The tiny bundle of adorable deflated.

“I can’t do it like sister Nanya. Maybe I should just extract the payment from the prisoner and send him on his way.” She muttered, apparently forgetting that I was in the room with her.

She pulled a thumb-sized crystal vial out of nowhere with an ominous black liquid swirling inside of it. No… not a liquid, some sort of viscous ooze, and it seemed to be trying to escape the vial. Tendrils of its mass were wriggling, pressing against the stopper.

Alarms blared through my head. While I didn’t know any of the details, “extracting payment and sending me on my way” didn’t sound very appealing. And if it had anything to do with that thing, I didn’t see it ending well.

Luckily, if I was reading the room correctly, I should be at home in this conversation. Taking care of the orphans around Willow Grove for well over a decade has made me as close as you can get to an expert in dealing with insecure teens. Much like this one…I hope.

“Shame,” I breathed, sounding deeply disappointed.

She looked at me, her fingers reaching for the stopper of the vial, and hesitated. She blinked her big blue eyes in confusion. “Huh?”

“I won’t pretend to know who Sister Nanya is, but she would have been proud of your entrance. You setup a perfect slope for a proper diplomatic dialogue. But then, you just…never mind.” I said, sounding wistful about the missed opportunity.

“Eh…” Her gaze darted around the room for a second. “What do you mean?” she asked, curious.

I mimicked her earlier posture, my hands on my hips, chest out and looking down on her imperiously. “You…are lucky to be alive, you impudent fool,” I thundered.

She seemed to retreat into herself, tiny hands gripping her magnificent robes. I glanced at the thing in the vial with weariness. Worrying that her flailing her arms may set it free.

“When you state something so impactful and attention-grabbing, we call that a “title sentence”. You had my full attention. I want to keep living, so the stakes for me couldn’t be higher. I was waiting to hear all the essentials,” I said, putting her next question in her mouth.

“Essentials?” she asked, playing her role perfectly.

“Yes,” I nodded. “Something every dialogue of this type needs.”

I started listing the items on my fingers.

“First, introductions,” I said, holding up my index finger. “Establishing who we are and why we’re here.”

“Second, clarity,” I continued, raising my middle finger. “Ensuring we’re clear about what we’re discussing.”

“And third,” I added, extending my ring finger, “alignment of goals. Finding common ground so we can reach a mutually satisfying resolution.”

She narrowed her eyes in confusion. “But you are a prisoner, not a guest. Why does any of it matter?”

“Ah!” I exclaimed, pointing at her as if she had stumbled upon an important point. “You seem like a reasonably educated young woman. I’m sure you’ve read about great people who were once prisoners. I may not look like an amazing prospect now, but you never know what a few polite words may grow into…” I trailed off, leaving her to imagine the possibilities.

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For the next couple of moments, her face went through an astonishing range of expressions, each more adorable than the last. Before settling on a wide-eyed look of realisation. “So, you are saying that as a representative of the “Tower” I have a responsibility to explore all the avenues through which we can benefit. Be it a stray bit of information I can gather through casual conversation, or an opportunity to turn a casual acquaintance into a future ally.”

Her eyes grew even wider, resembling a couple of blue moons. “This lesson…It’s a benefit I have collected.” She sounded giddy.

I froze for a moment, taken aback by her reasoning. The cute little thing not only absorbed everything I said, but reasoned it out flawlessly. I suppose that gives me at least a partial answer to the question: “why is it that I am being hosted by a teenager?”.

While she may be young and inexperienced, it looked like I was talking to a future force to be reckoned with.

I nodded in approval. “Exactly right, young lady. It doesn’t take any skill or finesse to pop a cork out of the vial. Any brute can do it. But what you are doing here…” I gestured at her, “not just anyone can pull off.”

She beamed; her confidence bolstered by the praise. She shifted back into her hand-on-hips pose, reconstructing her “stern” look. But then, as she considered my words further, her expression grew uncertain. “After a “title sentence,” introductions?” she looked at me for confirmation.

