Yeah. Thanks.

Sure. 

And he leaves.

She putters around for a bit and takes Ila out for a walk, returning without incident an hour later; she goes to bed at dawn, and half an hour later Defiyi arrives with breakfast.

Eating this often is weird but they thank him and everything.

He doesn't seem to think it's weird. Breakfast is quiet - Defiyi is much less of a conversationalist than Kenozì - but otherwise unremarkable, and then they head down to the gardens, where the missing elf is waiting for them, subdued.

"I'm sorry for upsetting your companion," she says simply, and waits for their response, making no move to join the group; the apology isn't entirely spontaneous - her supervisor had a talk with her last night, apparently - but it is sincere, not so much in the sense that she approves of Ila, but in the sense that she agrees that she was out of line in how she handled the situation.

They assure her that it is fine, some of them a bit confusedly, and admire the gardens.

The gardens continue to be pretty and interesting. Defiyi has heard back about using the concert hall and brings it up over lunch; there are three days available in the next week and a half, and he reserved the last of them for them, but it's no problem to switch to one of the other two if they'd rather.

No, that works.

Excellent.

And after lunch there are more things to see - they've managed to get reservations for a tour of the new experimental orchards if the Quendi are interested in that, or there's a very nice path garden that goes up to the top of the highest tree in the city, or they could visit some of the city's monuments and freestanding artwork, or - they still have their list; there's plenty of options.

The Quendi should really get back home where people are pulling triple shifts to make life workable in a war zone, but while it's still a good idea to be here making sure the 'no genocides' thing takes root they will enjoy all of these amenities.

The elves are oblivious to this concern, of course.

When they return to their suite after dinner, Nidela is curled up on the couch with a book; two more are stacked on the nearby table. She returns the book to the stack when they come in. Hi!

Hi! Looks like we're here another week and a half, giving a concert then. Do you think by then we'll have done enough that the druid can work with it?

Probably. I might be able to go talk to him and figure out if there's anything that'd be more useful than just wandering around being seen - talking to peoples' companions for them comes to mind, if you'd be up for it, Tyelkormo.

Yeah, sure.

Okay. I'll try to do that tomorrow, then.

And the next day there are more attractions.

And when they get home in the evening Nidela is taking notes on the books. Hi guys! Turns out it's a good thing I stayed, I was close but not quite right taking care of Nehton's leg - she'll be fine, I think, but I'll need to change some stuff around when I get back.

Oh, good to know. We should probably be asking to read some of their books too, come to think of it...

Sure, I don't think they'll mind. Did you ever figure out the alphabet?

I can't read even in my own language, but some people did.

She nods. Well, reading's not tiring, if you want me to read anything for you.

Stuff about magic forms here, maybe. 

She nods again. I already have one that has a section on the plant changing form, I thought we might want to bring some seeds back and I wanted to check what kinds of things we can get that'll breed true.

Yeah, that sounds like the sort of thing we want.

Want me to read it for you? I think you have to be a mage for it to really make sense.