"Some of that, some slightly surprising outcomes at trial, probably some last-minute behavior which would've changed how they pinged."

"I wonder what the trials are like."

"Must be fascinating. I don't know if they're unscryable or just difficult to determine the timing of well enough to look in on them."

"Not a church project? I guess it's not germane to policy so much."

"I am sure if a scry ever stumbled on one there'd be lots of notes taken but I don't think it's a current priority. I think it'd be good for our moral authority to have a lot of knowledge about the system generally but the priority is definitely the policy side."

"Well, you still have better backed assertions than most people."

"Thank you."

She spots an ooze; she points it out.

Ooze can die. They venture deeper. They scry on their targets.

"Looks like they're in the same place. The beat-up slave looks pretty out of it, if we don't find them sharpish I wouldn't bet he'd be alive even if they don't resort to cannibalism. I think they're rationing, there's an argument going on looks to be about a hunk of salt beef. How long were they heading deeper in?"

"Four days. We should be faster, though. - I can use Nap Stack tonight, lets us only sleep two hours."

"Do you need me to chip in for the pillow?"

"Nah, I'd be casting it just the same if you weren't here."

She nods. They nap.

And then they can pick up the pace.

"How'd you pick up this job?" Belmarniss wonders, routing around a stalagmite.

"A fellow from their guild was in the tavern the morning of the day we met you, pitching it. The price wasn't great and he was being vague. I left and asked Hagan to check it out - I look like I might report you for lawbreaking, right -"

"He was a bit more forthcoming with me. Wouldn't say what the cargo was, but he said it'd sell for about three thousand and we could count that towards the reward and we had better unload it in Katapesh and it'd be no good if we didn't find them inside the week. I'm not a wizard but I'm not an idiot."

"I suppose it would be a little burdensome to the average law-abiding citizen if a lot of obscure produce were illegal."

"I figured it had to be fancy cupcakes. Fancy cupcakes are all the rage in Katapesh but unpopular in Osirion, you see, and there's a spell to slow them going stale but it won't last forever."

"Plus probably their pretty frosting flowers collapse."

"The cruel pharaoh, cracking down on the cupcake trade with such aggressive measures."

"It's the full-sized-cake lobbyists, probably."

"Seems a bit funny, somehow, blockading the passes out of moral concerns for the slaves while of course this'll get some killed."