Sammy was certainly not going to leave the other spell unlearned, knowing it would be even faster just because it was two levels lower than her. Sure enough, she blasted through it in 20 minutes.

Knock spell engaged! I guess I can not worry too much about getting Forcebolt with this in the cabinet.

There weren’t a lot of telekinetic spells beyond this at her level, not in what she had immediate access to. She knew there were rarer ones out there. Basic ‘floating and manipulating small items’ was covered by Allspell Zero, or her hard-light-derived Hand of Force divine spell for more overt and heavier-duty lifting.

She was pretty sure there was one for fine manipulation as she’d heard about its use for lockpicking. And there was one for carrying stuff, but Carrying Force was the gold standard, which wasn’t telekinetic.

Well, whatever. I’ll ask around eventually and this will be nice for quick learning as [Wizard] gains more levels.

Level 6 was the big one, for Telekinetic Control. She didn’t have the literal description but it promised various versatile uses, as if having a pair of invisible hands at range. Which she could… sort of do with Create Illusion and hard light, but the hands were fragile instead of essentially invincible.

She recalled suddenly who it was that told her about the ‘finesse telekinesis’ — Lucky Lucille, the smuggler queen and one of the top people in her organization in Caneboro. Noticing that she was up in the night as usual, Sammy pinged her to see her availability and got a warm welcome and invitation.

Zipping over to her throne, Sammy brought up the provided mirror in Lucky’s office — the mirror being one of the finest full-body pieces in existence, magically crafted and pristine, positioned to the side of Lucky’s huge work desk.

Lucky Lucille was a plain but tough-looking woman who oozed ‘rogue’ from every fiber. She was wiry and close to boyish in build and appearance, with her thick, dark hair cut short and haphazard, as if permanently just out of bed. She had her boots crossed and up on the desk as she sat in a cushioned chair and watched Samantha appear. As usual, she had a cigar — currently between her fingers hanging over the side of a chair arm.

She is 100% gremlin.

“There she is!” Lucky exclaimed with a grin in a scratchy, heavily Borderlander-accented voice that made you feel like a favorite pub regular coming in for a pint. “S’bout time, too, I was missing your pretty lil’ divine mug, ay? I hear ya popped the ole cherry and shacked up finally! I knew ya had it in ya! Won a lil’ bet, actually. Your Majesty.” The last she threw in with a wink as she took a puff of the cigar.

Samantha gave a tight smile and made sure the mirror image did not show any blushing. “Thank you, Lucky — your approval is noted and I’m somehow not surprised you put a bet on my sex life. At any rate, how was the day in Caneboro?”

Lucky blew smoke from her lips and shrugged. “It was solid. Been primed and primed again for Dominion retaliation for all our assorted sins, but they have their hands full in every direction but ours. If you had an army, you could shove it up their ass to the teeth of the capital, I bet.”

“Not only do I not have one, I still doubt it would be successful in the end at this point. Those teeth would still bite.”

“Oh, nicely said! I reckon that’s quite a sage assessment! Hehe.”

Samantha winced. “Good one… not.”

Lucky just smiled shamelessly and puffed on her cigar again. “Anyway, business is good. Healthy. Booming, thanks to you! Big profits are rolling in from everything we’ve set up over the week. Enough to get bloody generous. Sorry if recruitment has dried up this way with your church. We ran through everyone in my crew already. We are still recruiting into that, though, so… inevitably we’ll give you a trickle. Maybe upticks once we purchase more ships.”

“Oh, it’s fine. Trickles are coming from every angle now, and there’s still plenty of room to grow. At any rate, I came more specifically to ask about telekinesis spells… if I remember right, you mentioned one that aided fine details such as lockpicking?”

“Oh yeah, Seeress! Delicate Touch is the spell. Level 3. Good for any fine motor skill tasks, we’re talking a lot of ah… Craftsperson benefits. You know, sewing, tying knots, surgery. Good for honest workers.” She stopped dead, with a completely expressionless face, so bored it was obviously fake.

Samantha just stared at her. And stared. And stared.

Lucky was holding her breath the whole time, and suddenly let it out all at once. “Okay, okay! It’s for Procurement Specialists as well. It’s like any other tool, you know! Can be used for good or ill.”

Smirking, Samantha nodded. “Oh, sure. You’ve only used it for good, naturally.”

Lucky grinned as widely and innocently as a person could. The light even caught a gleam on her teeth. “You know me so well, Goddess Who Never Lied!”

