She nods. "In general, is magic use seen as suspicious?"

"Suspicious? What do you mean?"

"Deskyl tends to use her magic very casually, compared to local mages; I'm not sure whether that's likely to be a problem."

"Hm. It's noteworthy. Our mages, in using magic, sacrifice something. Redmages do touch their preexisting loved ones casually. I think that if she avoids developing a criminal reputation it will not be a problem."

Nod. "Yes ma'am. I think that's all."

"I'll be back tomorrow with news about whether there is somewhere close to the Temple-Guild you two can stay."

"Thank you, ma'am."

They're in the same place the next day.

She comes back. "There is a cottage near a signal flare tower that isn't occupied outside of wartime. It's not in the Temple-Guild itself but it's closer to us than to any other settlement."

"That sounds suitable; thank you, ma'am."

They haven't accumulated many possessions - a few changes of clothes for Deskyl, a cobbled-together charger for DZ and a couple of hand tools from the making of the charger, a small collection of seeds and a guide to planting them, a couple of crystals that have the potential to make interesting lightsabers. It's quick enough to get packed that they can accompany the messenger back.

She shows them to the cottage, points out the path that leads to the Temple-Guild, and leaves them be.

She turns up at the Temple-Guild the next morning to catch up on healing the whitemages.

Whitemages appreciate her.

As usual, she's much softer when she's done, and goes to sit by the wall, and DZ asks about their schedule for the next week.

Tse Witwex has a complete copy available of their appointments.

Deskyl and DZ will be busy settling in, but they can make it to about a third of them, or half if they're okay with Deskyl coming without DZ accompanying her.

Some of the relevant mages are OK with that.

Then Deskyl will come by and scowl about their magic.

If they're paying attention, they'll notice odd flashes of red light, too regular to be fires, coming from the cottage and nearby shortly after sunset.

Somebody runs out immediately.

It's Deskyl, in a clearing, with a... weird glowing stick? She stops what she's doing and regards the runner levely.

"Xaari Deskyl!" the person says. "This is a signal tower! If what you're doing is visible from far enough away, someone may think you're trying to light the tower, and they're supposed to react to that as though you've succeeded."

She sighs and stalks off toward the cottage; as she starts to go, the glowing stick disappears.

"Thank you!" he calls.

DZ goes to the Temple-Guild in the morning to find out what that was about.

A guard explains that the signal towers work by setting the wood in them on fire, but since they're meant for war communications, there's obviously some risk that someone will be stopped from applying a torch to them. If this interruption is somehow noticed by the next tower, it's supposed to light anyway - "someone tried to light the tower but was stopped" is arguably even more alarming than "someone successfully lit the tower". Whatever she was doing didn't look that much like a torch but it would have been a very costly mistake to court.

Ah. Deskyl can practice during the day, then, and with a dimmer 'saber; will that be sufficient, or does she need to find a place further from the tower as well?