Li Lianhua's gaze falls on the note and remains there, unwilling to imagine what sort of expression might hide underneath that mask. After a moment, he elects to ignore the rhetorical question and answers, still and serious, without any of his usual flightiness and casual animation.

"Lord Vaeros seems to think this would be more useful than a second sapling. As I said, it should be better off in your hands than mine." His jaw tightens as if he's struggling to decide whether to say more, whether to admit to more involvement than this, but finally he adds, "There's a book in the library that references some basic foundations of that sort of external alchemy. As far as I can tell, it's consistent with those. If it is a forgery, it's not a bad one."