He's supposed to be finishing his notes on the latest draft of the Chelish constitution.
(It's a mess, the Chelish National Assembly being populated – for lack of alternatives – by Chelish subjects. Élie's has a lot of opinions on constitutions. He used to draft them recreationally, in his misspent youth, and he's seen more of them fail than anyone else who's both currently alive and still committed to the project of representative governments. He knows exactly what he wants this one to look like. And any change he asks for will, of course, immediately be made – but that would rather defeat the purpose).
Since he's not getting any work done on the constitution, he should really iron out some bugs in the Arcane Engine. The thing is are already deployed in Westcrown and Isarn, letting his assistants dispense Remove Diseases once per person per day – except when they break down or fail at random or anything remotely interesting happens on a nearby leyline.
(It's Westcrown that's currently having problems, and the last time he visited, the healer on site asked him, if he can empower his followers to cast spells, doesn't that basically mean he's a god?)
He could play with the children, but Nefreti is taking her acolytes on a field trip to the moon and Rahim and Ines begged and begged to go, and baby (for once) is sleeping.
So he's trying to rework a magic mirror to let him talk to alternate universe versions of himself. Until, very abruptly, he isn't.