Their Rings of Sustenance give them a lot of time to not think about them. 

Eventually Leareth has to go back home.

As usual Leareth just feels better after spending a night with Khemet, in some hard-to-pin-down way. 

He does, over breakfast before heading back, go down his list and remember to ask for date advice. He thinks Aktun is wonderful, but is it the right place to take a Chelish girl on a date she'll find romantic? 

Hmm, it depends. Has she travelled a lot? Did she mention favorite places? He picked Aktun for Leareth because in some ways building it has been Leareth's driving motivation, and he'd feel unusually safe there, and he'd really like their museums; Carissa is selected for being somewhat similar in personality but she grew up in a technologically advanced civilization and might not associate cities so strongly with having succeeded. Of course, she might associate Axis with having succeeded for other reasons. 

How well off is she, what's the kind of trip she could casually make under her own power?

She seems - not that well off right now? Which is a bit surprising given her wizarding skill, but she's staying in cheap apartments (he's still mildly offended about her landlord's behaviour) and doesn't have any magic items other than the ones she made herself. She says she hasn't traveled except to Vigil and the Worldwound, on her recent research. She seemed excited about the prospect when he floated it with her, though. 

Maybe she went into debt for her spying plan, if it involved making a bunch of magic items.

A good place to take her might actually be Absalom. It's an amazing city, everyone should see it at least once, once she's been she'll be able to Teleport herself, and he could get her some things that'd be hard to buy in Egorian while she's there. Parmida might have more specific ideas about activities, she lived there until recently, right?

He's heard that Absalom is incredible but hasn't been yet, so that seems very good, unless a date would benefit from his already knowing the area. Parmida has a house there, though, so he can ask her for an itinerary.

Does Khemet have any suggestions for what sorts of things to get her, other than magic inks so she can get new spells from Aroden (which she absolutely lit up at the prospect of)?

Oh, and the remaining item on his list is asking about where to get a nice non-magical ring so he can propose to her properly. He suspects she would like it if he does that; he keeps having the vague sense that she's a little disappointed he's not properly dancing the courtship dance. 

Well it's a show of skill, right, and it's fun when your partner is skilled at things. 

He should talk to Khemet's sister-in-law, she makes wedding jewelry (including magical wedding jewelry, though she almost definitely couldn't do a piece that requires ninth-level Time Stop as a component) and is generally very sensible and used to straightening out people who are trying to do the courtship dance and don't know how.

Perfect! That's really good advice and he will definitely do that. Maybe he can fit it in when he comes back later with his team of mages to get started on the Gate-terminus. 

Khemet wishes him good luck.

Leareth kisses Khemet goodbye (and waits to be properly dismissed) and then heads back to Egorian first, to collect his mages and finalize the schematics for the new Gate-terminus.

While the mages are packing up to go, he swings by to ask Parmida about date activities in Absalom. 

They have illusion theatres in Absalom! It started as a second screening room for popular live theatre shows, but then some people came up with the idea of telling stories directly for the medium; they can change between scenes, show the actors' faces up close, and do interesting things with the viewing angle that you couldn't do with theatre. Illusionists watch it carefully a hundred times, aided by a book of scenes, and then they put it up on a big screen and people watch. He should take her to see one.

She can also recommend restaurants.

That sounds amazing and Leareth will definitely take her to see one. He plans a schedule - illusion theatre in the morning, restaurant for lunch, take her by some magic shops in the evening. 

Later that afternoon he Gates back to Sothis with a team of a dozen mages and all the supplies needed for the Gate. They don't need him for any of the initial setup, though he'll come help out with the tricky final bit of keying it to the other terminus to be built in Aktun. 

And then he goes to see Khemet's sister-in-law. 

"Hullo!" she says. She's got a bowl of rice, having timed her lunch break for this so she could still get in solid chunks of work. "I hear you're in the market for Chelaxian-style engagement jewelry?"

"Yes, I am. The pharaoh recommended you; he said you are very good." 

"I am! Where's your girl, did you not bring her?"

"- Am I supposed to bring her? She is in Egorian but I could invite her here and come back a different time with her. I am not really sure how this - courtship process - is supposed to work, I heard you had advice for that too." 

"Who told you that? I suppose you're not Osirian but I don't think conventions in Avistan are a lot like 'dress in drag for ten years and get blackmailed about it and then marry a prince instead of fleeing the country' either!"

"I...see. The pharaoh said that you are generally very sensible and - used to straightening out people who are trying to do the courtship dance and are unsure how. For which I certainly qualify. I am not even from this world and I have not had a romantic relationship at all in a - very very long time." He's about to say 'in the last thousand years at least' but his immortality isn't common knowledge here. 

"Oh, well, my usual advice as far as that goes is that if you don't know what kind of jewelry your girl likes somebody ought to ask her instead of guessing, I won't sell somebody wedding jewelry without a consult with whoever's going to wear it because about half the time he's all 'lapis lazuli' and she's like 'I hate blue'. I also need her ring size if you want a ring in particular."

"...Honestly that is very sensible and I should have thought of it. What times are you open? I am planning to take her on a date to Absalom, and I can bring her here and - I suppose propose to her by saying I will buy her the ring she wants instead of by having it already? Is that how that works?" 

"My shop is open every day from fourth to fourteenth, but I'm not usually there these days because my security arrangements are annoying so I only go in twice a week and not all day. My staff can take a consult interview, or you can bring her into the Dome on my lunch break or after I knock off for the day - don't interrupt me while I'm making jewelry, though, it ruins everything in the worst way, I have a sign up when I'm busy. I don't know how Avistanis do it in general let alone Chelaxians in particular, for all I know until recently the tradition in Cheliax was to send a messenger imp carrying a cursed handflower to put it on the girl in her sleep! Here you'd say you wanted to marry her and she has thus and such a budget to pick out wedding jewelry with at Trilliant."

"Well, that sounds nice and straightforward, if not maximally romantic, so I think I will do it. She told me she likes surprises if they are well-executed, but I am not sure I can execute well on getting her an engagement ring she will like and that will fit her. - For reference I am going to get her a Ring of Delayed Doom, because my life is sometimes very dangerous and I want her to have it anyway, but that will take six weeks to make, so I figure it will be a wedding present or something and I will propose to her with a different ring that is less magic." 

"Gosh. Not sure I can manage one of those. I have a great selection of nonmagicals and less-magicals, though, I have an inventory list here with sketches or you can go look at the real things in the store. And I can do custom commissions, and I can make it look different without busting the enchantment if she thinks it's ugly."

"I am glad to hear that. I already talked to a magic in Egorian where I live for the Ring of Delayed Doom, and I - did my best to think very hard about what was pretty so hopefully I can pull off a well-executed surprise, but if she thinks it is ugly it is a relief to have a fallback. Anyway, thank you for your sensible advice. I am not sure I feel any more like I know what I am doing, but I do feel less stressed about it." 

He takes her up on glancing at the inventory book and sketches, trying to guess what Carissa might like; he figures he can tour the store itself with her whenever they come. Maybe he'll time it for the afternoon, as a final stop after he takes her around to magic shops in Absalom. 

She can tell him where Trilliant is and show him all the rings in the book - she's got a really wide variety of designs. "I'll knock off five percent if she marries you and wears it to state functions and tells anybody who asks about it where it's from."