And back to Common. "It's a bit like elementals, yep! And getting between planes isn't that hard if you're prepared for it, I just wasn't."

    "I really ought to make that translation circle," says Janow.

"They come in circles?" says Zoi.

"Not usually but I can do them that way! Skon already asked to help, I won't mind working with an audience if you aren't distracting."

"What kind of help do you need?" asks Uamok. "Or, uh, can you use, I guess."

"If you do stonecarving I can use help with that part, if not I can still use help preparing the reagents - watching stuff to take it off the heat when it boils or adding ingredients when it changes color, that kind of thing."

"I've never tried stonecarving, but if it doesn't have to be very neat I could start!" Uamok says.

"It kind of does - like it doesn't need to be artwork but if you mess it up it's hard to do over, I'm not sure any of us even have the right kind of magic for it."

"Oh well." Iss shows up and climbs up onto Uamok; Skon climbs down to be ready to assist.

"-oh, I'm not going to start right now - a rune circle is a permanent thing, I'm not going to make one right here in the street."

"Oh, you should make it on campus, we can ask the head teacher where!" says Uamok. "They can use it for language circles."

"Sure!" And the group can follow Uamok through the campus.

The head teacher suggests a location and Uamok can show them where it is.

Janow explains while they're there that she'll need to see if Raafi has the components she'll need and it'll be a couple of days before she's done even if he does, and then they can check out the site and Raafi's supplies - she'll have to make a couple of substitutions from how she normally does things but yes, she can do it; the next step is to sketch out her plan, which she starts on, explaining to Uamok and her mates the general idea of what she's doing while she does.

It takes three days to complete the rune circle, and another for Janow to attune a new divining rod to this plane so that they can get back and forth. Raafi does a couple more classes, but spends most of his time with Rannura and Cochik, showing them around town; he finally gets around to seeing the males' troupe perform at the theater, and Cochik plays to an interested crowd the following night, and Rannura and Raafi rearrange things in his portable hole to accommodate a cache of canned spren to tide Uamok and her mates over until they can get a breeding stock of spren established in Oerth, and then with all the loose ends tied up, they can make the jump back.

They land in the deep desert, which Raafi warned them to expect and warded them against he heat of beforehand; he takes the rescue party and one of Uamok's mates in the first teleport to the palace, so as not to overly alarm the guards, and is back in less than ten minutes for the rest of the group, depositing them in a wide courtyard surrounded by sandstone walls with cloth sails hung above to offer shade; various workstations are set up around the edges of the space - the stablehand brushing down horses at one of them has a bad few moments when the horse he's working on panics at Uamok's appearance - but there's plenty of room to maneuver in the middle, and only a few armed guards watching them. "They've sent someone to let the prince know we're here, I expect he'll be out in a few minutes."

"Hi everybody!" says Uamok exuberantly.

A few of the workers wave.

After a moment a woman comes out and approaches the group. "Traveler Raafi?" she asks, and when he nods, continues: "And who's this?"

"This is Uamok and her mates Iss, Zoi, Skon, and Kiv. Uamok's traveling with me to look for a wizarding education."

    "I see. And how long are you planning to stay, will we need to arrange accommodations?"

"Well that's mostly up to Prince Maziar, but I think we'd like to stay overnight at least - they have a zoo," he adds, to the group.

"Oooh, a zoo!" says Skon.

    "I see." She considers. "I believe the east ballroom will do for a night. What should I tell the kitchen?"

"I think they'll be able to eat most of our plants, but most of their diet is a specific sort of meat, I have a spell prepared for it."

    "Very good."

It's around then that the prince shows up, shirtless and carrying a rapier which he puts away as he approaches the group. "Raafi! I hear you've been on quite an adventure!" He lifts him off his feet with a hug, and Raafi grins and kisses his cheek.

"I have! There's a whole new world to explore, it's been a wonderful time."

    "As long as you don't forget about your friends back home."

"Never."

    "So who's this?"

Raafi repeats his introductions.

    "A prospective wizard, you say? Good choice, ma'am, it's an excellent profession."

"It sounds so cool!" crows Uamok. "And Kiv likes math, he might try too. Zoi wants to go to the theater and Skon wants to get better at Common and Iss wants to read all the books here."

"We'd be happy to host you for a few days, if you'd like to see our theaters and library! The palace mages can tutor you on wizardry, too, if you'd like."

"Awesome!" says Uamok, tapping her feet on the ground in a way that almost makes her bounce.

The prince gives Raafi another kiss and sets him back on his feet. "What would you like to see first?"

Uamok wants a tour of the palace, if they think she'll fit.

They can take a tour! Uamok fits through most of the hallways - nearly all, if she's willing to squeeze a bit - and into most of the rooms big enough to comfortably accommodate her, though many of the smaller ones have merely human-size doors and she's limited to peeking in. In addition to the predictable bedrooms and workrooms there's a grand dining hall, a magically cooled and humidified greenroom for the queen's collection of foreign plants, a second courtyard for sparring and jousting practice where another member of the palace staff asks if they should expect the prince back or give his sparring partner something else to do, the throne room, which Prince Maziar declines to show them yet, saying that his brother the king will be busy there but available to meet them before dinner, the east ballroom, now swarming with workers bringing pillows and cushions from storage, a smaller west ballroom that opens out onto a statue garden, a chapel to Pelor and local gods of the four elements, and, finally, the zoo, where the prince calls a man followed by a bristly-haired brown creature out to show them through the enclosures of a number of mundane animals, birds, and insects, and a few more exotic creatures - there's a phoenix, a fire-wreathed salamander, a swarm of glowing motes that the Prince says will lead people to water in the wild, a four-foot-long baby sandworm, and an obsidian-shelled tortoise that the guide explains produces illusions when provoked.

May they provoke the tortoise?