"Yeah but I'm not sure I should send that many; if the lord suspects anything and it becomes a fight I don't want to be handicapped."

"Maybe just the one? To return to the island. Though unless you shift to my chakra capacity - which might mess up your control - it'll still be a drain."

"I have been training it a bit but yeah."

"Up to you. I can relay questions to Reim, and basically loop you into the conversation from here even without you being physically present?"

"Yeah that might be best."

"Sounds like a plan." She gives the clones some money, and with a thought, they disperse. They'll arrive in the port town at different times from different directions, then try and find a ride.

"Is there any particular magic I should work on, do you think?"

"If I was you, I'd focus on isolating how to shift physical chakra levels, so you can change yours an arbitrary amount, then work it up in increments as you work on control and improve your spiritual chakra levels. I'm not sure of any specific jutsu that would help as much and can be learned quickly, though."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Then I can have as high a level as I can control by the time I meet with the lord again."

So to practice?

Indeed!

A few days later, Sadde has to resign.

They'll miss him! His coworkers wish him well; they seem to be assuming he's going to the university. He's given the last of his pay and dismissed.

He'll miss them too! He implies but does not outright say that this is exactly what he's gonna do.

And now that character's retired.

The day before the Kaede character is due to return, Tetsuma returns from one of their trips into town and says, "So I think I have a decent-ish idea of local law. Somewhat. The clone bound for Cloudsheer still isn't there, but the other two have found some things, including a small legal library - apparently one of the neighboring islands is big on self-advocacy. I also bugged the magistrate's assistant in Laelora a bit."

"Apparently, jurisdiction is a complicated mess, since the ley makes maintaining a multiple-island empire really, really difficult, and most islands aren't in a jurisdiction. So if you're a citizen of a nation, you can drag someone into their civil courts no matter where the offence occurred. Some nations allow anyone to bring a case to them. Theoretically, you could judge this, since you're a prince and all, and the nations around here would acknowledge the outcome, as long as at least one of the parties asks you to sit in judgement. So since Reim is accusing Lingormr of stealing the jewel, he could pick a nation - probably Bajilda, this area's in their sphere - present his case there, and they'd rule. Though if Lingormr chooses to ignore them, there's not much they can do since he's a local lord, short of outright war."

"As far as inheritance goes, most places it's similar to my world - your land and belongings either go to a single heir or are occasionally split up among your children. Most places allow verbal wills, for people who're childless or who've disowned their kids. Bajilda has wills more like your world. Here, and in neighboring islands, if a verbal will is given before witnesses by a childless person, and then a child is born, the verbal will is considered obsolete, and inheritance defaults to the child unless the will's given again. Wills can also be retracted or changed. So legally it matters if Reim was born before or after his mom promised Lingormr the jewel, and if she ever changed her mind. Though apparently it's really atypical to leave things to multiple people - verbal wills are usually just stating a single heir."

"...yeah we really need to extract the real story out of Reim. And I'm curious about what the lord will try to extract of me tomorrow, I don't expect him to just trust my stated motives."

"From your account, he does seem kinda paranoid."

"Justifiably so. I'm a good actor and good at improvising, though."

Snort. "Yeah, I'd be pretty paranoid too if I'd stolen from a fox spirit. They're known for using all kinds of creative ways to get back at people... I seriously wonder why Reim didn't try this himself, or at least tag along. And why he hired us."

"...maybe he can't come here."

"...I wonder why? And how?"

"I have no idea. We'll need to ask, if that's really the case."

"Yeah, I'll add that to my list of questions for Reim... I should probably write them down so I don't forget any."

Nod.