>> > I'm thinking of trying to unambiguously
>> > (which rules out {zo'e}, if you're willing to nitpick) say "now", assign
>> > that time to a variable,
>>
>> I guess you could use something like "ko'a goi lo nau fasnu".
>>
> Does CUhE work like that?
As I said, all tags (BAI, CAhA, CUhE, KI, ZI, PU, VA, FAhA, ZEhA,
VEhA, VIhA, number ROI, TAhE, ZAhO) work in the same way when used
individually. They only work differently in how they combine with one
another to form compound tags.
>> But "nau" is for the time of the utterance, not for the time of what
>> the utterance is describing. In this example "nau" doesn't play any
>> relevant role, since eveything in the story has happened in the past
>> of the time when the story is told.
>
> Then is there an unambiguous way (again, {ca zo'e} isn't sufficient for
> this, in my opinion) to point at a time in the story?
We already mentioned "lo tcika be lo nu na'o". Or simpler: "lo tcika
be la'e dei". "dei" gets you the utterance, but "la'e dei" gets you
what the utterance is describing.