Leareth sits down. "Oh. I can go through and explain different techniques that could be helpful here. It is quite widely varied, although anything high-power is not feasible," unless he wants to test whether blood-magic works here, and actually it sounds complicated to find a non-suspicious way of murdering people. And like something that would only convince Asher more that he was a demon. It's a tricky question whether or not the dubious probability of getting Asher on their side as an ally is worth forsaking any really powerful magic, but it's a choice they can't undo, so might as well see whether the low-powered options give them anything. 

"The basic problem is that you don't have documents, and I am clearly incompetent at getting you documents, and any way of getting to Cascadia involves at least one step where someone looks at your documents and checks whether they're real. --Once we're in Cascadia getting you documents will be easy, I think, we'd just have to go talk to a coyote, and they're a totally legal profession."

"It would be very convenient if I could Gate," Leareth says. "Unfortunately I need to have visited the destination, and...while I could possibly Gate several hundred miles on reserves alone if I rested and did no casting for a day before, I would be exhausted on arrival and in no state to do anything useful for several days." It's so incredibly irritating, being in a world where he can't just grab magic from convenient nearby nodes or at least pick it up slowly from his surroundings. 

Low-power magics that might help with the problem of transportation, then...

"I can cast illusions," he offers. "That is the obvious one; I could go undercover as somebody else, if we were able to obtain their documents. Or even to see their documents long enough that I could create a convincing illusion of them from a blank piece of paper. I can also cast compulsions, and while I preferred to avoid this with Asher, I would not hesitate to use them on people who are not potential allies. Both compulsions and illusions need minimal power, however, they do rely on concentration, so I would feel more comfortable with a plan that required them if I were...better able to think than I am currently." He lifts a hand to rub his temple. "Do you have any medicines that treat headaches?" 

Lev brings him some pills and some water. "This is ibuprofen, we have other stuff that treats headaches if that doesn't work. --Going undercover as someone else is possible, but might run into problems if the person is in two places at once according to the computer system. On the other hand, it doesn't have to be our problem."

Leareth looks at the pills a bit dubiously, but goes ahead and swallows them. 

"...If we can bluff our way past the documents check," he says slowly, "possibly via the judicious use of compulsions, then we will be outside of Gilead's jurisdiction, correct? And resolving the discrepancy in the computer system will be the problem of whoever I choose to go undercover as?" 

"Yep. Except that people will know that I'm traveling with you so it might be my problem. --I guess not if we're on an airplane and we buy our tickets separately, possibly with the help of the judicious use of compulsions."

"...Is it going to cause any trouble for you simply going to Cascadia at all, regardless of whether we are noted to be traveling together? I was not sure if this is something where you would need special authorization from the government." 

"--Prooooobably not but to be on the safe side we might want to steal two people's identities, which isn't that much harder than stealing one person's. And then we can travel together, which is easier."

Nod. "I am not sure what we need to steal an identity," what a weird phrase, actually, "but if documents, and my knowing their physical appearance, are sufficient, then it would perhaps be possible to break in to wherever a document is kept and replace the stolen document with a durable illusion, in which case we would have the real copy. This would be safer in cases where my illusions cannot duplicate some feature. I am unsure how it would affect resolving the in-two-places computer error, and whether the effect would be in our favour."

He thinks for a moment. "I can cast an illusion that would last at least several days, up to a week, but not months. I am unsure how long we would be in Cascadia." 

"Mostly documents are kept inside people's houses. We'll also need their credit cards which are, uh, bits of plastic that let you take out loans. We could probably drop the illusion safely once we're in Cascadia. --You know whose identity we should steal? Jay Goodman's. He works with the Eyes and being in two places at once probably won't be the weirdest thing that's happened with his accounts this week."

Leareth smiles slightly. "Perfect. Is there somebody who would be unsurprising or minimally suspicious as a travel partner accompanying him? A romantic partner, perhaps...?" 

"He has a wife but I'm not sure I could be a woman... his personal assistant, maybe. Or one of those very pretty Bible translators he always has around."

