"No, teleportation spells involve warping space like gates do, whereas a summoning spell is more properly a way of generating a temporary construct body for extraplanar entities. If you simply deconstructed and reconstructed a body to teleport, the soul would not come with without a further magical structure like that of the clone spell, but it might be possible to design a spell that transports inanimate objects in that way."

"Hmm. My guess is that that would be more energy-intensive than the space-folding way, but it might be able to get into or out of places where space is too distorted for a traditional teleport."

"The worldwound has no shortage of such locations, so it would be an easy matter to test. Naively I wouldn't expect it to stabilize below ninth circle, but there are often a lot of surprising ways to trim down spells that don't become obvious until you have an actually working model to toy with. If you come up with a plausible candidate before gaining the ability to cast it, let me know and I'd be willing to try demonstrating it for you."

"Thanks!" She isn't sure she wants to provide additional useful things to Areelu Vorlesh but it does seem like a better idea than it did an hour ago. "Are there important safety precautions I should know about for testing spells? None of the books I've read so far got into spell development but it sounds like the kind of thing that might be best done away from fragile objects or people."

"The only time I've ever been danger with an experiment is when it involved experimenting on myself, but Nefreti Clepati once blew up the temple of the all-seeing eye doing spell development so I know it's not just a question of incompetence from the people in the failure stories. I suggest keeping experiments well away from anything you don't want damaged and making use of defensive spells; Heroism and False Life are both solidly useful there, as is spell resistance if your draconic abilities give you access to it. Demiplanes are a bit of a mixed bag until you have clones, though; they keep isolated any damage, yes, but that would include trapping you in with them and something high energy enough to vaporize your body makes resurrection expensive."

Brenda nods along. "I have enough still to learn from books that I think I can resist the temptation to experiment for a while, but when I do I'll have protective spells up. And I'll aim to have arrangements for a resurrection as well, if I can swing it."

"The Abadarans are more expensive than having an ally do it, but they're extremely reliable about it and only require money to convince them, which I could supply if you don't feel confident sourcing. True resurrection insurance is significantly more expensive though, and at that point if you want both security and not needing to answer awkward questions about how you did it finding a wizard to make you a clone to revive in is easier and safer."

"Good to know." She almost says she's on her way to the temple of Abadar anyway before realizing that if Areelu Vorlesh doesn't know about Dressing Room (and from her remark about money it sounds like she doesn't) she doesn't necessarily want to tell her.

She has some more magic theory questions, but eventually there's no substitute for going off and trying to hang some spells. Also it's hard to tell how far Time Enough For Love will stretch before the people who are standing right next to them start having a very weird experience.

"I suppose there are some other errands I should accomplish now that I've already left anyway. I'll endeavor to remain reachable with sending."

And then without bothering to walk off normally like how she arrived, Areelu Vorlesh vanishes, taking her illusion with her.

Brenda was aware that she was standing in the street for no apparent reason for an undefined amount of time but now the awkwardness is really hitting.

She turns to her companions and says, "Uh. So the thing that just happened. Was that Areelu Vorlesh just showed up under an illusion and said hello and gave me a bunch of advice on wizardry? Which I will be duly careful about relying on, don't worry. I have a power that fits friendly conversations into the time available and apparently that counted but I am aware of how weird everything I just said is. I don't really have an explanation other than that she seems to be reconsidering cooperating with demons."

"The architect of the worldwound? Here? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine! She didn't try to do anything hostile or get information out of me or anything. It's like she thinks it's perfectly normal to drop in on me for social calls. Or knows it's bizarre and doesn't care, more like. If I didn't know her history I'd say she was a lovely person. I suppose she could be some other arcane magic expert claiming to be Areelu Vorlesh for some reason but that seems even weirder."

She's not going to say anything about the keystone of the Worldwound business. She can always say it later but she can't unsay it now.

"That still sounds pretty nervewracking, but I'm glad she didn't try and attack you. The fact that she decided to stop by is a bit confusing but I guess maybe she was spying on Minagho or something? Maybe when you're an archmage you can just decide to do stuff like that on a whim."

"Maybe she just doesn't have very many friends to talk to. Demons mostly don't either, but I think they don't remember much of what it was like to be mortal so they don't know what they're missing and she still does?"

"I bet she was spying on Minagho, she mentioned knowing she ran off. But I hope you're right too, Ember. It would be nice if she decides talking about magic with me is more fun than causing disasters." She shrugs.

"It could also be she was scoping you out to see if you would slip any weaknesses. It's not every day someone beats demons like Savamalekh or Minagho; maybe you were making her nervous."

"That's definitely a risk, but it was mostly me asking questions and her answering them. She didn't seem to be fishing for information about me at all."

"Did you get any information about the demons' plans? That might be a good way to see how serious she is about it."

"I didn't get the sense the demons know what their own plans are yet. Quote, 'Between how much you angered Deskari and Minagho's ignominious return you're the subject of rather a lot of abyssal rumors, though they mostly seem to think you're a 7 foot tall paladin of Iomedae so I wouldn't exactly expect a well-informed response when it comes.' She also said she was 'between goals' right now and that she'd only been working with Deskari because she needed something from him and now she doesn't." Shrug. "She acted more interested in magic theory than in anything directly related to fighting demons, and I was happy enough to ask about magic theory because I can use it for fighting demons. And because I would care about magic theory even if there weren't any demons, to be honest."

"Well, I don't see how telling you about magical theory could be a trick other than getting you to let your guard down, but she's way smarter than I am so I'm not confident I'd figure out her plan even if I actually saw her talk to you. Just be careful, okay?"

She nods seriously. "I will."

Once outside of warped time, they arrive at the temple of Abadar relatively quickly. Its architecture is somewhere in between that of a church and a bank, and its exterior advertises both services right below an image of a golden key at the center of a pair of balanced scales. It's noticeably more richly decorated than the temples of Desna and Iomedae were, but not much less sturdy for it; the designer was clearly more willing to sacrifice cost than solidity when constructing it.

Given the state of some of the houses near the festival plaza, she can't fault their priorities. She heads in and looks for Rathimus or anyone else wearing the same holy symbol.

If Rathimus is in the temple, he's in one of the back rooms. Visible from the front is a fresh-faced young man in silver-dyed robes seated behind a counter; he seems to have a crossbow nearby him, but it's not currently loaded or in his hands. The room is lit by what seem like rows of torches on the walls, but they aren't emitting smoke and there's no pattern of soot on the wall next to them; on benches beneath them, a handful of people are sitting.

Oooh, magic torches--focus. She approaches the counter. "Hi. I have a couple things I'd like to discuss; is this a reasonable time?"