Eriape pops her head back in, this time from a hatch in the roof.

"Geb is a Lousy Country. No Badgers and Too Much Politics. Osirion has No Badgers, but I intend to Introduce a Living Population along the Major Rivers as soon as I convince the Ruby Prince of the Idea!"

"Geb is awful!" she agrees immediately. Admittedly not specifically for badger related reasons, but hey, she's not going to object. Clarabella seems lovely so far. "Do you really think you can get an audience with the Pharaoh?" She is objectively aware that the Ruby Prince is several orders of magnitude less impressive than Arazni or Geb, but--still. 

"It is Easy to get an Audience with the Ruby Prince! You just Pay Enough Money into a Bond that is Forfeit if you are Not Interesting. Or you can Convince the Prince's Audience Market that you are Sufficiently Interesting, he might Meet you all on his Own!"

"...Huh. Must be a lot of money." On the other hand, Eriape has plenty of time to save up. Quite plausibly worthwhile, if it's a good way to achieve her badger-related goals. 

"We Make and Sell Magic Items of Many Kinds for the General Consumer!"

"It's true! I'm getting a discount on Bag of Holding for teaching music."

"Oh wow. I've studied magic item creation, some, but," shrug, "Father wasn't interested in letting us play with the materials to really learn."

"Spellsilver is Expensive! Eriape is looking at Branching out into Awakening Dire Badgers for Mining Purposes- they can Claw through Rock and are therefore Better than Dwarves."

"Wow." Probably she would then make the badgers undead, which isn't great, but on the other hand, at least the undead badgers aren't mindless zombies or skeletons. It could be worse. 

Eriape sticks her head back into the room, this time through a hatch in the floor. "Yes! The Great Badger is a Solution to all the World's Problems!"

"Really? Even evil archmages and gods?" 

"Haria is Third Circle at Sixty! Unprecedented Circling Speed for an Undead Wizard! In Two Hundred Years we will have a Million Arch-Badgers!"

“—That is unprecedented. You solved undead stagnation?”

If the answer to undead stagnation is actually “badgers” he’s going to go back to Geb just so he can watch Father tear his hair out about it.

"Certainly seems So, Doesn't It? Montserrat is Second Circle now, and is Second Best. If she or her Sister Manages to Get to Third Circle as Well, I will consider my Methods Proven."

“Wow. That’s amazing. Is it just badgers or is there a separate trick.”

"There's Several Parts to the Secret, but I have not Seen it work outside Badgers. I believe they are Essential."

Nod nod. “Do they have to start out a badger, or would polymorphing someone work?”

"Good Question! I have been Looking for People who want to Become Undead Badgers- are You Interested? The Badgers report that the is Not That Unpleasant to be an Undead of this Type."

"It is True. It is Mildly Uncomfortable, like Waking Up after Sleeping on a Pinecone."

"Not for me, thank you." The statement is somewhat hurried.

"I think I'm too attached to my current set of abilities. Would an undead badger be able to drink blood? I would miss that!"

"We Still Enjoy the Consumption of Moles, so I think So."

"And Cats!"

"Yes!"