Ah, so. She and her castle have basically offered vampiric cheat codes to break this magic system. And can therefore be leveraged for power struggles. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since she is an actor in this and could presumably lean on their desire for black opals to get what she wants, just. It sure is a thing. It's ultimately worth acquiring something to literally walk in the sun, and she has definitely made herself obviously valuable, but that comes with some degree of danger that she might've preferred being aware of before she went and made, uh. Like ten of the things. Some of which were better than the one they already had on hand. That she just let them keep.

Interacting with people again is nice, but also: she kind of wishes she'd had something just a smidge lower stakes where she could actually talk to someone. (It's her own fault, really.)

To Daine, what she sends is: Oh, I see. Then - are the black opals I made enough to pay for working on making a permanent anti-sun charm? Would that be an acceptable trade?

"Yes, he says they're a more than fair price and he was going to provide it or give you back the opals once he knew how they worked. He's not sure about the permanent, mind you, but he'll do what he can. And be sure to bring it up when you're dealing with the King, he has one black opal mine but there's no need to give him a second for free." Is this slightly treasonous? Probably. Is anyone going to tell the Wildmage to not ask a fair price on behalf of whoever she's bargaining with? No.

Iovetra decides that she likes this woman.

I will, thank you. Do you live in Tortall? She'd be pretty happy to have her-in-particular as a neighbor. Kitten and Numair are adorable and really useful magically, respectively, but: this one, she likes.

"Most often, but I help out around. As you can see. We're in Carthak to help Kaddar's progress and show off that he has all the best mages, so you'd best settle down and listen. —Numair says that's impolite but there's nobody here that cares, so."

Snicker.

I appreciate the candor.

"Anyway. Numair can check the wind, and mayhap I'll be able to fly north to translate for you after the next village. He says he'll need at least a week to work out the permanent amulet anyway, so there's not much point in going faster. Numair, anything else you wanted to tell — you're name's not Sweetfall to anyone but the People, is it. Did I ever introduce myself? I'm Daine. Or Veralidaine Sarrasri if you have ten minutes."

I'm Iovetra. Pleasure to meet you. I've been given another name? Sweetfall referring to... how I smell like flowers and bring death? Iovetra is honestly kind of charmed.

"The People don't so much have names, so when I talk to them I get a kind of sense of what they're called. I suppose yours is what whoever you learned to be a rat from called you."

Oh. Then. It would have been the colony of rats before I hibernated that named me. This is making her feel some things, and she's not entirely sure what. I think I'm glad to have carried something from them, then. Sweetfall to the People sounds good to me.

She was, of course, forced to leave the rats she'd lovingly spent years raising, when her sire told her to go make the place he'd planned to escape to. She remembers, for some reason, how she asked him to please bring her pets once he joined her, and he'd agreed to 'If he has the chance.' Which, upon reflection with eyes unclouded by forced adoration... was just never going to happen. He'd have never wasted his time and energy on something so insignificant-to-him.

Yep. She's definitely feeling some kind of way about this.

"They liked you, you know. Whoever you learned from."

Numair makes an indecipherable comment, but given that it contains "Iovetra", he's probably telling Daine her more human-language name.

I liked them, too, agrees Iovetra softly.

Rats don't cry, at least not in the way humans do. This is convenient for her in particular, though Daine can pick up on the subtle rat body language of grief and sorrow.

Numair says something.

"Really?"

Something else.

"I guess so. Numair says he can prepare a spell for the language too, if you give him some time. The opals'll cover it easy. Another three or four days, thereabouts. That way you can talk yourself and not have to ask me for everything."

Oh. That'd be good, thank you. Though - weren't you just chastising him for using his magic? Is this going to injure him in some way?

"If he won't take a rest he'll never recover, but if he sits for the next week reading every book he can reach about stable spells, he should be fine to cast a big working at the end. You will, you know how you get."

And the language spell would be a big working? ... I'm not sure it's worth it, then.

"I'm not one to complain at Numair doing less. That's a thank you but no, dear."

Anything else before she goes off to update Kaddar and his attendants on the state of things?

Iovetra needs to learn the language quickly. There are clearly large nations at play, and magic that can let vampires walk in the sun. She has accidentally tripped into containing something just as groundbreaking for them as if she'd walked into Vardoran during the clan wars with the ability to walk in daylight. Time spent orienting is time spent not acting, and one of the greatest strengths of vampirism is the ability to understand. She - thinks of the ridiculous cave woman, and how she does not even understand why someone would ever do that, but maybe the stakes are that high. She's getting the impression that she really, really needs to get over herself, and use what she has to catch up.

She drinks from animals all the time. Actually, now that she's acknowledging creatures that mattered to her before they were taken away, she even drank from her rat colony - rats don't live long lives. The bite of a vampire is more merciful than the ravages of body failure. Humans are, really, just another animal. Isn't it better, if no one needs to die, and no one needs to suffer? She knows what it's like on the other side of that bite, and it's really not bad. Pain from the bite (but she can douse the bite location in an anesthetic), fatigue from blood loss, the vague feeling that you have had your soul touched and stared at by something strange and alien.

... I - do have a way, to learn your language quickly. But I'll need to - consensually, nonlethally! - drink from a couple of willing humans that are willing to lend me their knowledge of the language. I might get other things besides the language, though. And it's fine if no one will, I don't, it's not - no one has to. It'd just help me a lot."

"You need to drink blood? Well, best you don't try mine, there's no knowing what it'll do. Language and some other things they know... Numair?"

Numair says something.

"He wouldn't. Come, we can ask Kaddar. I'm fair sure one or two of his guards will offer some blood for the Hag, and an opal won't hurt."

I'm - really not the Hag, says Iovetra, but also her only ability to speak to anyone going through Daine, who is admittedly very charming, but perhaps not best suited for translating things to fully sapient individuals. But I would be willing to pay in opals, yes.

Kind of makes her feel icky, but it is better than people letting her drink from them because she's someone she's not.