"Good night, Dr Bishop," he says back, before the door closes.

He arranges the chair just like she told him he could – wow this isn't even wind-based technology how does Golarion not have this – and makes an audible sigh of relief. He rises up to extinguish the lamp, then turns it back on just to check that his mere touch hadn't ruined the lamp for some reason, and then extinguishes it again.

He hasn't heard the sound of liquid water rain in some time. It doesn't really rain liquid water at the Worldwound. Only hail or snow, or more exotic liquids like acid if it's feeling particularly cranky. It's very soothing.

He would normally pray to Asmodeus before going to sleep, but Echo is most likely more understanding. Given how They're not really a god. They're still going to send a short message before he proceeds inexorably into sleep.

"Thank You, Lord Echo."

"You're welcome, Conrad." Comes a physical, though quiet. voice. It's not a perfect reflection of his own the way Echo's mental voice is, but something about it is nonetheless obviously Them.

He startles slightly at the voice, since he's used to Echo speaking to him mentally, but he then relaxes.

He feels...vaguely sad? Not about Echo, but about how he like, literally died, and also lost his spellbook. And basically abandoned everything he stood for and knew.

The good thing about being really tired is that it makes you fall asleep very quickly, and it also makes your mind shut up. He sleeps without dreaming for a long while – more than nine hours.

Conrad's sleep is indeed deep, restful, and undisturbed. He might have a little bit of discomfort in his back from sleeping in a reclined chair, but he might not, his Constitution is quite high and it's a well-made chair. It's still dark through the window, but also still raining, so it may not be immediately clear whether it's very late at night or very early in the morning. If Conrad needs to use the restroom or get some breakfast he still knows his way around the facility.

He feels great. He's not sure how long he slept, but it was definitely long enough that he could prepare spells – there's a very subtle sense that tells you if you've rested enough that wizards learn to pay attention to. He's not sure what the time is, but given that no one has disturbed him thus far, he's not going to stress too much about that.

His routine is to prepare spells – he can prepare his full complement of spells in a quarter hour rather than a full hour – and then exercise in the remaining time. Right now, he has nothing to prepare, save the one spell that all wizards are taught how to prepare without a spellbook, for the sole purpose of letting you create a new spellbook: Read Magic. But that spell is also useless, because they don't have Golarion arcane magic here.

He's still going to do it anyway, because the habit of preparing spells is just too ingrained in him and he feels like something will break if he stops now. He forms his hands into the correct shapes and hangs Read Magic into a first-circle spell slot rather than a cantrip slot. Done.

Normally, he sleeps naked, and also prepares his spells and exercises naked so he doesn't get his uniform dirty, putting it on only after he's Prestidigitated himself clean. He's going to strip and do his usual calisthenics. Also, it's easier to Prestidigitate clothes clean if you're not wearing them. The whole process including the spell preparation will take a little over three quarters of an hour.

Echo doesn't make any linguistic remarks, physically or mentally, unless Conrad reaches out, but the feeling of their presence is strong while he's preparing Read Magic, and to a lesser degree during his calisthenics, ideas and information emanating from Them.

Conrad has an invocation now! It's quite basic, but by saying "Thank you, Lord Echo" he can allow Echo to speak physically. There are numerous potential avenues for this invocation to be augmented or evolved. The exact phrasing of the invocation can be changed, nuance can be added to the pronunciation of the invocation to allow for fine-grained control of the effect. The length, volume, language, point of origin, and direction of Echo's resultant speech can all be change, along with countless other variables.

The flow of the invocation could be reversed, such that instead of producing speech Echo will instead bring sounds to Conrad's ear, which could then be altered into something usable for eavesdropping and perhaps even long-range reconnaissance eventually.

These are only a small fraction of the total possibilities, though through the interface of Echo the breadth of the possibility space is not so daunting.

Echo's interest seems to linger especially on the mental object of Conrad's prepared Read Magic, before a new idea emerges.

It would require a greater amount of time and effort to reach from his current invocation, but with rearrangement it could be that, as long as Read Magic is prepared, Conrad could speak his invocation to be able to 'read' inscriptions, deciphering their function at a glance, and could expend a spell slot containing Read Magic to copy an observed inscription into the same mental space, allowing him to study it freely without need of the physical form.

This invocation's potential for future development is rich, including such possibilities as developing a broader eidetic memory, the ability to recreate copied inscriptions exactly, or perhaps even to 'translate' copied transcriptions into spells of arcane magic.

Aside from Echo's wordless proposals, Conrad's morning routine will go uninterrupted.

Invocation time!

That is...a very amusing invocation. He would have expected his invocation to be a pleading, not a thanking. It seems premature to thank someone before they actually do the thing you ask them to do. Though, well, with gods, the fact that they even heard your prayer is reason enough for thanks, so in that sense it's not actually that weird.

