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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.)
...hopefully they can ditch this guy once they get to the temple? She glances at Sophie.
"I was born here, and in spite of the immense effort invested in making me unwelcome, I will die here one day. My soul I commend to whoever can find it; my ashes will be carried down the River Sphinx."
"Besides, the Temple of the Eye is easily interesting enough to make up for the rest of this place. They've got a lot of books."
Sophie has had more than enough of this guy.
"Thank you for guiding us to this lovely temple, I'll be sure to pray for your wretched soul. In the meantime, we have urgent business, and if you try to eavesdrop on that I may just lay a balding hex on you, so why don't you be a dear and piss off?"
...Luto steps closer to Sophie, just in case. (Her hand isn't on her sword, but it doesn't need to be.)
The man laughs. "You should know, for your instincts: threats of magic are illegal. But I'll take it in the spirit offered, and leave you be."
And he walks away, whistling.
That was surprisingly stressful but they don't actually have time to unpack any of it because she needs to go make sure someone prepares a Raise Dead for them to buy today!
She lets Sophie and Luto know what she's doing and why, and then flies past them into the temple, looking for someone to talk to.
"...I'm sorry," Sophie sighs, sitting on the marble steps. "I let my temper get away from me."
Luto sits down next to her, close enough to lean on. "It worked out okay," she says, shrugging. "And it was quite rude of him, laughing like that."
"I could have shrugged it off, if everything wasn't so stressful. The teleporting, the resurrections, the... echoes of the dragon."
Nodnod. "That makes sense. It's been a very stressful day, so far. And the sun isn't even up yet!" She stifles another yawn.
"Hah. Once it is, I'm tempted to sleep. ...not really, I think I should stay away from dreams for a while. But it'd be almost like nothing happening."
"I do hope we can have an easier time of things, here! ...It'll be much easier once we get Vakt back, I think."
...wait. "Uh. Why should you stay away from dreams?"
"Dreaming is one of the ways I can get in touch with the Mansus, the metaphysical structure housing my world's deities, the Hours. I invoked... a particular few Hours, yesterday. I shouldn't like to draw any more of their attention until they've had time to settle back."
"Oh. Huh." (...Luto has no idea what that means, but she trusts Sophie, and would be embarrassed to ask for a simpler explanation.) "And you can... rest without dreaming, in a way that isn't bad for you?"
(Sophie was being deliberately evasive, so Luto not really understanding makes perfect sense!)
"Yes, I'll be perfectly lucid. I sometimes go weeks without, when I've enough to keep myself busy."
(Luto is in fact the easiest member of her family to slip something past! She doesn't suspect a thing.)
"Weeks! Gods, that's impressive." Oh, right, magic items are weird to Sophie, so she should probably explain?
"A Ring of Sustenance makes it so their wearer needs only two hours of sleep, but they do really need those two hours. I've never heard of something that lets people get away with not sleeping at all."
"Neat! I wonder if you could do Ridaya's type of magic without needing to sleep the way she does..."
"Maybe so! I'm curious to learn more about it, once there's less screaming emergency about."
Ridaya finds someone at the temple who is both awake and has an language overlap with her and manages, after some stressful negotiations, to get one of their fifth circles to prepare a Raise Dead today, an appointment to negotiate the conditional sale of the sword, and a bit of spending money. (She has to give them Zan's cloak as collateral. She doesn't love doing it, but this was always going to be the plan.)
If she doesn't come back with her own diamond, they can source her one at a very reasonable price. (She'll probably end up taking them up on that. Sourcing a diamond in a foreign city like this isn't the kind of thing she's going to be good at.) If she doesn't come back within the next two days, the cloak is forfeit.
When she rejoins Sophie and Luto, she is visibly harried by the experience. "They're expecting me in about four hours to perform the sale, and they can raise Vakt after that," she says. "In the meantime, let's go get a room somewhere?"
"Let's."
If that annoying man were here he could probably recommend an inn. In his absence they may be forced to find one themselves. A small price to pay.
10 gp for a two-bedroom suite with oversized beds, specifically!
(They get some odd looks in the street, three foreign women out alone, but (especially because Ridaya is flying), they're correctly identified as belonging to the Adventurer gender.)