[I think that's covered by the disability part of not being allowed to cause her permanent harm with the Spring?]

[Maybe it is! I would really rather know more than I presently do about magical contracts! I'd think that taking someone from dead to alive is not a form of making them more harmed, personally!]

[Yeah, I'm not sure how that works. I bet Lucian would have been good at thinking about this even though he was on the non-magic side of the veil.]

[He was? How would he have been good at thinking about it then?]

[I think so? He was good at routing around the veil.]

[If you say so. Can't ask him now. Is there ANYTHING that you do confidently know here about the contract, the leash, the sense-tapping thing, the hostage situation's relevant magic, any general principles that might apply to any of those things, or her champion?]

[I really don't know much about how different sorts of magic work. I only know a lot about the Spring because I had it for a bit. Hrm...]

[I would guess that she probably only has one or two or at most three spells, plus whatever her champion has. She did some body-controlling magic to Ivan right after the ritual so probably she has a spell for that? And that sort of spell could also cover the sense tapping, and the controlling the hostage to speak to you, and maybe even the leash.]

[Okay. But she can do it to an awful lot of people at once, even if it's just one thing. We have no idea what powers her champion has. We don't know if she can sneak extra language into the contract that I don't get to look at. Do we even know it would definitely be a mutually binding contract that would affect her as well as me and not just me?]

[I'm not sure - I've heard people talk about magical contracts in passing as if they were mutually binding? Also, I'd be surprised if you couldn't annul the contract with the Spring, but it might be expensive.]

Was there any language about the timing of the promised resurrection in the contract?

It has to be done with the power from the Spring.

But not necessarily before she does anything else. Like dissolve the contract.

[I don't want to assume that just because I can see some loopholes in here I've definitely got her completely outsmarted. The loopholes are substantial! But they could be decoys, or they could be real loopholes that just don't provide enough leverage to get us out of being tortured for a week!]

Nod nod. 

[... I'd rather not ask you to do the tortured for a week option and wish it could just be me but there are a lot of people who were could save by doing it. And if we don't I'm not even sure we can definitely win - if she's defeated three other summoners already than I'm nervous about our chances, even with your power.]

[Especially if she knows how it works from sense-tapping the ones we tangled with, or you, which would get her as far as knowing how guiding works if she caught you at the right times.]

She taps her pen on her hotel stationery.

[Could we get ahold of Ivan, do you suppose? Is there a magic phone book or anything? I spared his life when she wanted me to kill him and if you squint that's sort of like me saving his life from her. Though he might also still be pissed off about the thing where he didn't get to compete for the Spring.]

[Maybe someone else in powerful circles would know him based on a description?]

[Can we reach any of those?]

[Hm, if there are important people who we can identify - the equivalent of a lord or someone who is very wealthy - we could just show up and ask them who Ivan is? It'd be rude and weird but I bet they'd still answer.]

[...there are mundanely important powerful people and I guess I can break into one's office if it's hard to get an appointment but I'm not clear on why you'd expect them to know who Ivan is based on his first name and description?]

[I'm used to mages being important enough that they'd be known to other elites in the area?]

[That may or may not still be true. Would he be from the area? Isn't the Spring sometimes in other places, do people not come from all over?]

[Usually local mages put together a group to do the ritual before people from farther away get the chance to involve themselves.]

[...I'm again not sure if this would still be true, communication and travel are faster now. How does it become obvious where the Grail will appear?]

[Somes spells and magic devices respond to its presence, which also makes it harder to notice in the first place if you're not from the area.]

[Okay. So he could be from literally Russia but he didn't have that much accent, solid chance he's local...] Google, tell her of Ivans of San Angeles.

There's a restaurant, a small-time artist, and the wealthy scion of family that's been in the city since it was Los Angeles over a century prior.