"No offense, but if you can't say no, why didn't this happen a long time ago?"

“It’s because of the crusade,” he responds mournfully. “Back during the second one, she called the assembly and got them to agree to suspend certain privileges during a crusade out of wartime necessity, including expanding the crown’s right to draw on their forces. Promised some nonsense about how it was a temporary measure necessary to win the war, but I guess they didn’t realize she would just declare another one whenever she wanted to do it again.

”Or maybe they just fell for it outright. You wouldn’t believe how many of my peers profess their certainty that the church of Iomedae is going to close the wound any year now, even with a century of evidence to the contrary.”

"Well, I'm sorry to hear it. I mean, I'm not going to lie, I enjoy having you around, but I wouldn't try to force you into anything about it."

"I suppose there's at least one silver lining to this affair. I shall have to be so useless that they stop inviting me to meetings if I want any spare time to enjoy it, but I think that should at least be in my skillset."

She covers a giggle. "Or I could get myself invited to the meetings and we could scandalize them." 

"Do you think you could pull that off? I think we'd only have one shot at it, but if we timed it properly it might be worth it anyway..."

“I have a crystal ball! It could work!”

"In that case, I await your successful infiltration with bated breath."

He's still moping, but his bad mood seems to have lifted noticeably.

She hugs him. Hug is not as good as flop but it is better than nothing. 

Definitely better than nothing.

Despite the declaration and the haste at which they set to work, heading out on campaign doesn't exactly happen quickly. There's enough time for Luzai and Villibor to get their things together, buy replacements for anything they used up and destroyed (or at least, anything still available after the army quartermasters and everyone else stocking up gets through), and get Luzai's position in the Eagle's watch formally sorted out. The logistics of everything there is a bit of a mess with both Tirabades too busy to catch all their plates and all their most capable living subordinates split between helping arrange the crusade and frantically preparing to hand off their duties in Kenabres to anyone sticking around, but they're also very low on manpower and the temporary head of hiring seems very enthused about her candidacy. Since she doesn't have relevant experience for the handover and isn't one of the people Irabeth tapped to help with the crusade organization, can they put her to work on inventory?

Sure! She can do whatever's helpful. Inventorying crusade supplies isn't exactly the same as anything she learned to do while under her father's thumb but it's close enough for some of the experience to transfer. (She does not say that last part out loud.)

It's not simply busywork, but it's hardly beyond her abilities, especially considering the Eagle's Watch supplies are only disorganized by dint of a very chaotic week and a number of their people dying rather than having never had good records in the first place. She's also able to locate a few things that aren't in the manifests, but almost all of those bottom out in an acquisition she can get someone to attest to. Depending on the degree of her perfectionism she might not be satisfied with her work by the time they set off marching north along the banks of the West Sellen, but everyone else who checks in seems pleased with what she's managed.

The first two days of the campaign go well. Most of the fighting is done by cavalry detachments running down fleeing cultists, so there's not much she personally has to do there, but her spellcasting is in high demand even as the army itself steadily makes ground north, and . The only dark spot is the news of a petty necromancer trying to take advantage of everyone setting out to fight in order to sack a town a few miles north of Kenabres, and according to the rumor mill that got dealt with quickly enough by a cleric who was in the area.

Are you free now, or should I try sending you again some other time like later this evening? I have news about your little problem.

I'm free for the next hour or so; if this will take longer it should wait. 

Could she get it done in an hour... maybe. But she doesn't want to cut things that short.

I'll pick you up later this evening, then.

Once Luzai finishes up her tasks for the day and returns to her tent, there's an innocuous paper on her bedroll that reads 'tear when ready.'

She checks in with Wilbur so he'll deflect if anyone comes looking for her, then returns to the tent and tears the paper. 

And then a tiny little bat hidden in the folds of her tent will flutter down to her hand, at which point the Illureshi plane shifts them both back to a familiar demiplane.

It hasn't even been a week but that's still entirely too long. She waves off the bound outsider and then scoops up Luzai into a hug.

Hug!!! The irony of transitioning between crusading against the Worldwound and hugging Areelu Vorlesh is not lost on Seshka but fortunately she does not care actually. 

Eventually her grip loosens, though she's probably not going to be the first to unhug here.

"Do you want to talk about your week and how you've been, or should I get right to what I've found out? I don't expect that it's urgent on the scale of minutes or hours."

"I would love to talk about my week but that is also not urgent on a scale of minutes or hours if you'd rather get the other thing off your chest."

She's mostly worried it will spoil the mood, so since Luzai isn't in a rush she'll spend a bit of time listening to the goings-on in her daughter's life first. It won't do either of them any good to put it off indefinitely, though, so once they finish the obvious subjects she stop stalling.

"The good news is I figured out what was going on, and it's not targeting you specifically. The bad news is that there's a good chance it'll try a repeat, and a vulpinal absolutely isn't enough to keep you safe from it. It turns out you're not the only one in that crusade of yours with a dark secret."

She considers this. 

"Camellia or Daeran?"

"Daeran. As far as I can tell none of Camellia's secrets are a danger to you, but your count got his powers from a pact with a rather secretive entity, and it reacts violently to anything that it thinks will risk its privacy. Not from the lower planes, surprisingly; it's a colony lifeform of some sort."