“Yeah, it’s fine. Won’t say know to trading some other spells later, when we’re not on the road, though.”

He’ll show her the pages for long enough for her to copy them down in pencil or non-magical ink. Mage Armor is exactly how she’d expect it. With good Spellcraft, she can notice a few differences in Identify, like a different range, subtly different effect, different target, an added material component, and that the casting time is off by over two orders of magnitude.

…They’re both divination spells.

She'll open her own spellbook to Mount and pass it over for him to copy from at the same time.

Sketch sketch sketch squiiiiiint.

"...does this actually take an hour?  Am I reading your notation wrong?"

He’s not as fast as her when sketching, but some of that is probably that he seems to have a compulsive need to check that he copied it absolutely perfectly every five seconds or so.

”Yes, of course. I’ve heard rumors that it’s possible to Quicken it at fifth circle, but I’ve never actually seen it, and I couldn’t figure out a way for it to stabilize.”

"Huuuuuuh.  Maybe Tongues does just grab the closest equivalent- I wish I knew ours to compare, is it built on the same substructure as Detect Magic?  Our guy back home definitely didn't take a whole hour, he'd tell us to come back sometimes but usually if he only had one that day and needed to batch them-"  She's sketching away as she chatters, clearly skilled with a pen but also not making an exactly perfect duplicate, enlarging tricky bits off to the side and filling up the margins with notes in her native language.  "I know some spells got optimized pretty recently but I thiiiink Identify is one clerics get, I'd have expected it to be one of the old ones...."

It is absolutely not built on the same structure, except insofar as they’re both divination spells that use a scaffold. He can show her his copy of Detect Magic to compare.

“This is actually pretty optimized! The divine version is second circle, and only clerics of Mystra, Corellon, and Hanali Celanil get it. Uh, the last two are elven deities. Corellon’s the elven deity, really.”

"Oh weird- yeah, that's a totally different spell with the same name, what does it do?  Ours is Detect Magic but way better at items specifically- you can see my Detect once you're done with Mount if you want-"  This is the face of a wizard who wants to take something apart.

“The cantrips that I saw looked nearly identical - maybe there’s only so many that hold together when they don’t have a proper circle? Or maybe Nethys did Plane Shift from Netheril after all, and Identify wasn’t invented until after?”

He’s absolutely willing to share his Detect too! They’re identical.

"Oooh, maybe- I should try and write down all the spells I've heard of so we can compare, I don't know when which of them were invented or optimized but I bet we could figure something out-" she pulls out a clean sheet of scrap paper and starts making notes- "yeah, that looks the same as mine- I wish I'd prepped it today, I don't usually need more than one when I'm not on the road-"

He laughs, a little startled.

”What else are you using your cantrip slots for, then? A full half of mine are always Detect Magic.”

Protection from Evil (Law/Chaos/Good) looks identical, and that definitely originated with clerics. Eagle’s Splendor does the same thing she expects. Technically he doesn’t think that Reduce Person is on any cleric lists, but Mass Reduce Person is, and the spellcraft to reduce the number of people to get it to first circle is reasonably intuitive. 

…Her version of mending takes ten minutes, what in the world. How did he miss that? He’s absolutely certain that’s a cleric orison.

…Right, he’s going over this with a fine-toothed comb, this time. Protection from Alignment’s mental protection ignores alignment, if Khalida’s notes on the spell are good enough to differentiate it. His Glitterdust has an extra bit that makes the dust sticky and basically impossible to get out before combat’s over. That’s everything he noticed, but maybe he missed another spell that’s a few orders of magnitude off in casting time.  

"...half?  Why...do you need both...?"  Maybe he's some weird variant kind of wizard with only two cantrips, no that doesn't make sense either...

Anyway!  Spell comparing!  She's not certain she remembers Protection From Evil And/Or Good perfectly, if she was going to rederive it she'd want to do it next to a big snowdrift with Mage Armor up, but she'd definitely have remembered if it was Protection From Mental Control And Also Evil, that would've been probably worth spending the ink on.  Yeah, she can get Mending as an orison too and it takes ten minutes both ways.  She hasn't inked Reduce Person yet but she has notes, it looks the same to her too, she hasn't heard of Mass Reduce Person being a cleric spell but she's been a cleric for like a month, that doesn't mean it isn't.  Oh that extra bit on Glitterdust is fascinating, can she copy it, does he want like Message or something. 

He does already have Message. He was trying not to look too hard at the unfamiliar stuff, out of courtesy, but he thinks he saw something that did arcane healing, he’d totally give an improved second level and a few firsts for that.

"I know right isn't it so cool- and it's first circle- uh, it does need devil's blood, I dunno if your cleric friend is okay with that?  But if you're just keeping it for emergencies it should be easy to do enough good to make up for it- oh, and it's not instant, you have to stay still while it's working, or like not have to have to but you might tear something open again-"

He blinks. “I’d… think that devil’s blood’s fine, if difficult to procure. If it took angel’s blood, I’d start getting concerned.”

Flip flip. "Okay, if you don't- um.  The spell is evil, I don't think I- said-"  fuuuuck any more words are not happening and she sounds like an idiot, are spells polarized backward here or something, is he evil, is he judging her for knowing an evil spell even though it's really cool-

“Oh, okay. Only use it if the cleric’s down, then. Sort of a shame, though, it’d be super cool to have easy arcane healing. Uh, we only have maybe ten minutes of Tongues left. Does Infernal Healing and Mount in exchange for the improvement on Glitterdust, Mage Armor, and one-round Mending seem fair?”

Nodnod.  Sketch sketch sketchity sketch.

More spells!

”Oh, you should know, the Wards of Silverymoon prevent any Evil spells from working. Also summoning, fire, and teleportation, but the Evil’s important so that if you see someone bleeding out you should run for a cleric instead of trying Infernal Healing.”

That's interesting enough to snap her out of hiding in the spell notes.  "All fire spells over the whole city?  -is it a city, I forgot to ask, what kind of a place is it, Who laid the wards?"  She's not paying attention to whether the language they're speaking has god pronouns right now but if it does, she's clearly assuming city-sized permanent wards are beyond archmage level. 

This language doesn’t unless you’re specifically trying for an archaic formal register.

”A city, yeah. It think it’s founded on some magic item from ancient Netheril that survived when the city crashed, but I don’t know more than that, the city doesn’t exactly go around sharing it’s security details. The Spellguard have some way to get around it, but otherwise yeah.”

"Oh cool.  Absalom- that's the city full of wizards back home- they have to make do with making it illegal and trying to arrest people."  Sketch sketch.  "What're you going there for, did somebody there hire you to deal with the necromancer or is it just closest- oh shit, please tell me you got good notes on the circle?  I couldn't ask before-"

“I copied it down, yeah, although I’m not sure how useful it will be - it’s pretty nonsensical.” He opens up a page in a separate book and offers it to her, shrugging. “Might make more sense in your magical tradition, though. We’ll get paid by the city for dealing with the necromancer, one we confirm with Discern Lies that he was actually a necromancer and not some random wizard we murdered, there’s a standard bounty.”

She squints at it for a bit.  "Doesn't make much sense to me either, but I haven't done a lot of summoning- I can make a copy in the morning, even if recreating it doesn't work maybe somebody can still trace it backwards.  Standard bounty for necromancers in general?"

“It varies based on circle and body count, but yes. Uh, to be clear, if you’re doing necromantic spells that’s fine, you just shouldn’t be raising the dead.”