"Well, if we're paying them, then at some point one assumes we'll pay them."

Hagan fixes an arrow that has nothing wrong with it.

"I was hoping for something more actively checkable."

"I don't really know."

"We could drag someone off the ship and ask. We could go back to the girl in Saint Hadassah's and ask her. We could go to Cheliax and try to figure out what they're gearing up for and who they're selling to. We could report in to Fazil's contact that we have the proof our Taldane contacts need to exonerate us and we're going to bring the ship in, and see if they stop us -"

"I won't do that."

"You could ask them what they'd want us to do if it came up, though."

"They said observe and don't interfere."

"Kind of a weird thing to say if this is a bad thing that's going to start a war."

"Could be over our level? Not these guys maybe but somebody who'd swoop in like whoever scries candle guy?"

"Yeah. They could be looking out for us."

She observes the boat to see if it'll do anything else in response to the Osirian vessel.

It ignores it and sails away. Eventually the rest of the crew comes back out. They don't bother changing the flags back for a while.

What are their usual flags?

When first encountered the ship had the flags of Absalom's merchant guild, and it now puts those back.

"Wonder how Absalom feels about this."

"Probably fine as long as they're making money. ...I guess maybe someone's eyeing them?"

"This is starting to remind me of annoying logic puzzles about what a bunch of people know about what everybody else knows."

"There's a reason we usually stay out of politics."

"Don't blame you a bit."

"I guess we should wait until it reaches Taldor and then - report in. Maybe ask politely for a little more information."

"Convenient that Osiriani has a one-word please. In drow it's three so our Sendings are very brusque. In Elven it's four unless you abbreviate! Probably my surface Elven's out of date though. Or maliciously erroneous depending on where my teacher learned it."

"What, four? I guess Elves aren't often in a hurry."

"They're short words but Sending isn't counting syllables."

"Well. In the morning I'll ask if there's someone we should report to in Andoran or in Absalom and what to do if the ship attacks or is attacked, please."