"That's most likely the Tome of the Gate. It lets me teleport to anywhere I've previously been in this city - and I've been to a very large number of places."

"I don't want to be a paintbrush person. But I want to get rid of all the shadows."

"I can definitely help you with that. Allies?"

She extends a hand to Riya.

"Okay," says Riya, nodding. She does not do anything in response to the hand.

A deck of cards falls into Ishmerai's outstretched hand.

"... With your permission, there's a reading I'd like to do for you."

"What reading?"

"The first reading I ever did for myself. To see your future. To see if you can ever return home."

"Oh." She considers this. "Why?"

"Because the cards have said that it is possible for me, and I suspect that they will tell you the same thing."

"Okay."

Ishmerai deals, laying the cards out onto the tabletop.

"Does a future exist where this Kukla girl will return home to her world?"

The deck produces three cards.

"Past. Present. Future."

She turns over the rightmost card, the one symbolic of what-will-be.

A bleached skull grins up at her. The thirteenth card: Death.

"Death, upright. The card of endings and transformations. There will be a major change. Another card..."

A set of scales, perfectly balanced. The eleventh card: Justice.

"Justice, upright. The card of fairness and good descision-making. If you choose well, the way home is not yet barred to you."

"Okay."

"That's good, right? That means that you can go home."

"It means I can go somewhere that isn't here."

"Well, even if you choose to interpret it that pessimistically, it's better than being trapped here, isn't it?"

"... Yes."

She doesn't seem to have an answer to that.