"For a simple one-time recommendation, one and a half bells. I'll offer a list of somewhat deficient wizards for free, but I will need several days to communicate with them so you can evaluate their specific deficiencies."

(Daernir starts doing math in his head; his lips move while he does it.)

"...how accessible is the person you recommend, like, can we go find them soon or will it be a huge trip."

"Very difficult to find, but very easy to communicate with across distances. He has contacts at many of Arcadia's major universities."

"Do you mean you would use Sending?"

"He would, yes."

"We could only send really short messages- 25 words."

"Hm, I'm not sure how worthwhile that is especially if we've also got to pay for the Sending. Do you think he'd be especially interested in helping?"

"There is no charge for the Sending. This price should cover the cost of dealing with this wizard rather than furnishing an opportunity for my colleagues."

"I might be perfectly happy to deal with your colleagues, I don't know yet! How long will it take you to talk to them?"

"Most likely three days. I do not have Sending, so I will need to rely on the speed of angelic messengers."

"If you don't have Sending why is there no charge for it if we talk to the other guy?"

"It's a pricing strategy in which I absorb some of the cost of the Sending in exchange for remaining involved in this process. It sounds like an incredibly important project, and I would like to remain involved with it if I can. I've incorporated part of the cost of the Sending components in your price already."

Daernir wishes he was already a wizard so they didn't need a wizard middleman to get them more wizards so they can attract wizards.

"We could go to a temple, but if we don't, this is our best chance at finding spellcasters. And they're wizards, not priests."

Left unsaid is that priests are weird, and that's worse than eccentric or egotistical or whatever other deficiencies these wizards might have, probably.

"Yeah, you're right," she says. "Okay, I'll wait three days to find out what is wrong with these people so I know if I can take them. - if I guess something and it's something I'm okay with will that speed it up at all?"

Sigh.

"I am primarily concerned with protecting their privacy. You could tell me which deficiencies you would find most upsetting and I can rule them out."

"I would not be personally upset by but could not hire for work with Amentans anyone who might be construed by Amentans to be inherently polluted - I can elaborate on that if there's ambiguous cases. I can't currently communicate with anyone who can't speak out loud because my translation method requires it unless they have very good handwriting. Criminal history would be dicey depending on what it was."

"-you may need to elaborate on what you mean by 'inherently polluted', since I wouldn't want to assume. None of my colleagues cannot speak out loud."

"There's an inherently polluted caste of Amentans. If there's anybody from a caste their own society avoids or won't touch, that might be an issue if Amentans figured they were right, and if there's anybody from a long line of undertakers or sewer workers or anything like that, same problem."

"What an...interesting...way to organize a caste system. I will confer with my colleagues, but I believe we only have one person who may fit the former category, and none who fit- ah, when you say 'undertakers', might that include 'necromancers'? It is not relevant in this case, but you may wish to know that there are wizards whose primary specialty is working with with remains, the dead, and such matters. Would that only be relevant if it was a lineage of necromancers?"

"...yes, I think that would count. Also current necromancers will probably not get along with Amentans."

"None of my colleagues are necromancers, so that will be fine for now. No family history of sewer workers, and no mutes...are there specific types of criminals you wish to rule out before I contact my colleagues?"

"I'd need to figure out some kind of cost-benefit calculation if they presented a danger to me, other people I work with, or my possession of my pocket everything. If they committed... art fraud... or tax evasion... that's probably fine."

Nod.

"Most criminals among wizards have committed crimes of that sort. I will strike the more aggressive ones from the list. Thank you. Would you prefer to meet here in three days, or should we arrange some other meeting place?"

"I think here will be all right, thank you."