:Most magic doesn't benefit enormously from being cast in public, but the effects, if I did a lot of healing or something, would probably be noticeable. Do you have truth magic? Clerics can prepare Zone of Truth and it might be useful for filtering out spies. If you've already got as much of that as you can use probably what I'd want is things that make enchantments easier to throw off, Owl's Widsom and Resistance and Protection from Evil...:

:Heralds have truth magic, that's not in short supply.: They...haven't historically gone around using it on random people to root out spies, rather than specifically in the courts, and - it would upset a lot of people but honestly it might be worth considering anyway. Not Blai's problem, though. 

:I'm not sure what defines 'enchantments' in your kind of magic, I don't think we use that category, but that sounds like a good idea.: 

:Enchantments are a school of magic; Golarion casters learn to identify spells by whether they're enchantments or transmutations, divinations, abjurations, evocations, necromancy, or conjurations. The overwhelming majority of mind control is enchantment but the things I thought of will mostly work on other things that could also be described as mind control.:

Vanyel would love to sit here asking questions about the categories of Golarion magic for the next day, but - not the priority. 

:That makes sense. I think you should prepare that tomorrow, probably. ...Can you tell me more about your Healing, though? What kinds of injuries or other problems is your magic especially good for?: 

:Positive energy channeling, which I can do as a thirty foot radius burst twice a day or by replacing a prepared spell with an equivalent-strength cure spell as many times as I have spells I care to exchange, is excellent at acute injuries but mostly if they're recent, it's useless at infections. I need to prepare specifically for disease and it's a third circle spell, I can only do that once a day and it doesn't always work. Also at third circle I can cure blindness or deafness as long as the organs are still present and just don't work. Second circle I have Lesser Restoration, it's good at a wide range of conditions but there are things it can't touch. And as an orison that I can do as many times per day as I like, on days when I have it at all which don't include today, I can stabilize dying people so they stop getting worse.:

:Huh. That does sound usefully complementary to our kind of Healing.: Probably not useful for Randi, unless "Lesser Restoration" is more powerful than it sounds like. :Is it more tiring if there are more people in the radius when you do the channeling one? And - does it not matter what someone is dying of, for the one you can do unlimited times?: 

:It's not tiring at all, none of my magic is. It... might matter if they were dying of something very weird and it does not work if they are already dead.:

:None of your magic is tiring - is that because the power comes from your god, not from you directly?: 

:I don't think it's tiring for sorcerers and wizards either, though they rely on sleep to be able to do it more than we do.:

:That's an interesting difference.: Vanyel is mildly jealous. :What - limits how much magic someone can do, then, if it's not getting tired?: 

:There's sort of limited - space for it, which refills at dawn for clerics, or with sleep for arcane casters.:

That doesn't really leave Vanyel un-confused, but now isn't the time to go into depth on the alien magic of another world, however fascinating it is. He's...feeling pretty confident at this point that Select Blai Artigas is unlikely to get up to anything nefarious, and he's very sure he isn't a spy for Leareth. It's not urgent on the level of candlemarks to figure everything else out - it would be different if they had a way to get the poor man home, but they don't - and in the meantime he's neglecting his responsibilities for maintaining security at the the ice festival, which he's not sure would be possible to call off at this point even if it were a lot more warranted. 

He ducks his head. :I have a lot more questions, but - is it all right if it waits until later today? It seems like there are decisions we shouldn't be making hastily anyway. Do you need anything else right now? Er, we can offer you a proper room to stay in, and I'll work on assigning a trainee to shadow you like I mentioned before.:  

:I don't think I have any other immediate needs, thank you. I expect to be able to answer questions whenever you'd care to ask them.:

Nod. :Katri can show you to, er, somewhere more comfortable than a Work Room, and translate for you until we find that trainee.: 

To Katri, privately, :- I'll try to make that happen as soon as possible. You should write up what you learned from him as soon as possible, while it's fresh. Randi's going to want a report.: Vanyel has his own note-taking to do, but that can wait until he's parked somewhere he can usefully watch the festival proceedings with mage-sight. 

