"Oh, he's got curiosity at least," Asra informs her. "Our conversation was primarily bouncing questions off of each other. Luckily, he's also proud and boastful, so I was able to get far more from him than he did from me. Still, and I loathe admitting this, he has enough intelligence that I wouldn't put it past him to be more prepared and tight-lipped the next time we go up against him. That, or his master will have reigned in his leash to keep him from spilling any more of her plans.""Oh, no, that's better!" Iana leans forward, eyes brightening as she declares, "You're a mystery. If he's got any curiosity about him at all, he'll want to know more about you. Of course," she has to concede with a sigh and another disdainful roll of her eyes, "there's always a chance that he hasn't got any curiosity. But even so, we can play on the fact that you put him off-balance. Then he'll want to be on guard against you."
Nodding along with Iana's plan, Asra's own conspiratorial smile grows with each step. This sounded fun, and not only that, sounded like the kind of hi-jinx some of the characters in her favorite books might get up to.The smile emerges fully onto Iana's face, sparking bright with anticipation. "Oh, that is exactly what they train us in," she declares, with a quick smile over at Garnyn. He'd like this part of Obsidian work, she suspects.
Iana pauses for a moment, casting her mind back through her classes and training, and bits overheard from her colleagues' conversations, as her illusioned eyes flick around the room, checking once more for listening ears, before returning to Asra, as she leans closer still and lowers her voice to a discreet hush.
"First, we need to get some people talking about the Lady of Mists near where we know he's going to be, so that he can just happen to overhear. Which can be you in another illusion, of course. Or a series of illusions, or allies placed strategically to talk where he can hear, if you'd like to drop a few hints over the course of a day," she offers. "Each one with a different piece of information about the Lady of Mists, and each corroborating what the others have said. Then," she continues, moving on to the next item on her list, neatly counting each one out with a precise tap of her finger on the table, "we can drop hints that the Lady of Mists might be nearby. Objects that he would associate with her. Or that he's just heard those people talking about - again, matching the information that we've just given him about the Lady of Mists, so to him, it will feel like this is corroborating the evidence that he's just heard. Perhaps we could even give the Lady a distinctive scent. Scents are always good for creating atmosphere, and for getting people to feel that something is going on without being exactly certain what." A quick grin tilts up the corners of her lips at that thought, before she finishes triumphantly, "And then, you appear as the Lady of Mists. And he'll be unsettled and off-balance, and he'll believe whatever you've told him about the Lady of Mists, and you can ask him what you like."
"I think we can make that work," she agrees, quietly but emphatically. "If we can get a hold of Jules, the man Sa'ablo hired to assist us yesterday, we may be able to use his knowledge of Chavon and the Canals in general to pinpoint some prime spots. He might even be able to give us some insider knowledge of how things work in that part of the underworld."
Her gaze turns to Saneq, a wickedness finding her way into the grin. "If you're up for it, Saneq, we might even be able to use your influence as well. I painted the Lady as a seeress of sorts, able to see and know things she had no business knowing. Even having you drop a few hints here and there that could reach Chavon's ear could lend legitimacy to this little con," she conspires gleefully.
"As far as scents, I was already wearing a perfume yesterday for... reasons." She's glad for her illusory face, as the redness in her cheeks would be impossible to hide otherwise. Finch, however, would likely have a good idea why. "But anyway... it's a distinctive scent only produced in Hara. I brought it with me as a keepsake, so it'll be pretty damn distinctive. We could use that," she claims.
"As far as questions, though, other than prodding further into exactly who his master is and trying to confirm other suspicions, I'm not really sure where to go," she admits, deflating slightly. "I'm not exactly well versed in interrogation tactics."