Arvel borrows a piece of tarp from the halfling brothers and stretches it across boxes in the cart, making a nice little niche for himself.

He listens to Ethan and Elra's back-and-forth and chuckles.

"I am both incredibly jealous of your dedication to your crafts while, at the same time, oddly glad I don't have to deal with all of that. I think the occasional migraine might just be worth the hours I'd have to spend in study hall for all of that."

Elra laughs, "It would be like wizards to see it as logically as that. Oghma gives me the power to preform spells. Every evening I pray to him for the kind of aid I request and he bestows it on me. Say, one day I need to help quite a few people with somrthing particularly difficult, I pray for Oghma to Bless them and he assists them. Then, we know that we're about to go off on a mission to defeat someone very bad, along with his minions. I wouldn't really need that spell so the night before we take off I'd pray for guidance and Oghma would bless me with the spell I would need for that mission. There are some spells I have regardless of the situation. Loremaster Atlavast refered to them as spells Oghma finds very beneficial for all of his followers to have, so we have them with us always..."

Elra stops for a few moment, then pulls out her journel, "I haved learned spells the way wizards do though. See, there are a lot of spells that Oghma and other gods either don't or can't bestow upon their followers. I was curious though, and started practicing with a few of the more basic ones. That's how I got Vincent," Elra pats Vincet on the head before continuing, "I can only cast them with the proper rituals though. Ritual..." Elra closes her eyes, "That's what I forgot about."

"Oh well, maybe I can get on in Phandalin," she shrugs. She turns to Arvel. "Speaking of craft, how are you able to cast a spell like that so many times without getting exhaused whatsoever? It's not a spell Oghma feels is useful for his followers. Loremaster Atlavast says that even those who follow magic in its arcane form are limited by the amount of magic they can do a day. You seem to have an unlimited supply of it."

"What do you know about the Fey?"

Arvel immediately regrets asking the question of two know-it-alls.

"Nevermind, nevermind. Just remember these important rules when it comes to the Fey:

1. Never sign anything without reading the fine print.

2. The Fey don't teach. They just put the knowledge in your head and then it pops out...painfully...when they want you to know it.

3. The Fey play by their own rules when it comes to magic.

So, I can cast my disguise spell whenever I want to because She wants me to."

"Only enough to know that Loremaster Atlavast doesn't care for them and that I need to be polite to them but never agree to any offers they try to make with me," Elra admits. "And she? Who is She?" She opens she eyes in excitement, "Did you make a deal with one of the Fey? What was it like? What do you mean by painful? What kind of deal did you make with it? Are they really as beautiful as everyone thinks they are?" she stops asking questions after a few seconds, realizing she wasn't giving him nearly enough time to answer any.

"She's..."

His eye twitches.

"She's..."

He turns his head to the side and clutches his temples.

"Sheeeeeee's...nnnnnnnnnnnGAH!"

He bends over double.

He huffs exhaustedly and yells at the sky "Fine!"

"She's not very keen on me talking about Her. That's all I can say...literally."

"..." Elra's speechless for once. After a few moments she finds her voice, "She doesn't seem very nice... are you alright?"

"Fine. Fine. You get used to it after a while. First time I disguised myself with magic I had a three day hangover. When my Voice came in, I had a sore throat for weeks"

"She can be very nice...

...when She wants to be."

"Why would she want to hurt you if you're working for her? Oghma doesn't hurt me for using his magic..." Elra doesn't seem excited anymore, only confused.

"Let's just say..."

He looks up to the left and right as if he's expecting to be interrupted.

"...that I'm working off a debt."

"The Fey aren't gods. They don't have followers who worship them and experience their adoration. They're...inscrutable as opposed to ineffable. Does that make sense?"

"So you can comprehend them but you can't describe them with your words."

"Oh, I could absolutely describe Her with some choice words...

...if She wanted me too. Which She obviously doesn't."

"Wait, so this fey implanted a magical ability right into you?! Power source and control included? Just snap your fingers and it works?"

Ethan seems to be caught up in thought,

"Wow! I so wish I could see inside people, to see how the magic work on the inside. If I knew how our internal systems worked like that, I could infuse people directly...like these fey can."

"The possibilities of that kind of power... You could rearrange your own systems potentially, the possibilities would be endless..."

Ethan opens his gauntlet and pulls out his designs book and starts scribbling notes, in what looks like it may be draconic, but has many other unknown symbols.

The idea recorded, Ethan puts the book back, still lost in thought.

Ethan mumbles something to himself quietly.

"...maybe that how the gods got their power...."

Quote from Paradox42 >>

Just snap your fingers and it works?"

 "Yeah, sure. If you don't mind giving up the choice as to when you snap your fingers and whether or not it works."

"What do you mean? Is the power still tethered to the fey? Can they turn it on and off without your control?"

"That doesn't sound that great. Maybe you should ask if she can let go of it, let you have it without her interference?"

Quote from Paradox42 >>

"Maybe you should ask if she can let go of it, let you have it without her interference?"

Arvel looks askance for a second.

"Haha."

He starts to laugh.

"Hahahahahaha."

He leans back against the cart and takes a deep breath.

"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He collapses against the cart and rolls back and forth on his bedroll.

"What? What did I say? What's so funny?"

Ethan looks confused.

"Well suit yourself then. Me, I would at least ask for control back, "Don't ask, don't get", old Grimble used to say, and its true."

Ethan still looks confused as he walks away from the still laughing half-elf.

"It's the Fey, Etan. The Archfey. You don't ask. These aren't gods. They don't respond to prayers. You either do what you've agreed to do, or..."

Ethan turns back as Arvel start talking,

"Wait, so you agreed to this, oh sorry. Were you drunk? I know alcohol can have bad effects on peoples abilities to make good logical decisions."

"And these fey, they don't like giving up on agreements then? So asking would not help?"

Ethan looks a little troubled,

"I feel very sorry for you all of a sudden Arvel, that must be a terrible burden."

Ethan goes quiet, looking a little sad.

Arvel gets serious for the first time you've seen him.

"Just...just be sure you never get yourself into a no-win situation."