"Imps are not known for their aesthetic judgment, your majesty. One of them even thought her a vulpinal, no matter that she needed translation."

Togomor looks pained, but then he usually does.

"They have been dispatched nevertheless."

"Fine. If she is putting on a brave face about being trapped here, that's where you come in with a project to get her home that can stretch on endlessly. Who else could possibly help her, Toff?"

"If not, that puts her at what, fifth circle? Then we'll squeeze our Good little fox-girl for all the fifth-circle service she can offer before she turns tail. Perhaps she can be poisoned against the nobles as well..."

She carelessly scribbles a note in the margin of an ancient tome.

"Keep an imp on her. I want vices, gold clearly isn't one of them. Now, how are you getting on with that efreeti?"

Yesss she knew nobles usually have good food. And this food is pretty good actually! You have to enjoy the little things.

"This one is not entirely unlike sushi... Sort of. Not really. This one reminds me of a, uh, famous restaurant called Chipotle..."

She gravitates towards the fried and sweet.

"I admit, I've never given much thought to what life is like on other worlds. What's 'sushi'?"

She obliges her tastes by taking the dish of oysters for herself, holding it for want of a chair. 

"Rice, seafood - usually raw, though traditional sushi was never my absolute favorite compared to nicely cooked and sauced stuff in little finger-food rolls. And seaweed to hold then together. They do something to it to make it nicely sticky and savory, I don't recall what."

She waves a hand negligently and illuses... The essence, at least, of a sushi cooking video. She remembers the bit how they make a long roll and cut it up into finger food, at least.

"These ones reminded me of them, a bit, because they're crab? Lots of crab sushi. Hmm, I don't remember how to make soy sauce either. Though I have a bottle."

Tail of Holding, ho! She daubs a tiny bit of it onto one of the crab spheres. "Mm!"

Sabina holds out an oyster in a wordless request to try some of this 'soy sauce' on it and watches the illusion video.

Most of her thinking is really on the combat implications of a Tail of Holding. Being a body part, it would be easier to use offensively for capturing disarmed weapons, you'd need thick-soled boots to chase her down if she could scatter caltrops from it as she runs... Her posture subtly shifts as she recalculates how best to defeat her. It's not anything personal.

"Sushi looks tasty. I think I saw something similar being served as a snack at the Jade Circle once, that's a teahouse in South Shore."

"Jade, eh? Sounds Atsosi, which is where they do sushi. Sorta. Ish. Ahem: A journey of one thousand li begins with one step."

Shrug. She will do a quick pour of soy sauce.

"Anyway... Nothing seems to be actually on fire today from what I saw on the walk over, which is an improvement."

"Yes, though we don't know if the Guard and Sable Company will be as much help when unrest flares up again. It does give us a narrow opening to address some problems that could fester if this turmoil continues."

Soy sauce gets an approving nod, then she devours the last oysters and puts the helmet back on. 

"The two topping the list are the reports of a necromancer operating in the Gray, and of hidden tunnels beneath the Longacre building. We do not want an undead problem brewing if more people are going to die, and we do not know whether the tunnels are being used to free convicted criminals or abduct them. A small elite strike force is being assembled to investigate, and you've shown you'd be a strong addition to it."

"Necromancy is... Very bad. Some places you rise as a skellie or zombie if not given last rites back home, but people doing it deliberately..." She does a full body shiver.

"Quite. If you're willing, I'll introduce you to the rest of the team you'll be working with."

Her ears do a flicker of annoyance at 'team'.

"I probably should be with people. For familiarity with the environment reasons if nothing else.  Is all this happening now? Not sure how long a necromancer problem can keep, don't they need to pray for spells like the priests?"

"It's not urgent on a scale of hours or days, that much is correct, but we don't know how long we have until the next outbreak of violence that consumes our attention and provides them with many more corpses to work with. Does your world have contagious undead? There are some here, thank the gods they generally never spread far but they're a menace if left unaddressed."

"No, they're not contagious unless you have a single powerful - demon? Not quite, maybe fiend? - that can do that."

"I don't think I'm ready to go off after a necromancer right now, I need to get the lay of the city more. Maybe do some shopping. I also don't recall exactly when the share language wears off. But we could meet the team if they're here now and plan?"

Visit some temples, listen to some of the ones not wearing the stompy boots, you know.

"Understandable. The rest of the team will be meeting here shortly before sunset to plan so that they can prepare spells accordingly come the morning. If you want to help, that would be the time to introduce yourself."

