"Do you know what she's talking about," Belmarniss whispers to Hagan.

"No," he mouths back at her. 

"I'm talking to you, about you, one of the most time-honored of human activities. Gossip is much older than prostitution. You hate being confused! The alternative, dearest, is being omnipotent, and I think you'd like it."

And then there's a drow woman.

"Mom -"

Rynaeri squints. Doesn't seem to remember how to move, for a moment.

Belmarniss picks up the clothes, approaches. "Mom, it's Niss, I got you, you're alive."

Rynaeri's arm twitches.

"I'm gonna put this dress on you, okay, and in a bit the cleric'll get Dad too."

"Sovi?" croaks Rynaeri.

"Sovi was fine when I checked last and once you and Dad are ready me and my friends'll go get her and bring her to you."

"She's all right," she confirms, and stands up, and continues to talk as she leaves. "The other one, too, you would have liked him..."

"The - wait a second are you talking about my brother -"

"Yes," she says cheerfully. "There aren't as many of him but there are some." And keeps walking.

"Would that make sense if I were feeling normal?" wonders Rynaeri.

"No, I'm afraid it would not. She seems a little peculiar and I'm not sure what she means. Let's get you dressed, okay?"

Rynaeri gets into the dress, and prefers to postpone the shoes and the veil arrangement intended to protect her from the sun until they're about to leave because the dress is already kind of a lot. "Who's that?"

"His name's Hagan, he's my adventuring companion and came along for moral support."

"Nice to meet you." He should write down the things Nefreti said, that's what you're supposed to do when a powerful person says cryptic things to you. Shame about how they'll be even more jumbled, if he's the one to write them. He tries anyway, since Belmarniss looks - occupied.

Belmarniss looks sort of puzzled at him but doesn't ask. "How are you feeling, in what way not normal -"

"I have... hands," observes Rynaeri.

"Yeah."

"- I don't know if you looked -"

"I looked."

Rynaeri shudders.

"I think they actually know the going rate on one dead baby and it's not astronomical, you can probably just buy it off if I send you remittances and you stay alive a while," Belmarniss says. "Plus a little extra to cover it if they're wrong or there's stuff I don't know about."

"- so?"

"- I think the thing about Pharasma being racist isn't true although I admit I can't prove it. She's a colossal bitch but not a racist one specifically and I think if you buy it off you can go look at weird psychedelic colors in the Maelstrom at worst and probably enjoy another few centuries with your hands before turning into some kind of protean or something, which, uh, is probably better."

Rynaeri sort of half-laughs. "Sounds nice." She comes a little closer to laughing, then starts crying on Belmarniss's shoulder. Belmarniss kind of rubs her back, and after enough awkward silence starts murmuring a little song.

When he has done his best to transcribe the note he just kind of sits there awkwardly.

Rynaeri eventually progresses to sitting on an actual chair and letting Belmarniss catch her up on her life story since her death. "I wasn't sure if it was Auntie or Grandmother -"

"It was my aunt."

"Well, there you go then, but it didn't make a lot of practical difference anyway. I had the idea Grandma wanted somebody to remember you by and preferred me but you know how I am about Sovi so I figured she'd better not have her pick. I went upstairs, started adventuring. Went to Osirion after a few entry level runs to get insurance, they have insurance where they raise you if you get melted out there. We're in Osirion now. Sothis, the capital. I don't know where you'll want to live but for the first few days I've just gotten you a room at my inn. Dad might be in worse shape than you, but I can help you out, I have nothing on for the foreseeable future besides this and then once you're stable in a place less expensive than an inn getting you Sovi. I don't have Teleport yet but I've got another adventuring companion who does."

Rynaeri nods. "This is a lot. He's - it's been longer - is he still -"

"Last I checked. Growing little horns but he's still within date for the caster."

"Last you checked -"

"Few months back. I don't know the attrition rate."

"I don't know either. Couldn't see very well."

They fall silent for a while.

"After you get Sovi -"

"Starstone."

"Of course."

"I mean, with some other stuff in between probably, but it'll be incidental to get money - I borrowed a little, for the resurrections - and level up, it's not like I specifically have a to-do list. Might put in some time at the Worldwound or something like that but that's just an example, I don't have more intermediate goals besides wrapping up anything plausibly only doable mortal and then poking the rock. But I'll make sure my insurance is paid up, if it kills me I'll pop back up a few blocks from here and figure it out from there."

"Borrowed from who?" asks Rynaeri after another silence.

"Hagan over there. He isn't going to come mug me for it, I'll just sell spells in my spare time for a while and pay him back. And if I didn't he still probably wouldn't mug me, I think he's probably more the leave wild animals in your bed type."

"Fy is very tame."

"It would be the gentlest occurrence of a snake in one's bed ever. She could carry a little invoice in her coils."

"Huh," says Rynaeri, looking between them.

"I like surfacers but if you want to go back down there's an aperture into Shazeun not far off and they don't seem like they're bristling right now, I can establish you there. Or if you like the surface but not Osirion specifically you might like Absalom. I think Absalom would be your speed, now that I think of it. Once you're a little less overwhelmed. I stopped there for a bit on my way here and I actually liked it a lot myself but I kept wanting to go after the Starstone very prematurely and it was right there and I decided I'd better wait till I was closer to ready to make it my primary port of call."

"What's it like?"

Belmarniss can occupy most of the remaining time before it's time to resurrect Chal in talking about what Absalom is like.

The priestess comes back in. Sets up her sketchpad again. "I think you inevitably fail the first time," she says as she works. "Hmmm, no, not quite inevitably, but going about it like that, you will."

"Why's that?"

"If you try it as soon as you're ready, you'll be unready. Even once I've said that, I think. This is not the reason I believe this, but ...you must have noticed that 'wanted the Starstone all their life, worked for it, reached the Starstone' is not a story among those of the ascended gods, and it is not because it is unheard of among mortals."

"Huh. That's, uh, potentially useful advice - do you have a guess when I should -"

"It seems like it would be easier to fix things as a god, so it is inefficient to try to fix them as a mortal. Right? I think this is a mistake you are making."

And then there's another drow body. 

She is going to come back later and see if she does consultations or something but. "Dad -"

He is figuring out how to breathe. It seems to be complicated. Belmarniss drapes him in a cloak.

She leaves.

Chal takes much longer to say anything.

When he looks up he doesn't recognize Belmarniss; he squints at her, figures out how to turn his head, looks at his wife.

"It's Niss," says Rynaeri. "Sovi's at home. We'll get her when we're ready."

Chal looks at Belmarniss for a bit. Then he looks at Hagan. Belmarniss says, "He's my adventuring companion. - I'm a sorcerer like Mom and a wizard on top of that."

Chal considers this. Spends a few minutes working out the process of adjusting his cloak.

About an hour later Belmarniss convinces him into the rest of his clothes and he winds up sitting on the floor with his head in Rynaeri's lap, still quiet. When the sun is low outside, Rynaeri casts a Floating Disk and piles her husband onto it and they follow Belmarniss out.

Belmarniss asks the receptionist on the way if Nefreti does consultations or if the cryptic advice must be had only incidentally in passing.

"Uh, we can put in a request but she usually declines them. What about, she's more likely to accept if it's about original magic research."