This used to be a junior cleric's job and it took the woman quite a bit more time than it takes Blai but the opportunity cost was a lot lower. It is helpful to have her shave off twenty percent of the time he spends on this. Conill finishes the report and is dismissed.

Right.  She wanted to talk in private, they're in private.  Unless the cooks start coming in or someone else has another report.  But she'd probably hear them in time.

She just needs to- start talking. 

"Um."

Gods all fucking dammit why is she even here-

"Create Water."  Can she make it a very thin layer above the existing water so it doesn't splash.

In theory yes but she needs practice and is looking likely to get it.

"Create Water."  Deep breath, assemble the sentence before starting.

"You mentioned that one ought receive what one asks for.  Does it- does it signify something, do you know, if this is not the case?"

"...it could mean the spell is not a cleric spell and is not one of your domain spells either, or is too high a circle for the slot, or - much much less likely but I don't know about Nethys's individual proclivities - that the god has other plans in mind for you."

"That certainly seems- I do not know 'proclivities' but to my knowledge He's- not very understood to have plans, or rather not ones mortals comprehend."

"Proclivities is - the way He is, the things He likes to do. But yes, that is also my understanding."

"I- I thought I-"  Deep breath.  She fixes her gaze on the far edge of the cistern instead of the commander's face.  "Create Water."

"I asked Him for healing spells, and- He wouldn't give them to me, or I couldn't hold them, or- I thought I had one but-"

"...that's strange. Even if you - channeled negative, you'd be able to prepare Cures. It's possible to be so marginal a wizard as to only have room for cantrips and not first circle spells but the first circle of clerichood comes in all at once."

so either she's broken or she's so evil even cheliax hasn't heard of it stop it that's dumb there are tons of evil things she hasn't done and probably several times as many that she doesn't even know about.

...this does not exactly rule out 'broken'.

"I- when I asked-"  assemble the sentence, eyes on the cistern, do not cry "-I asked Him for a cantri- orison that does healing if there was such a thing, and it was that which I thought He granted, but- nothing happened-"

She tugs her left sleeve up and turns her forearm over to show him a bite mark, skin unbroken but livid red and already starting to bruise.

"There is not an orison that heals but there is one that prevents someone who is dying from getting any worse, Stabilize. Like this: Stabilize."

"...Stabilize-" She catches it and yanks her sleeve back down and presses both hands to her face, slumping against the side of the cistern.  She hiccups something that doesn't take Comprehend Languages to parse as 'gods I'm such an idiot.'

Yes, foreigners certainly do yell such things very loudly and clearly. "Create Water. Create Water."

She focuses on breathing for another moment, and then scrubs the tail end of her scarf across her face and turns back to their work.  "Right.  So."

"...Create Water."

"I... should like to stay for some time, I think.  Tariq will want to return.  I'm not sure of Omar."  Omar definitely wants to get back but he might come over all chivalrous about leaving her behind, and with his landlady's youngest prenticed out she doesn't urgently need him home.

"I would be glad to have you. I should warn you that if you can channel positively much of the use of having two clerics over one is being able to lend one to the neighboring forts; I can leave #11 occasionally but not as often as they would benefit from a channel."

She makes a bit of a face, but nods.  "I won't say I enjoy the snow but I expect it shan't be so taxing when one is prepared for it."  

Apart from the demons.  Well, no, if she channels positive then she likes where she's headed, and if she doesn't there's no need to lend her out and she can stay here doing dishes and filling the cistern and Enduring patrols until she does.

"Do they- would the-" How much are the neighboring forts You Know What They Say About Cheliax, there is literally no polite way to ask that.  "...would mainly I go with the same patrol, or do they go all the way around?" 

"Clerics are presently very rare and very valuable. If you would prefer the same patrol be assigned to you, you could have your pick of the men who aren't elsewhere promised."

"I- should very much prefer that, thank you." 

...figuring out which total strangers she can trust is a problem for Later Khalida.  Not like she hasn't done it before.

"And your own party too for as long as they wish to stay."

"I thank you, but- I think it unlikely.  They've worked with one another far longer than either with me."

"I see."

Nod.  "Create Water." 

...oooh, can she make it in several smaller blobs?  "Create Water."  How small can she get them?

She can apparently manage something in between cupfuls and spoonfuls, but not consistently, and once extremely fat raindrops although she's not sure how she did it and can't seem to replicate it. 

...right, she's got an underspecified debt hanging around.  "So, considering once more the scroll you mentioned- I've little ink and no suitable parchment, but if you have the materials I could do the scribing for two?"  Unlikely, from what the First Arcane said earlier, but it's a good-faith opener.

A fine mist, if she tries hard and believes in herself.

They'll be here for only about twenty minutes. A man goes through about a gallon of water in a day, but the fort is understrength and they're getting through sixty gallons a minute; even with breaks to talk and cast other spells occasionally they can get it all over with in not too long. Then he can go dispatch someone to get her a ptarmigan alive.

"I am forever in want of ink, but the fort doed have some. Do you have Glitterdust or See Invisibility?"