"Every week?"  Two teleports a month by twelve months by however many forts... she's not wondering any more why nobody else could hold the northern border.

"About, yeah."

Dish dish dish dishity dish.

So the question really is, then, how much the new Queen cares about Mendev.  

Does it, actually, change anything, though?  She already knew Cheliax had a coup and a new government and a new Church and everything was accordingly up in the air; she already knew the supply situation was dicey but not dire, or they'd be on half rations instead of seven-eighths.  Maybe they're getting massive loans from somewhere to hire teleports from Absalom or whatever to replace however many wizards died or fled.  Maybe they're planning to drive herds of cows up here on foot once the snow melts.

Probably the sensible thing to do would be to give up and head for Kenabres after all before things get stretched enough to break down, there's no guarantee she'd get enough warning to get out.  But she's not about to be less dedicated to Mendev existing than all these random Chelish soldiers who have every reason to hate them, she'd about die of embarrassment.  And... she likes where she's headed.  If she cuts and runs and leaves half a dozen forts without the clerical support she was maybe put here for, she's not sure she still would.

She hasn't come to any real conclusions in her brooding (although she has helped make quite a dent in the dish pile) by the time she starts smelling poultry-and-mushrooms in addition to the general miasma of beef.  ...if the ptarmigan stew is specially for her and Ptarmigan Guy and the officers, is she supposed to be eating with them?  Is it some kind of formal thing?  She doesn't have anything nicer to change into, and she'd just put her borrowed coat back on over it anyway if she did, but she redoes her scarf into a drapier style just in case.

The cook mentions to her that they're going to take the ptarmigan meal in a meeting room she's never been to on the third floor.

Okay, yup, this sure is a Fancy Situation.  She checks for any stray rice on her hems, Prestidigitates off whatever dust she can, and follows the cook upstairs once it's time.

Up they go. The cook ladles out ten servings and takes the pot back down. Artigas and two other guys she hasn't met yet and the First Arcane are already there. Artigas inclines his head toward wizard and cook both.

"Thank you," she murmurs to the cook, and "Good evening," a bit louder to the group of men, and- gets stuck, because the stock-phrase introduction she was about to say doesn't account for the scenario where someone probably knows your name but you don't know theirs.

Grec actually introduces everyone, though he only starts once another couple guys trickle in.

Oh good, then she can unstick herself with "pleased to make your acquaintance" as appropriate. 

Doooooes it seem like 'who sits where' is some kind of fraught hierarchy situation like They Say About Cheliax?  And if so is there an obvious empty seat or is she supposed to guess?

Looks like she's maybe supposed to sit next to Grec?

Okay, she can definitely do that.  If it indicates something other than 'she's a wizard and therefore in the wizard hierarchy', she'll figure it out sooner or later.  And there's no unfamiliar cutlery to mess up like she's heard they have in Taldor, so that's fine.

She gives Grec an acknowledging nod and a tiny smile as she sits down.  Come on, brain, generate an uncontroversial dinner conversation topic, why can she suddenly not think of anything but politics...  "It was pleasant to be clear weather during the trip to Fifteen.  Is it often such this time of year?"

"Mostly. Some snow, but nothing so you can't see the wardstone line if you hew close to it. Clerics get Read Weather, but this time of year I usually don't prepare it unless we see something coming."

Nod.  "I'm glad to hear it."  Especially since she's going to be out in it a lot.  "I'm as yet unused to asking for spells- how does one tell what they all are?"

"Are you trying to identify them by feel instead of by asking for cleric spells you know to exist? I can draw up a list for you, if you don't know many."

"Yes- or, I should more use sight for a metaphor than feel?  But, some I know are granted only to clerics, some I've heard in passing but not which circle, I hadn't previously much reason to study the list." 

"I'll get you the list. By tomorrow unless there is an emergency."

"I thank you- I shouldn't think it urgent but I'm definitely curious."  Particularly about why she still can't figure out how to get real healing spells.  "I can only wish Detect Magic worked on one's own spells."

"If you tell me the verbal components I am likely to recognize them."

"Resistance?  That's the cant- orison somewhat like Guidance but not."

"Resistance. The same one they make cloaks of resistance with, it improves saves."

"Huh!  I didn't at all recognize that- I have the wizard version-"  her curiosity seems to have doubled rather than abated, and she's clearly holding back shop talk"-would that help the horses at all?"

"Some people have been known to try it but it doesn't show up if you look at the statistics on the patrols."

"Oh, what manner of things does one take statistics on-?"  This is way less interesting than pinning Resistance down under a magnifying glass and poking it until she understands, but that's not exactly polite dinner conversation when only two people here are wizards.

"The timeliness and intactness of patrols and what if any irregular measures they took - either experimentally or due to a lack of resources."

Nod nod.  "I expect the insurance adjuster must value that highly."