There he is, fielding Uncle Jacques' questions on the masonry styles of southern Thuvia. 

"Naima? What is it? Gods, did something else happen?" 

"No. ...yes. ...no. Can I talk to you outside?"

Right – she wouldn't want to be alone in a tent with two men. He doesn't see why Osirian women agree to live like this, personally, but then nobody asked him for his opinion. 

"Of course." 

She waits for him to get out of the tent.

- gods, now she has to talk to him, this is the worst, she's going to mess this up horribly, and - no, the alternative is trading her soul for her baby and then not even getting to keep the baby alive, okay, focus, she has a voice and she is going to use it.

"Do you happen to be married already," she says, after about three seconds of awkward silence, which is not really what she meant to say at all but, you know, we can't have everything.

What. 

"....I can't say that I am." 

"Okay. Well. 

"I have to marry someone. Today. I guess possibly tomorrow. My father in law wants custody of my child, which will kill the child, literally, he will die, and the only way to beat his right to it, legally speaking, is for the child to have a father, who could say no to it. I would ask someone else, but I am very sure that no one else within a ten mile radius is willing, and - " vague handwave. "Anyone else would make me stay here forever. The other option is, of course, the Inquisitor, which I did think about, but I'm afraid I would grow to despise him, and I think that he might despise me, too, so I think he's probably the worse option."

There. That's, uh, the information, although even she can tell that that's probably the most incompetent possible way to put it.

There are a lot of things Élie could say to that, but the one that actually comes out of his mouth is – "Yes. Of course. When do you need me?" 

He's only known Naima for a couple of months. Or – he's seen her before, of course, doing this or that in the village, but to be perfectly honest he'd never really bothered to learn who anyone was, in Mut, because learning their names might make it seem like he was planning to build something like a life there and that was just too exhausting to think about. He knows she's clever and determined and honestly a little bit scary, and that she has some sort of strange inexplicable talent she wants to use to change the world, which is a trait he admires in other people even if he's thoroughly lost it himself. 

More importantly, he knows she has a child who needs her. Élie has done some things he's proud of, and more for which he'll never forgive himself, but rarely anything so clear and clean and simple as "let the baby live." So that's it. It's simple. It's not like he was doing anything with his life anyway. 

She has ten minutes of arguments rattling around in her head already, and is so ready to launch into them that she almost trips and falls into the arguing before she can stop herself. "You - wait, really?"

"Yes. I'm not exactly – " he spends a moment trying to think of a word that encompasses sheer boggling unlikeliness of anyone voluntarily deciding to spend their life with him, and settles on "eligible. You know I'm not. So it's no trouble. I understand there are certain legal formalities associated with Osirian marriage, but rest assured I don't want to inconvenience you or lay any claim to your property. We'll live like – how do you say it? – like brother and sister. Whatever you need to keep the child."  

She blinks.

"I - okay. Thank you. Really. I just - I thought that would take more conversation, but - thank you."

"So it's settled, then!" A bit more brightly than he feels. "What should I do next, order my wedding clothes?"

"I don't, um - oh, let me think. Okay. I have to get my father to agree to it, which he never will, but I have a charm person today and I don't see that it harms him any. If I can - oh, if I do it in front of Saira she'll know I did it and it won't count - 

"Okay. I think - the charm lasts an hour. I can invite you to meet my father, charm him, you can ask him for permission to marry me and I can consent, and we can explain that we want to do it right away so that we can go on and report to the government tomorrow about the Lamasara situation, and then it's only a five-minute walk to where Saira's staying, so as long as the conversation doesn't drag it should work. If that's - if that's okay."

....okay on the one hand Élie is against mind control, but on the other hand he doesn't think people's fathers should get to decide who they marry, so probably this is fine? Whatever. He's committed. 

"Will you and the baby need a place to stay? I live alone and I'm not sure what's considered proper in this part of the world." 

"Oh, um, I think - I think the town's sort of still overrun with scorpions? I think - the last I heard we were heading back to Alexandria after this to inform the government about the Lamasarans, and I haven't - I haven't actually thought past that."

"I hadn't thought of it either. It looks like most of the Galtans are moving to Alexandria, so that's probably what I'll do. Of course, if you want to stay near your family – " 

"No, I'm fine going to Alexandria. - not that I never want to see them again but I think maybe I could do with a little bit of not seeing them, uh, immediately after this. If it's no trouble anyway."

"And is there anything I should know before I meet your father? What should I call him? Is there a dowry? Bride price? Am I supposed to bring a gift?" Because at the moment he doesn't exactly have anything on hand. 

"Oh right, argh, uh - you're supposed to have jewelry, nice jewelry, or, you know, nice enough that - I think everything else can be skipped but I don't know if he'll do it even charmed without the jewelry, because - um, it's, women don't own most property but they own their wedding jewelry, so it's, you know, supposed to show that you're rich enough to provide for them and also be enough to tide them over during any personal emergencies that happen for, uh, the rest of their lives - oh - "

She opens the flap to peek in the tent. "Um," - she can't call him 'Uncle Jacques' and she also can't just call him 'Jacques', probably, that sounds rude - "I'm sorry about the inconvenience but do you happen to have any, like, old Osirian jewelry that looks impressive but not so impressive that you wouldn't part with it, I can pay you for it."

"I also have my share of the reward money – gods, what even is there in this town – " 

At which point Jacques pops out of his tent with an enormous jasper and carnelian necklace. "Dear child, I'm not in the business of supplying young ladies! But I do have this set I bought off an antiques dealer in Alexandria, dreadful man, promised me they were genuine Ascension-era antiques and of course one one can't believe everything one hears but I have a colleague who spoke so highly of him – would you believe they're only 200 years old, practically costume jewelry! I'd part for it for no more than the cost of the stones and I wasn't really expecting even to get that in a town like this and prices being what they are these days..."

He is not, voluntarily, going to shut up. 

"It's perfect. How much would that be?"

He will let her have it for 10 gold pieces and another quarter-hour of complaining about unscrupulous antiques dealers. 

"I'm so sorry that happened to you. Has it happened at any other points, do you have any pieces that are comparably irrelevant to your interests - "

He has some turquoise earrings and an anklet that looks like a kind of misshapen snake! 

"Perfect. Thank you. I'd love those."