She might not have been familiar with all the clothing terms, but Arilanna understood the essence of the story, and couldn't help but grin. 'High-level event, fancy as anything, and nobody knew the truth? Very clever!' She was picturing the uppermost floors of Cardalek Tower with their exclusive directors' dinners. Even if it hadn't been quite like that, it had to be close.
The explanation of Suzume's choice to adopt local dress made her nod. 'I see it,' she said. 'It works for you. I'm going to be the foreigner whatever I do, I don't have a word of this language.' She had four of them. Four-and-a-half if assorted non-verbal signalling methods counted, and spacers usually said they did. But not this one. 'I don't have much of a fancy wardrobe anyway. The least conspicuous item I'd have is a coat nearly as long as your dress. Blue and silver with shiny buttons – but even that would look wrong here, and in this heat...really not optimal.'
Ari had never before been asked if she was human, but she took the question in the right spirit. It wasn't long since she'd had a big blue dragon as a tour guide, after all. 'Very human,' she said cheerily. 'Let's go over, then. I'll buy some stew, and you can stop them from trying to charge me the price of the whole pot by speaking their language to them, if you don't mind!'