"It's on the border of Taldor and Andoran. On the Taldor side. Tomorrow we'll mostly be flying over the Verduran, and should make Galt by the evening, though we won't make it to the capital. Maybe we can find a village somewhere and learn who's in charge now. - do you wanna see a map?"

"Yes please!"

So he leans over and shows her their path.

She looks it over and mouthes some words to herself to remember them, and then nods.

Cassomir is a respectable city, though both Sothis and Absalom dwarf it. There's an extensive shipyard. 

They land well short of the city.

"The carpet says we have a lot of resources," Mahdi says, rolling it up to stuff into his purse. "That gets people interested, sometimes."

Nodnod.

And they can walk into the city. It smells of fish and rain.

At least they speak Taldane here. She follows the others and looks around.

It's less garish than the rich parts of Sothis and less crowded than the poor parts. There are inns. Fazil picks one. Pays for a suite, and for dinner.

She decides not to hate the city unless given a reason to. So far it's fine.

She eats dinner. 

She puts her books away very carefully and eats dinner very quickly and cleans her hands off again and goes back to studying.

Good for her. 

There's fresh clothes for everyone in Mahdi's bag.

"If you change and bring your clothes in here I can clean them with magic," he tells them. "We might be camping for the next while, depending on who's in charge in Galt."

They can both change and leave him their clothes, then.

Mahdi also Alarms the door, and casts Nondetection and Detect Scrying.

"G'night."

"Night!"

And they can sleep.

In the morning it is raining. 

"I'd sooner get on the road anyway," Fazil says, frowning out the window. "But we're not in a known hurry so I won't insist."

"I vote we stay and the kid can read and we can ask around for rumors about Galt."

She's too busy practicing her magic to bother voting.

"I'll go ask how long the rain's expected to last," Mahdi says.

He comes back an hour later. "Supposed to get worse later today. Let's stay."

He spends the day in their room, polishing arrows. 

Magic magic magic, celestial celestial celestial, reading over lists of words for ones that sound like they have magic in them. 

She writes things and then hides the papers in her bag.

The rain gets more intense. Mahdi reads, too. Fazil goes out to find a temple and comes back a couple hours later, soaked through.

"Any idea when it's supposed to end?"

"They said it might be like this all week. I don't want to stay here that long. Tomorrow all right by everyone?"