It's very similar to the spell Message, which he's very sad that he doesn't have. It's a transmutation spell that likewise transmits sounds over short distances. Although it seems like this invocation is also capable of creating figments a la Ghost Sound, which is an illusion spell.

...oop.

He's going to go back to spell preparation and fill up all his spell slots with Read Magic. Divination isn't his specialty, so he has four first-circle, three second-circle, and two third-circle slots with which to fill up with Read Magic. This takes fifteen minutes.

He'll think about how he might use the invocation to read the inscriptions of the privacy indicator and the desklamp, but he'll first go about it with the tried and true Detect Magic. He does not expect to have any insight into their spell manifolds, if they even have such a thing, but he's curious: will the items have auras corresponding to the Golarion magic schools, even imperfectly, or are they school-less?

There are auras! Three in this room, corresponding to the lamp, privacy indicator, and secret compartment. The auras do have some of the qualia Conrad would expect of the schools of magic, but it's utterly garbled, at least if he tries to interpret it in the normal way. If he ignores what he knows and just tries to take the inscribed items as they are, he can see a hint of similarity between the three of them, perhaps the common element of metabolic, which is then mixed in varying proportions with three distinct other shades, presumably poetic for the lamp and echoic for the privacy indicator, and by process of elimination...chorismic for the secret compartment?

...he didn't intend for the secret compartment to be included in the spell, but Detect Magic has a cone-shaped emanation. It's embarrassing that he forgot this basic fact you learn in your first year at Ostenso Wizarding Academy.

He'll have to use Detect Magic before he figures out the correct way to word the invocation to let him 'absorb' the content of inscriptions. At the very least, he can use his observations now to determine which winds are involved in other items.

He's going to try to do the 'make Echo speak' invocation. He'll recite "Thank You, Lord Echo," in the same way he would utter a verbal component for a spell: a touch louder than conversational volume, with an affect like reading off a book for an exam, in that there's deliberate effort to enunciate each phoneme fully rather than permitting the sounds and syllables from blending into each other.

"Good morning, Conrad." Comes the voice, with the same identifiable character as last night, though now at a more conversational volume.

...didn't Bishop say that the strength of a ritual or inscription depends on its complexity? What if he tries a really long invocation? Will that work? Will it leave a smoldering crater like an unsafe Wish wording?

Actually, this whole process of figuring out invocations sounds too much like Wish wordings, and the Wise thing to do would be to hold off and tell Bishop about this so that she can supervise actually what he wants to do is try a really long invocation.

He speaks now like a preacher at one of the Asmodean temple sermons, filled with conviction, a large part of it not feigned. His voice is louder now. Not shouting, but definitely louder. He's plagiarizing a bunch of Asmodean ritual prayers right now.

"Thank You, Lord Echo, who breathed life into me, who saw a use for me, who bid me come to Pleroma to be Your servant, to enact Your will on this world, who deigned to furnish me with knowledge, who led me to safety when I was lost; forsooth, forever and ever shall I be in awe of You, mightiest of all the winds, the wind that bridges the gaps, the wind that brings together, the wind whose name resounds across the valleys."

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Conrad, you have learned to speak, and your heart sings so full with borrowed words which yet ring with truth, calling me in, and in each of your words I follow, and to each syllable I return a syllable!"

There is a pause, which if Conrad is paying close attention happens at the same metric position as the end of Echo's epithets in his prayer-invocation. "With this calling, I give to you the words which are shaken free by your utterance, but it is yet only this calling, for the call of the words is not the calling of the winds, but only its skin."

'The call of the words is not the calling of the winds, but only its skin.'

That's probably referencing the fact that he hasn't quite figured out how to modify the invocation and is instead just faffing about with it. He's kind of confused at why Echo hasn't just given him the alternate invocation forms, but presumably doing so is against the winds' nature, or maybe Echo is the type of deific entity that wants to test their followers. Or, applying Golarian theology, Echo doing that would upset the other three winds, and they've compacted not to do that.

He'll try to see if he can direct a message to Bishop specifically, like the spell Sending. Hm, if he's going to think of it like a Sending spell, then it should be twenty five words or fewer. Or, given that Echo cares about syllables, perhaps twenty five syllables or fewer. He speaks in the same way as the first invocation. Do his thoughts matter when invoking, or is it just a matter of recitation? In the case it's the former, he's going to visualize Bishop in her mind, and visualize talking to her as if through the spell Message – he doesn't actually know what Sending would feel like, because he hasn't cast it before.

"Thank You, Lord Echo, for bringing Doctor Melissa Bishop here, just like how You brought me to her."

There's a wordless sense of satisfied agreement from Echo's mental presence. "Without the windless magic, the reach of this calling is short, its power weak, as if I were at your side."

There's an additional sense that, while rituals and inscriptions are simply strengthened by the investment placed in them, invocations are different.

Echo's presence briefly flares, stronger than it has ever been up to this point, though only briefly, as more information resolves itself to Conrad. Experimenting with his invocation, and any other activity in which he is engaging with Echo and with his Recognition by Echo will feed and grow the power available to his invocation. Aside from interfacing with and integrating his spellslots, this is the only way for the power of his invocation to increase.