I nodded.

“My name is Velisza Sori, 11th apprentice of the Rabiat Tower.”

She tried matching my earlier thunderous voice, but coming from her, it sounded like a very bombastic chitter. Well, some things just take practice. My own initial attempts were embarrassing. And calling them just that is sparing my feelings. I can’t even remember the number of hours I spent rehearsing in front of the mirror. Every expression accounted for; every inflection painstakingly crafted. Not to mention all the group practices, debates, arguments, and negotiations. Raw talent will get you far, but mastery takes effort. Lots of focused effort.

“Well met Velisza Sori. I am Ryder Corvo, an unaffiliated mage.” I responded in a voice as smooth as I could make it, considering that my brand-new body had literally never drank water. I was hoping to remedy that soon. But for now, I needed to stay on task. “Tell me, what is the purpose of our meeting here?” I added.

“Well…here?” she looked embarrassed. “Uhhh…Sister Nanya allowed me to use her study. It has a complete complement of defensive wards, so I can contain or kill you in case you were being difficult.”

I held on to my composure for dear life. Forcing my facial muscles not to twitch. That was at the same time the cutest and the most believable death threat I have ever received.

Before I could take a breath to respond, she continued.

“See… for example…”

A ring of violet lights materialised in front of her, and she touched one of them. Immediately, my body froze, unable to move a muscle. My whole skin felt as if it were being violently scrubbed with sandpaper.

A moment later, the sensation stopped, and I found myself on the ground on all fours, trying to catch my breath. The feeling of being grabbed by a giant’s fist and scrubbed with sandpaper was intensely unpleasant.

“If I push the cleaning wards too hard, they can flay skin off the bones,” she explained, sounding like she was repeating something she had been painstakingly cautioned about over and over.

I stood and looked at her sternly. “Velisza, was that meant as a death threat?”

She frowned in incomprehension. “No, I was just explaining how…”

I could see the exact moment when the realisation hit her.

“Oh…No, no, no. I’m sorry, you just asked why are we…I saw you were dirty and…I mean it’s the dungeon, it’s always dirty…” She started rumbling in half-formed overlapping sentences.

I held my hand up for Velisza to stop and waited patiently for her to run out of breath. Looking down at my body, it was pristine. Every pore on my skin looked scrubbed clean. Even my mucky gunny sack-tunic looked spotless. Despite the process itself being intensely uncomfortable, finally being clean felt divine.

When Velisza finally stopped to catch her breath, I inserted myself. “Young lady, my question wasn’t about the lovely study we are in. It was about the purpose of our meeting, the reason for it.”

“Ohhh…that…” she gasped.

“Well, you arrived from another world directly through the void, which is dangerous and very hard to do. Luckily, your patron, who sent you, also embedded something very valuable in your soul. By unspoken agreement, it is to be used as payment for the services of safe passage, and for any damages incurred by interrupting Sister Nanya’s ‘spellrest.’ So, I am here to collect. That’s all I know,” she concluded.

I was certain that was the truth. Her rushed delivery suggested she was trying to make up for the earlier slight by giving me all the information she knew. But it was too much all at once. I was starting to feel overwhelmed. So, I decided to take charge and streamline our conversation a little.

“Velisza,” I said. “You know I am from another world, yes?”

She nodded.

“So you won’t be surprised if I tell you that I don’t have the reference to understand much of what you just told me?”

She shook her head.

“Now, what was the second point I made when we discussed the essentials?”

She thought for a moment. “Clarity!” she exclaimed. “We need to understand what we are discussing.” She was about to launch into an explanation, but I held my hand up to forestall her.

“Please let me take the lead by asking specific questions. If I let you explain everything, I'm likely to end up with even more questions. Is that alright?” I asked.

She nodded eagerly, her silky hair dancing around her.

“Now…let’s see…” I began.