"...No, I don't. How much? A circle, two, three?"

"About two circles."

" - well, that makes the odds a lot less depressing. - and might make it worth Mathriel also trying with a Trap the Soul, we can't afford to waste a bunch of those but we can afford one -"

"I think that puts me about even on getting through his spell resistance. I doubt I'll get four tries to get through his will, though."

"My battlemind link spell makes it harder for enemies to resist your spells. I know it's not a wizard spell and I'm not actually sure it's an anyone-except-me-and-Arazni spell but you could check if Limited Wish can imitate it."

"Oh, it helps with spells? Can demonstrate casting it?"

- Iomedae should really have thought of the fact she and Alfirin are currently needing to work at their courteous distance before she suggested the combat mindmeld spell. "I...can? I would need to cast it on myself and someone else."

Oh of course. She gestures at, uh, Karlenius.

Karlenius is who Iomedae usually casts it with. It makes their movements in combat impossibly synchronized and that's what they usually employ it for but it also would make their spells harder to resist, if for some reason they were casting spells. 

She casts it. She doesn't need to say anything or move, just will the magic into being, and then she and Karlenius can put up Zone of Truth or something.

Karlenius is happy to do this though even with the boost it probably won't affect anyone in the room. 

"...Oh, you didn't need to spend the zones of truth. I just needed to closely watch you casting the spell to be able to do it with a limited wish - I think it should work."

"Oh good. And I can get his cloak. And - disjoined and without a cloak I think you could hit me sometimes, before I became immune, and - well, he's ordinarily immune, but you have a way around that -"

She frowns. "- no, I think I'm wrong. Arazni didn't think she could do it, and mostly not for reasons having a second archmage changes, because she could make her every attempt persistent and was separately better than you at getting through spell resistance."

"Do you know why she thought that?"

"I don't know. But she was a bit of a god, right, she might've either directly seen it wasn't going to work or just - known more about what he could do in response. She did not tell us all her secrets."

"I think with Élie and the spells from the future we're close to what we knew Arazni could do, at least as far as this particular plan goes - so if she knew something else that's cause for caution. If we think it's just that she didn't see it working in prophecy - We know Tar-Baphon could beat Her prophecy."

"It has to be magic items, I think – something that does more than just increase his natural resistance to hostile spells – did Arazni see herself failing, or just fail to see herself succeed?"

"Saw it not working. He could conceal things, I'm not as sure he could falsify them, that's harder. I do suppose there's a case for trying in case that's what he was doing."

"I think you should try it. Take him down, take some shots, if you scare him he'll stay away and if he's staying away we can roll all over 'em. And if you get him, all the better."

"Sure. There's just a different internal posture if we're trying it expecting it won't work."

"With Elie and Alfirin's access to the demiplane, we can probably arrange for a battle where he thinks they're both out of spells and options, and they aren't. Probably for Gallowspire; I don't know that he'd feel obliged to show up anywhere else. And then it might be possible to keep him on the battlefield even when he's expending single-use resources, have a better shot when you try it."

"Holding up to besieging Gallowspire for enough hours for it to matter that Elie and Alfirin have the demiplane will be horrifically bloody."

"That trick works once, I'm not sure we want to use it yet. What does he usually do for concealment? It would help if I could get a good look at his gear."

"Mind Blank, Greater Invisibility, and some trick that protects against blindsight and tremorsense and that goes away when Disjoined, so isn't innate. I'm guessing a ninth circle spell we aren't acquainted with."

"A disjunction would take care of all of that, then, but I can't imagine him sticking around afterwards for me to study."

"I could disjoin him and you could time stop - or vice versa - to get a little more time to examine him."