All for my entertainment. If she wanted to keep a secret, I’d probably never even know she was misdirecting me. This woman is as deadly as anyone but even better at hiding it. Thankfully, no matter how much scoundrel is in her she’d take an arrow for her friends. Has.

“Alright, so you definitely know it, Lucky. Can you teach me a bit, then?”

“Don’t see why not, Madam!” She took a last puff of the cigar and then set it on a fancy porcelain tray on her desk. Dropping her feet down to the floor and facing the mirror, she began rubbing her hands together. “Alright, pay close attention, yeah? So you get the basic rune constructs down, and you can build off of that.”

“I am watching with eagle eyes, Luminous.”

Lucky began with the subtle hand gestures forming runes, and supported with faintly whispered incantations. She canceled right before the end, then did them again. Sammy picked it up and understood it all almost instantly.

When Lucky finally cast the spell, there was only a brief glow around her visibly before it disappeared, and the only sign she had a spell on her was via [Detect Magic], showing a similar, slight glow over her hands.

She sat back in the chair and picked up her cigar. Taking a significant puff into her mouth, she blew out the smoke, but held her free hand close. It formed an intricate shape of a horse frozen mid-gallop as it floated up, and then soon dissipated.

Lucky shrugged. “I know that looked like a lame cantrip, but that was all artistry in motion! It’s hard to explain until you cast it, but it’s just a short-range feel to things, and you can manipulate physical space with deft, miniature hands instead of big, clumsy ones. But it’s definitely useful. You’ll see.”

Sammy was half-hearing, because she was already tumbling things around in her head and itching to hit the books and order it all out. “Thank you, Lucky… I’ll have it in no time. Already have a couple of related spells and some additional boosts to learning.”

“Bells on a fat pig, then, I’m glad! So, Your Majesty… when can we have a pint and a puff in the real, then? You’ve been planning on coming up this way for a while, eh? Estara is sore something fierce to meet ya in person. Plenty of the rest of us wouldn’t mind it, either.”

Sammy sighed and nodded. “I know… I’m sorry it has taken me so long. It is one of my immediate plans, so very, very soon. Hrm. Come to think, I should do it during downtime like right now. I’d have to take away my warm body from Azu-” She suddenly realized she was saying that out loud to Lucky and cut off.

Lucky snickered and smiled widely. “Aww, well, we can’t have that, now, Goddess! Snuggles are sacrosanct, after all. Could be your next Domain!”

It was actually pleasantly mild on the teasing, all things considered. “Goddess of Snuggles? Nothing could strike fear in the heart of Dominion like that.”

“Oh, no question at all, Goddess. The sages turn to stone upon one glimmer of affection, hence their Butt-stick of No Fun is always firmly inserted in protection. Snuggle Magic would make it shoot right out! Imagine their faces!”

Sammy laughed at Lucky’s sheer absurdity. “Better to imagine that than the other thing…”

Lucky made a very unfortunate sound effect of a ‘shooting out stick’ that had Sammy chortling and groaning in disgust at the same time.

“Okay, okay,” Sammy declared, waving her hands insistently, “enough of that! Thanks again for the help, Lucky. I should go and- oh, one other thing. What should I pursue for [Rogue] class skills? I remember seeing [Rogue’s Luck] mentioned a few times. Is that a good one to pick?”

“It is thanks to the synergy with Avoidance, and being otherwise good for boosting literally anything once a day. But if you have [Bard] levels, take note that it has access, too. Do you know how to get [Rogue’s Luck]?”

“Not a clue.”

“Play games of chance. Gamble, win big, get lucky, without using any active abilities to help. You can play games with skill involved, but you still have to get Lucky. Eventually, the option will pop up if you have a free slot.”

“Ah. That should be a piece of cake for me.”

Lucky smirked. “Well, aren’t you cocky? But you’re right.” She sighed. “Your bed or mine?”

Sammy blinked in confusion. “What?”

“I said you have to get me, and you seem determined, so…”

Sammy’s eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open. “Wha-?! Lucky!”

Bursting out in laughter, the dastardly rogue slapped her chair arm. “You’re so- haha, the look on your-...” She squeezed her eyes shut as she continued laughing, because she was just so amused. “I th-think it was a triple entendre, ah haha!”

Sammy glared with her eyes squinted. “You are so going to pay for that. And no it was not a triple, because you would be the lucky one by far!”

As the unfortunately-named woman doubled over wheezing, Sammy disconnected, quite having her fill of the ‘great comedian’ of her order for a night.

Hmmph! Cheeky goofball.