"I would much rather play chess with a dragon instead, thank you."

"That's fair," he chuckles.

They continue on to the mage's guild. The line for the pearl is much shorter this time, and seems to be entirely wizards. Raafi skips it to talk to the wizard in charge, where he finds out that the pearl he asked about was sent over to the custom item pickup. They're a little confused at the custom item pickup about how to handle Raafi's request - it's not common to just want to rent a pearl like this for a few minutes - but after discussing it among themselves for a few minutes they quote him a price.

"I think I should cast first - I'm a little worried that your spells aren't quite the same as ours and the pearl won't be able to handle them properly, and if your spells can go into it but not be taken back out then it's better to be done with what we wanted to do with it before we find that out."

"Understood."

"I'm thinking Cure Minor Wounds, I'd like to know if you can catch an orison that started with me. Alternately we could do Longstrider, it'll last most of the day and I'm unlikely to want it."

"Which of my orisons for the day should I displace if I can catch Cure Minor Wounds but can't hold onto five at once?"

(If you hang around Blai a lot you might notice that he casts Guidance as frequently as some people check their pockets for their possessions or adjust their hair or breathe.) He nods. "So I'm trying to see if I can catch the Cure, but preferably only holding it if it somehow makes room for itself in the process, and if it insists on a slot I will give it the Create Water slot."

"Right. And if it's polite about it at all I expect we'll want to keep the pearl, it'd be handy for you to be able to swap orisons in the middle of the day."

Nod.

He casts the spell and hands the pearl over.

Blai's never actually used one of these - Grec had one, or something like one, but only in the last couple of years, and it doesn't pay to be overbearing about requisitioning your subordinates' magic items if there's not an emergency where they will unambiguously best serve in your own hands. Yoink?

The spell is yoinked! It feels like a perfectly ordinary touch-range Cure spell.

And he could cast it - on himself, as he's handy - and - "- yes, I could catch it but it would want space - actually -" He drops a Forbid Action, one of his oh-shit spells that he sometimes preps to mimic the missing domain power - "I can give it a first circle slot, I should have thought of that before since my first circle spells are nothing special here and the orisons are."

"Oh, clever, yes. All right, so we'll keep the pearl... do you know how catching spells works with metamagic, actually, might we want a bigger one..."

"It doesn't, unless it's one of the metamagics that doesn't change the spell circle, and I don't know any of those."

"Me either. All right, let's make sure it works in the other direction, too."

"Do you want my Mending even though it'll take ten minutes?"

"I'm not expecting to be able to catch it again once I have it, I was expecting you to give me something first-circle."

"- even if you can't catch the Mending you could probably repair a larger object than I could, with it, but I have an Air Bubble and a Bless and a Sanctuary available, which would you like?"

"I haven't heard of Air Bubble before. Maybe I'll go fool around in the lake later, would it be suitable for that?"

"Yes, though usually when I prepare it I'm imagining wading into a smoky area putting out a fire, or gaseous poisons." Air Bubble.

"I should be able to get that out again just fine, I think." The pearl disappears into a belt pouch and he pays for it with a handful of platinum coins and a few gems after a bit of haggling. "All right, anything else here before we move on to Big Reeds?"

"I don't think so."

So they move on to Big Reeds, and then back to the refugee camp, where they get the tents Mended. Raafi checks to see if Blai would like to come along while he talks to everyone and instead drops him off at the remaining hospital tent with a suggestion that he have a runner get Diona or one of the other refugee leaders to bring him around when he's ready to Create Water or do less important Cleaning.