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Sophie would like it on the record that, when she accepted the job, she didn't know that the Librarian had to do so much bloody politics. She could be out healing the sick, like Natan in his day. She would love to be out healing the sick. Instead, she's in one of the innumerable studies of Hush House, searching for a book for Hokobald, even though she wishes dearly that she could toss him out on his shiny arse. She doesn't mind helping out Yvette, or Arun, or really most of the others. It's just Hokobald in particular who should really go fuck himself. But it is her duty to remain strictly neutral, and she takes that duty seriously. So she'll find his damned book, and watch like a hawk while he reads it. And should he happen to violate that neutrality himself, well, she might have a few things in her pockets to introduce him to. (Swaddled Thunder isn't casual to make, nor the Rubywise Ruin in case of violence. But she's made them enough to feel they're replaceable, at least.)
The scarf lashes out and cracks like a +5 Brilliant Energy whip at Luto's feet. "Stay where you are."
This is all her fault. If she hadn't said anything, Sophie and Ridaya would be okay.
...and she can't even warn Ridaya through the silence field.
The elvish wizard frowns, peering at divination output. "Huh. This is fascinating. I can't really see a source, but I think - "
Suddenly, Sophie feels the same tug on her as she did about a minute ago, when Ridaya teleported them into the lair.
One day, she'll stay in one place long enough for the consequences of her own actions to catch up with her.
Not today, though.
She follows the tug, allowing it to draw her to wherever it wants her to go.
Ridaya is nowhere to be seen, but it's pretty unmistakably her hysterical laughter coming from near the wall!
Ridaya finishes identifying the magic in the rod, blinking in surprise. (Who was this dragon?)
The scroll case she pilfered is overstuffed with good stuff, and she regretfully eyes the spells she's leaving behind as she gets the whispered message from Luto.
Ridaya isn't Uma. She likes reading, but she's not always reading; she's got a good memory, but not a near-perfect one. She knows a decent amount about a wide variety of things, but she's not a walking encyclopedia set. She's smart, but she's not Uma. Which is why when they needed to make really good plans, it was always her and Uma - best friend, lover, the most brilliant mind she's ever met.
...Uma isn't here. Ridaya will have to do.
She casts Invisibility from the wand she never put back into the bag of holding, and then peeks her head out the door.
She can see - Sophie at the top of the treasure pile, Luto a little further forwards, both standing very still. There's also (she peers at the magic intently) an interesting Silence variant surrounding the two of them, which means that Luto can't hear her. But she can't see the people who presumably teleported into this cave (they can't have been waiting here for Sophie, after all) - they're on the far side of the treasure pile. They probably don't even know she's here.
Think.
Okay.
She knows:
- A group with at least a fifth-circle wizard is after Sophie. Even if they escape this cave, they're very likely to be scried and pursued, within days if not hours.
- But also - they probably don't have greater scrying, because if they had, they'd know that Ridaya was back here, and they would have gone after her.
- Sophie and Luto are currently inside a silence and under close observation.
- Even if they have a see invisibility or truesight, the people observing the two of them can't see Ridaya, just as she can't see them.
- They're in Avistan somewhere - the plane shift clearly didn't take them back to Kyonin, and her Teleport out of here went wild when the dragon tried to dispel it, but combined they could not have gone over fifteen hundred miles.
- The square room they were in was underground (the smell, the clearly-hewed-in-place stone...) somewhere dry (really noticeably non-humid air, no moss or fungal growth) and sandy (small grains of it, in the corners). Desert.
- One of the desert countries bordering the inner sea (Osiron, she thinks?) has a city built around some kind of enormous artifact that blocks divination. If they can get there, they might be able to use it to hide from a scry.
She has - the rod, a bunch of scrolls, a bunch of unidentified magic items, and a Teleport ready. Which means - as long as they don't notice in time...
She steps out of the alcove, carefully, low to the ground. She focuses on Luto and Sophie. They're about fifty feet away. Perfect.
She holds up the rod. She holds the image of that stupid tiny stone room in her head.
Reaching Teleport.
Sophie allows herself to breathe.
"Thank you. ...are they going to follow and kill us all."
There's the sound of Ridaya trying to catch her breath. "I think they will try, but I think for them it will not be simple to find us right away, and I will make it harder."
...right, she doesn't need to be invisible. She pops back into sight. "Luto, get the rope from the bag."
Luto is pretty overwhelmed right now but she can follow directions! She starts digging in the bag of holding.
Rope? ...she really can't complain about silly components, when she makes pears out of wood and ink out of dreams, but it does seem a silly thing to have to scramble for.
(She probably should have put Uma's handy haversack on instead of in the bag of holding, but in her defense she's been very distracted!)
"Ridaya - I only got Zan's body, I'm sorry,"
"...I got hairs from all 3. We can get them back." If we survive this.
She takes the rope and casts a spell with it.
It... suspends itself in midair, the end of it seeming to disappear into something?
"Follow me," she says to Sophie, and then climbs up the rope and then out of sight.
Sophie dutifully climbs. An odd little ritual, but no stranger than the rest of what she's seen here.
When she gets to the top, there is... now an entire extra room. It's not huge, but it definitely wouldn't fit in the small room they were already in, and there's a (somewhat magical?) window that peers back out into the stone room.
