Snort. "Okay, teach me."

She goes through the phrases she outlined, and throws in a few more to demonstrate the component handshapes more simply - "why" and "maybe" and "please" and "hurry".

He will try to pick these up, then!

She will go over them as many times as necessary and steal his food to demonstrate in the one case.

He's not a wizard but he's not slow at it. He objects very emphatically to the food stealing with the "why, why, why" handsignal.

She signs "sorry" and forks it back onto his plate.

Long-suffering sigh.

Giggle.

And the next day she goes and teaches Hagan's Secret Dad more words in spoken drow.

He's delighted, more effusively now that he has more words for it. 

"D'you know anything about how they're setting up the expedition or are you not in the loop on that?"

"Oh, I have no idea. I think they were going to hire someone. Maybe you."

"Huh, they haven't asked me."

"Well, tell them to get on that!"

"What if they aren't gonna? Presumptuous, much?"

He looks slightly baffled. Not by the word, it's come up in their survey of drow vocabulary. "Then it's their loss I suppose but I don't see what's worse for asking."

"It just seems like probably not everyone who vaguely thinks they have the qualifications to do some project they heard the church is hiring for should go knock on someone's door about it as a matter of general principle without even seeing, say, a job ad."

"Well, sure, but you're already consulting on it."

"They seemed done with that! Now I'm giving you overpriced language lessons."

"Overpriced? No one else is selling them!"

"They might in a few weeks! And then you could buy them from cheaper people."

"I guess." Handwave. "I'd have been so frustrated if it somehow didn't pan out."

"If it didn't pan out I'd still be in town."

"You adventurers are always wandering off. I have a son who's an adventurer. Can never even figure out which continent he's on."

"Is he a cleric? I hear there are lots in the family in general and they're handy in an adventure."

"No, no, he stabs things. The pharaoh's a cleric, and Merenre, and some of my father's descendants by his second wife."