"...well you're not here every night, are you."

She hugs her niece. She feels stupid and bad, but - this isn't a relationship that can be ruined as easily as that, not with both of them in their right minds and surrounded by ambiguously hostile powers on all sides.

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry, I wasn't thinking right."

"M'kay.

"Are you okay?"

"I've been better. But I'm coping well enough, so far, I think. I don't - have a lot of control over my schedule, I have to go to the pharaoh whenever he asks. I'm often here from late mornings to about dinnertime, if you ever do want to stop by. If you don't, I'll - I should have been seeing you every day, I'm sorry."

Nodnod. Hug.

"How is he?"

"He's not well. He was - a little better, when I met him, but - he's going to need a lot of help."

Nod.

She pets her hair. "Which doesn't mean you can't need help too, Verita. I'm - sorry, that there's not more of me, and I'm sorry that I haven't been - there, for you, as much I could or should have been. I am so sorry. But it doesn't mean you can't need things, can't ask for attention, it just - means that I'm gonna be stretched a little thin, for a while. Maybe a long while."

Nodnod. Snuggle.

"Do you wanna, like - do something together today, maybe? I dunno how long I have, but - we can do something."

"Okay. I could show you some of the magic I'm working on?"

"That sounds good."

(It also kind of sounds like energy she doesn't have, but - this is important. This is really really important.)

She lets Zakiya know that she's gonna be hanging out with Verita for a bit. And then she can snuggle Verita and ask her questions about the magic she's doing.

She can!! She's working on detect magic now. Like, she knows how to detect magic, but she can't consistently recognize all the auras that things have, and it's neat. Maybe Korva can do her spells and she can practice seeing what sort of things they are?

Maybe. She actually wants to keep her first level spell slots open? But she can try playing around with her cantrips, sure.

Eventually Zakiya comes back. "It's dinner. I think Verita can come to dinner, if she wants -"

"D'you want to?"

"...sure. Okay."

And they can go to dinner?

"Verita!" he says cheerfully. "So you're still here. Have some pasta."

She fills her plate up with pasta. "I've been practicing magic and stuff."

Also she had no idea how to see either of them? But she knows better than to complain about stuff.

"Good for you. What can you do now -"

"Uh, today I was working with detect magic? I can tell if things are magic, that's easy, but I'm still working on being able to tell what kind of magic something is, you know? How different spells and items and things look and how you can guess at what school things probably belong to."

"What kinds of magic items am I wearing?"

She bites her lip. "The helm is transmutation, obviously. Ring that's... conjuration, I think? The cloak and the - vestment thing, those are both abjuration. ...can't tell what the bracelet is but it's definitely magic."

"Mmhmm. How about this -" he reaches out to squeeze Korva's hand - "Sacred Watch."

She's gonna go ahead and be proud of herself for not visibly freaking out about that. As far as she can tell. Maybe she momentarily tenses or something, that'd be hard to know about for sure.