"One of my teachers taught me a bit of philosophy, to help us feel out these kinds of questions. One of the thought exercises was, would you kill an innocent little girl who was carrying a deadly curse that will slowly kill everyone around her, assuming there's no hope of neutralizing or mitigating the curse? Her innocence is of little comfort to the people she'd inadvertently kill. Or, would you trigger a dungeon trap that will kill a random adventurer you don't know to squish a monster that's about to eat a whole party of five who you also don't know? Does the answer change if you're friends with any of the people? If they're kids instead of adults? If they're old? If they'd accept their fate given the choice?"

She rips a chunk of bread up with her teeth.

"...Seemed stupid but having thought about that stuff I feel strangely better about killing in self defense. That's pretty clear, at least. I'm gonna sleep early and look for work and hit up bookstores looking for shadowhorse tomorrow."

Ame nods again.

"I need to go wash the blood out of this," she says, plucking a strand of her fishnet shirt. "Speaking of, is there such a thing as, like, mana armor. Or a stoneskin spell. To protect my clothes."

"You probably don't want sorcery for that? Aetheric armor is an enchantment over full-body soft robes. You want to, like, take it to an enchanter for a durability or self-repair enchantment."

"I'm actually hoping something exists that I could cast on myself that'd protect me and whatever I'm wearing against cuts and rips for the duration of a fight, more or less."

"Mm. No ideas, tired brain, sorry."

"Same, to be honest. Oh well, I would've felt stupid if there was a common obvious spell for that and I didn't ask."

"It's good to ask if you really grew up on the streets in some weird foreign city. Could be lots of things you don't know and might seem silly or might be vitally important. So don't worry about it." She grabs the last of her bread. "I am going to diary, and then to sleep. I'm putting alarm on the door so just for your information you'll wake me up if you come into the room later, but don't let that stop you."

"After careful deliberation, I've come to the conclusion that nice bed is nice."

Ame follows Elizabeth back up to the room and goes flop.

In the morning, Elizabeth will wake up to Ame's maniacal cackling. Ame has one hand between her legs, caressing herself, but not in a masturbatory way. "Finally! Last night I noticed that I needed a new shave, but now I don't! I managed to 'heal' my skin so it stops making hair! Fucking awesome!"

"That almost seems more like some kind of body control than healing. I've heard of a sect of monks that could be cut and not bleed, and didn't need to breathe..."

Ame smirks. "It is a bit like that, actually. At higher levels I should be able to do all kinds of awesome stuff with it."

Now that Elizabeth is awake, Ame makes herself calm down, and rolls out of bed to get dressed. "Anyway, I want to check out the bookstore too. Even if there's no stoneskin spell I can learn, I can always use another force multiplier."

"Rare Skills are kind of terrifying. There's probably several bookstores but we can have a book-raid, like a bar-raid but nerdier. I, however, am still about one third asleep, so you'll have to wait a bit."

"Right. Sorry."

Ame sits and spends the time continuing her self-enhancement regimen.

Eventually Elizabeth is ready for the day. The town is abuzz with early morning activity - looks like mostly people heading to work or guiding carts full of things through the streets. She points the way to a bookstore she noticed last night.

"Did you get away with wearing almost nothing wherever you're from? You're getting a pass for it now for being with me, more or less. We're obvious adventurers and adventurers can be weird."

"Gale and Codri said the same thing. It honestly kind of bugs me, even if it is convenient."

Ame sighs.

"I told you prostitution was illegal where I'm from? For one thing I couldn't afford to keep much of an alternate wardrobe, being homeless and a criminal. For another, because being a whore's illegal, dressing like this was the only way to advertise. But even worse than that, exposing this much skin in public is just illegal by itself, where I'm from. So, no. I didn't. I was hunted and reviled by the law-abiding; hunted and coveted by the criminal."

"That sounds pretty awful alright. I don't actually think it's worse than slavery and there's always multiple layers to a place's government - ghur knows I couldn't run a city or even a neighborhood association - but it's not great."

