"I think I would like that."

"Excellent. And I think Metella should be back any minute now. Will you be helping or staying out of it? Anything non-obvious I should know about the layout of the building?"

"I will help if you trust me to. There are a number of traps to look for-" and she can provide details on where and how to avoid triggering them. "Caladrius will be in his office, near the loading dock at the other end of the building."

He nods.

"I'm thinking Hesta and Kador and I will knock politely on the front door, and you can go in the back with Metella and Clare. Hesta and Kador are golems, Clare's more or less a mage."

"How much less than more?"

"In addition to being a mage she's one of the best archers I've ever seen, and not bad with sword and daggers either."

"Interesting. I didn't think the southern Circles permitted their charges that much freedom."

"They don't. Clare is, shall we say, unofficial."

"Aha. Far be it from me to decry such heterodoxy."

He laughs.

And then Metella appears around the corner and beckons him over.

"See you in a bit," he says cheerfully, and goes off with Metella.

"...Why are you doing this?"

"Because I like my fellows only slightly more than you do, and because this operation was finished the moment he learned of it, even if Caladrius thinks otherwise."

And here is Metella again.

She brought a friend! The friend has a staff on her back that looks very definitely like the kind you hit people with rather than the kind you use to do magic.

"Hello. You are Clare?"

"Yes," she says. "And you are Eliana. Hello."

"It would be best if the two entries coincided as closely. What is the others' plan?"

"Stalas is going to knock on the door. We will have no trouble hearing it from behind the building. We can assume he will be going in shortly afterward."

"I almost wish I could be there to see the guards' faces. Coming from the back, we will be facing less resistance. Closest place likely to contain hostiles is the refectory, two hallways over from the door."

Acknowledging nods from both of them.

"My magical specialty is telekinesis; Clare is a melee fighter today unless a third mage starts looking unexpectedly useful."

"Understood. I can handle elementalism, and I have made a study of some of the more esoteric arts. If you do not object to their use on principle."

"My principled objections to things are entirely concerned with how much harm is being done to people, and not a bit about how forbidden any particular discipline may or may not be."

Nod.