Awesome.

How long until they can cast fast enough?

Hard to say. Practice at casting while distracted only started a few months ago, and everybody's still finding it pretty hard, but she expects they'll speed up as they get used to it.

And they probably only get one shot at this so it's not worth rushing.

That's the thought, yup.

The humans build more sophisticated houses, and rejoice in their abundance of magically-altered crops. The two camps exchange information and magic, albeit tersely.

Slow progress is still progress. The same can be said for Rána's immortality spell, and only partly because she's too busy to ever devote more than a couple hours to it at once.

The kobolds are grateful for the food, and Rána estimates that they saved a few dozen lives with it, mostly the very old or very young. The birdfolk are grateful, too, though it's more of a convenience for them; it does allow them to spend more time scouting, and they take the opportunity to follow the stream bed downstream and find and clear out the rock slide that's been making it tend to flood for the last few years. A tribe of ibexwomen pass through, too, with kids, but the birdfolk don't think it'd be a very good idea for the Quendi to visit them; they're too touchy about strangers, here in goblin territory.

Nidela keeps working on the book translations, focusing on the magic ones now that the medical ones are superfluous, and when she's done with those she starts on the history books. Tirinquo tries out pottery, but goes back to woodworking and following Rána around after a month.

The Dwarves finish transporting their portals to their other cities, and Rána completes the intercity network for them. They're thrilled; she's rich; she has no idea what to do with this information and finds it disconcerting.

Spring arrives, just as expected.

Quendi could get behind seasons; they add some lovely variety. They're much happier than Rána about being rich, and commission all sorts of Arda-magic and technical projects from them.

That seems like a reasonable use of it, not that she's going to suggest that her opinion particularly matters.

The rainy season starts in the birdfolks' desert; the whole area turns lush and green and there's a constant drizzle. They spend a few hours every day out gathering, and the rest of the time indoors; they're quickly bored.

The Quendi don't actually notice this; they can't really afford to visit that often, and their visits are hardly boring.