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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.)
Sophie has not gone to countries with similar norms often, but she has done enough travel that it's come up. Her solution is the ever-versatile haughty stare: and who do you think you're looking at?
As she sits on a bed, she feels her Killasimi amulet heating up. "Someone's trying to find me," she reports to Ridaya. "My protection should hold at least once, though, it's really very hard to account for without feeling it out first."
As she focuses, her eyes get progressively wider and her face grows more worried, though she holds up a finger before either Luto or Sophie can say anything and keeps it up for multiple minutes.
What the fuck, she thinks numbly several times, and more than once it slips past her lips, too.
This is an unusually thorough finding-spell; generally they bounce off and then your opponent has to try again. But it's very straightforwardly thorough, only varying its angle slightly as it comes at her again and again, and Killasimi is really obnoxiously resilient to that sort of thing. The finding-spell unravels in relatively short order, and Sophie gently strokes the woven token under her shirt.
Ridaya is looking at Sophie approximately the way she looked right after the dragon dissolved into nothingness.
"Was that - how did you - what -"
...Luto half-hugs Ridaya, looking at her in concern. (She's used to Rids being below her, but she's hovering, right now.)
"...I told you, I'm protected. It's a silly trick, they can account for it next time, but it'll fox anything that isn't accounting for it."
"That was - Discern Location. An eighth circle divination, for finding someone, no matter where they are."
Ridaya pauses, trying to figure out how to give context on that. "There are... less than a thousand people with eighth circle power, in all of this world. All of them are much much stronger than us. Stronger than that dragon. And - one of them is looking for you, and probably it is the same group from the dragon horde, and probably they will try again tomorrow, maybe at you but maybe at Luto. If we are not inside the giant dome by then, we will... probably be in a lot of trouble."
(She's also very concerned that a simple trick from Sophie can throw off a Discern Location! But, uh, one fear at a time, or something?)
"Then we'll need to be inside the Dome."
And Sophie will need, eventually, to be powerful enough that those people cannot touch her, if she wants to ever be truly free.
Ridaya nods. "Yeah. I think - once we get Vakt back, we should be figuring out how to get in there. And until then, we should stick together, and be careful. ...and Luto should nap," she adds, looking at her droopy swordswoman.
Luto nods gratefully, dipping into the en suite bathroom to change into her bedclothes.
Sophie takes a flower from a vase on the nightstand and begins the process of distilling a bottle of Rubywise Ruin. The flower tastes more Lantern than Grail, but it'll do.
...upon seeing Luto in a nightgown, she busies herself much more intensely with the distillation. While blushing.
Luto is too tired to notice this! She shuffles into the bed, curling up around a pillow. (She's tired enough that she can Just Pass Out, now, and that's the easiest way for her to sleep.)
Luto is hot not the time, Ridaya!
She floats next to Luto and gently pets her hair, smiling softly.
Tristinela Velem is one of Pharasma's most powerful servants on the Material Plane, personally favored by the Goddess with the power of a Mortal Usher. She is assigned to Golarion, not because she holds any affection for the Cage, but because it is one of the most dangerous regions on the Material, and one which must be defended with especial vigilance. Her personal attention practically ensures the demise of whatever abomination she pursues. She has lived for centuries, seen nations rise and fall, and deemed them unimportant to her greater goals.
She is not accustomed to frustration.
Scrying failed repeatedly; this is not evidence of much, because scrying is trivial to interfere with. But after the third failure, conscious of the ever-increasing danger of a powerful Outer Being on her planet, Tristinela brought out a hard-bought scroll of Discern Location. (She'll be able to cast it herself if she risks her life a few more times, but fate has not yet been so kind. Until then, she buys the scrolls, because they're indispensable for this kind of high-stakes chase.)
The spell failed.
Discern Location is not supposed to fail. Sometimes it does anyway; Mind Blank isn't as common among her quarry as among liches, but cultists are sometimes still sane enough to keep it up. In that event, however, the spell fails immediately; it doesn't gutter out like a candle and return some kind of riddle.
She's going to bring this to the nearest wizard, and when it's resolved she's going to kill that girl-thing before it consumes another soul, and maybe the next thing she has to kill will be something normal, like a Hound of Tindalos.
Luto sleeps with her arms wrapped around a spare pillow. (Occasionally, she cries out or startles awake, and Ridaya goes to sit with her.)
Sophie hums to herself as she works.
"You said the Discern Location was 'eighth circle.' I think I heard something about these circles before, but not a complete gloss."
Ridaya can explain circles of magic to her! With diagrams, and a dynamic scale of mathematical detail and complexity based on Sophie's background and interest!
The gist of it is that mortal magic, for fascinating topological reasons, stabilizes at discrete levels of complexity, each one nearly an order of magnitude more complicated and difficult to work with than the last. The simplest ones, cantrips, are simple and stable enough that they can be learned by anyone willing to spend the time to study and with the mathematical backing. With a little practice, they can be reused indefinitely after they've been prepared, just by closing the loop on their structure as you cast.
Beyond that, they're hard to work with and people only really get better at them by practicing them in dangerous situations, which is why high circles are progressively rarer and rarer. (For example, Ridaya is fifth circle, has been adventuring since she was 15, and has almost died a dozen times and actually died once. And she's the youngest fifth circle caster she knows.)
"...and this means, of course, that an eighth circle caster is very much out of our league," she finishes, losing steam as she remembers how they got onto the topic. (she's already covered the possibility that the spell was cast from a scroll, but that's barely better - spending an eighth circle scroll on this is a terrifying investment in resources.)
Sophie nods. "If they're anything like that powerful, and that experienced... damn." She exhales, setting aside her newly precipitated bottle of Rubywise. "I've got a thunderbolt in my pocket, and that'll kill someone if anything will, but you can turn them aside if you really know what you're doing, and it certainly sounds like they do."