Probably no active scrying sensors on her, then. Between her color-shifting cantrip and the kit... wow, no, this is awful. She's trying things out for two hours, and by the end of that she still doesn't like the result. It is what it is, though. At least her skin is the right color.

To the Academy, looking human, or at least not looking identifiably anything else if you have the eyes to see past that. Yuck.

The aptly named Almas University is near the north end of the city, overlooking the Moulton river and the bridges to the Theater District. Unlike Korvosa's Acadamae, it is not exclusively a school for wizards, and is renowned for it's curricula in law, politics, philosophy, and zoology. They do teach wizardry to those students with the talent and ability to afford the expensive tuition. The University itself has no exterior walls or battlements. The campus merges with the rest of the city fairly seamlessly.

The provost isn't going to just see anyone who asks, obviously. Tencednil doesn't have any relevant secrets like she does from the conspiracy. If she provides the contract's phrase, that would work, but can she actually get it to Morgethai? Unfortunately, any clever tricks here would probably be counterproductive. She needs Morgethai to not be angry at her.

Well, maybe the straightforward method will actually work. She scribbles something down and goes to whatever administrative hub she can find. "I... was given a letter?" She's kind of cringing, as if anticipating this interaction going badly.

After a little bit of searching, Tencednil finds the administration building. A receptionist takes the letter from her. What's written on the front?

Provost Felandriel Morgethai.

"She said it was for the Provost, I know you must get a lot of these but I have to at least try."

The receptionist sighs and takes the letter from her. "We get a few of these every week. Don't worry about it."

"Thank you! She said the Provost would want to see it, I don't know why." She walks off.

Only a few a week? In that case maybe it will actually get in front of Morgethai at some point soon. The letter had the first half of the phrase from the contract written on it, as well as the full code phrase for the wealthy bank account encrypted with the second half of the code phrase. It asked her to send an ad in the classifieds section of the Almas paper with a meeting time and place, noted with yet another phrase for recognition. The bank account with the attached code is hers to use for this purpose, and also anything else she wants. It would be nice if she would hold off on using more of it than necessary until the messenger bearing the contract phrase contacts her, and if she would hear them out about its usage, but that's entirely her decision.

The receptionist wishes her well as she leaves.

If letters sent like this aren't immediately discarded, that's the best halfway-safe way she can get in contact with Morgethai, so... time to wait?

Doing a little bit of useful work is never a bad start here, and she does still want to be gaining circles if she can. The University is supposed to be less lethal, and less wizardry-focused, than the Academae, but there still might be people looking for trouble around here. Can she find anyone who might want a sorcerer to help them do something at least faintly pro-social for a few days, as she wanders the local area?

Tencednil doesn't find any jobs that would be particularly dangerous within the city. The Grand Exchange always has contracts posted, looking for adventurers to slay terrible beasts and other threats, but these are often long journeys beyond Almas. She can find someone willing to pay for prestidigitation and silent image. They money isn't amazing but it's not terrible either. She gets the sense there are less wizards here than in Korvosa.

Huh! Being paid halfway decently for Prestidigitation is new. She will happily sell those and the Images, then, she has quite enough each day and there's no point wasting them. And some practice sustaining her concentration on Images is also useful, so it's not like she's wasting her time, even if this isn't going to get her closer to her next circle.

THE FREE PRESS
STARDAY, SARENITH 13th, 4708

SUMMER TRADE BOOMS, GREAT FAIR EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS SO FAR

The newspapers are similar to yesterday. Even the most mundane things become exciting when phrased by the writers of The Free Press. The annual Great Andoran Fair is almost halfway finished and the economic boom is indeed great this year. None of Tencednil's words or phrases appear in the classifieds section today.

She still needs to be around here, then, so nothing to do but repeat yesterday's search. At least it seems selling her Images made enough money to pay for the inn for a few more days, so it shouldn't be that bad. She does have a lot of them, and they're larger than most first circles could manage.

Tencednil can find work doing the same thing as yesterday.

THE FREE PRESS
SUNDAY, SARENITH 14th, 4708

LEO RENATO DROPS OUT OF PEOPLE'S COUNCIL RACE AMID SCANDAL

The newspapers are entertaining and mostly similar to yesterday. They're in a different style than Korvosa's, covering a wider range of events, but fundamentally the same sort of thing. News. A fair amount today is about some scandal relating to an upcoming election.

Tencednil's phrase appears on the classifieds section of the newspaper along with the word "noon" and an address in the Theater District.

Success! Now... now she's going to actually meet with an archmage. Which is going to be terrifying, but there's really no way around it if she wants these results.

The thing about meeting an archmage is that she can't actually lie here. She isn't that good. Face to face with an archmage, with all the detail you get from looking at her, she will not be able to slip anything through.

She spends the next hour (fiddling with her skin tone in case there's someone watching the area and) trying to calm herself down. Yes she's giving away information she has spent so much effort trying to conceal, yes she's possibly walking to her death if Morgethai takes personal interest in her and dislikes her. That's the risk she's taking for the possible gain. It's a price worth paying. An archmage who believes her when she's being honest is probably the most valuable thing she could get for that, if the memories were just visions, and if she's about to go back in time again the Wishes are similarly valuable. This is terrifying but it's worth it, every step so far has been a success, there's no reason to break down now. 

She still isn't actually calm by the time she arrives that the address, but she can fake it. Mostly. She left her shadow behind — it said it would vanish for the day if it got too far from her, which is a little sad, but it's too identifiable for her to do this safely. She's already obviously in Almas from the Bank, she needs to not have any obvious traces of who she is in public while she's here.

Tencednil crosses a long bridge over the Moulton river to the the Theater District. This district is a collection of dilapidated Taldan mansions that artists have transformed into apartments, studios, and playhouses. It seems less wealthy than the other areas of Almas she's been to, but nothing accosts her on the way to the address in the paper. The place she arrives at is a rather plain townhouse with thick curtains covering every window. The door is unlocked.

Oh good what a reasonable person, not making her sit in the midday sunlight.

...actually that's worrying, did she really give that much away? Already? She wasn't as careful about this mail, and Morgethai is an archmage, but if she has to be this careful... well, that's why she's been being careful all along. Still, that's terrifying. At least Morgethai is playing along, which is nice of her. She opens the door.

Dark fog is ahead of her. She can't see past it even with her darkvision. Silence emanates from within.

Oh or maybe the curtains are for something else. That's... good? Probably? 

She comes in and shuts the door behind her.

The fog disappears the instant she steps into the room. A fireplace crackles softly at the end of the foyer.

What appears to be a young red dragon with brilliant golden horns is lazing next to the fireplace. There is a comfortable chair next to him.

The dragon's head turns to face her as she shuts the door. "Hello! I am Gallipsiwhoop, here on behalf of Felandriel Morgethai. Who might you be?"

A red dragon? ...alright, whatever. "I'm Tencednil, and I was supposed to tell you something." And she gives the dragon the contract phrase, the first time she's ever spoken one of these out loud. It's... a little strange to actually say it with her voice.

The dragon nods. "It's good to meet you, Tencednil. I request that we move to a more secure location on another plane. This place is secure against most, but there are many powerful beings who may wish to interrupt our meeting."

Oh good she can have this conversation somewhere an archmage actually trusts to be secure. And if Morgethai wants anything from her, she is dead already, so no additional risk.

"That sounds like a good idea." She definitely looks tense when she nods, but she also is definitely nodding.