"Here? In the doom castle? Well, I suppose nowhere else I'm thinking of seems more appropriate. Okay, smells like a plan, around sunset."

Actually- She schools her reactions ahead of Actually Doing It- But she has a surreptitious look around on the way out, tail lashing in thought, at how much magic is around? She usually only does this when it seems called for. Might be prudent to do it more often.

The castle is not without its magic. A glance at Sabina on the way out will reveal multiple enchanted items and one or two spells on her person, while several of the guards stationed in key locations also have weapons or other equipment that bear magic. Some of the doors have spells on them, as do many of the light sources. 

(To a Golarion native, this might seem almost negligent in how limited the magical defences are. Where are the permanent Forbiddances, the Guards and Wards? There are a few reasons for this:

First, the threat model: Korvosa is a city-state, one that controls some valuable trade routes, but it is also remote, loosely affiliated with Cheliax and with no rival powers that could launch a land war against it. From the founding of the settlement, the main dangers have been raids by the Shoanti, internal strife, conflict with Cheliax, and a dragon attack. Otyughs and reefclaws have probably killed more citizens than any would-be conquerors. Layering magical defences on top of the mundane fortifications would hinder few of the potential attackers except Cheliax, and so for most of the city's history investing in such protection would only have invited more trouble by signalling an intent to break away from the empire.

Second, the spellcasters: The Acadamae has the expertise to provide those kinds of wards, as exemplified by the Breaching Festival, but its relationship with the crown is one of cordial distance. To call on the wizards to ward the structure would both put the crown in their debt and at the same time provide them with privileged access to the whole building. For all that the headmasters have had little interest in ruling beyond the Acadamae walls, it would be hard for them to resist that kind of opening to install a backdoor in the defences through which to depose any monarch acting against their interests afterwards.

Third, the decision-makers: The kings and queens of Korvosa are not known for their long lives, the legendary Curse of the Crimson Throne that ensures none of them die of natural causes or sire an heir remaining unbroken. Under such circumstances, when one's demise seems an inevitability, why spend a fortune on spells that may never be needed in one's lifetime when that same fortune could be spent on living lavishly? Not only that, but the city charter grants complete control over the pyramid and any structures built atop it to the seneschal, not the monarch, adding an extra layer of political friction to the efforts of any far-sighted royals.)

Somehow both more and less than she expected? Tirran wards would cover the windows too and all be connected with little circuit lines, and you'd attack those, maybe, though the clever ones scream if they disconnect (which sometimes leads to alarm fatigue). Actually, serious dukedom-level wards would be a fair bit more elaborate. A few really good knights, a bunch of not so good guards, a little magic here and there, that's a County, maybe even a Barony, not a Duchy. She revises her estimate of this place's importance down a bit again. Bit of a relief, really. Though it's an odd city in a lot of ways. It has some of that denseness that Tirran cities do, but it's weird. Layout, materials, the roof-run- Sort of like the third floor storefronts in winged-subspecies-heavy towns.

Aaaaanyway awayyyyy from the doom castle. She asks someone about the temple of Sarenrae.

Conveniently, the temple can be pointed out from the top of the ramp, a short distance down the road at its base. It's a turreted building of white marble, gleaming in the sunlight, with wide streets and low neighbors to keep that sunlight unobstructed. There is a mid-size crowd outside it, but they look to be peacefully waiting to enter.

Hmmmmmm... She on the way down she, going just slowly enough to take advantage of a little change blindness, conjures enough clothes to not blatantly stick out (hood, big long coat for her tail, both attempting to match the style and color that seems common around here) and lingers with the crowd, listening to conversations.

The talk of the town is, unsurprisingly, the king's death.

"I hear it was one of his mistresses that did it! He was never the type to stop his dalliances, only got better at hiding them once he married. When the king's smuggling you into his bedchamber under cloak and mask, through secret passages to bypass the guards, what better opportunity for revenge?"

"That's the curse of the throne, isn't it? All that power and wealth, but you won't die well and your line ends there."

"He was an old man! Both my parents died younger than he did, nothing unnatural about that. People are just stirring trouble, giving thieves and those little blue river ghosts a free hand."

A little under half of the people outside the temple are nursing injuries, bandaged cuts or broken bones. There are a couple of clergy at the entrance who are talking to them, slowly letting them inside after exchanging kind words and asking about their ailments.