It works, though coaxing enough of the rowdy Wind together to cast it is an effort. She gains a Skill level for successfully putting this revelation into practice.

"Insane potential..." Mutters Elizabeth.

"Maybe ghur just speaks to me, and I'll be worse with the other Winds. I'm going to keep practicing."

Ame ends the spell, the scene, soothing the ghur to quiescence until it is gone. The story of the spell is set up for this, waiting for that bit of completion, to end.

Then she channels anew, and casts Pelt of Caeris again from the beginning.

Then again. She needs this spell to be second-nature if its going to be truly useful: five notes, sung in a single breath. She'll keep practicing until Elizabeth runs out of patience.

Elizabeth occupies herself playing with misty, floaty ulgu when she doesn't screw it up a few times in a row.

After an hour or two, though, Ameron has exhausted all the local ghur, including the concentration of it inside Elizabeth that she's been slowly letting out. "Access to ambient energy is a constant sorcerer problem. Next time you have sex, try to keep whatever ghur you and your partner generate inside you, like I did earlier. Just make sure not to draw in all the Winds, dhar continues to be the opposite of good."

"Right. Actually, what distinguishes generating a Wind from attracting a Wind? Is that just a difference of... intensity? Or are they each a separate process?"

"Oh dear, that was poor phrasing. No. Er, not quite. Well, yes. It's a matter of degree, but they're different processes. Intense attraction of the Winds and not much of that Wind being around to attract will actually weaken the barrier between the world and the aether, the plane of pure magic, and cause more of it to sort of - leak in. Really intense desperate not-even-thinking sex might actually generate some instead of just attracting it. There are also specialized rituals and enchanted objects that do this on purpose, like my wyldfire staff. But the primary source of the raw, wild Winds of Magic that pervade the whole world, the source of the natural flow of them that pools and shifts and replenishes over time, are the polar gates - a source at the north pole, and a drain at the south pole. Reality goes kind of... Wobbly near them, I'm told. Not something that is best messed with unless you have dozens of levels, and even then..."

"I see. That makes sense," Ame says. "Head back?"

"Either way. I could try to teach you ghyran, this is a field, there's plenty of that."

"Sure, might as well while we're here."

The process for channeling ghyran is very different. Telling a story still sort of works, but it's much more placid and pliable, amenable to being slowly brought together into a dense pool and molded like clay or poured like water. On the other hand, it doesn't do as much of its own detail work like ghur does and you have to carefully fill and channel and mold. But Ame can learn to encourage plants to grow in great bursts and make them sway back and forth as the simplest ghyran spell, and practice it for a while.

Ghyran is slippery, mentally. Ame sort of gets what its about but not so much what its about. Really, the only part she does grok unusually fast is the detail-work part, which is enough for her to be willing to at least make the attempt. She manages to make plants sway and grow, barely, but not well enough to gain a Skill level in Jade Sorcery faster than an ordinary person would learn.

"I feel better now. I'm really good with Jade Magic. Back to town? Want to meet the caravan that's leaving in the morning? It'd slow us down if I knew shadowhorse, but I haven't gotten it down yet, so. We'll earn sixteen bronze coins per day, and bonuses in silver if there turns out to be fighting."

"It had to happen eventually. I think ghyran might disagree with with my Axiom of Physicality, or something."

This is the first time Ame has let the name of her Unique Skill slip in conversation, but she figures that specific detail doesn't need to be perfectly secret.

"Sure, let's meet the caravan."

Well, she doesn't go so far as writing it down but she definitely took note of the name.

The caravan is setting up in a caravanserai, an inn/hotel specifically built to house big groups of travelling merchants and hirelings, plus all their wagons and animals. The leader is a fifty-something man who is kind of fat, very loud, and wears bright orange poofy clothes.

"Alectai, Ameron. Ameron, Alectai. Sir, she is my companion who I mentioned earlier. She is a summoner and a strong healer, plus a decent sword hand as well."

"I thought you were the healer? You bear the sign of Jade!"

"I can heal too, but Ameron is just better at it. No sense taking a role that's already covered, right? Instead, Jade magic can give your cooks fresh fruit and herbs every day, to make the road more tolerable, and if your fears of bandits or wild monsters are realized, it's good in larger fights and I also have skills in the Lore of Fire."

"I see, I see! Where did you get that outfit, miss Ameron? Very daring! I know a place it would cause titillation and shock, much attention, very good for business."

Ame nods along to what Elizabeth is saying.

"This was made by a girl named Ophile in the village of Traver Hollow," Ame says. "The style is from my homeland. And it caused a lot of titillation and shock there, too."

"What Skill levels does making it require, do you know? Ah, I can find the girl on my way back. Traver hollow. Write that down, Debra."

"Yes, sir, I already have."

...Was that person even there a moment ago? She looks professional and neat.

"I take it you wish to hire these two as escorts for the caravan, sir?"

