Back to the carpet?

Back to the carpet. No surprises on the way out. The Kheltians seem much more relaxed, once they're out of Germina airspace and speeding across the arid plains. The flight is uneventful, at least as Blai can tell by his non-visual senses if he's still declining to take in the view.

And in two hours, they're setting down in Edojaf. A messenger informs them they have the rest of the morning to convalesce, but the King wants to see them at two o'clock to debrief.

He's not sure he needs to convalesce per se but it's a kind sentiment. He will appear promptly at two.

"We have received an overview of the diplomatic situation. Reim and Germina to ally, and peace with Khelt. That much is as we planned for, but we understand you received more troubling news from the Quarass."

"The King of Destruction has taken up religion. He means to open a lot of temples, including in the Quarass's realm. I didn't get a sense from the description of the god how big a problem that is."

Fetohep is feeling very self-satisfied right now about contracting Blai to bootstrap Khelt's [Cleric] program. Nonetheless, he has to remind himself, the King of Destruction taking up competition is a bad thing, not a god thing.

"We were told you spoke of a—threat which cannot be spoken of, as knowledge of it endangers by itself—"

"Yes. For possibly obvious reasons I don't know too much about it and may be wrongly cautious in any number of ways, but some acquaintances from Izril contacted me about it."

"Does the danger only pertain to Germina and Reim's situation, or to Khelt's as well?"

"I still expect that Golarion gods are fine at least within the set produced here. It's the other ones that have me concerned. I'm not sure to what extent the Golarion gods are... paving the way for more, though."

"Do you recommend I forbid the worship of non-Golarion gods?"

"...I think you can probably afford to wait and see what happens before deciding either way assuming the two here aren't deliberately spreading the idea. You might well want to forbid Tamaroth specifically but - announcing such a ban would make the idea salient so you might want to wait until news filters in unavoidably."

"You will leave Khelt next month. This state of matters cannot continue indefinitely, if we do not know even what we are supposed to guard against."

"I will get in touch with my acquaintances again and get their opinions on explaining matters to you before that time."

"May we know who these acquaintances are?"

"The same people who tried to fend off my kidnapper. They're Antinium. I'm not very good at pronouncing their names."

"Ah. We do not know much of the Antinium, only of their recent momentuous emergence into the world." Now he wonders if that description is true in more ways than one. "We heard of your defense of them on the Winter Solstice. Are these Antinium... adventurers? Inform them that we would speak to them, if they are willing."

"I'll let them know, your majesty."

"Regarding the line of communication with Germina, I expect your team to seek to acquire any useful information on religion-based classes and their mechanics, in addition to knowledge of gods. You may trade in exchange only information on gods and [Clerics] which is public knowledge to the populace of Khelt, or information which is necessary towards the safe conduct of related operations. We ask the same of your communications with other contacts outside Khelt."

"Your Majesty, when speaking to the aforementioned Antinium I did not observe such a limit. With the inevitable I've been calling either. Furthermore I have no advance knowledge on what may transpire once I've left Khelt for good. Introducing this level of information security now is... awkward. I may need time to think about how it would affect things before I can agree to more than just keeping the sensitive nature of the information in mind."

"Would it be easier to accept were the restrictions to apply only for correspondents within Chandrar, for the time being? Our principal concern is limiting the power of the King of Destruction and his vassals. These restrictions are only requested for the duration of your stay in Khelt, to be clear."

"Yes, I can agree to that within Chandrar for the remainder of my planned stay."

He still wants to audit what Blai is talking to the Antinium about, but it would be unhelpful when Blai isn't his subject and will be gone in a month anyway.

"Very well. We will await your update."

"Thank you, your majesty."

Then he is released to his regular scheduled programming. Antinium check-in is supposed to be in three days; is he waiting for that or calling them soooner?