He smiles at Blai. There's tiredness behind the smile, but it's genuine. :I'm sorry we don't have an easy way to get you back to your world, and I'm sorry things here are - complicated - but we can figure something out.: 

Katri is kind of tired of the emotional radiation but she bobs her head. ...Maybe she should just stop using her Empathy even passively, if they've decided they trust the man now? Only she also sort of wants to know if he's confused by something but reluctant to ask. 

He does not seem obviously confused by anything more than the background "wow this sure isn't my planet" confusion, which is mostly manifesting as anxiety more than anything else. :Thank you: he tells both of them, and he's up and ready to follow Herald Katri.

(Vanyel heads out.) 

Katri leads him out of the Work Room back into the snow – though the sky is still perfectly clear blue, with barely a breeze, and now that the sun is higher in the sky it doesn't feel terribly cold. 

...She pauses. :Do you want to head to a guest room now, or, er, would you rather see some of the ice festival?: There is maaaaybe some desire on her part not to have to miss half the morning because she's glued to him. :I don't think you would stand out too much, lots of people traveled in for it. ...I guess the chainmail might stand out, and you probably couldn't take the mace in, I think they're searching people for weapons. Um, it's up to you, we could leave it somewhere safe but if you'd rather not we don't have to...: 

:It's not standard to go around armed here even out of doors?:

:....No? I mean, the Guard will be armed - and normally it wouldn't be odd to wear a dagger if you wanted, they're just being paranoid about security 'cause the Queen of Karse and her daughter are here - but I don't normally go around armed in the middle of the city, just out on circuit.: Admittedly she's a mage, so it's not like she's ever really unarmed, but it's not like she felt differently before she was a mage. 

:I don't wish to alarm anyone but seeing as I did just get attacked by a monster I'd as soon skip the festival.:

:...That's fair.: Katri is a grown adult and can cope with doing her duty as a Herald even if it means missing some of the festivities. It'll probably only be for a candlemark or two, and the Ice Festival will go all day and late into the night, it's fine. :All right, let's go to the guest rooms, then.: 

They're already outside the Festival perimeter, and mostly passing crowds of people going in the opposite direction, bundled up warmly and clearly excited. Some Herald-Trainees in Greys wave to Katri, and glance at Blai with curiosity, but nobody asks any questions. 

He will... nod at them? At a wild guess of how you should interact with curious-looking strangers??

This does not exactly sate their curiosity but there's no sign that anyone thinks it's a socially inappropriate move! 

They follow a meandering path, paved and mostly cleared of snow, past an orchard and a glass-roofed greenhouse and a stable and a large field with a few Herald-less Companions milling in it, and eventually end up at a long, low stone building. The style of architecture is clearly foreign, but otherwise it probably won't feel especially unfamiliar to Blai. 

Katri leads him in. (It was a long enough walk that her Companion was able to pass a message to another Herald who could check which rooms in the guest wing were free, assign them one, and let the servants know.) 

:Here we are! The privy and bathing-room are at the end of the hall, and - this is your room, looks like.: 

The interior walls are also plain stone, but softened by a few tapestries, and there's a worn rug on the floor. The room is equipped with a narrow bed, a small writing-desk in the corner with a stool tucked underneath, a washstand and basin by the window (glass, with curtains tied back), and a cozy, if elderly and visibly patched, armchair in front of the fireplace, which is unlit but already stacked with wood over a little teepee of kindling. 

Katri lights it with a little burst of magic. It only seems polite, and besides, she's been a mage for a short enough time that it still feels very cool every time. 

:This is lovely, thank you.: He had years in command of his fort to accumulate things for it, and this room is not nicer than his suite in #11. But this is a random guest room they had available on short notice, so that's very impressive. He sets his backpack on the desk.