"The culprit was an aquaintance of my mother's, I believe," says Reim. "I am unclear as to his motive - perhaps he'd wanted to inherit the jewel, or wishes to use it in some ritual against me, or is simply trying to annoy me - and he's proven rather unwilling to trade."

"—ah. Sorry about that. Now, I'm extremely thankful for the translation magic, but I must ask—how do I know you're not asking us to steal something that's not actually yours?"

"You can't for certain, really. You could, I suppose, ask him when you get there. He is not the type to lie."

...Yeah. 'Does this thing you want us to steal actually belong to you' is really not high on Tetsuma's priority list.

"How dangerous is he?" Tetsuma asks.

The fox flicks his tail. "His abilities are primarily defensive. He has some talent with illusion, but less than the worst of your world's genjutsu." This is even technically true! Technically. If by worst you mean 'most horrifying' and not 'weakest.' "He is immensely unlikely to kill you for asking a question." The fox pauses, then adds, "He has control of water in his domain, but I am uncertain whether your jutsu or his magic would win in a direct struggle."

"...is anyone expected there? I can look like anything—or anyone."

Reim grins. It looks rather odd, on a fox. "Clever. Unfortunately, I have been limited in my ability to spy on him. You will have to find that out yourself."

"I highly doubt there are no servants, or people making deliveries, or townsfolk, or neighbors inclined to visit," says Tetsuma. "Finding out their identities is something I've actually been trained in." It's kunoichi work, but not the most onerous. Spying can be fun, even. "Depending on whether he can detect your shapeshifting, we might be able to answer our questions without a direct conversation."

"Reim seems to think Ravelry might be hard to detect locally, so, there's that."

"Can we try it? Assuming Reim's ability to detect things works like the person we're stealing from."

Shift. "Sure."

Reim tilts his head. "Interesting. I felt the initial change, though faintly, but now your magic is hardly higher than background levels. He will be able to tell you're there, so I would not recommend sneaking in as a beetle, but most likely not that you're shifted. I was able to partially see through Tetsuma's shift, but not through this one. Does your shift require constant energy use? And is it physical or illusory?"

"I can't actually shift into a beetle, it's mostly humanoids with some more outlandish alterations but nothing that significantly changes my mass."

And back. "It's entirely physical, and the only thing that requires energy is actually changing from one thing to another, not keeping any one form. The magic you can detect is probably just the background fact that I am a raveller."

Reim shakes his head. "No, most sapients can be detected. It's why invisibility doesn't work - nobody has figured out invisibility that doesn't also make you glow. Still, the lack of a need for upkeep is impressive; native shapeshifting is extremely high-cost and detects as such. As long as your acting holds up, he shouldn't notice."

She beams. "Great, then I'm not completely useless here."

"...Even if your ravelry wasn't helpful, it shouldn't take you too long to get up to my level in jutsu except the wood manipulation, since I've been practicing in secret and not for long. 'Two shinobi' is a significant improvement over one." Tetsuma shrugs. "If we're doing this, we should probably discuss some strategy, exchange tactics. And we need to figure out timetables." Turning to Reim: "Is the jewel's retrieval urgent at all?"

Reim shakes his head. "Not on a timescale you would notice. I am rather old, and neither I nor the thief are going anywhere."

"Which means I can learn the new magic and exploit the heck out of it? What a good world this is." Pause. "Er, hey, by the way, do you know if I could. Erm. Tell someone I'm here? Or, well, get that someone here?"

Reim shakes his head. "If anyone has discovered how to leave the ley-worlds, they haven't shared. If you wish to return home, the kingdom of Bajilda might be close to an answer, or at least they are greatest in their understanding of this realm."

"And you can't just, I don't know, summon someone here from outside, without actually going there?"

"No. Summoning is not in my capabilities, nor is interfering with the boundaries of the realms. And the mechanism by which people enter this realm in the first place is entirely unknown to me." Also actually true, to Reim's great annoyance. His tail flicks. 

Sigh. "I understand. Thank you anyway."

The fox nods. "Any other questions?"

"...well, what is this place?"