It's what powerful wizards do in her world. Why die when you can, instead, not do that. And he's strange in a way that is easily made sense of by the thousands-of-years-old claim and hard to make sense of otherwise.

She notices herself paying attention to his face, again, and stops that.

:I'll think about it:

:I appreciate it:

And he hauls himself out of the pool, dripping, and gets his towel, smiling at her one last time before walking away. (At the same time he takes off the heaviest-duty compulsion that would block her from casting spells. He's not worried about that, not now.)

The actual Calib finds her a while later, once the disarray in the facility is settled down. "So you played a practical joke on Leareth or something? Honestly, good job, you impressed him and surprised him, and hardly anyone ever manages that."

Hug. "I hope I didn't startle anybody too badly! I just experimented with some new spells and then when that set off lots of alarms I snuck off invisibly to see what I had wrought. I was worried he'd be mad but I don't think he is."

He laughs. "Oh, dear. No, I don't reckon he is. Some of the others might be a little bit sore about being wrenched out of bed at the crack of dawn, but I'm sure they'll forgive you if you get around to making that magic item for flying. Or show them the new spell. I heard you can make your own tiny plane to hang out in?" His smile broadens. "Sounds useful for privacy. And certain activities one might want privacy for. ...Although we'd have to clear with Leareth how to make it not set off alarms, or people will get really tired of it."

"I'd like that a lot. It's pretty small and totally featureless, by default, but we could get a mattress up there. ...I think it won't set off alarms if I go in naked."

Calib chuckles. "Well, then I think I'd like that too. ...Did Leareth give you any new projects once you were finished showing off? I've heard he likes doing that."

"Not exactly? He offered that I could go to Valdemar."

"Wow. To check up on his claims yourself? That's - well, it makes a lot of sense for him to offer, given...things, but it's pretty generous. He's so paranoid."

"He did specify that it would be with lots of mindcontrol. But - I guess it'd still be taking a risk."

Nod. "More than not doing it, anyway. But - I think he really wants you on his team. Which, no wonder, look at you - smart, talented, and gorgeous." He grins.

Kiss. "He doesn't really seem like the type to have an opinion about that last thing!"

"I suppose not." And he kisses her back.

And Carissa returns to her regular routine, and apologizes to her friends for waking them up early, and continues implying that the alarm was entirely accidental, triggered by her testing out her new dimensional pocket spell, though she did then go invisible to check out what all the fuss was.

She works on pearls of power.

In her weekly report she tells Leareth she would like to go to Valdemar.

He nods, level, unsurprised. "Good. I do want to take some precautions for your safety, as well as for operational security. Also I unfortunately cannot transport you all the way to the capital, assuming that is where you want to go; Valdemar has Kingdom-wide wards, they are not all that sensitive but a Gate to Haven would certainly be detected immediately. Do you have plans for transportation and for your own defense should it be necessary?"

"I have the needle that's a one-off Teleport. ...I think. I don't generally make mistakes with magic items but it's a weird one I invented myself secretly, so. I can double-check it. How far is the nearest location you could Gate to?"

Leareth makes no comment on her secret inventing habits. "Two hundred and fifty miles north, give or take. Can you Teleport to a place you have never been? I suppose I could have someone Farsee it for you and share the image over Mindspeech."

"You can try but there's some chance it'll fail. I can ride two hundred fifty miles if it's reasonably safe territory."

"If I deliver you twenty miles from the border then it ought go undetected and then be a reasonably safe ride, yes." He frowns. "What is your plan to get out, if you are - in trouble, of some kind, and need to return here or get my attention? ...I have measures I can set up but I would like to hear your ideas first."

"If I'm in short-term trouble I can go invisible and fly off. If I'm in bigger trouble than that I'd use the teleport."

Leareth nods, seems satisfied. "Good. I would like if you also took an artifact from me; it will not be detectable by magic except at extremely close range, and is meant to resemble a different minor artifact to a quick look even then. It would enable you to send an emergency alert to me, if you are unsure whether you will be able to successfully teleport out."

"I can do that. Will my hair still work for your tracking spell if it's not stolen off me that night."

Leareth smiles slightly. "Much less reliably after a full day, though if it were me casting the spell personally I could perhaps manage it up to forty-eight candlemarks. I am very good at it."

"To be clear I cannot ride two hundred fifty miles in a day. If I have the horse gallop all day it'll only make half that and we only did that once in the army and it was horrible. I'd probably take three days there and three days back."

Leareth nods. "I am sure I could find you eventually in any case, but since I would prefer if I could find you promptly if you were in danger, I would like if you wore your shield-talisman. Unfortunately it is not subtle to mage-sight, which might present a problem if you wanted to interview any of their Herald-Mages. Could your Nondetection spell be cast on something else permanently, or paired with it, to conceal its magical signature?"