"For your sake, I hope you never have to visit," Ame deadpans. "This level of stigma is just, so tame compared to what I'm used to. It's liberating."

Ame spots a window full of books up ahead. "Is that our first stop?"

"Yep! Don't be surprised if they, like, cough grumpily at you if you start reading a whole book right there in the shop without buying it. And fair warning, books are expensive. Some will let you read for a fee."

Into the bookshop they go! There are maybe eight shelves total, it's a small place. It also sells stationary and ink, apparently.

"Morning, bookseller. I'm looking for sorcery tomes of ulgu, to expand my range. Have you got any of those?"

"Could be. Are you looking for anything specific?"

"If you have shadowhorse, that'd be a pleasant surprise."

"I'll have to check the back. Might not have it, I don't exactly keep a lot of stock of stuff hardly anybody ever wants."

"I'll just browse while you check the back then, shall I?"

"Aye. What about you, hot stuff?"

"I'd love to see a full list of the sorcery tomes you have in stock, actually. I want something synergistic but I'm not picky."

"Alright, alright."

He digs out an inventory starts naming titles. The tomes are mostly named after particular spells. Most of the really useful sounding ones (Speed of Light, Invisibility, and Apotheosis) are very advanced, Elizabeth warns. Aetheric Armor needs to anchor to clothes, but Pelt of Caeris creates a magical shell 'as tough as a strong beast's pelt' and has no such disadvantage. Silence could let her stop casters long enough to close in, and is relatively simple. Bewilder causes confusion for at most a minute. Flaming Blade ignites your weapons and also confers immunity to fire for as long as it lasts. Metal To Rust would degrade her opponents' weapons. Ashes and Dust could let her blind and disorient foes. Brilliance causes her to shine with such light as to blind her enemies. Windblast would let her summon a brief gust, possibly knocking back or away enemies.

(He has shadowhorse, and Elizabeth starts haggling over it.)

Ame considers her options while Elizabeth haggles.

She waits until there's a pause to ask if Pelt of Caeris is mobile, since that's the deciding factor in how it'll synergize. Silence is appealing mostly for how it looks easiest to learn out of everything, but if its that easy, it must be common, and if its that common then there must be counters or immunities to it everywhere. Her second choice... she'll go with Ashes and Dust.

Elizabeth quickly buys the book for shadowhorse.

Pelt of Caeris clings to her like a second skin, so it's as mobile as she is.

"The books are four silver each," the bookseller tells her.

"You're probably not going to be able to just read them and poof," comments Elizabeth. "Or maybe you will. I can't predict your insane potential."

"Even with my insane potential," air quotes, "I'm taking a risk that I won't benefit at all from these. How about one silver for both books, along with a promise to return at least one of them before I leave town for no refund, and," friendly smirk for the bookseller, "a favor of your choosing."

"Now that price is just crim'nally low. Lower than what I got 'em for! Books are copied by hand you know. Three silver, coppers fourteen is the lowest I can make a decent profit on these. I'll buy them back for three eight in the next few days, favors nonwithstanding."

"Didn't you say there's hardly any demand for these books?" Elizabeth wonders aloud. "They're just taking up space, and you might never end up selling them."

"Yeah, and we have only your word that you couldn't still make an indecent profit at two silver ten copper for both books. Maybe I don't want both books. I do have to think about my budget. New spells won't do me any good if I can't afford dinner. Or those shitty road tolls. Still, I think you'd consider my favors very withstanding. I'm an exceptional healer and a very accommodating fuck."

"If you're an out-of-towner, I doubt you have a whore card. How do I know you haven't got something, eh? Or that you won't run off with the contents of my safe. If I want a fuck, I can go see girls who live here and guaranteed by an org'zation that means they just fuck me instead of maybe fuckin' me over. Three silver eight, buyback for three two. If they're in good condition."