"Cool! I was not really thinking about that but probably I should have been. I am not actually, like, a general-type person who knows to think about this stuff, I'm just - kind of the only person we have left. Well, and Draconis. And Alistair. Who you should not call 'Prince Alistair', even though I have been doing that to make him sound cool, because you will give him a heart attack."

"I will try not to be horrible to anyone. Alistair included."

"Okay! Good. Anything we need to get together besides the rest of our party? We have picked up a few more people who want to help, and I know Fazil thought we should get a few more scrolls of teleport for emergencies and stuff. And I guess then we mostly need - is there anything more accurate than plane shift?"

"Nope. Planes just aren't very stable relative to each other, or so I am told. We can bring the carpet, at least."

"Okay. I am not entirely sure what all is five hundred miles away from Redcliffe, but the carpet should get us back there eventually. Does it fly normally over water?"

"Yep!"

"Cool! Then as long as we don't get stopped by some horrible misfortune along the way, we should be able to make it back in time to prevent everyone I care about from being eaten alive by horrible monsters."

The door opens and he makes a tiny unhappy noise again.

     Fazil walks in comfortably, not thinking much of the fact Aria is talking to someone. When he gets closer he puts some things together and stops in his tracks and starts to kneel.

"Don't."

      Fazil freezes.

" - I'm coming with you and I'm undercover. So that no one's tempted to kidnap me. Pharaoh's orders."

      "Oh," Fazil says.

"You don't - you don't have to act like how it was before. I don't want to order you to do that. But you have to act like I'm a person."

       "All right."

"- and also you shouldn't immediately obey me when I say things, if they're stupid, it'll be conspicuous and it'll throw us off in combat."

       Fazil stares at him for a minute. Then relaxes. "I guess it might."

"It absolutely would."

        "From now on you buy drinks, though."

"Okay."

Aww. 

Well that's all right, then.

They buy supplies. They round up interested parties. They do some divinations on whether the plane shift will fail spectacularly or anything. And then - they leave.