"Likewise."

He sits down and pulls the report out and starts studying it. 

"What do drow say for 'nice to meet you'-"

"Literally 'nice to meet you' but that's awkward, Idiomatically we'd say 'you're over there' - I'm not sure why but I could wildly guess if you like - or 'I'll sleep all right' but that's an insult if you're not careful."

"Huh! Why -"

"My speculation about 'you're over there' is 'I am aware of you and have no special reaction to this' - people take it badly if you start acting really happy about their existence and you just met, it comes off as scammy and weird at a much lower concentration than it does in other cultures, for comparison imagine maybe you're trying to buy something and the salesman puts his arm over your shoulder and starts telling you that you're his favorite person? And 'I'll sleep all right' aims at 'I am not parsing you as a threat to, for example, my future sleeping self, and am not poised to freak out if you twitch' but if you do it wrong it comes off as 'you're pathetic and weak'. Oh, and obviously you don't say 'tonight' about when you sleep, people are on all different schedules underground. If you want to refer to your personal upcoming night-equivalent you say 'quiet hours'."

Vocab lessons are fun.

They are!!! Eventually he will have a better grasp of drow idiom and will thank her earnestly for the language lessons and leave.

Then she too will leave.

As is a habit lately he drops by her hotel.

"Evening. Your theory about doings on the high seas was on the money."

"Oh good. I hate being wrong. Even about politics."

"They're gonna hire me to go down, still dithering on bringing company."

"Is it safe for you to go alone?"

"Uh, sleeping'd be dicey. Maybe they'd loan me a ring, cut it down a bit. Otherwise not that bad unless I have bad luck."

"I'm not that expensive."

"You think I should subcontract if they cheap out?"

"Maybe!"

"You any good at acting? Because you'd have to, to not mostly wreck my presentation as a fellow drow. We show up and it doesn't look like I'm very in charge, they get suspicious."

"I can mostly stay out of trouble on the surface. I don't know what they'd be expecting."

"Uh, my first choice of backstory would be 'oh, I bought him in Katapesh'. Since I don't expect 'em to look up whether you can transport Katapeshi slaves through Osirion."

"Then that works."

"Saves having to come up with a criminal past for you. Wouldn't be the moment for the funny story lever. Do you still have the darkvision goggles?"

"Fazil does but I could get them off him."

"Good, carrying a light for you would look a little weird. You should still have one while I sleep so you can see farther but for travel the goggles're better."

Nod.