"And the one benefiting from everyone's loose tongues."

"Subtle."

"It takes a special skillset to convince the thieves you're always foiling to welcome you in their circles."

"And you're both special and skilled."

"A rare find."

"And valuable."

Preen! "It'll come in handy now."

"In service to the Empire."

"And her Empress."

"And her Empress," Berengere agrees.

(Elliane smiles.)

She grins over at Elliane. Possibly that's a tiny blush on her cheeks. Hard to say. 

"So how do these work?" she asks Azi.

"They create a shallow point-to-point telepathic connection..." She goes over how to use them to contact the other earrings - there's actually multiple sub-enchantments, one of her favorite elements of Morrowind-style enchanting - and each can contact 'all other earrings' or 'a specific other earring.'

"If I scale this, I won't be able to put in contacting specific people to the same system as everything else, but four people total was doable. Probably in the future I'll create a many-to-one system for that, use an officer as a central relay, except for sets specially created for small teams..."

"That could also be useful for remote solo operations."

"It could - it'd have come in handy more than once when I was a lowly agent..."

"I wouldn't have thought you to be the sort who wanted more oversight..."

"Oh, not for oversight. Would've made requesting backup or information easier though, and would've saved me a few desperate sprints."

"Oh, that makes more sense, yeah."

"Helpful from multiple directions."

She nods.

And after dinner, it's time for Azi's reward.

What does Elliane have in mind? 

"That depends how you feel about whips and chains."

"In your hands?" she purrs.