It's a really pretty park. Laia hasn't had enough downtime recently, though probably walks in the park are usually more relaxing than this particular one is.

Alicia is wandering behind her, trying not to worry. Hopefully this doesn’t go badly, or if it does go badly she can solve it diplomatically, or if she can’t she and the wizard can provide enough of a distraction that Laia can escape. She doesn’t really have any delusions about being able to beat a lich even with an absurd amount of healing.

Lisando has called his familiar in on the way here. He now has a colorful tiny dragon creature on his shoulder, and is being telepathically scolded by it. Yes he should have asked the cafe owner before inviting a lich to send correspondence there. Yes he should have seen it coming, sending a disguised undead badger minion instead of a letter, having read the pamphlets. Yes he's going to apologize later. 

Lisandro isn't really considering this as a dangerous situation, yet. He can easily get away, and if the Shelynites decided to come along presumably they also have escape plans.

Harià's enjoying being in the Park! Maybe she'll get to eat a seagull! 

Harià leads them off the walkway, across the grass, into the trees, then into a little glen hidden behind a hill. "This is A Good Place to Sing!" she announces. "It's Better when we Sing it in Choir", she warns, and then launches into it. 

Laia is rapt.

Lisandro smiles, and claps politely at the end of the song. 

It’s always a pity, seeing the little bits of a person left inside an undead. There’s always a few bits of an admirable person in a lich, but usually it’s cleverness or curiosity or determination, never seen earnestly trying to be liked make it through before. 

Doesn’t mean that he won’t join up with the raid on her lair, when it’s time. But he’ll try to make sure some of her legacy survives after that, even if that’s just a few pamphlets, maybe a play and a song.”

Harià winds to a close, and nods her head at the applause. 

"And that is the Eriape Song! We Practice it in the Lair!"

Her voice tries to go deep again, to represent the Telepathic Bond.

"Miss Laia, would you Happen to be a Specialist in the Theatrical Profession?"

"I am! If you could send an urchin with sheet music - I think I can reproduce the melody on just one hearing, but if there's a choral arrangement, I'd need the sheet music."

Huh, that’s actually pretty good. She’d probably appreciate it more if she was listening under any other circumstances, but fundamentally being scared for her life is not enough to stop Alicia from enjoying music.

”I can definitely draft it off what I heard.”

"I Will Send an Urchin with the Song! Also with My Autobiography! Though Probably it should Be Redacted for the Purpose of a Play!"

"Of course, it'll probably need substantial adaptation."

“I’m no artist myself, but I can offer patronage. Would be interested in reading the original autobiography too, though with anything really secret redacted.”

At some point his priest of Abadar will want an explanation of why his account books include funding lich propaganda. He will respond by saying it’s to keep the lich distracted by vanity projects instead of anything seriously dangerous. 

"I would Like the Play to Include my Wicked Older Sister! She was a Sorcerer, and was Always Mean to Me! This Will be Proper Revenge!"

"Wicked older sister key feature of the dramatis personae, got it."

"Yes! She Kept Zapping me When Mother wasn't Looking! Look to Me for Patronage Likewise if you Need It!" 

"At any Rate, I have Now Arranged many a Fruitful Collaboration! Mister Wizard, Miss Theatrix, Random Cafe Woman! Harià"  "That's me!" "Must Soon Leave for Her Other Job!"

"Thank you for the song!"

"Yes, thank you for that!"

And more importantly for not doing anything else.

“Thank you. We still need to arrange some things, I will send word when I have a proper sanctum for more discreet meetings. Today has attracted welcome attention—“ a nod to the Shelynites, “but this kind of show may bring the wrong kind as well.”

"Sanctums Are Good! Goodbye!"

Haria runs down to the shore, takes a giant leap off a boulder, with a big splash, and then sinks like a stone. 

Laia is consumed by nervous giggles hidden behind her hands once the badger dog has gone.

"Please tell me you aren't doing stuff like this every day and it's not that I'm just not around to see it?"

"No, no, I'm not. - but, you know, if a lich really does just want to share her story through the medium of theater, wouldn't it be a terrible pity if everyone just assumed there was nothing worth hearing, and she went on without any friends besides her talking undead badgers..."

“Personally, I only do this kind of thing every few days. Too predictable if it’s every day.”

She's... not wrong, which is rather inconvenient for getting across that this was horribly risky and she shouldn't do it. 

"And you won't be able to do that if you stumble over something that offends the lich and she turns you into some undead abomination." Alicia sighs. "But at this point I suppose not following through is probably riskier than continuing, so you might as well see it through. Just... maybe make sure you can get a paladin or someone to the performance if it turns out she totally hates it and wants to take it out on you? I'll try to attend myself but I can't actually fight a Lich, I'd lose very quickly."

She pointedly ignores Lisandro. If the teleporting wizard wants to make stupid risks with his life that's his own business, and she still partly blames him for this whole affair.

"I'm not actually thinking I'd put it on here, my stages are in Ostenso, though I suppose if she's got a different idea I'd best be ready to hurry..."

"I think Ostenso isn't far enough to be safe anyway if she's one of the more mercurial types and takes something badly, that's within teleport distance. It might not even be much harder for her to reach than Westcrown... if you need me to help I will, dealing with powerful evil wizards just makes me nervous."

"Honestly she - hasn't actually done anything that bad besides 'be a lich', has she? I suppose she may have broken into that one interviewer's apartment but she didn't hurt him and he's published since then so she didn't take offense to the interview being distributed either. I know becoming a lich involves doing something horrible of some kind but she's not a vampire, she doesn't have to keep at it to go on every day. Right?"

"I don't know of anything horrible she's doing right now but there's usually something - raising people as undead, if nothing else, and I saw the pamphlet where she was planning to do that to one of the urchins. I don't think stopping would kill a lich, though, you hear about them being locked up in a tomb for thousands of years before escaping and there's nobody there to be evil to."

"So she could just want to see her autobiography staged. As a musical. I could do corpse makeup and get all the kids in the children's troupe in badger costumes..."

She really wants to trust Laia on this, the goddess says that everyone can be redeemed for a reason, but her instincts there are fighting with visions of kids dressed in badger costumes being killed and raised as undead by a badger obsessed lich.

"I'll try and find someone who would know more, but - I hope you're right, and you succeed."

“Doesn’t need to kill to survive, but that isn’t much protection against wanting to. Hard to predict. I suppose in that way she’s the same as any evil wizard, except too far to turn back. If you decide to flee the city about it, let me know a day in advance and I’ll see what I can do. Or of you go through with it, I’ll likely catch the first show.”

"I'm going to write it but I will give myself plenty of time to get cold feet about performing."