Kasmeer has a waypoint stone of her own so they can just go directly to the Forum.

"You know, I didn't expect it to happen, but if anyone had told me it had, 'running into some famous and narratively interesting person during an adventure' would be, like, one of my top three guesses of how the Commander would find a girlfriend. What I wouldn't have expected is for her to actually have any sense of fashion, that outfit's gorgeous."

"Thank you, though one of the first things I did upon arrival was get something else to wear. I've been in this for, ah, quite a while. Her majesty summoned me with all of my Orrian titles, it seemed appropriate that I look the part."

"Orrian style, hmm? Maybe we can look for something that matches it but isn't exactly the same outfit, so you can look pretty without having all the bad associations."

"I'd like that! Though I'm not in a hurry, I like the other set of clothes well enough, just... sometimes I might like to look aggressively Orrian, you know?"

Kas gives her a once-over and raises both eyebrows with a mischievous smile. "For no reason other than missing home, I'm sure."

Vetareh grins and looks terribly innocent. "What other reason do I need than love of my country?"

"None at all!" she says brightly. "Alright, here we are. Now, what apology gift would best say 'I'm so so sorry for being a terrible person and completely neglecting to invite my amazing, brilliant, gorgeous mesmer friend to my newly founded dragon killing guild'?"

"Hmm... Something specific to you that shows that he cares about you as more than just," she waves her hand, "a member of his newly founded dragon killing guild. Practical, but pretty? Maybe not something for use daily, but something that could be."

"Well, I'm not sure pretty things are quite the way to go—I'm actually quite skilled at illusions, I can keep them up even while I'm asleep, so whatever pretty thing I see I can just have." She gestures in the direction of her ears and gets a new set of pretty earrings matching her outfit. "All of my clothes are illusions," she adds, almost as an afterthought.

...

Wait, Kas is basically naked right now??

Actually, no, how is that safe, tangible illusions are all well and good but even decorative clothes are protective, even if they look anything but.

"How does that work," she says, sounding somewhere between 'put out' and 'delighted,' "do you have a set of really nice protective jewelry or something to manage the enchantments, or are your illusions so good you can, can copy protections in clothing themselves??"

"It's actually something halfway between those!" She fiddles with her right earring and removes it, then dispels the illusion over it, revealing it as a small, plain, golden earring with a white crystal embedded. "I do have some real physical jewellery, but it doesn't have the protective enchantments itself. It has a, let's call it an anchoring enchantment. It's connected to a set of enchanted gear back somewhere safe, and so long as I keep the appropriate illusion over it my set of illusion clothing behaves just as if it was itself enchanted!" She seems very proud of this for some reason.

"Oh! Oh I see! That's very clever, then you don't need to worry about repairing it or cleaning it or anything. And clearly the anchoring enchantment is covered and protected by the enchantments it duplicates, because I'm not seeing any obviously weak points for dispelling the entire illusion. Though you might have more trouble with some of a necromancer's enchantment removal, they're better at brute forcing than mesmers are and with enough focus could..."

Vetareh realizes Kasmeer's girlfriend is a necromancer. She trails off.

"... That's a feature, not a mistake, isn't it," she realizes out loud.

Kasmeer just keeps smiling at Vetareh for another second, then says, "I was thinking we could get a sigil to replace my old one on my wand, maybe."

Vetareh clears her throat and tries fruitlessly to forget this tidbit of information about Kasmeer and Marjory's sex life. It is very much in vain. In fact, it is burned into her mind forever, and she is terribly jealous she wants to do that too! Why are James' friends so hot and surprisingly kinky!! It's not fair, he was the one that wanted to do polyamory, why is she surrounded by hot people with clever magical ideas!!!! She doesn't even want to make passes at any of his hot friends right now, that sounds too complicated and messy and she would really rather wait for her thing with James to be more settled, but, but, the universe needs to stop conspiring to immediately discredit her thoughts about herself, okay!!!!

"That'd be nice and practical," she agrees, nodding.

"Yes, it'd be useful on its own for me but also make us as a guild more effective, wouldn't you think?" she continues, acting oblivious to Vetareh's internal struggles with her attractiveness. She absentmindedly reattaches her earring and covers it again with an illusion.

"Mhm! Though that does technically make it a little self serving as a gift from James, doesn't it."

"Well, anything practical would be, a little, right, since in practice I'll probably be hanging around hunting Dragons. You know, as you do."

"True. But it would be important information for ridiculously teasing James about it later, which is really the most important part of this whole adventure."

"Oh!" She grins. "Of course, how silly of me."

She smiles back, then hums thoughtfully.

"Though, ah, I will be the one paying for the sigil if James turns out to not find this whole adventure amusing, so..." she tries to figure out a polite way to phrase 'Please don't break the bank' but fails. Kasmeer can figure it out even if she doesn't manage to finish the sentence, right?

Kasmeer laughs. "Don't worry about that, he will in fact find it amusing. In fact, if I know him, he'll be thrilled."

"I expect so, yes. But..." she trails off again. The words 'I love him,' are... a lot. They're a lot. The only way she wants to finish that sentence, but also a lot.

Instead: "I think it's important to clarify with these sorts of things, you know?"

"Well, if you want," she says, in lieu of questioning the end of that sentence, and then closes her eyes—

—and after a sparkly explosion of purple, there's a second Kasmeer there. "I could ask," says the clone.