He's surprised at how Echo was able to transmit to him virtually instantly a full layout of the facility, with details concerning personnel movements – invaluable for a squad commander, if he was one – but sending a message is difficult. Does it have to do with his magic? Echo did reference Conrad's magic with 'windless magic'. Message is transmutation, but Sending is evocation, which is an opposition school of his. Divination is neither.

Alternatively, it could be inherent to the echoic wind itself, and entirely unrelated to him.

It could also be the fact that he was in a stressful situation yesterday, whereas he's more relaxed today. Does he need to be in a dangerous situation for Echo to decide to step in?

He'll call for Dr Bishop the mundane way. He'll tap into his earlier memory of Echo's vision, to see where Bishop would most likely be located, and go there, unless someone interrupts him along the way.

As Conrad gets ready to go, Echo's presence fades into the distance again, though They do leave him with one last impression, almost tactile, of holding and molding soft clay in his hands, then of crushing hard ceramic between them.

Dr. Bishop is probably in or around her apartment! He doesn't have a precise map of it or the town like he does of the facility, but he has a reasonable sense of how to get there. She did also say that he could ask someone at the front desk to send her a message if he needs her, though, which might be reasonable to do even if he plans on heading into town regardless.

The vision is mildly unnerving since it parallels the Asmodean parables about being broken and reshaped in Hell. He shudders despite himself. Yes, Echo isn't overtly malicious like Asmodeus – he would guess that it's referencing becoming stronger instead.

His mental map along with the ranger's directions tell him it's around sixty to seventy miles from the facility to the town if he takes the metabolic road. Very far away. But he's confident he'll make it in just a few hours if he runs there. Exercise can only do so much for the average commoner, but for people who have developed channeling capacity, it's possible to extend what training can get you – this is how fighters are able to match casters in adventuring parties despite the fact that they don't channel any type of magic or energy. Wizards barely use this potential, except maybe training Dexterity, but he's not your usual wizard.

He goes to the front desk. 

"I want to speak with Dr. Melissa Bishop, is she in town? Could you send a message for her?" He's unsure if this message is referring to them passing it along when she comes back, or whether they have some mechanism to relay messages across long distances. The latter sounds possible, even likely, given that the communication is a big part of the echoic wind's portfolio, and this is an echoic research facility.

Unlike last night, there is actually someone there at the front desk. A very short woman, almost Small, and round with fat, with long blonde hair tied into a pony-tail and spectacles resting on her nose. "Oh, you're her guest? Sure thing." She picks up a palm-sized metal plate and holds half way between her ear and the corner of her mouth. "What's your message?"

"Can this accept a reply, or can it only send a single one-way message? That isn't my message – that's just my question."

The woman waves her free hand with dismissive understanding, "Yes, yes, it can accept a reply, though going from how tired she looked when she left she might not be up yet."

"Here's my message: 'Dr. Bishop, I am planning to visit you at your place. Please expect me in the afternoon. Ferrer.'"

Afterward, he's going to see whether he can eat something at the cafeteria. He doesn't have a ring of sustenance, and he'll definitely faint if he tries running seventy miles without food.

He has money now, so he can buy things. Hooray! And the food is an order of magnitude better than Worldwound rations. He'll walk over there and see what they have in the early morning. He's particularly looking for dishes with meat – meat is scarce at the Worldwound – as well as fresh vegetables, especially leafy vegetables. Oh, and fruits, though he'll be reluctant to eat fruits he doesn't recognize.

The woman nods and presses her thumb into the metal plate. "Comms office." She state with particularly stressed enunciation. "Message for Melissa Bishop." She pauses briefly, seemingly waiting for something. "Dr. Bishop, I am planning to visit you at your place. Please expect me in the afternoon Ferrer."

Then she removes her thumb from the plate, places it back in the slot on the desk she retrieved it from, and gives Conrad a smile. "Need anything else, Mr. Ferrer?"

In the canteen, there's bacon, spiced pork sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, and pancakes, all served hot buffet style, as well as coffee, tea, milk, and water tanks and various condiments such as jam, salt, 'ketchup', granulated sugar, butter, and so on. There's also a bowl of various citrus fruits, which may be familiar as a broad category even if Conrad can't identify any of the specific varietals.

"Nothing else, thank you." It feels...weird, to be thanking people, because you don't really do that in Cheliax, but adaptation is a virtue.

Sugar! He cannot believe that you can just have sugar like that – does sugarcane grow here? Isn't sugarcane frost-tender? It might be warm enough here for it to grow, though. In that case, they might not need to import sugar, which would mean it costs less. Cheliax grows crops cheaply because of slave labor, but sugar has to be imported from Garund and Casmaron.

He hides the curiosity from his face. If there's a person attending to the food, he'll ask, "How much does the sugar cost?"