Once the one crocodile is frozen in place the fight is straightforward. They still have to kill a couple of the others, so that it's safe to get close enough to the teleporting one to butcher it, but the other crocodiles indeed do not teleport and are incapable of climbing.

"In another sense...?" she asks as they start carving up the teleporting animal.

"I had hoped that the Bishop would do better than this even in difficult circumstances."

She has a hunch, which if true might explain a few of the things she's been wondering about 'Spear'.

"...Were you very close?"

With Alexandar? Not particularly. With his father-

"It's complicated but I think 'yes' is less misleading than 'no'."

So her hunch was right and they were personally acquainted, and not just in passing. Most humans do not know most other humans, even when they live in the same city, so - this probably means 'Spear' was someone important, or someone with ties to the Divine's family - 

"I suppose that his involvement in all this might come as something of a betrayal then."

" - I guess? But - it's not really about that," even if it does feel like there's something inside her that will never be whole unless she somehow manages to confirm whether Lucian was lying when he sent her - "it's that if I can predict him, I can predict how it'll go to bring proof of what's happening here back to Arx. And if I can't predict him then it'll be harder to make that go well. We lost a lot of ground to the Void during the last civil war, we probably won't survive having another one."

"He's been here. I don't expect your report to move him any differently than seeing it himself did."

"Hmm. When?"

"About a month ago."

It's not exactly surprising, and the way she feels isn't exactly surprised. Honestly from a strategic angle it's probably simpler. It still hurts. There aren't many people she knew from before, and apparently some of them she didn't know as well as she thought. 

She peels back some crocodile viscera and plucks out a set of obviously magical gloves. "Hah."

"Huh. I expected a wand or something... I'm a little surprised it could activate those from inside its stomach."

"Eating magic items does odd things. A friend of mine ended up with flight that way, but when we tried to replicate it the recipient exploded instead."

"How did you - was it the same item, or a different one? Why did your first friend eat it in the first place, did they expect that result? How long did the flight last? Was it aerotheurgy or polymorph -"

Of course. It's been too long since she's hung around mages. "Polymorph. Different item, commissioned from the same creator. The first friend was trying to conceal it when taken prisoner during the war. It lasted several weeks, which is why we were willing to risk a lot to replicate it... after the first failure we lost some momentum, though."

"Naturally." Right, this might not be something Spear is eager to talk about. She rinses off the gloves. "I suspect the beast's gut didn't damage these too badly, since it was still teleporting around. Do you want to try them first or shall I?"

If she's going to run off with it she'll have the opportunity eventually and there's no point delaying that moment. "Go ahead."

Bwip

Bwip

Bwip bwip bwip

"Well, they still work," she says, pulling the gloves off her hands and handing them over.

Imene hasn't felt happy in ....five years...but if she stares sternly she will give Alaherren the impression that she thinks it's bad Alaherren is clearly delighted, and she thinks it's good. Really good. Just not really good in a way that makes her happy herself. 

She attempts to smile anyway. She is not fantastic at it.

That's probably worse than not doing anything at all. "You can hold on to them for now," she says instead. "I can't help but feel I will underappreciate them."

...Yeah she might have gotten a little too excited, there. She'll take the rebuke in stride and get back to business. "These should work, for getting people out of the dungeons. Or we might be able to get into the fort proper without being seen. There are some spots by the south end that don't get patrolled often, that should be in range..." 

"Mmhmmm. People in the dungeons might know something useful but the records will be in the fort proper. Do you know how much turnover there is among the Magisters, would we be recognized if we were disguised?"