. But if you want to, yes."

[segreant]

"If you don't need me I'll stay here, but if you do need help I have permission to go with you."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It would be bad to misunderstand something important. I'd like you to come with, then."

[segreant]

"All right. I'll talk to Ebbe and we'll find you a moneylender."

She goes and finds someone who is apparently named Ebbe, talks to him, and then heads out into town with Nick.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick's computer listens carefully to all the conversation around him, absorbing more Cirth. Nick himself mostly seems... Unimpressed.

[segreant]

"If you can't get enough lent to find a place to sleep tonight I can ask about letting you stay in the compound."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"If I can't get lent enough to rent a room at an inn, I won't have enough to craft anything useful. I might ask to be paid to repair broken staffs and armor with the joiner."

[segreant]

"We don't have a lot of those around, but it would get you some coin at least."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"And presumably non-paladins have broken things. For that matter, my threader can make rope from wild grass. Rope is a thing that people sometimes need, yes?"

[segreant]

"Yes. Rope from grass would definitely be useful if it were any good."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It usually turns out slightly green and shiny, but is not necessarily weak... What's rope made of, normally? Hemp and tar? For that matter I can probably make polyester, which makes for durable and comfortable garments if you blend-weave it with cotton. Of course, rope and garments will be my industry only if I don't get a loan sufficient to make other things."

[segreant]

"I am not actually sure how rope is usually made. But you could probably make a decent living and set some aside with the rope and the polyester."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Or medicine! Can the winter's light heal people who aren't paladins? Do paladins get sick? Do you have access to antibiotics and antivirals?"

[segreant]

"Paladins can only heal ourselves and our mounts, but we don't get sick. I'm not sure what those things are. ...And it's 'Winter Light', you've made that mistake twice now."