"Indeed, indeed! Make the arrangements, please. I have to go talk to Samwell Waltmann about the- I have to talk to him before sunset."

The fat merchant bustles off.

There, no. Nearby, yes. Ame knows that trick. She used it all the time.

"Elizabeth?" Ame prompts. "You'd know how to negotiate this better than me."

"We settled on a rate between us earlier."

"Did we?" Elizabeth asks. "I was under the impression that we would come back to it this evening."

"If you don't like my offer you can walk on your own."

"I just think you're underestimating the morale effect of... Adventurers."

"If you mean your half naked friend, wearing no armor makes her a worse combatant."

"She knows Pelt of Caeris and that's not what I meant, I know the types who get attracted to caravan work. They'll appreciate her."

"I'm not paying for a prostitute for anyone out of the company's money."

"No, you're paying a guard. But having the option available - and if I know Ame she'll be reasonably available - is a perk. And like I said, I'll get you fresh fruit and herbs every morning and evening, too. It'll be one of the better caravan runs you take."

...They rapid-fire offers between each other. Debra is an incisive and insistent negotiator, but Elizabeth pushes even when she threatens to shoo them away. Eventually they agree on a rate.

Ame laughs outright at the 'worse combatant' comment. 'Dex focus' is a thing! And between Pelt and Axiom (the latter moreso than the former) she's probably more durable than a man in full plate. She does her best to inject this sentiment into her laugh, but doesn't interrupt Elizabeth.

"Very available," Ame does interject at the appropriate point. And to remind them she's present.

That way it'll take Debra longer to notice that Ame doesn't participate in the conversation after that. When she and Elizabeth finally agree on a rate, Ame has long-since vanished entirely.

The bright orange clothes and loud voice of a self-important merchant make him stand out a lot as he makes his way to another inn a few blocks away. A tall and sharp-faced man bearing a constant suspicious glare and the bright blue of the Waltmann clan meets him outside and has to spend several minutes getting the man to actually enter and get down to business.

They take themselves to an upper-floor private room. The shutters are sealed tight, but Alectai's distinctive - and loud - voice carries almost unnaturally well, and he never seems to shut up. Someone perched upon a nearby roof would be able to hear one side of the conversation.

"Now this is good wine! And yes, it's very beautiful! Who painted this piece?"

"This is a sculpture and an artifact both? I'm partial to utilitarian tools more than art, myself."

"Yes, she's very pretty. Did you invite me here just to show me pretty things or did you have actual business?"

"Come now, you know better than that. Do I look like a man who takes concubines? Wait, don't answer that."

"Yes, yes, it's pretty, and she's pretty, but I am a merchant. I take payment in hard metal. It is a point of pride. It's a burden to move something like this!"

"Ha! That will do fine! I take it you can get the deed notarized by tomorrow morning?"

"I do not work for free, sir. You must pay me up front... Or issue collateral. I don't know what this artifact does, but you clearly find it highly valuable."

"You've said that a dozen times. Yes, it's broken. But either it contains your secrets, or the recipient can fix it for you. Either way, it has value to you. No! Don't try to play it off like that, you wouldn't be giving me this fuss if it didn't! Just know this, I will not hand it over at the destination unless I have been paid in full."

"Indeed, it is a pleasure doing business with you, and Alectai is always open for business!"

If one were to slam the shutters open and peer out into the night, they'd see nothing suspicious.

However, if one were to exit the window and look up, they might see the form of a half-naked girl, perched against the wall and braced against the roof, hidden in the long shadows cast by the setting sun.

Ame hangs upside-down, listening in.

The greatest factor in stealth, is silence. And the greatest factor in silence is having the physical strength to move through awkward poses smoothly and gracefully. Ame is please to find that she is more than strong enough, now, to remain in place without effort.

Alectai wonders loudly about how much the painting might cost for a bit, then heads downstairs and out the inn's front door, back to the caravanserai.

Ame has a decision to make. Stay and poke around, or beat him back to the caravan to establish an alibi?

...she doubts she can get into the room without making noise. Alibi it is.

She hauls herself smoothly back up onto the roof, and moves off on light, near-silent steps. Once she has a little distance she trades silence for speed, vaulting over obstacles and leaping across alleyways as she races from rooftop to rooftop.

She's back at the caravan minutes ahead of the loud merchant, drops down, and strolls casually out of an alley when no one is looking. She looks around to see who's doing what.

Some people are counting boxes and loading them into the wagons under Debra's stern gaze, or taking care of their horses, or checking over the wagons, but most of them are simply enjoying themselves in the cavernous main hall of the inn. Drinking and eating and gambling. Elizabeth is nowhere to be seen.

Ame is not Elizabeth's keeper.

She slips into the inn's main hall and then, like she's been there all along, goes to order a snack and eat it in plain view.

She can buy food from the somewhat harried staff! She can get offered drinks from horny guys!