Maillol reaches into his desk, and then pauses, because he has a feeling he needs to get this part of the conversation done earlier, in order for them to happen at all, because Sevar is about to be distracted.

"If you're looking for somewhere to open the Queen's gift, Sevar, try the third torture chamber on the right; there's no torturer on duty there and the junior priest on duty outside has healing spells.  It may come at the expense of being able to prepare spells before you're scheduled to brief the other girls in the morning, depending on how elaborate the Queen's gift turns out to be."

"It's also been suggested to me that you, Sevar, had to buy your own intelligence headband because requisitions was being weirdly obstructionist about it and gave you a two-week delivery time.  It will, on this version, arrive with the next delivery we get, later today.  Then somebody, possibly Ione, should mention to Keltham the wild but unlikely theory that the delay is because they're planning to prepare cursed intelligence headbands, which exist just like cursed versions of most other magic items exist, and in particular have been famously known to do subtle influences and mind control and even make people dumber on certain subjects without realizing it.  It's not impossible that they had at least one cursed headband lying around to substitute for the one you bought, to slip it to you immediately.  The point being that Keltham shouldn't just ask to borrow your headband from you, though that's in any case something that wizards tend to be really fucking insane about."

"Those are lies to Keltham, though," except for that very last part, "so your final call.  The suggester wasn't in our chain of command."

Maillol reaches into his desk, and then pauses, because he has a feeling he needs to get this part of the conversation done earlier, in order for them to happen at all, because Sevar is about to be distracted.

"If you're looking for somewhere to open the Queen's gift, Sevar, try the third torture chamber on the right; there's no torturer on duty there and the junior priest outside has healing spells.  It may come at the expense of being able to prepare spells before you're scheduled to brief the other girls in the morning, depending on how elaborate the Queen's gift turns out to be."

"It's also been suggested to me that you, Sevar, had to buy your own intelligence headband because requisitions was being weirdly obstructionist about it and gave you a two-week delivery time.  It will, on this version, arrive with the next delivery we get, later today.  Then somebody, possibly Ione, should mention to Keltham the wild but unlikely theory that the delay is because they're planning to prepare cursed intelligence headbands, which exist just like cursed versions of most other magic items exist, and in particular have been famously known to do subtle influences and mind control and even make people dumber on certain subjects without realizing it.  It's not impossible that they had at least one cursed headband lying around to substitute for the one you bought, to slip it to you immediately.  The point being that Keltham shouldn't just ask to borrow your headband from you, though that's in any case something that wizards tend to be really fucking insane about."

"Those are lies to Keltham, though," except for that very last part, "so your final call.  The suggester wasn't in our chain of command."

Maillol reaches into his desk, and then pauses, because he has a feeling he needs to get this part of the conversation done earlier, in order for them to happen at all, because Sevar is about to be distracted.

"If you're looking for somewhere to open the Queen's gift, Sevar, try the torture chamber on the right; there's no torturer currently on duty there and the junior priest stationed outside has healing spells.  It may come at the expense of being able to prepare spells before you're scheduled to brief the other girls in the morning, depending on how elaborate the Queen's gift turns out to be."

"It's also been suggested to me that you, Sevar, had to buy your own intelligence headband because requisitions was being weirdly obstructionist about it and gave you a two-week delivery time.  It will, on this version, arrive with the next delivery we get, later today.  Then somebody, possibly Ione, should mention to Keltham the wild but unlikely theory that the delay is because they're planning to prepare cursed intelligence headbands, which exist just like cursed versions of most other magic items exist, and in particular have been famously known to do subtle influences and mind control and even make people dumber on certain subjects without realizing it.  It's not impossible that they had at least one cursed headband lying around to substitute for the one you bought, to slip it to you immediately.  The point being that Keltham shouldn't just ask to borrow your headband from you, though that's in any case something that wizards tend to be really fucking insane about."

"Those are lies to Keltham, though," except for that very last part, "so your final call.  The suggester wasn't in our chain of command."

