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Sophie would like it on the record that, when she accepted the job, she didn't know that the Librarian had to do so much bloody politics. She could be out healing the sick, like Natan in his day. She would love to be out healing the sick. Instead, she's in one of the innumerable studies of Hush House, searching for a book for Hokobald, even though she wishes dearly that she could toss him out on his shiny arse. She doesn't mind helping out Yvette, or Arun, or really most of the others. It's just Hokobald in particular who should really go fuck himself. But it is her duty to remain strictly neutral, and she takes that duty seriously. So she'll find his damned book, and watch like a hawk while he reads it. And should he happen to violate that neutrality himself, well, she might have a few things in her pockets to introduce him to. (Swaddled Thunder isn't casual to make, nor the Rubywise Ruin in case of violence. But she's made them enough to feel they're replaceable, at least.)
Ah, whooops. Right.
"...would they be right about the breakfast?" She asks, to cover her embarrassment.
Luto finishes checking over the chest for traps and pops it open.
Hmmm, two potions, some platinum coins, cloak well-preserved enough that it's probably magic, and a bag of...
She whistles.
"Most of the time, yes. Sometimes I'd watch for whatever it was and catch it before –"
Whistle?
"Hey Rids, uh - how much diamond dust is a lot?" Revived people need a bunch to get back to full strength, she remembers from last month, but...
"Diamond dust is worth about twelve times its weight in platinum," she replies automatically, and then her brain catches up and she floats over. "Oh. Oh wow."
Ridaya hefts the bag. "Gods. This is... enough to cover all the deep Restorations we'll need to get them back to full strength. Maybe even with a bit left over."
She closes her eyes and clasps her hands together in a quick prayer. Thank you, Shelyn. Thank you, Kofusachi.
"So, should we get out of here and head for the city, then? Take advantage of our good fortune while it lasts?"
Nodnod. "Yeah!"
Ridaya and Luto get the contents of the chest into their bag of holding, and then they can retrace their steps.
And eventually, they reach the sealed entryway.
It looks exactly like it did an hour ago, but there's a gentle breeze running through the room.
Fresh air... it's been a while. (It hasn't been that long that she's been in this world, really, but she did have a habit of staying inside even at home.)
When Ridaya touches the door, a pale blue light shimmers over it.
The doors open on their own, into a passageway that gently slopes upwards. The walls and ceiling are rocky; the floor is covered in sand.
Sand! It's like Brighton, except for how it's nothing at all like Brighton. She takes a pinch of it to feel: fairly coarse, yellowy-pale. She's not in the Sahara. Nor is she near a volcano. ...that's approximately all she can determine from a sand sample. What a fantastic waste of time.
When they reach the surface, it's still dark outside, and a bit cold, too. Ridaya can tell, looking at the moon, that the sun won't rise for another two hours, but it's more than enough to see by.
They're in the middle of a vast desert, dunes rolling out to all directions.
Seems like the kind of thing that might be a problem if there wasn't a fifth circle wizard around.
Ridaya dips into the bag holding, emerging wearing a pair of crystal lenses identical to the ones Luto wears. (They're Vakt's. She'll have to give them back soon, but for now, for this, she really wants to make sure she can see as well as possible.)
"I will spot the way from the air," she says, and flies up.
Sophie would probably work something out if she had to, but it's better still to have it covered.
Luto yaaaawns. She... hasn't slept yet. And like, that's fine, she's not a baby and she doesn't have spells to refresh, but it is getting to her a bit.
She crouches down, running fingers through the sand. "Huh. Different from a beach, or the other desert I have been in."
"I think beach sand is usually coarser? It at least seems to stand to reason, it's... fresher? But depending on where you are in a desert, you might have had the same sand being blown around eroding for hundreds or thousands of years, so it's smoother. At least, I read that as a hypothesis about a particular desert in my world. It might not apply generally. Or at all, in the first place."
Stop talking!
Oh! That makes sense. She nods and smiles a bit. "...I don't know how old our world is? Or this desert.... I know some deserts used to be different." She remembers the others talking about it, when they were in Mwangi, even though she was zoned out.