Sinnah huffs in annoyance. "Well that just makes it obvious. You hate charm, so obviously the better cloak you're wearing, and this one, and the hat, all have countermeasures against local mind magic. Right?"

"-Right." Sigh. "Yeah, it was scary. If you see this person," Cinnabar illusion, "She's vicious. Assassin type. I tried to track her but couldn't."

"I hear you're working for the law now."

She puts on the cloak and stares at how the subtle magic shifts.

"-Well, only kinda. There is so much shit around here. Necromancers, assassins, imps - they're apparently inherently evil and summoned from some sort of hell plane - the Inquisition would have a field day. And then a field month. So, like, nominally helping out the law seems like a lesser evil."

"It's not like I'm judging you. It was just surprising to hear. The planar system and new pantheon is fascinating and... Problematic."

She feels a cold dread in her belly.

...But Sinnah has always been extremely straightforward.

"...Are you going to start sacrificing people or necromancing or anything like that? Stay here and learn more deep magics that don't require justifying yourself?"

"I can't give a one word answer to that. I'm not going to dive off the deep end though. Rules chafe. You know what I mean. But they also exist for a good reason, and the social infrastructure of Tirra is... Well, I'm not an amoral engine of learning. We've talked about this before some time, right? The corrosiveness of evil is present as a metaphysical force on Tirra, and that's always made interacting with it at all extremely hazardous. It does seem to be the same way here. When your options and incentives change, aligning towards conflict, selfishness, and destruction- You become what you practice, and I know you would try to destroy me if I became a necromancer, and so would the Light Gods. It's in my interests not to, even if it weren't also disgusting and the lazy way to power."

Weiss hugs Sinnah, who pauses her walk and hugs back.

After a bit, she un-hugs. "More likely to be left alone to do magic if you're patient, cooperative, and look for long-term benefits, right? ...Do you feel any of the - the natural impulse to good? That it's nice to make other people happy, to cooperate, to help?"

"Sometimes. It commingles with an irritation with - pointless waste, or stupidity - or a sort of smug superiority. I usually hate teaching, but not always. I usually dislike charity casting, but when building things and just solving the problem- Not always. I can't stand court formality but tavern flirting is fun. We are none of us simple beings. Like you, working with the law now."

"Yeah. It's complicated sometimes. But I really am glad to see you! And I hope you see more opportunities to help than irritations to remove... Let me tell you everything that's happened since I got here-"

Sinnah follows Weiss all the way to the Guardhouse. Since she's already here, she wants to get an understanding of their policies compared to Duke Rose's.

The two gate guards do a double-take at the sight of a second fox-woman, and with the height difference it's quite an obvious diagonal motion. Is the big one Weiss' mother? They at least know enough etiquette to not ask that directly. 

"Hail, Weiss. Thanks for the alarm sticks, not had to break one yet but it's reassuring to have in the pocket. Who's your friend?"

"Oh, I should probably recharge those. So they don't expire and stop working. It's been a week or so... This is Sinnah! She's a wizard."

She amusedly casts Prestidigitation to punctuate the point, trying to get cooling right, since that's her next target among the functions.

They do tense just a little at the newcomer casting a spell, since not everyone has enough Spellcraft to recognize a harmless cantrip on sight. 

"If you're looking for the marshal, she just got back but I'll warn you now, she's not in a good mood."

"Oh no, did something happen? -Well, maybe you can't answer that."

It's a little funny to make them twitch. "And I'm here because she's my friend. And because I don't want to get in trouble for doing things that I thought were fine. But I'm drawing a blank on actual examples there."

"You've not already heard? The painter who poisoned the king was due to be executed, but then that canny bastard Blackjack plucked her from the chopping-block and spirited her away! Left my mate with a knife straight through his foot, he did."

"Oh man. I ... Don't think I can," conscionably, "Do things about prison breakouts."

That particular phrasing causes the guards to exchange a look. 

"Er, you know, maybe you had better see her sooner rather than later. Matters we can't really talk about out here."

"If you say so...?"

She glances at Sinnah. Sinnah makes a dismissive gesture, not looking up from the Fly wand.

This time around the marshal is not able to receive Weiss immediately. Periodically, guard sergeants leave her offices, moving with purpose. It takes a quarter of an hour before her voice invites them in. 

"Ah, Weiss. I had meant to contact you, but wasn't sure whether to use an alarm stick to do so as it fell outside the bounds of what we'd agreed and wasn't strictly urgent." She hesitates only a moment longer. "Rolth Lamm, the necromancer you captured, has escaped as of this morning. We had compelled him to waste all of his prepared spells, confiscated his spellbook and any items he could have used, but evidently he had some other methods or allies unknown to us that allowed him to break out of his cell without a trace during the night."

"I apologize for this failure of our security procedures that has put you in danger with him at large again. Should you want a guard escort for fear that he will seek revenge, you have it, and should you encounter him again you need not hold back from lethal force."

"We have not yet made his escape public; after the debacle at the execution the people's faith in Korvosan law and order is already teetering, but the guard will be directing great efforts in our search and recapture of all of the fugitives."

"Fucking necromancers. You have to give people proper trials and all, but- gah-!"

"Might be able to find him by the spellbook. Presuming that he touched it often." 

Pause.

"This one's full again." She hands over a wand to the slightly stunned Weiss.

"You can do that? -I don't like killing people, and I'm getting tired of - being dragged into people stuff. It's like dealing with Cryptids, all the time. Sinnah, would that be charity, or-"