"I can try to get you up to the surface if you want but I wouldn't be well advised to stay there and help, surfacers will as likely as not kill a drow on sight and it's not like they'd be stupid to do it either."

"I get the feeling I'd be just as lost. Also, uh, you're calling in favors and stuff about me and like, it's just stupid to not be - the kind of person who pays that back if you can."

"Very Lawful of you."

"Lawful? Yes. We had laws, to work together and leave everyone better off."

"...so, chaotic evil is one of the nine alignments. The axes are law-chaos and good-evil. Drow as a rule are chaotic evil, at least if you ask Pharasma, creator of the universe, and care what she says, which one kind of can't avoid because she's the Judge. You can be Lawful - I appreciate it, even! - but you should be aware that the people around you down here aren't and aren't used to it."

"So the Judge, Pharasma, judges whether people are 'lawful' and whether they're good or evil. And, what, smites you about it? Sends you to Hell instead of Heaven?"

"Hell's for lawful evil and Heaven's for lawful good, yep. Elysium's chaotic good, Nirvana's neutral good, Maelstrom chaotic neutral, Boneyard true neutral, Axis lawful neutral, Abbadon neutral evil, and drow being chaotic evil wind up in the Abyss."

"Okay."

It makes about as much sense as Valhalla does. She'll see if she actually believes it later. Doesn't really change anything right now.

"Okay... I'm kind of sore and tired and not thinking the best but I think the immediate next steps are clear- Out of the way cave, secret, build a plant-booster with what you buy and bring, work with you to sell food and make it all back? Maybe I should just try to memorize words now."

"You should probably sleep over in my cave to start out in case I can't make it over every day. What's your sleep schedule like at the moment?"

She takes a deep breath and thinks.

"It was close to the end of dayshift. All that's happened so far... About an hour? So it's approximately dinner time for me, and sleep in another two or three hours at most."

"Okay. I hope you love mushrooms."

"It's fine. Food is food, and I'll grow other things soon if I'm not just completely wrong. I'm- You-"

Pause.

"You called me lawful. Would you call yourself lawful? What do you want, not now but in a year or ten? I want to see places. I want to build wonderful things. I want to have a clean conscience, still."

"- I'm not lawful. I guess if I were just picking I'd want Neutral Good but even people who get to choose don't get to pick. But like, I can admire the potential virtue of Law abstractly? It just doesn't work well with anything about my life."

"Right. And I don't even know what law means. I guess- I'm finding it hard to stay calm even repeating to myself that you could've just not saved me from the thing. You said scared people are dangerous, well, I'm scared. I'd like to know why you're helping."

"...would you rather be dead? It's, you know, not my first guess with total strangers."

"No! If I did, I could turn the saw on myself. Probably. I just- Augh. I can't find the words... Slavery is common, right, and people are dangerous if I scare them, and there's thieves about, so- I'm trying to understand the shape of things. What you expect from me, what I should expect from you. It's worrying for it to be... Vague, I guess? I don't want to offend you by mistake or come to some kind of- Dramatic misunderstanding-"

"I think it's safer for you if it looks vague, inconveniently. I'm trying to get you parsed as 'non-hostile adventurer', because that's a nice big vague category that most people would rather not poke because they don't know what circle you are or anything."

"Circle?"

"...Yeah, too tired for this. Well, if you ever think I'm about to betray you suddenly, I expect you will probably be mistaken about that. For whatever it's worth."

"Top spell power level. I'm second circle. I will be on the lookout for enchantments making me paranoid."

"Mmh. I don't have my watch with me so I don't know how much longer the, was it 'comprehend languages'? No, that's the other one, I don't know this one's name. I don't mind mushrooms. I don't mind following your lead especially if you think your lead is the least likely path towards dying. I'll try to learn this language- What is it called? -Fast as can be. And any common sense adventurers have. I'm literate- In Germanian, at least, if that's relevant to anything."

"This one's Tongues. Should last a bit more than an hour total. The language is just 'drow', we've got a sign language too and, yes, a written one."

How about she stops addressing difficult, emotional topics and just repeat useful phrases like 'Belmarniss from the line of the cunning sorcerers is my friend' while focusing on the sounds and grammar.

"Not a good use of spell duration, I can help you with that kind of thing when it's worn off."

...Okay. (Why isn't today DONE yet.)

"Right. Enchantment? Type of magic? I'm getting the impression of something like Sparks' voices- I don't really know how to turn it off except try not to give commands while I'm worked up-"

"Enchantment's the type of magic that works on the mind and commands that - are extra compelling - would qualify. There's also - massive oversimplification but - conjuration, appearing stuff; evocation, applying force or energy; illusion, creating false appearances; necromancy, creepy deathy stuff; transmutation, making stuff be different than it is; divination, learning stuff; abjuration, wards and protections; and some oddball spells none of the above."