"What can I do to earn your trust?"
"Trust," the elf said, contemplating the person who had asked, pondering the word as he watched her. She was one of the many people hoping to eventually make their way to Candlekeep, hoping to learn from the knowledge there, and hoping to gain Tiaumil's favour to help her do so. If hope and enthusiasm was all that was needed, she would already have been there, but that wasn't the world they lived in.
"Trust is not something universal, nor should it be. I may trust a shopkeeper to have decent prices, but I would not necessarily trust them to defend me in battle. Trust is circumstantial, limited based on where it is found and with whom. You wish for me to trust in you, but that likewise is limited. You would not wish for me to trust you with a task you were ill-equipped to supply, for that would not end well."
He would pause and watch her, and she sat there and waited, knowing well enough the timbre and inflection of a teacher enough to understand her silence would be a boon currently. She had insight and intelligence, but she did not have the experience or circumstances necessary to get what she wanted. Yet.
"Reliability is the hallmark of trust," he continued, easing her into the conversation in a way that would linger with her, rather than alienating her. She might well be useful in future, if she weathered the truths he was going to give her. "There are many ways a person can be reliable. They can say they will do something, and follow through on that successfully each time. That would build up the notion of being able to trust someone with similar tasks. But there are other ways. Coercion and leverage can be used to cement a person's life alongside one's own. A person is generally more trustworthy if they have a reason to push past their own wants to do so in your favour. If I said to you 'I have what you need to get into Candlekeep, and I am the only person who can give you it, but you must do this distasteful task for me,' I would trust you more to do that task. But there is also fear. Fear makes someone reliable, if the fear is great enough. People act in predictable ways when pushed to such limits, and that makes them reliable. It is less effective than coercion generally, however, as it is a balance between despair and rebellion that is more given to influences outside.
"But I don't think your wish is for me to trust you, no matter your words, but to believe in you. You wish for me to believe in the future possibilities that your presence could bring. You see in me a gateway to where you wish to go, and hope that I believe in your usefulness and capability as an investment for the future. What you have failed to realise, and this shows a detriment on your research abilities, is that it is not my word, given or taken, that would see you in Candlekeep. It is material goods. They are an archive that constantly hungers. In order to partake, you must first give something of like value, and without it you will never gain entrance. I am not a trader in artifacts, Camila, I am a scribe, and the challenge of getting where you wish to go does not land on a word of mouth, although that will help if you have the necessary item to ask admittance with, but of planning and executing a way to get such an item. Turn your attention there, and you will have a far greater success."
He looked at her, and could see the way she tried to hide how downcast his words had made her. She had likely coasted through her early wizard training on such word-of-mouth, but her early schooling was over.
"Research the types of items they have typically accepted, and then plan and execute an expedition to find it, if you have not the coin to buy one of them, as most do not. The land is filled with items of value, but finding and retrieving one that Candlekeep will accept, that is the challenge.
"Now, unless you have something further to bring to my attention, I have work to do. You can see yourself out, I trust."