"Convenient!" Both parts, really.

(Yes, and where the magic comes from isn't so convenient, is it. No, don't think about that, you're drunk, go to bed.)

She's not certain of the wisdom of staying up here with the evil sorcerer, but she thinks that her best bet might be to try and distance herself from his other - guests, she's going to go with guests. Not that she doesn't feel for them, not that she doesn't want to help them, but if she is going to figure out a way to disentangle this awful situation, being interchangeable with them is not going to do her any favors. She needs to keep doing - whatever it is she's doing here. Ugh. Thinking through a muddied mind is hard, she would like to stop now.

"So!" she says, brightly. "I heard immortality?"

"I was going to wait until tomorrow to bring it up," he says, "since it seems like the kind of decision you might not like to make while drunk - I have a spell on the girls that makes them completely impossible to kill, and grants eternal youth and so on, except after a hundred years it starts burning out their minds and after a hundred and fifty there's not usually enough of them left to mind when I kill them. But that's still a better guarantee of a hundred years than you'll get anywhere else, so I thought I'd offer." Pause. "Oh, and they turn into swans when the sun comes up and back when it goes down. I don't like them burning out like that, and transformation was the easiest way we found to slow it down."

It's kind of weird how he can be nice and follow her preferences and then casually talk about his magic burning out the minds of his victims before he inevitably kills them.

"... Well, there's the fountain of youth," she points out, reasonably. "Which is conveniently in the place that you said you'd clear out for precisely that purpose. Not quite as complete of an immortality, but I'd not have a set time limit of when I would go crazy."

"Depends how dangerous a life you want to lead, I guess," he shrugs. "And here's the dining hall!"

It's gorgeous. The windows provide a stunning view of the lake and the forest beyond.

Everything is so lovely on the surface and then everything underneath that is completely horrible. She lets herself linger on the gorgeous view anyway, though. No reason not to.

"Do I seem the dangerous type to you?"

He smiles. "Not especially."

"I mean, granted, accidents happen, but. Definitely a hundred years and then however long I manage to keep my mind versus however long I can keep away from precarious balconies and sharp objects? Well." Plus she might actually want that exit later of being able to kill herself.

"Fair enough," he shrugs. "Let me know if you change your mind."

"Certainly. Maybe tomorrow morning when I wake up hungover I'll kick myself." And yet somehow she suspects she won't.

He giggles. "Anyway - if you come here and sit down at the table and wait, food will appear," he says. "If you like to cook, there's kitchens too."

"I think if I can I'll just skip it entirely. Do I get to choose what sorts of food appears or is there a secret magical kitchen staff that makes meal plan decisions?"

He shrugs. "The magic can make any food it's ever seen, and in three thousand years that's a lot of food. You can ask it for things, but it can't always figure out what you mean; magic doesn't think the way people do. It can figure out what you like and don't like, though, and after a while it gets good at guessing what you'll want when you sit down."

"... So, the equivalent of a secret magical kitchen staff, with more variety and slightly alien logic. All right then."

He grins at her.

"Anything else?"

She considers. She wants to go visit the little lakeside village, but - not while drunk. Not tonight.

Does she have anything else she can distract him with, maybe? Probably, but she's honestly kind of tired. She would like to just go to bed, if it wasn't for the fact that if she leaves him alone he might go torment someone in the adorable little lakeside village. Just that niggling little detail that he makes it paradoxically impossible and yet so very easy to forget.

"Are there other interesting things in the castle I should see?"

He shrugs. "It's a big castle. But I think you've already seen the best part. The way you looked at that library..." He grins. It seems to make him really genuinely happy that she is so fond of his library.

Why is he so confusing. If he were just entirely evil she would - probably be having a much more unpleasant time, really, but she would be much less confused. How can someone be so nice and then also turn around and torture dozens of innocent victims for decades until eventually they're driven insane?

"I didn't think libraries came in, in, eight stories tall!"

"Iri likes books. I collect 'em for her."

"That explains a lot. If you've been very thorough about it, it might be the best collection in the world." She sounds a little wistful.

"I'm sure it could be better. And of course a third of them are in Ansati - do people still read Ansati, I have no idea -"

"A few dedicated scholars, but not commonly. I know a few phrases, but never learned it seriously."

He laughs. "Well, then, you'll only be able to read about two-thirds of the books. For now."

"I'll certainly have time to pick it up," she agrees, a little pleased with the idea despite the situation.

Lord Tanaikon grins that delighted grin at her again.

"So! All set for now?"

He has been sort of politely trying to end this interaction with her for a while now, hasn't he.

Nnnnnhhhh should she push her luck to buy someone a few extra minutes...?

No, probably not. She has to end the horror completely, not temporarily. Buying someone a few minutes might make her feel better, but if it loses her the chance to fix it entirely she's ultimately failed.

"Yeah, I think so. What do I do if I get lost?"