Leareth doesn’t bother to poke at his confusion around 'very pretty Bible translators', he's got...limited energy right now. "Do you know where Jay Goodman and...any one of the people you mentioned, I suppose, live?"

Probably breaking into houses here is harder than just 'do a line-of-sight Gate in while under an illusion when no one is home.' "In my world, people with access to magic will often keep wards on their homes that will detect intruders, and sometimes directly, er, dissuade them. Is this something that your world has via technology, and would the people in question have it?" 

"I can look it up probably. --There are motion sensors and cameras and things, but they go off on accident all the time, as long as no one can see you it's not a problem I don't think? And most people keep their documents in their bedroom where they wouldn't have a security camera anyway."

"That makes sense. I think my plan would be to hide nearby under illusion, use scrying to locate the bedroom, and either do a line-of-sight Gate in if I can locate a window, or a," slightly riskier but he doesn't say that out loud, "blind Gate on what I expect is the right bearing. I can put up an illusion-barrier around the visual signs of the Gate, and magical leakage should not actually matter since nobody here can sense it."

He checks his reserves. "I ought to be able to manage two very short-range Gates in a single day, to get in and out at each house; the energy cost of maintaining a Gate is much less than of raising it and I assume it will not take long to search a bedroom. I would want to prepare a set-spell in advance on two pieces of paper, whether we go the route of stealing the original document and leaving a duplicate or of taking the duplicate ourselves. The difficulty will be if the item is in a locked box or drawer that I cannot manage to grab with my spell-imitation of Fetching – that is short-distance teleportation of objects. I would fall back on using a tiny blind Gate to simply reach in, but while I can cast simple magics at the same time as holding an active Gate, but I cannot manage two Gates at once. Either way, I am likely to be very tired after this, so it would be preferable to put off the departure for another day." 

"You'll want a wallet which looks something like this," he says, showing Leareth his wallet, "people don't normally lock up their ID cards because they have to access it all the time. --We might want to go in when people are sleeping so that their wallet won't be on them."

Leareth examines Lev's wallet. "Do you think that you could obtain for me, a piece of material in the right size that would be similar to the touch? It will be a much simpler and lower-powered spell if I need only change the visual appearance. I suppose I could illusion one of your cards to look like theirs instead, but I imagine that you need them. My thought is that it will be easier to take only the cards I need, the personal identification and the credit card, since mocking up an illusion of the entire wallet would be a much more challenging spell and I do not wish to linger if I am doing it when they are present and sleeping." 

"I can find my canceled credit cards around here somewhere pretty easily? I am, uh. Bad at throwing things out."

"Thank you, that would be quite helpful." Leareth does not say 'yes, I noticed.' "Do you have any considerations to bring on whether to take the originals with us or not?" 

"Leaving the originals seems better so that we don't have to go back and get my credit cards from people, or else keep up the illusion forever."

“That makes sense. If there is any component I cannot duplicate magically, I suppose we can bluff our way through, or use compulsions.”

"Would there be? Are there things you can't make with illusion magic?"

"I could not, for example, make a car," Leareth clarifies. "Since I do not know how it works inside, and I am assuming that there are many other unknown unknowns in my understanding, when it comes to your world. For this, in order to save on power requirement and time to cast, I am planning to duplicate the visual elements only. I think that this ought to serve fine for quick inspection, but if the agents who check it will verify by touch that the raised print matches the letters exactly, or if some other part of the structure is relevant, then I am less sure."

"...yeah they scan a code on it to check whether it's a fake, and I don't know how that thing works. Fuck. Maybe we should take the originals."

"In which case we ought not use yours as the base," Leareth points out. "Perhaps we can return in time that I can break in again and swap them, but we cannot bet on it. Is there any card of comparable size and feel that is more...generic, and that most people would have on them?" Slight shrug. "If they use it daily and then it vanishes after a week, it would be harder to connect to your disappearance and they might assume they had lost– oh, I had forgotten that the decoy may not work in other uses either if I cannot duplicate this code, which would mean they notice sooner." Still better than having Lev's name all over it, though.