"I thought you got new magic every day."

"We do, but there's a priority operation tomorrow and we're going to need everyone with fourth-circle and fifth-circle slots to have them for that."

"Oh." They're probably intentionally not telling him about that, he won't be rude.

They are indeed intentionally not telling him about that. They're gone, the next day, almost everyone with fancy robes indicating powerful spellcasting, wizards and clerics alike; there mostly isn't gossip about their absence in the dining hall, because gossip about ongoing operations isn't harmless like gossip about world events or religion or who should hook up or whatever else comes up.

When she hears that Kyeo vanished from the barracks with no explanation the first thing she feels is a jolt of terror. If he was telling the truth - and now someone else got him - they'll kill her, for not escalating it immediately. Of course, if he's lying or delusional and from Tian Xia and she had escalated it -

- but that won't matter -

- she spends about an hour staring at the wall thinking stupid unhelpful things like that she still isn't sure what she should have done and she has no idea who took him and she has no idea why and if she'd happened to get called for mindreading in that hour, or maybe even the next day, she would have died of it, but they don't have that many mindreaders, and she has time to think.

She met an adventurer from Tian Xia who claimed to be from a place called Ibyabek, which she hadn't heard of before but which is apparently on bad terms with most of its neighbors so that's not surprising. He claimed Ibyabek was its own world, which must've been the translator malfunctioning or him delusional or lying to impress her, because he was a perfectly normal human, oddly dressed, his gun of unfamiliar make but she's a magic item enchanter and couldn't evaluate it. She spent a little time with him anyway, even though he claimed his society of origin had no wizards of note at all, because she wanted to get to the bottom of the delusional-or-lying question, but she hadn't quite sussed it out when he suddenly teleported off, which conclusively pointed at lying, the person he was representing himself to be was meek and had no allies or interests there. 

She did nothing wrong, nothing interesting happened, there was nothing worth escalating, and he got bored or heard of a problem elsewhere and left.

(They'll of course still kill her if Kyeo turns out to be from another world and this has conspicuous effects anywhere she hears about them but - it might not. And he's not from another world, she thought it all through and the only world worth thinking about or planning for is the one where he's not, and over time this turns into 'he's not', in her head, and then sits more comfortably.)

They call her in for mindreading four days later and she goes and answers all the questions and is asked if she's contemplated defecting and says that she hasn't, which is true, even in that hour of panic she managed not to think that she could possibly escape Asmodeus.

She goes back to her normal life. Finishes an artifact, collects the bonus for being early, again. She's got enough for a headband. 

And then one morning when she's starting the next artifact someone opens the door, loudly and abruptly enough to throw off her concentration. She looks up, irritated, and then - 

- too afraid to be irritated, too afraid in fact to think at all...

There are three of them, in black full plate with visors drawn, faceless, the insignia of a Hellknight order she'd recognize on sight if she were thinking, which she's not. 

           "Carissa Sevar?" he says. The face mask distorts his voice. 

She nods. Which is stupid, maybe, but - 

           They have handcuffs, glinting with the age-resistance of a magic item. Antimagic, probably. She wants to get a proper look at it, which is the most laughably stupid want in the entire universe. They cuff her hands behind her back and blindfold her and Teleport. She does not try to resist the Teleport, and suspects she couldn't anyway; the handcuffs are doing something in addition to antimagic, something that feels like having been hollowed just slightly.

They ask about Kyeo. When she met him, what she saw, what he said, who she told, who else knows, were people curious about his disappearance, did she report it, did anyone else. She answers truthfully and they don't bother to hurt her yet, even when at one point she has a stupidly difficult time forming words because she's so upset with herself. She wants to know how they found out but she is sure that she'll die without knowing that.

Worthless people and impressive people go to the same Hell, she reminds herself, but she keeps crying anyway. 

Kyeo is less bored mostly because he is now instead constantly wrestling with the desire to suggest scrying Sarham, even though Sarham can't help at all with anything these people want and the idea of Sarham checking into a hospital over hearing voices makes him want to vomit.

The missing spellcasters are back the next day, and can try again for Wulaar Peng.

If they try a little later in the morning they can catch him in a meeting with some Ibyabekans that Kyeo doesn't know on sight.

"...probably still a bad time to interrupt him?" says the caster, looking to Kyeo.

"It's not ideal. He's probably in a lot of meetings, since he's an ambassador."

Nod. "Maybe early mornings are best, really, as long as we don't catch him right while he's showering."

"During breakfast," agrees Kyeo.

"There you go." Pause. "Yesterday we took into custody the Chelish wizard you landed on when you first arrived. We wanted to know whether Cheliax is - aware of your world, or looking for you, or anything like that. It appears that they are not, which is very good news."

Does that mean they kidnapped her or found some excuse to arrest her...? He decides not to ask. "I'm glad to hear it."

"It means we have a little more time to get this right, and should be thinking how to get it right instead of how to do it as quickly as possible. I don't know if that changes very much about our plans, but if you had any ideas that would take a long time but might be useful in the long run..."

"- well, if we keep telling people things, eventually someone will go to the hospital, and I suppose we could... tell someone who works at the hospital... to expect that?"

"- huh. Maybe. I assume at some point people will consider another planet more likely than everyone having caught the same brain problem at once."

"At some point, probably."

SIgh. "I really appreciate all the work you're doing here. I know you didn't sign up for any of this."

"Thank you."

The mood in the dining hall is especially cheerful, that afternoon; most people don't know details of the secret operation but they know it succeeded and now that it's over they are licensed to speculate wildly about it.

Seems indiscreet anyway but it's a different culture. He doesn't participate, just eats.

"You all right?" Isavel says to him when the meal's mostly done. 

"I'm fine."

She looks slightly skeptical but doesn't press him, and turns her attention back to where someone who did not participate in the operation is giving a lengthy joking speech about how he determined it was definitely a secret dragon assassination.