"Advice on healing?"

"Cleric magic is good at healing but clerics as people have to be Wise and are also vetted for certain patron-specific trustworthiness."

"So you were to attend as a representative of your patron."

"You... could put it that way, yes."

"And does your patron have a will here, in this world?"

"She has a will everywhere things could be better than they are, but She does not to my knowledge have a specific agenda in this world about how to accomplish that."

"And what does 'better than they are' mean, then?"

"She is in favor of peace, prosperity, and order, and against suffering."

She turns, her wingtips grazing the floor, and walks to the window. She stands there, her eyes fixed on something in the distance.

"I will speak to you again after the deal is struck," she says finally, turning her head back. To Ferris, "Get on with it."

He'll open the door for Blai.

He's not really sure what to say - "thank you" doesn't seem right - so he just nods and departs the room.

Ferris will duck them into a different office. "Belessa said we're satisfied with what you have to say. If we write up an agreement for you to tell us everything you know about the dragon and your sources, in exchange for acquiring Keisha Silverfang's charges and commuting it to three years served in Manus' military with pay going towards fines, logistical deployment unless otherwise requested—do you expect you can sign something along those lines?"

"Assuming this doesn't leave the Voyager with no means of self-support because she doesn't have time to pick up other work which isn't earmarked for fines, or something, I would expect so."

"The lieutenant at Liscor says she reviewed the conditions and found them agreeable. I'll call on you tomorrow afternoon?"

"At your convenience."

Then he's free to avail himself of the facilities for the rest of the day. The staff is available to satisfy any inquiries or requests. Unfortunately, most of them have jobs and will decline to neglect their duties for chess.

How unfortunate. Are they going to buy channels and spells while he's here anyway? It won't kill much time but maybe getting to wherever they want those will.

They're probably not going to try with the channels since they're mostly fungible for potions and the logistics are tricky to optimize and fill a channel radius; the juice isn't really worth the squeeze. They've been trying to line people up for the spells and the coordinator is happy to talk to Blai.

"I was going to see if I could get an appointment with you tomorrow," he says. "It got dropped on us without much notice, so we're still waiting to hear back from some of the candidates." Can he confirm how Remove Blindness, Remove Deafness, Remove Disease and Lesser Restoration work? "Is this right, you have to pick your spells in advance in the morning? What do you have today?"

He can confirm how they work. "The ones you asked after are in the greatest demand, so I have those, and can have them again tomorrow if there are to be more patients."

"We have five for Deafness, three for Blindness, four for Disease, eight for Lesser Restoration right now, and around twice as many not yet confirmed. Can I confirm something—we have Oldblood Drakes with damaged lungs or throats from overuse of their elemental breath; am I right that Remove Disease wouldn't do anything for them, but Lesser Restoration might heal them but not prevent recurrence?"

"That sounds correct to me."

"You can expect ten, fifteen more signups for that once the proof of it is walking around. Even old retirees will take an advance on their pension to get to breathe properly again. Alchemical treatments are only so effective... does it matter if it's repeated damage?"

"A Lesser Restoration will only do so much, but repeated castings can help more if it's the right kind of damage to begin with."

"Just as well that there's time today, so we can give it a test. I got a runner from one of our retired adventurers yesterday, Gold-Rank, burned out four times, spent a fortune on [Healers] but still can't walk a mile without getting out of  breath. You won't find a case tougher than him. If you can do a house call, I can send a message, I think we can catch him before evening."

"I have no other demands on my time today."