Tetsuma finds paper and charcoal. "So questions about the full story with regards to inheritance, what the jewel even is, and why he's still on the island? Any others?"

"We should ask him for the actual whole story, start to finish, no missing pieces, no lying."

Scribble. "Yeah. I seriously wish clients wouldn't lie, it never helps anything..."

"...it occurs to me Reim might've lied—or misled—about the lord's true abilities."

"...He gave a really long list. If he left things off, I think I'll be both impressed at the extent of Lingormr's abilities and furious at Reim."

"Yeah. Worth checking, anyway."

"Yup. I wonder how Reim knows so much about his abilities if he's such a mysterious figure that not even the locals know where he came from..."

"Well apparently he knew Reim's mother so they're probably acquainted enough for that."

"...They also might have fought at some point, I should bug Reim for details on his actual style in case it comes down to a fight."

"Yeah. If Reim is stuck it might be because Lingormr did it."

"But how. If he can set - wards or something - that'd impact our ability to get the jewel. If he can make someone incapable of entering the ley - I don't even know what that says about his power."

"Exactly."

"Ugh. Hopefully Reim will be forthcoming with useful details."

"Here's to hoping."

"Well, I've updated my clone on everything we discussed. You still remember the list of his potential abilities? I think it was wards on the walls, space warping - that one's confirmed, illusions - less than the worst of my world's which I'm going to interpret as 'still pretty bad' because my world's illusions can get horrifying, minor fire control, and minor water control. Plus the shapeshifting. Anything I'm missing?"

"It was impossible to go over his walls, I think Reim said, and he can also shapeshift, is strong, fast, and is good at local magic."

"From what I've heard about local magic, I think chakra-enhanced strength and speed might beat it for me, but you haven't had as long to learn taijutsu... I'd still rather not test it, of course."

"Yeah. Also, he was probably transformed while we were talking, I had the same—feeling from him I got from Reim when Reim was human."

"And we have no idea what his true form could be... Reim said that shapeshifting is energy-intensive, he probably has massive stores if he goes around shapeshifted all the time."

"But one of the things Reim's jewel does apparently do is provide lots of energy..."

"Yeah. So if we get it away from him, we can potentially reduce his power by a lot."

"Which I'm at this point not sure I want to do, I don't know if he actually did anything wrong. But yeah."

"The clone's about eight to ten days out from the island - they're making slightly better time than we did, since they're jumping between ships and not taking rest days, though they're paying more, and there's always a chance they won't be able to find a connection. We'll know more once they get there, though."

"And meanwhile I have a meeting with the lord tomorrow."

"Yeah. Want a tracker-clone-seed? I've gotten it to where it shouldn't stand out against your own energy, but if he's paying close attention he might notice it. It'll allow me to travel more quickly and directly to you, though. And the clone can now transform back, that'll give you some immediate backup."