"I can create arbitrary material objects. My cover story is a work in progress but I can dump as much food as you want of whatever kinds one might wish wherever you'd care to put it if you'll do me the kindness of, uh, laundering it as it were. - I don't speak your language and have no idea how that idiom translates."

She blinks at this; Raafi chuckles. "Shining One is already aware of him; there's more news than that, I don't know if you'll have heard, it's being kept secret for now."

    "This is why he's been reassigning people? I suppose that makes sense. Well, we can certainly take your donation - did you want it to go to the needy, or-?"

"...who else do you give food to?"

"Well, ourselves, here, and the orphanage, and the paladins' training hall; it'll take a little running around to free the grocery budgets up for other things, but we can do it."

"If you run out of needy I'm not going to object if you guys eat some, my limit here is mostly your storage space and I can come back tomorrow."

    "Oh, no, we'll make sure it all goes out, that's not a problem at all. Ah - how secret does this need to be?"

"We can afford some minor rumors, but we should probably keep it quiet if we can."

   "All right. Our volunteers will wonder about it if the pantry's full and nobody remembers hauling anything; do you have a wagon?"

"We can get one."

"Just tell me where you want it and in what containers and if you always run out of potatoes first or what."

"I can get the wagon while you two figure out what should go in it, if you're comfortable with that."

"Sounds good to me!"

He goes to do that; Cam can tag along while Calry checks on their current supplies, consulting with the people baking bread in the kitchen outside the storeroom to see what demand has been like recently before finalizing a list for him. "If we're very free with it, the full pantry will last - maybe five days? We'd usually stretch it to seven or eight this time of year."

"I can come back in five days!" And he will fill up the wagon with sacks of things sized to haul efficiently.

    "Thank you so much!"

When they get back to Lastai's temple, Kat has a list for Cam - supplies the temple is low on, things they've been fundraising for for various members of the congregation, things they'd need for new classes that they'd like to run, a handful of ideas for things they could make use of or give away at the baths without drawing too much suspicion. "Feel free to tell us no, sweetheart," she says when she hands it over, "I don't want you to feel like you're only welcome here for your magic. But it seemed like you might be interested."

"What else am I going to do, catch up on my sunbathing? I like being useful." He will fill the list.

That's all the work they seem to have for Cam just then; Raafi goes out again to get a wand of Sending and start figuring out a travel itinerary, and comes to find Cam a few hours later.

Cam is reading an article about wheat dwarfism. "Hi, Raafi, what's up?"

"I came up with something urgent, if you want to head out - there's a country in the desert that I visit sometimes, they're having a famine this year, it sounds like it's pretty bad out there."

"Yeah, I'm good to go, what's the plan for covering up the me situation?"

"We'll find out when we get there, the communication spell isn't very good for complicated things like that. The prince did say he had one - that's Prince Maziar, the king's younger brother, he's my main contact in Kaprela." He's carrying a cloak; he starts putting it on. "We can go right to the prince's suite - how do you want me to introduce you?"

"Is there a reason 'Cam' doesn't work?"

"It's easier to use a title from the start if you're going to want one, otherwise it's all the same." He gets the cloak settled around his shoulders and offers Cam his hand.

"I don't stand on ceremony." Hand.

And they're in a room of carved sandstone, with simple but elegant furniture in light wood with blue cushions; a shirtless man is sitting on one of the couches reading a scroll, and gets to his feet when he hears them arrive. "Raafi!" He looks and sounds tired, but happy to see them, and closes the distance to kiss the older man. "And who's this?"

    "This is Cam, a foreign mage. Cam, His Highness Prince Maziar al-Kaprela al-Kamar."

"Prince Maziar is fine, really. I hear you can help with our famine?"

A fellow shirtless person, but this one has no excuse! "I can! I hear you can render it unobtrusive when I do?"

"It depends on what you need, but I think so. We've been getting some help from our neighbors to the north - not much, they're not having an easy time of it either, but enough that it won't be too suspicious if we're suddenly getting more."

    "That should work fine. Naroyale's having trouble too? What happened?"

"The whole river's running low. We'd send someone to see if there's a reason for it but we need all hands here."

    "The whole - I'll go, as soon as we've got Cam set up."

"I assume I shouldn't just dump some water in the river."