"Fine. His grace didn't put in much facetime, I was still mostly talking to Luay."

"Well, he's probably very busy being fancy or something."

"Does being fancy piss people off? He looked kind of pissed off. I heard exactly no gossip about his wife."

"You could meet her, if you wanted, she runs a fancy jewelry place. As a special indulgence of his she is sometimes let out of her house to do things at it."

"How nice of him. I got my anklet custom, do you know the name of the place, perhaps I've seen her already."

"Oh, man, I really should." He frowns, bites his lip. "Trilliant."

"Nah, anklet was at Zaki's Jewels, oh well."

"You think they'll go ahead with the expedition?"

"Not sure. There's a lot of uncertainty. I'm hoping they offer me a bundle to pull together my party and go scouting. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Sounds pretty interesting."

"You'd all have to pose as my slaves to not look like we were there to take potshots though."

"Gosh, is that so."

"Adventuring party of mostly humans, scary. Foreign lady and her possessions less so."

"Pay'd better be real good."

"I'll ask before accepting. You wanna give me a number? And ask the others who do not seem to have dropped by for a visit."

"I was just very curious about the prince, you know how it is. Dunno. Mahdi's usually pickiest because he can make a couple hundred a day off selling spells here in the city. On the other hand a lot of that's scrying and he still needs to level... maybe five thousand."

"A day?"

"Nah, for the whole swing."

"Noted." She notes it.

"That is a discount because you are cool, other drow not substitutable."

"I will bear that in mind should the Crown pull one out of a sofa cushion and suggest swapping her in."

"I shall leave you to your very important negotiations, then."

"Going back in tomorrow. I'll take careful notes on the royalty for you."

"You'd have my wholehearted support in avoiding them entirely."

And he leaves.

She goes back as requested the next morning.