He nods. "I was expecting telling them what errand I was on to be enough, in that case, but I can be more specific about it going forward."

"I think it was, I'm merely thrown off by - not knowing what things it is in fact my responsibility to know versus what things people are asking about just in case I happen to have picked them up."

"That's reasonable. I'm not going to leave you alone in any kind of high stakes situation, if that helps; the thing with Liss wouldn't have gotten any worse than them locking you in a room until I got back and that's about the upper end of anything I'd risk without warning you."

"I probably wouldn't have noticed if she'd just locked the door! Long castings are meditative, in a way."

He seems to find the comment funny. "She wouldn't have left you in there, she's not exactly a dragon and that's not exactly her hoard but the principle is a bit the same - do dragons work like that in Golarion? Here even with the Good ones they're a bit intense about it."

"Dragons are rumored to work like that but I'm not socially acquainted with any."

"Well, it's definitely true here, and let me know sometime if you ever want to meet one, I know several. ...I bet Bly either knows chess or would learn it for the occasion, even."

.......this seems extremely frivolous compared to the refugee thing but Blai's not quite composing a sentence about it.

Raafi isn't a mind reader but he can notice when someone's making a face, even if it's pretty subtle. "Hmm?"

"I wouldn't want to distract you from your important work with the refugees and others in need just so I have an interesting story to tell about playing chess with a dragon."

"Of course, and I wouldn't just let you. But I spend plenty of time on other things that aren't important."

Probably more than once a month, even. "If your - entertainment budget - extends in that direction I cannot claim to be averse."

"I don't even think of it as a budget; Fharlanghn is among other things the god of interesting experiences. I'll keep it in mind for later." He takes out a notebook and jots it down.

"- where would I get a - stylus? - like that?"

"Any stationery store or probably the market. Or you can have a couple of mine, they break pretty easily so I have several." He passes the one he's been using over; it has a hard black core whittled to a point, surrounded by wood with a strip of thin fabric wrapped around it and glued on.

"I don't think I've seen one like it before; I'd take more notes if I didn't need to set up an inkwell to do it."

"They're great for that, yeah. The text does tend to smudge but you don't have to worry about spills or clogs or anything. They're called pencils." He pulls out a few more - these are flat at both ends - and a blank notebook. "How are you doing for pocket space, should I hold onto these?"

"I have space."

"Here you go, then."

Blai takes them and pockets them. "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Mm, potato. "So, hopefully not forgetting anything this time, we're doing your channel next, and we still want to visit the library, and then unless you want to stay there I'm bringing you back to the temple while I see if I can get another necklace, and then we're heading back to the refugees by way of Big Reeds and Griffon Hill - I expect Griffon Hill will be better for your channel, Big Reeds is bigger but the miners at Griffon Hill get injured more often. Does that sound right to you?"

He notes all this down! With his new pencil! "By way of as in a teleport stop?"

"Mmhmm. They also have good sized temples to the Shining One, and I want to check if they can take some of the refugees."

"But you judge it better to spend a channel here than to offer one at each of those cities?"

"Mmhmm, they're more like large towns than cities. There is another city in reasonable walking distance for the refugees, but it's in the other direction, and I'd rather keep them together for the first leg of the trip so they all have me available for any problems."