"Apologies, I was unclear: I meant testing the effect of our buffing and metamagic spells on your channeling. Many of our sites have configurable platforms and viewing balconies for greater utilization of your channeling volume, which I expect will make back the cost of renting the chamber for an hour rather tidily. Ordinary event spaces for rent usually charge by the half-day, at the minimum, and may have balconies, but usually not in the enclosed configurations that work best for a spherical area of effect.

"...Is the Watch willing to let you host upwards of two hundred people on their training grounds on a regular basis?"

"Plausibly they aren't, I just wanted to get a sense of the comparison."

"A Watch training ground will be cheaper, even accounting for the longer minimum time slot. However, if you can reliably draw more than 200 clients per channel, one of our chambers will pay for itself quite tidily by its increased capacity.

"I don't know if you can—Liscor's population numbers 90,000, and my impression is normal citizens find themselves with nontrivial injury perhaps 3 times a year? Adventurers, numbering 500 by their Guild's count, are injured about 3 times a week. Active Watch members, 2000, are injured twice a month. All approximate numbers.

"It comes out to a bit over 800 injuries a day in scope for your healing, so—possible to outpace 400 clients a day, but not certain. It would depend on accessibility, marketing and price structure, which we can also assist with."

—Dross is compelled to timidly point out that if healing gets cheaper, adventurers and possibly the Watch will get hurt more, and more people will become adventurers.

"It's only an estimate."

"I appreciate the numbers to go by even if they won't be exact. I think renting one of your chambers would make sense. Do you have thoughts on what times of day would be best?"

"Shortly after noon and in the evening, I suspect, to catch workers on their lunch break and at the end of their day. It means morning injuries will not result in an unproductive day if they wait for your healing."

Nod. "What would the rates be for testing metamagic on the channels?"

"Hiring an apprentice to cast the spells is cheap. Three silver for two hours of their time, is the going rate, assuming non-strenuous spellcasting, which this counts—they'll be casting weaker versions than an expert [Mage] could, but it will suffice for testing.

"But you need a [Magister] to design the tests, interpret the results and advise on next steps, which will cost between five and ten gold for a contract, usually including—as an example for reference, not a standard prescription—five hour-long private consultations, three additional on-site consults, and up to fifteen billable hours included for literature review, analysis, correspondence with other experts and so on between sessions. They would be working with the apprentice which performs the actual castings to develop the procedures.

"It may be possible to obtain a significant discount on the second fee by exchanging the opportunity to study your own spells and abilities, or the... headache problem, you mentioned? The common wisdom, you may have heard, is that gold has the worst exchange rate for a [Magister]'s time."

"Then I'll talk to them about that when I visit there. Thank you."

"Would you like me to write you a letter of referral?"

"That would be helpful, yes."

Blai can get a letter summarizing his being from another world with different classes and magic, him specifically wanting assistance with optimizing his channeling, and a mention but no detail on a research problem Blai wants to pursue relating to his place of origin.

"On the matter of renting a chamber: it may not be worth your gold to do it, say, tomorrow, before your clientele has take time to grow; but I can recommend suitable options and write another letter of referral for if or when you choose to? The reservation process is straightforward: booking at least one day in advance, eight silver an hour for the type of chamber you will need, free cancellation with one day's notice."

"That would be helpful, yes, I am for the time being relying a lot on prewritten notes for talking to people."

Write write write.

"While we are on the topic, do you have a plan for advertising? If I may make a suggestion: the Guild of Scriveners will distribute circulars with a seal of endorsement from any major Guild if referred so by said Guild, which will improve the effectiveness."

"That sounds good, does it matter much which Guild?"

"It matters insofar as how your audience will interpret it. The system is mainly used by the trade Guilds, to certify the licensing of advertising businesses, but there is no Guild of Healers in Liscor.

"I can issue you an seal of verification for your claims from the Mage's if you confirm the relevant facts under truth stone. It may be useful for you to additionally acquire endorsement from the Adventurer's Guild, for penetration with adventurers. Their Guildmistress Tekshia very rarely approves those, but yours is a sufficiently exceptional case that I suspect she will not refuse; your services will be a great boon for their business."

"If you have a truth stone on hand and it works acceptably while I'm speaking through a translator then that might be valuable."

"I do. The procedure is to verify truthfulness as you make your statements in your native tongue, then your translator translates, and the stone verifies his attestation to the accuracy of translation."

He's so glad he looked this up ahead of time!!

"What statements should I repeat?"

Basically the description of his channeling with all the main caveats and advantages relative to healing potions.

"And anything else you wish on the record. Essentially, my letter of endorsement will certify that these claims are validated by truth stone, and that we believe their correctness; the Scrivener's may then reprint those claims within your circular as thereby certified."

Blai recites the claims dutifully.

"I wished to cover your other spells as well—in particular, the specialized healing has by far the largest earning potential—but we only have fifteen minutes remaining and I have an upcoming meeting. Let us schedule a follow-up appointment; it will also allow me to look up reference quotes. Is there anything else you would like to know in this remaining time?"

"I can come in again another time, yes... Dross appeared surprised by my ability to Prestidigitate chess pieces, would you like to see it done in case that prompts further ideas?"

"I have not dabbled in serious study of magic for many years, and thus a current [Magister] or [Mage Researcher] may provide more useful insight, but I must confess I am nonetheless intensely curious. And perhaps it will evince useful suggestions."

He raises three claws before his eyes and makes a turning motion: "[Arcane Sight]."