The elixirs are strange. They aren't spells in item form like potions. Instead they seem to be discrete effects. There's a set that makes you good at various things for an hour—the elixirs of hiding, swimming, tumbling, and vision. The elixir of love makes someone fall in love with you for three hours. The elixir of amnesia is the most expensive. It makes you to forget one event or specific piece of information of your choice and doesn't ever wear off.

The potions are standard wizard spells in item form. They stock a selection of the most commonly used potions wizards can make.

Forgetting things is interesting but not useful right now, and she isn't spending that much money for possible value. The Elixir of Love... is somewhat surprising, unwilling charms like that are at most dubiously legal. Sold to be used out of the city, then, and nobody looks too hard at it.

She spends some time looking for a Memorize Page potion. Would that work? Probably not, you wouldn't be able to choose the page. If it did, though, she could definitely find a use for being able to memorize something besides Morgethai's messages. Probably she should just commission a scroll if she wants that.

The Gilded Orrery does not have any potions of memorize page on display or in their catalog.

Oh well. She asks the total of the wand and an Anytool, plus a lead-lined box to keep them in. (Anything else is just asking to be robbed.) Does the Orrery have a specialized bank branch to withdraw money from, or does she need to go somewhere else? She feels a little weird carrying that much money on her in an easily stealable fashion, even if the items aren't actually any less valuable or stealable.

A traveler's any-tool is 1,830 silver shields. A wand of infernal healing is 5,900 silver shields. Her total is 7,730 silver shields.

The Gilded Orrery accepts payment by physical coin or banker's draft.

A reasonable price. Back to the nearest branch to get the draft, then to the Orrery to exchange draft for items.

The proprietor of the Gilded Orrery takes her banker's draft and retreats into a sealed room behind the counter. The interior is blanketed with dark fog.

A minute or two later, she comes out carrying a lead box. "Your items are contained within. Thank you for choosing the Gilded Orrery." This time there are no questions about Tencendil's academic enrollment.

"And thank you!"

She also grabs a broader array of focuses while she's here. It's the right time, she has the money, and being an adventurer is a ready-made excuse for a large amount of weirdness. 

That's all for the day, though. Back home and to sleep? The guard investigation should start tomorrow, if she remembers correctly. Also Morgethai's letter will probably have arrived! It might have already, even. She should keep an eye on the newspaper in case that does anything obvious.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
WEALDAY, SARENITH 3rd, 4708

MYSTERIOUS BREAK IN AT THE BANK OF ABADAR

Last night, the secure vaults at the Bank of Abadar were breached by an unknown party. The Abadarans don't know how they managed it. None of the wards or alarms triggered and nobody on the night shift saw anything amiss. The thief made off with valuable information held for one of the Bank's clients. A bounty has been placed for any verifiably true information pertaining to these incidents.

Today, the letter from the guard arrived. Unless her volunteering earlier changed something, the same should happen this time around, because she sent basically the same letters to the relevant players. ...possibly she should have bought silver weapons for the guards yesterday? No, that would be incredibly suspicious.

Lhín appears with an assortment of eyes this time, and Tencednil gets dressed and ready for the day (much easier now that she has Prestidigitation) before she goes downstairs, reads the newspaper (all as expected, good), and—

There is a knock on the front door.

...well that one's unexpected. Did her letters give something away this time? She did change that last one a little, and maybe she didn't take enough precautions or... doesn't really matter.

Lhín doesn't have hands, and if they found her here they can find her anywhere. She walks over and opens the door, letting the sunlight spill inside.

Standing at the door is a well-dressed human man in a suit and tie. He leans on a wooden cane with a metal top. "Hello. I'm looking for one Tencednil. Are you her?"

Conspiracy? Probably, but if they know her name she has lost. In that case she needs to die as soon as possible...

...but this could be Yanor. It would be a strange way for her to hear from him, but it's probably more likely than the conspiracy, and she needs to keep her options open. Behind the door, she signs <Wake Mother and warn!> to Lhín.

Zoom time! She needs Mother, and Mother she will find! Mother will see if something happens, and then it will not be a surprise and she can help with it.

After a few moments of pause, and what he can identify as a distinctly elfin moment of shock. Tencednil recovers herself. "I am. Who would you be?"

"Isaac Castrillón. I believe we have met before... though I do not remember it. You sent me a letter."

Met before, doesn't remember it, sent a letter... Conspiracy.

She pauses for a moment to breathe slowly and ensure her hands won't tremble. (Her bluff is good. It is not good enough. She is terrified and about to do something she thinks necessary, but terrifying.)

He pauses. "My goodness, what happened last time? I am not going to hurt you."

He— what?

Does she trust that. Obviously not, a conspirator could say that as well as anyone else. The information here is that he noticed her actions and isn't doing anything to prevent them, and therefore—

Did she really just think that. If this is the most effective way to prevent her from killing herself, then he is doing something to prevent her from killing herself. Implication is no less an action than speech. She's off-kilter, but she didn't realize she was this off-kilter.

Crossbow out. (Hidden behind the door, for what it's worth.) She aims it at herself and attempts to slam the door shut. Having no physical path should block most spells.

Isaac should have left himself better notes. They didn't mention she would be like this.

He opens the door—

She is standing right on the other side. That door will have to go through her foot, and then the rest of her body, to open.

Knock.

Well that's just cheating.

The spell thrums through the door, catching everything holding it shut. One turned doorknob, one Tencednil leaning against it, that's two means of closure. The doorknob — turns easily. Tencednil — requires a little more force to displace. By the standards of most Knocks, she would remain standing, the force required to push a half-elf body substantially more than the force a Knock can exert.

Isaac Castrillón is not a normal caster.

The door swings open simply and effectively, displacing her as it goes by and politely returning her to the same location afterwards. The effortless grace and easy convenience does nothing to mitigate her ever-growing terror.

Quickened shadow conjuration duplicating stinking cloud. A billowing fog fills the entrance hall.