The most immediate thing she needs is to write another letter. In these matters, hours count. She should have before her guard shift, but that's the cost of testing her new spells.

Lhín writing, hired courier, shifted skin and (eventually, after a bit over an hour) a reasonable disguise...

To the Bank: Decipher and deliver the enclosed message to the House of Ornelos. Pay from my account. 

For the Eyes of House Ornelos.

You know you have a problem with shipping deals. You will find Morgethai more willing to assist than you anticipate, and with more reserves for necessary investment. 

That, unfortunately, is all the help she can offer here. House Ornelos should be as well informed as she is, but if it isn't, the first line should suffice to inform them there's an issue. From there, the rest should be obvious.

What she does know that they do not is that this was Morgethai-caused. (And that Morgethai now has at least her gold, as well as whatever she took from Ileosa.) Andoran doesn't like Cheliax in the best of times, but Morgethai's attention is a rare commodity. Cleaning up her own mess should pull her attention towards Korvosa, at least somewhat. What exactly can an archmage and an eighth circle wizard capable of calling a pit fiend do when working together? Tencednil has no idea. Almost certainly something useful, though. Archmages are said to have reshaped rivers, maybe they can make the Jeggare link to Lake Encarthan and immediately open up a completely new trade path to countries which would prefer Houses that are less Chelish or something absurd like that. Surely they have some options. 

It might not work. If it does work, it might not be enough. But for now, it's all she can do.

Next, Aline wasn't actually telling her this with the expectation of it going to anyone powerful. It was at least in part to get it off her shoulders, but her self-justification would have included the chance Tencednil could pass the information to someone who could offer them a cheaper out. She writes a few letters as herself to a few people whose families could help here. She can feel them out and see if they have the spare capacity to be useful without exposing what House she's inquiring on behalf of, and provide Aline the assistance she was expecting she might receive.

Lastly, of course, she spends some time around merchants who are eating their dinners. Cheliax can't only pay people who are good at secrecy, and humans almost never are. Can she hear any whispers of what deals might be being made? Is anyone whispering about what terms they were getting?

She can definitely pick up some rumors. There seems to be a mix of incentives. Offers of more trade, threats of less trade, threats of the direct kind, straightforward bribes, et cetera.

Those who have existing business with Cheliax often go along with this. Those whose trade is mostly within Varisia itself typically do not.

Cheliax is doing a lot here. If shipping does split based on who trades with Cheliax, there will be consequences for being known as an agent of Cheliax after this week. Of course, if Korvosa is ruled by a Chelish puppet, they will presumably be mainly positive. If it isn't...

Anyway, this is good information to have, but it's not anything she can act on. She doesn't even know if she could have acted on it if she knew it in advance. Back home, to report on her discoveries and then get ready to sleep.

(Mother has no discernible reaction to the information. This is unsurprising.)

Before she sleeps, a few final spell tests. First, the Invisibility, once cast the normal way on Lhín and a second cast pointing it at herself. Does Lhín sense any notable differences? How long does it last?

Each casting of invisibility lasts about five minutes. Lhín doesn't notice anything different compared to last time she was invisible.

Good to know. And lastly—

<This will probably send you back to my dreams.>

"Yes! And then you will come to dreams! And I will come out when you wake!"

Nod. And she casts the evocation, targeting Lhín.

Tencednil pushes the spell through her connection with Lhín.

The spell squeezes Lhín like a grape. She ceases to exist. No sound was audible to Tencednil.

As expected, mostly. She's not sure why that involved tapping her familiar bond? Whatever it is, it's not important right now, and her questions will only be answered in the morning. To sleep.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
TOILDAY, SARENITH 23rd, 4708

ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE UP SINCE LAST WEEK

The quarantine is mostly lifted. The final death toll of the blood veil was bad, but certainly not as it could have been. Without the cure, all of Old Korvosa may have been lost. The city's economy, battered and bloodied but not beaten, begins to see improvement. The papers print rumors and accusations of foul play by Cheliax and the Church of Asmodeus. In this period of uncertainty, the hunt for the Urgathoans and their supposed lich seems all but abandoned.

Tencednil has more new spells today!

The first circle spell is transmutation and feels like sudden movement. The second circle spell is evocation and feels like brilliant light.

The first circle spell also doesn't click. It wants a target with some sort of trait, and it would go off in a flash if she had the right sort of target. She just... doesn't. Nothing she looks at is right, nothing in the area works... she can still cast it, but she can feel that it won't actually work. Maybe she can get a sense of what it does from casting it tonight, when it isn't wasting a spell.

She's not going to summon brilliant light any time soon. It might not be painful? Light fits in low-circle evocation spells which aren't actually painful to the target, like, well, Light. Or Daylight. She would still prefer to wait before testing it on Lhín, just in case.

And speaking of Lhín, she calls her out.

"The spell was strange! It was very loud, and it made me all wobbly like I was made of meat, and it hurt. Also it was very loud and I couldn't think over the noise. That isn't how thinking works for me. Maybe it is for meat people." She sounds a little petulant at that.

It affected Lhín like she was made of meat? That means... Ear-Piercing Scream, probably, it normally would fail against constructs like it would against undead. Can she push things that usually don't work on constructs to Lhín through the familiar bond? Interesting.

Anyway, not important right now. Check her mail, go to the guards, the same procedure as always.

The Bank has no mail for her at this time.

Her squad descends back into the sewers. Their patrol is long and uneventful.

Tine seems to pass her by quickly. Soon enough, she's back at the Citadel and dismissed for the day.

Good to see the sewers can be calm. Maybe they were just busy at the end of Desnus for some reason, or this could be the lingering effects of the fungi.

Once she's back, there's nothing she really needs to do today. Time to test her new spells.

First, the potentially harmless one. If she aims it at Lhín, snapping it off while Lhín is launching downwards at her desk, what can she get from it? How much of its effects can she figure out?

The spell is incredibly fast to cast—even faster than dazzling blade. The verbal component is but a single arcane word.

It takes her two castings to get a sense of what the spell does. Minor telekinesis focused for a very specific purpose. It has no effect on things that aren't falling. Feather fall.

Ooh! That spell matters. She shouldn't be falling enough to use it, of course, but Feather Fall is the most elementary sign of nobility. Well, it and Faerie Fire, and Dancing Lights but that's a cantrip and not as defining. Nobles don't need to worry about falling, and this is obvious in their behavior. Mother has shown her the designs of proper drow towers, and they make little or no effort to add safety measures around falls, because anyone who matters is their own safety measure. To have it herself, even limited... it may not be useful, but its value is still impossible to understate. She could live in those towers, now. She would no longer be a single step from death walking on those stairs. To be a true drow, as much as she ever can, is now one large step closer to possible.

It's a good feeling, to know that.

Alright, what about the other spell? Lhín floats in one corner of the hammock, she pulls herself up to the other side, and... light?

A blinding flash of shimmering light fills her room. It's like staring directly into the sun. Tencednil can feel a slight heat on her skin. Her vision is blinded by the light.

augh why