"Landed in his city. Do Anaander and the blue guy have us?"

“I don’t know but I now want to ask.”

"It's like some stupid Sudoku variant. Fill in all the missing squares."

“It might be possible to scry by ‘alternate universe variant’ of this person.”

"Might be conjurable, too. Though a local will have loaded up on anti-scrying protections if those exist."

“They do.”

"So don't assume a negative result is definitive, we like privacy. Unless that's just me."

"It is not."

“Would this person mind us trying?”

"Might not mind us trying. I believe Cor was offered a crystal ball."

“Yes.”

"So we could give that a shot, if that seems like the next thing to try."

"You just going to leave them out there?"

"I can't bother them - Cor's having enough trouble -"

"I think you should get him a passport elsewhere, honestly, living in your absolute monarchy after something like that sounds pretty intolerable -"

"Not an absolute monarchy. Abadar picks the successor."

" - from among anyone, or from among your children?"

"My sons. Or brothers, if I don't have grown sons."

"He won't pick someone for pharaoh if they're female?"

"No? No one would take her seriously."

"- okay."

"Bring them a crystal ball," he instructs an attendant. 

"I mostly trust the new one but - this world has a lot of evil gods and a lot of torture and some people do decide it should be destroyed for that reason and I don't want to take any chances."

"I think he wouldn't. It looks - otherwise tractable, with the kind of resources we'll collectively command once we get through this."

"I don't trust you."

The next arrival slips on the floor cloth and falls backward, catching herself and rolling.