Aww. 

Leareth is, however, relieved to eventually return to Cheliax and his daily routine. He tries not to dwell too much on how Carissa's character reference check on Iomedae is going, even though he's so curious. 

Urtho spends a while mostly just puttering around in the pharaoh's palace, talking to magic researchers and reading books and trying to study how their arcane wizardry and their divine magic are different from the mage-work he's familiar with. 

Eventually he speaks a bit of the local language and feels less like everything in his head is about to fall out and slither to the floor. 

He asks someone where the best library in town is. 

The best library of magic-related books in the city is in the temple of Nethys.

Then Urtho would love to see it, would somebody mind giving him directions there? 

Certainly! It's hard to miss, once you are in the right part of the city. It rather towers, and it's stunning.

Perfect!

And he heads out to find it, humming to himself.

When he steps in the doors, something happens. 

It's like - being suddenly surrounded by something that understands him perfectly and thinks that he is really really cool, and wants to show him something he absolutely dizzyingly cannot understand but might be able to catch the edges of, if he doesn't drown in it first.

Urtho is simultaneously baffled and overwhelmed and a little scared and also amazed - his mind involuntarily chases after whatever it is that this strange - force, entity, something, is trying to show him, swimming in it, drinking it in - 

He can catch some pieces of it that are small enough to hold onto and then when he's too exhausted to follow it anymore it fades away and leaves him standing there. 

"Congratulations!" says a temple employee cheerfully.

Urtho sags against the nearest wall. "What - just happened - is it normal to -" and he does his best to fumblingly explain what he just felt, but it doesn't seem like he's conveying it well. 

"I think Nethys chose you. He does that sometimes, when people come for the library. ...usually He does it to kids."

"Huh! What...do I do about it?" 

"He should have given you some magic?"

"I felt something?" He tries to reach for the sense of having grabbed onto some small pieces of that overwhelming, intricate, beautiful whole that he already misses. 

This creates a rain shower on the marble floor of the temple! - if he catches hold of the magic as it's slipping through his hands he can retrieve it and kind of hold onto it again.

"Oops!" He's kind of delighted about it, though, and chases after the magic, it's a bit easier because he can see it. "Sorry about that." 

"You're not the first," the kid says, and gets a towel to mop it up. "Maybe practice in the courtyard, though."

"Of course!" Beaming, Urtho goes out into the courtyard to see if he can do it again. (He wants to make sure he knows how to not do it accidentally before he goes anywhere near books.) 

He can do it again! He can also do another one which makes things brightly-lit, and a more complicated one that turns the water into alcohol (though he can't recapture that one to try again) and an exquisitely complicated one whose effects are unclear but from what he remembers of the vision might do translation.

Amazing! Urtho tries all the ones he can recapture several times. He recognizes some of the spells from having talked to the clerics among Khemet's researchers, but it still fills him with awe that he can just make water, out of nowhere, magic shouldn't be able to do that.

Eventually his head is spinning a bit. He takes a break and then goes inside the temple again to actually look for the library. 

There are lots and lots and lots of books about magic including some guides to how being a cleric works and which spells he can choose from each day and how to explore his god's domains and so on.

That seems really important! Urtho collects some books and finds a spot to sit down and start devouring them. 

Carissa takes a month. She spends the first two weeks of it making and selling some magic items so she can afford Teleports for the second half of it. She could've asked for the money, probably, but she doesn't want to be indebted to them. And making magic items is good for her. Meditative. Lets her think. 

Leareth seems - decent. Iomedae claims he is, and she's Lawful Good and probably not a liar though Carissa's going to look into it. He was very invested in - reassuring her that he thought highly of her - that she could decline this - He looked so hopeful, it'd been endearing. ...he thought she was hot when she was a servant and didn't hit on her, which suggests that his bar for that will at least be reasonably high? He is very invested in dating the pharaoh of Osirion, but -

- well, you can have a faithful man or a man who is going to be King. 

She doesn't want to be jealous. If she's going to be jealous then they're going to have a relationship that is about the relationship itself, not about other things. She's been there, done that, hated it. She thinks about it until she thinks she won't be jealous. Will just see - him, being the person he is, and be fine with that, and other people can say what they'd like.  Iomedae picked her for him from all the women in Cheliax. It's very romantic. Even if he also wants a lot of other things, and - wanting a lot of things and arranging to get them all is also the kind of personality trait that put him there in the first place. 

She doesn't want there to be a lot of confusion about the succession but this feels like a reasonable ask she can make without it looming over everything. 

What else is there.

She's not scared of him anymore. Maybe the first time they have a fight she'll be scared. She doesn't think so. She did fine in Cheliax, and these people have - softer edges than Cheliax did. They're dangerous - it'd be stupid to forget that they're dangerous - but - it takes her a while to put a finger on what exactly she believes about them. They're not cruel. They will hurt you to get what they want, but not otherwise, and not if there's another way. Iomedae said that she'd be safe .

Iomedae said a lot of things. She spends the second two weeks in Vigil, the capital of Lastwall, the paladin-order country which holds the line against a north full of myriad horrors. She enchants some weapons while she's there, as a gift. Asks people about Iomedae.

Goes to the Worldwound to witness the ongoing depretrification and rehabilitation efforts. Walks among the statues. Thinks 'this could be me' and 'and I'd still be all right, eventually'. 

She comes back and requests an audience with Leareth.

Leareth doesn't see her immediately but he makes time for it within a few hours. He's waiting for her in another of the nice, absurdly well-shielded conference rooms. His expression is level, but - he's happy to see her, happy that she decided to come back, that much shows in his eyes.

"Carissa. Welcome." 

"Thank you."

She sits down. Swallows. "If you are still interested in marrying me based on Iomedae's recommendation and my two week track record of crime, I will marry you."