Maillol reaches into his desk, and then pauses, because he has a feeling he needs to get this part of the conversation done earlier, in order for them to happen at all, because Sevar is about to be distracted.

"If you're looking for somewhere to open the Queen's gift, Sevar, try the torture chamber on the right; there's no torturer currently on duty there and the junior priest stationed outside has healing spells.  Though doing that right away may come at the expense of being able to prepare spells before you're scheduled to brief the other girls in the morning, depending on how elaborate the Queen's gift turns out to be."

"It's also been suggested to me that you, Sevar, had to buy your own intelligence headband because requisitions was being weirdly obstructionist about it and gave you a two-week delivery time.  It will, on this version, arrive with the next delivery we get, later today.  Then somebody, possibly Ione, should mention to Keltham the wild but unlikely theory that the delay is because they're planning to prepare cursed intelligence headbands, which exist just like cursed versions of most other magic items exist, and in particular have been famously known to do subtle influences and mind control and even make people dumber on certain subjects without realizing it.  It's not impossible that they had at least one cursed headband lying around to substitute for the one you bought, to slip it to you immediately.  The point being that Keltham shouldn't just ask to borrow your headband from you, though that's in any case something that wizards tend to be really fucking insane about."

"Those are lies to Keltham, though," except for that very last part, "so your final call.  The suggester wasn't in our chain of command."

Maillol reaches into his desk, and then pauses, because he has a feeling he needs to get this part of the conversation done earlier, in order for them to happen at all, because Sevar is about to be distracted.

"If you're looking for somewhere to open the Queen's gift, Sevar, try the torture chamber on the right; there's no torturer currently on duty there and the junior priest stationed outside has healing spells.  Though doing that right away may come at the expense of being able to prepare spells before you're scheduled to brief the other girls in the morning, depending on how elaborate the Queen's gift turns out to be."

"It's also been suggested to me that you, Sevar, had to buy your own intelligence headband because requisitions was being weirdly obstructionist about it and gave you a two-week delivery time.  The one you purchased will, on this version, arrive with the next delivery we get, later today.  Then somebody, possibly Ione, should mention to Keltham the wild but unlikely theory that the delay is because they're planning to prepare cursed intelligence headbands, which exist just like cursed versions of most other magic items exist, and in particular have been famously known to do subtle influences and mind control and even make people dumber on certain subjects without realizing it.  It's not impossible that they had at least one cursed headband lying around to substitute for the one you bought, to slip it to you immediately.  The point being that Keltham shouldn't just ask to borrow your headband from you, though that's in any case something that wizards tend to be really fucking insane about."

"Those are lies to Keltham, though," except for that very last part, "so your final call.  The suggester wasn't in our chain of command."

Maillol reaches into his desk, and then pauses, because he has a feeling he needs to get this part of the conversation done earlier, in order for them to happen at all, because Sevar is about to be distracted.

"If you're looking for somewhere to open the Queen's gift, Sevar, try the torture chamber on the right; there's no torturer currently on duty there and the junior priest stationed outside has healing spells.  Though doing that right away may come at the expense of being able to prepare spells before you're scheduled to brief the other girls in the morning, depending on how elaborate the Queen's gift turns out to be."

"It's also been suggested to me that you, Sevar, had to buy your own intelligence headband because requisitions was being weirdly obstructionist about it and gave you a two-week delivery time.  The one you purchased will, on this version, arrive with the next delivery we get, later today.  You say that where the girls and Keltham can hear.  Then somebody, possibly Ione, should mention to Keltham the wild but unlikely theory that the delay is because they're planning to prepare cursed intelligence headbands, which exist just like cursed versions of most other magic items exist, and in particular have been famously known to do subtle influences and mind control and even make people dumber on certain subjects without realizing it.  It's not impossible that they had at least one cursed headband lying around to substitute for the one you bought, to slip it to you immediately.  The point being that Keltham shouldn't just ask to borrow your headband from you, though that's in any case something that wizards tend to be really fucking insane about."

"Those are lies to Keltham, though," except for that very last part, "so your final call.  The suggester wasn't in our chain of command."