"No - why -"

"They will because the pharaoh is my brother."

Fazil blinks at him. "'brother in urgent trouble, ruins of el Amara, six thousand paces one o'clock of the fortress of Tal Dievily',", he says. "If you're lying I will come find you in Hell and break you into more pieces." Then he looks suddenly unsure of himself. "...your - grace?"
 

Well. And the plot thickens. She should really have a more serious response to this but it's not like she knows anything about the pharaoh, right, and - she doesn't mind dying so much, not really, but they had a shot this time, a real one -

"If we die here it's millions with us, so I sure hope he's for real."

"How long -"

"Ten seconds, your grace" says Mahdi evenly. "Begging your forgiveness but I remain standing because it appears we might need to fight."
 

Hagan looks at the ceiling and makes a very small sound like a dying animal.

Then he draws his bow.

Then everything around them explodes into a hundred colors of light, and does not stop that for several minutes.

....well she'll just.... let that happen....?

When it's done there are a hundred men standing around, and more shoring up the ceiling. 

Hagan is standing there, staring blankly at them. 

Fazil and Mahdi are lying flat on the ground. 

Someone puts a hand on her back, heals her, and does not remove it.

Well. That sure was - she has no idea what that was.

She... looks at Hagan?

"Were you - your story, was it real?"

" - every word, yeah."

He nods.

Someone takes his arm and teleports. They leave Fy, somehow, writhing on the floor. 

"Cure light wounds," Fazil says, raising his head for the first time and reaching out to touch the coils of its back. 

"You're to come with us," a voice says behind Aria, and then she is teleported, too. 

- okay, where is she now. - and are any of North or Fazil or Mahdi or Hagan there.

Nope. 

It's a - garden, sort of, or some knd of courtyard, it has a big shady tree and then plants crawling up three of its walls. The fourth is a waterfall. The sun is shining and the air smells of perfume and her teleporter, golden-robed, exits straight through the wall and then she's alone in it except for a barely-dressed girl, in the corner, who squints at Aria a bit disbelievingly. 

"Where am I."

"- summer palace. Sorry, they only just told me - and I'm not sure I caught half of it -" she clears her throat. "You are, by personal invitation of the pharaoh, present at his summer palace. I'm to acclimate you and get you presentable and so on. Is that demon blood?"

"Yes. Why am I here."

"That's what the pharaoh said. Here and comfortable and presentable while he attends to other aspects of the situation."

"What does being presentable entail."

"Um. Less - demon blood. And armor, less armor. Do you need - healing or something -"

"I don't need healing. I'm not attached to the demon blood."

"Right! Good! Then we'll - start with a bath, all right?"

"Is it possible to see what my next set of clothes is gonna look like before I relinquish this one."