She's already digging through Uma's flask bandolier, squinting to read the scribbled labels. She pulls two out, then looks at Sophie.

"Drink this one," (her left hand is raised and wiggling slightly) "then rinse this one" (right hand) "around in your mouth and spit it back into the container, please? It'll make you harder to find." 

Sophie follows this instruction to the letter.

"Thank you. We're safe here?"

She makes a wobbly gesture with her hand. "We are harder to find, here, and you even more for the next nine hours - Luto, you too, I can't prepare mine for another two hours and they saw you." She hands over the appropriate vials. 

(She follows the same procedure.)

"Then we can talk about... what comes next, I guess."

Sophie fidgets with a length of string, cat's-cradling it from one hand to the other. (She's got an idea for making herself harder still to find. It isn't nearly so stupid as her last.)

"Do you have any ideas?" she asks. "For what we should do. I think I'm at a disadvantage, not knowing anywhere to go even in theory."

"I think - and hope - we are near a city that would be a very good place to hide for longer, and to make Zan alive again. And she's - really really good at talking to people who should be on the same side and making sure things are ok." 

She yawns. "I need to sleep soon, to get my magic back. You don't need sleep, right?" 

"No. Really I shouldn't, for a while. I will do safe things while you sleep."

Ridaya wants to do a bit of a glare about that, because she is still, actually, kind of really upset about the unsafe wishmagic and being reminded of it doesn't help, but Sophie seems (as best as Ridaya can tell (which is not very good!!)) to be genuine about doing safe things while she's asleep.

And also she is actually really tired, at this point, and that's overruling.

She extracts from the bag of holding 2 sets of bedding and a pair of fancy-looking headbands. She hands the silver one with orange and red gemstones to Luto. "Here."

"I - but -" it's Zan's, she thinks miserably, but she sees that Rids is holding Umakhi's headband and wow she really should not be making this harder for Ridaya.

She puts it on, and then gives Ridaya's hands a gentle squeeze. "We'll get them back," she says softly.

Ridaya nods stiffly, like she doesn't quite believe it, and puts on Uma's headband.

She turns to Sophie. "I sleep now. Need two hours to start getting my magic ready. Luto... maybe sleep, maybe not? Up to her. She will need more sleep than me but... needs it... less urgently?" and probably wants it less, with a fresh new source for her horrible nightmares and no Zan or Vakt to hold her when she wakes up... :(

"...I have something to help sleep, too. If needed."

(It isn't the most efficient use of Solomon's elixir, but it's a potent weapon against nightmares.)

"...If Luto wants, when she sleeps? I won't need it." 

She wraps herself up in a blanket, curls herself around Luto such that her head is behind Luto's back, pulls her cloak over her head, and falls asleep. (She's a fieldwork wizard - she's very good at sleeping, when needed.)

Luto pets Ridaya gently, sighing.

 "...worried about her," she says softly to Sophie, after Ridaya's breathing changes.

"She's scared," Sophie agrees.

Luto nods glumly. "When you just started writing, earlier... I've never seen her that scared before, even in situations where she thought she was going to die. I think it's less bad, now, but... she's still scared of you."

She hugs her knees. "...It's not just that, though? It's - with Umakhi gone, Ridaya's handling everything that they used to do together, and it must be making her constantly think about Uma, and... " 

"...you said... you can get them back. That's normal?"

Luto does not pay a lot of attention to most magic, but she is definitely qualified to talk about this one. 

Hand-wave. "Kinda? It is... something magic can do, but not easily or cheaply. It's cheaper and easier if you have the body, or at least a part of it." 

"The version if you have the whole body - Vakt could cast the spell for that, if she had a big diamond. We had one, but - we had to use it on Ridaya a few weeks ago."

It'd been hard on all four of them, even knowing they were going to get Ridaya back the next morning, but Umakhi had been miserable. She'd stopped talking almost entirely, stopped reading which was actually a lot more worrying, and had refused to sleep that night, claiming that she needed to make sure nothing happened to Ridaya's body before the morning.

"The version with just a part - harder to cast, and takes a diamond twice as big. We should be able to find someone selling both in a big enough city, though, and we can pay."

Sophie nods. "Big diamonds are expensive. Even when no one does magic with them. I am glad you can pay."

She nods. "Me too. We have been very blessed" (lit God-favored) ", to be able to do the things we have done. I am very proud of my family." Petpet the sleepy wizard.

...unsurprisingly, with Zan's headband on, it's easier to ask herself What Would Zan Do. 

"Do you have... other people, who you work with? Live with?" It's useful to know if people will come looking for Sophie (especially if they can do the kinds of things Sophie can do), but also - she doesn't really know Sophie, like, at all, and it would be nice if that changed. For both of them, probably.

"I work with many people, but I live alone. My house is very old, and has many strong books and strong magic. It would not be safe."

And maybe she can pretend that's why she lives alone.

Luto almost says wait then why do you live there but manages to catch herself in time. Surely Sophie must have her reasons (quite possibly something to do with the scary book-related magic?). 

Still, it clearly bothers her. "I am sorry," she says gently. "I know that for some people it is fine, being alone like that" (Luto's tone and face make it very clear that she is not even slightly like this) "but it's still sad, to not have the option."

She dips her head slightly. "What are the people you work with like?" 

"Some of them want very much to help as many people as they can. I think they are good, and I like them. Others want to help their friends. This is sometimes enough to like them. Others only want to help themselves, and those I dislike, but I do have to work with them. ...some of them do not want to help anyone, just to know as much as they can. They are dangerous. But I sometimes find I like them anyway."

Luto smiles, though she also tilts her head at the last one. "It is dangerous, where you are from, to want to know things? I do not think it is like that here," though she glances down at Ridaya, because, well, she's really not the subject expert.

(and then her face falls, because Ridaya is not actually their subject matter expert either, and suddenly she misses Umakhi, misses the way she'd brush her wings against Luto instead of saying hi, misses her bad jokes and Ridaya trying to explain them through tears of laughter, misses coming back from a bathroom trip or a watch shift and seeing her partially entwined with one of the others reading some complicated-looking book,)

"It is terribly dangerous. If someone wants to know one thing, that may be fine. If someone wants to know everything? People like that..."

She sighs.

"People like that do what I did."