"Fair enough. And how many times can you prepare and cast it?"

"Twice a day right now."

"All right! We can plan a trip up tomorrow morning, and you can fly for a bit and then Leareth can fly for a bit. He will have fun." Nayoki smiles broadly. "...He does not tend to prioritize having fun, but it is enjoyable to watch when he is anyway."

"It seems hard to tell whether or not he is having fun."

"He is hard to read, that much is true. I suppose I am used to interpreting his feelings, since I have been here for several years now." Nayoki seems mostly amused about this.

"Where are you from?"

"...A place called the Haighlei Empire, not that I expect this to be meaningful to you. It is - a place that dislikes change in the extreme and tries to contain and control it. And also tries to control anyone with M- with Gifts in general. So I had several reasons to leave, really."

"I guess. Does Leareth advertise? That people who want to - fix the world, live forever - should come here?"

"Not directly, no, it - would draw too much attention from the gods here who oppose him, I think. He advertises for ambitious people in general and then there are further interviews."

"Huh." Her first thought is that thousand-year-old wizards in her world do not hide from the gods and her second thought is that she wouldn't know. "Well, I'm glad Leareth is having fun sometimes even if he doesn't look it." It fits with the theory that if she gets away with anything he'll mostly find this entertaining.

Nayoki seems to consider that a dismissal, and goes off to organize their expedition to the surface for flying demos.

For which Leareth is present, after breakfast when Lacie summons Carissa for it, his expression as always impossible to read.

Carissa FLIES! Invisibly, so no one can be very impressed with her, but she's having the time of her life. It lasts six minutes or so and she lands as it is running out and transitioning to a gentle float downwards. 

In this particular instance it's somewhat inconvenient that Invisibility also blocks mage-sight and he can't study the spell, but Leareth is ready whenever she lands to have it cast on him, and he can conceal himself with an ordinary Velgarth illusion that his other mages will be able to penetrate in order to watch how the Fly spell works.

Carissa walks over and reaches out for him and casts Fly on him, too.

And Leareth flies!

He conceals himself with his own illusion as soon as he passes outside the bounds of the one being held over the spectators by one of his mage-staff, and it's visible to Detect Magic but Carissa can't actually see through it, so while he's in the air she won't be able to look at his face.

When he lands, though, he's smiling more broadly than she's seen to date. "How incredible!"

"It's great!!"

"It is." Leareth stands and looks at her for a moment longer, still smiling. "- Is that enough fresh air for you? I am not sure how good your Endure Elements spell is, but I am getting chilly."

Having his attention on her is terrifying, even though she can't think of anything she could possibly be doing wrong and really feels that she's been very well-behaved. She's not cold at all, but she nods. "That's enough. Thank you."

"All right."

And the party of fresh-air-takers heads back down into the base together. Leareth peels off, presumably in order to get back to his busy schedule.

Carissa has an idea. She avoids thinking about it until Leareth's out of sight and then decides that's not avoiding thinking about it nearly long enough.

She ends up settling on thinking it through only while having sex since they're probably less likely to be reading her mind then. (She can try to get this confirmed or disconfirmed by Calib by mentioning she knows they mindread her sometimes and it makes her feel embarrassed and shy whenever she's alone or with him.)

(Calib blushes SO MUCH and confesses that he doesn't actually know what their current mindreading-her policy is, but he does know approximately what other things the Thoughtsensers in the compound spend their time doing and they no longer have long unexplained gaps in anyone's regular scheduled duties, so it's got to be just spot-checks, and it seems especially unlikely they'd bother doing those when she's in bed with him.)

Oh good that makes her feel better. 

She thinks.

She wants to level. She can make magic items with spells she can't cast so she always expected to not be that fussed about levelling but while she's stuck here in another world she can't see the spellforms except by successfully stabilizing them herself, and that means she can't see how she'll reinvent anything really cool without levelling. And if she's ever going to escape she's going to need Teleport. It'll be hard enough with Teleport but it'll be impossible without it. 

The only way to level is to use magic under high pressure conditions. Usually combat, but adventurers manage even if they clear out a dungeon without a fight, as long as they're using magic under pressure with real stakes. Sparring doesn't do it, though. Magic experimentation can but she's pretty sure hers isn't doing it because she's wearing the invincibility artifact, and she knows it. 

Trying to get away with things is using magic under pressure. Trying to escape would be. And Leareth has all but told her she's welcome to try, though he expects her to fail. Maybe - maybe because he'd like her more powerful, too. Even if that's not his reasoning she can credibly say she thought it might be, and that she thought he wouldn't be displeased with the outcome, and - that doesn't mean she won't get in trouble, if she weren't terrified of him she wouldn't level from trying to sneak out of his complex. She should expect that if she fails and gets caught it'll be bad. 

But he won't kill her. She's valuable to him. And - and it makes sense, right, that he's not indulging her out of vague boredom but for a specific and clear reason.

She starts contemplating how to escape. 

If Leareth or any of his staff are aware of these plans, they show no sign of it.

After several tries, Leareth successfully stabilizes Fox's Cunning. And then casts it on himself, sitting in his library, and pays very close attention to how it feels.