The demiplane is shaped like the interior of a mansion with traditional Korvosan architecture. He unlocks the door to the holding cell tied to the teleport trap and moves into his work room.

Tencednil is dumped out of the bag and onto the floor.

As soon as she was alone in the bag, she knew something had gone wrong.

At this point, she's doomed. All she can do is minimize the leak. She knows how to do that. She pulls out her crossbow, closes her eyes. Her arms quivering, she turns the bolt to her own throat...

When he dumps out the bag, all he finds is a corpse.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
FIREDAY, DESNUS 29th, 4708

ACADAMAE STUDENTS ON RELEASE FOR BREACHING FESTIVAL

The spring rains have been unusually long. You can hear them flow down off the roofs and into the gutters on the street, if you're listening. A Chelixian trade galleon bound from Corentyn pulled into the dock at Midland this morning. In two days, the gates of the Acadamae will open to outsiders for the exhibition. Dark things move in the Vaults beneath the earth. Last night, there was a tragic accident involving two house drakes, a careless wizard, and a walking mushroom.

So, nothing particularly out of the ordinary for this time of year.

...that's not a True Resurrection from the church.

So. She was expecting to hear a Sending from her mother, either requesting a report or asking her to accept a Resurrection of some sort, and then follow those instructions. If that didn't happen, the most likely outcome was being zombified or skeletonized or something like that.

Apparently what happened instead was that that was all another vision from Ulon.

Alright. Accept the truth, this would be a baffling illusion to put her in even if there was a way to put an illusion on the dead. What does she know, what does she need.

Well, first, she knows she is to keep this secret from Mother. ...does she? Mother told her that last time she awoke from death, but if this is malicious that could have been a lie. Her only confirmation of the vision (memories?) comes from the second time around, and right now that has to be suspect. If she were tricking someone like this, a false illusion of the future followed by another illusory future apparently confirming the first would obviously work without requiring the true world to ever back her claims.

She feels inside herself, and... yes, there's Prestidigitation. If this is a lie, it's a lie constructed at a perfect moment, just as her sorcery was coming in. Or someone found a way to implant new spells in a sorcerer, and used it on her to apparently confirm this. Is that possible? Maybe. If it is, it's not cheap. Sorcerers mostly don't know all the wizard cantrips, or even the ones they want to learn. If just any strong wizard could do that, it would be for sale.

So, then, the possibilities: someone spent quite a lot on her and did something she's never heard of to make these memory-visions look believable, they're true prophecy of some sort, or someone just picked a perfect moment to catch her, knew she was gaining Prestidigitation, and can implant accelerated visions somehow. Her death, if it is to be believed, happened when someone took over her body and used it to cast their own teleportation spell, she felt that casting unfold from a scaffold she had never seen before. She can't hold the shape in her mind, and she couldn't power it anyway, but if these were true visions then someone was casting through her body. Is that possible? Domination uses your victim's own power... possession might do it. Ghosts are supposed to be able to possess people, and maybe they can cast their own spells from inside. That's not unheard-of magic, then.

Actually, hold that thoughtline. Does it matter? She certainly can't eliminate a true blessing from Ulon, in which case she needs to act on it. She certainly can't eliminate a false message from Someone Else, meant to misguide her for reasons of their own. Anything powerful enough to do this to her could open anonymous Abadaran accounts on their own, and demonstrably would know the Bellaso accounts she remembers Fiducia Andre telling her about if they actually exist. As long as her actions are all something a vision-granter could have done for themselves, why does it matter what their intent was? They gain nothing as long as she ensures she isn't linked to any of the steps, and if this is an incredibly complex way to hire her to send a message rather than Ulon asking it of her, it's worth it for the dangled reward. In all, the risk is two thousand silver shields, lost to the Bank, and if they gave her Prestidigitation at that cost — out of her share of a ring she wouldn't even have known about without the visions — that's a price well paid for the benefit.

With that, her initial steps collapse to a far narrower array of options. She doesn't even need the money from the ring quickly, so no need to go to Mother before acquiring it. Best to avoid pointing to herself as knowing more than she should, which means she'll have to handle Anton and Julio differently from what she saw, but she can do that.

The first thing she can check, and the first confirmation she needs for her plan, is whether the Bellaso accounts actually exist. And the details of how they work, which she didn't actually get.

About an hour after waking up on her third Desnus 29th, Tencednil sets out for the bank, to ask for an overview of account types. "All the types! Even the ones I can't make now, I want to see how Mommy's business account works and things like that."

The teller gets her a book ("be careful not to damage it!") that contains a vast number of account types and options. Among them are the anonymous accounts using Bellaso ciphers, as Fiducia Andre described them.

Perfect. "Thank you!" She hands it back, after reading enough different account types that it doesn't look like she cared about that one in particular. "I want to open my own account! With two silver shields!" She does in fact have two shields on her, and having an account already established will make shares easy after the ring adventure. If it's real.

The teller will absolutely help her make an account. She pays the fee and a minute later has a slip of paper with her account number and other details.

And now, over to the Rusted Anchor. She wants to get there just a little before Julio and Anton did in her vision, buy a drink and maybe something to nibble, and sit near Mika. How does that go?

It goes fine. Mika is as she remembers him, although he doesn't pay her much attention while he's eating. Anton and Julio walk in when she expects them to.

Once they mention the sewers, she approaches them tentatively. She needs to be competent enough for them to have a good reason to pay her, but not suspicious... all sorts of people are around and looking to circle up, and they really are unprepared. If she asks the right questions, that should be obvious soon enough, with no need for mysterious sources.

"Are you going into the sewers? I'm a new sorcerer, I've been down a few times and was just considering going in myself to check for things. What are you doing in there? Are you sure you'll be safe?"

"Yes, we're going into the sewers. I certainly hope we'll be safe."

"It's more the Vaults than the sewers, at the depth and distance you're looking at."

"And you're prepared to handle the goblins and the rat swarms? What are you looking for?" They're not prepared for zombies, she can use that if she can get them to mention the necromancy.

He looks at Anton, who nods. "We've a map to one of Florel Matei's old boltholes. He was assistant professor at the Hall of Whsipers some fifty-odd years back... but he's mostly known now for moonlighting as a murderer and a necrophile. They hanged him in '64 but never found most of his gear. We're looking for his spellbook and his magic items."

"Oh! That does sound dangerous. What are you bringing to fight the zombies and skeletons?"

"We don't know if there are any, but I've got disrupt undead prepared. Supposedly works much better than acid splash against them."

"Certainly, but... you know zombies hurt, right? I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing, but a solid blow from one will have most people on the ground unconscious, and in the tunnels down there you can't rely on avoiding them. You really need to have something beyond cantrips if there are just the three of you."

"We have circled spells prepared, but none that work on undead. I suppose if we run into too many of them we'll just have to leave. I don't think zombies are very fast." Julio looks displeased by this hypothetical.

She sighs, purses her lips, and shakes her head. "You two are going to get yourselves killed like that, and you're going to get him killed along with you. And... you are Mika, yes? I've heard you're not too bad. Here, I can come with. You'll want the extra Color Sprays for getting through the sewers, unless the two of you have three or four between you, and I have some strategies for handling zombies. Even with all of us it might be a risk, but we'll have a chance."