"- Oh, all right. Be responsible." Lissa smacks his shoulder again. "- Oh, hmm. Aunt Savil would like Carissa too, don't you think? She used to travel all over, she'd enjoy hearing all about Ruvan."

"Mmm," Vanyel says noncommittally.

Lissa glances over at Carissa. "Want me to ask our aunt if you can come over for dinner tomorrow?"

Carissa is slightly distracted by trying to steal one of Vanyel's hairs without him noticing but only slightly. "Yes, that sounds great."

(Doing things in Vanyel's vicinity without him noticing is really not hard.)

"All right! Tomorrow night?"

Vanyel really needs to get out of here before he starts crying in front of Lissa new friend and humiliates her. "Mmmsoundsgood goodnight," he mutters, and gets up and flees.

"Sorry," Lissa says quietly, watching him go. "It's - not personal, all right?"

"I didn't think it was. Should we go get into a mild amount of trouble?"

"Sounds great!"

Then they can go out to some bars, and she can burn her remaining mindreading looking for trouble - which, Liss is right, is fun.

It's great! So much fun! Lissa remains skilled at fighting her way through trouble even when very drunk, somehow, even though she's swaying a bit on her feet as she tries to walk Carissa back to the inn, very late that night.

"You're amazing, you know," she says conversationally. "Wish you were Valdemaran. - Damn it, no, the Heralds nab all the great people, nevermind."

"I don't wish I was a Herald at all! But I don't know, maybe I'll spend more time around here if the route gets popular," or if she decides she wants to spy for Leareth sometimes; presumably he already has people on that but probably none of them are sleeping with Vanyel's sister.

"That could be fun." And Lissa stops as they reach the inn and presses Carissa up against the brick wall and kisses her.

Even this late, there's still some street traffic in this neighborhood, and they get catcalls. Lissa lifts one hand to make a rude gesture at whoever's there, then tugs  Carissa into the inn.

"That is such a weird taboo," she mutters, and goes along with Liss.

They pass a very pleasant evening together.

As usual, Lissa is very much a morning person, and is already awake and dressed when Carissa wakes up. "See you tonight!" she says brightly. "I'll meet you at the north Gate to the Palace, all right?"

Carissa is pretending to be even less of a morning person than she is in order to cover for how she only speaks the language three hours a day. She nods and mumbles back what Lissa said, groggily.

And then spends the day exploring and eavesdropping and reading, again.

None of it proves anything but - certainly the world is consistent with Leareth's take on it.

And that evening at sunset, Lissa loiters outside the north gate to the inner walls that encircle the Palace grounds. She's donned a dress for this. It's an unusually daring dress by the local style, leaving her muscular shoulders bare. "Good day?" she says brightly.

"Yep! I'm all done with my work. Now, this aunt, is she as gloomy as Van, because that was very gloomy."

"- I'm sorry. Maybe he'll be having a better day today. And, nah, Savil's more fun. I hear she used to be a lot of fun back in the day, but she's old now."

Lissa waves to the gate-guard, who apparently recognizes her on sight and waves them through. The Palace grounds are cleaner and better groomed than the rest of the city, though still very soggy after all the rain, and the nearest stone buildings look very old.

Carissa looks around interestedly and makes conversation. "Two Heralds in the family? Is that unusual?"

"- Maybe? I mean, except for with the royal family, they're always chock-full of Gifts and Heralds. Gifts do run in families, you know."

"And do most Gifted people get Chosen?"

"I think so, yes. Almost makes me relieved I'm not Gifted, though I'm still kinda jealous."

"I wish I had mage-gift," she says completely truthfully. "It looks so cool."