"You only say that because you believe it won't work. If you thought it did—"

"The King needs to heal, not more distractions."

"He needs to wake, not rest more, Orthenon. You do not know him as I do. You have ever only served the King of Destruction. I swore myself to our lord when he was but a dreamer on a new throne. When Queravia passed, as it did when..."

She trails off, and shakes her head minutely.

"The fire in his heart requires a spark, not more kindling."

"Perhaps you have insight into the mind of our King which I lack, though I wish to contest that another day. However, I know you, Gazi, better than any waking man today. And I tell you you are unwell. You were unwell when you left, six years ago; I believed distance would do you well, but it is clear that I was mistaken."

Gazi's smiling mask slips.

"You believe I perpetrate a hopeless search to cling to a delusion of control. You, who have spent twenty years tending your master's estate in the vain hope that he will some day simply... get better of his own accord, I suppose."

Fortunes spent on mind-healers and remedies, decades of correspondence with distant lands met by failure after failure, his own long evenings spent reading letters and reports by his lord's throne, hoping one of them would move him to rouse. But Gazi knows all of this, and he suspects she will only take his failures as proving her point.

"You would rather I abandon the kingdom to ruin?" he says instead. "Allow Hellios and Elmvett to pry at our lands until the armies of six nations are on Reim's doorstep? Even with all of my attention here, Reim is crumbling."

"Perhaps then our King would stir himself to act."

"Do you hear yourself? It is entirely unlike you. What do you propose I do with this man from Izril? You have already wasted one of Amerys' scrolls on him."

"I expect you have your ways, my lord steward."

He sighs.

Has Blai been up to anything interesting while we were in a cutscene?

Casting Guidance on himself constantly trying to keep the food down. Practicing Prestidigitation's use for cleaning because he's been in these clothes continuously for two weeks while mostly not in control of his faculties.

Let me guess: he doesn't want the clothes provided in the closets, or the laundry services, or the personal washing and bathing facilities which aren't meant for cleaning clothes but can be repurposed for that without too much difficulty?

He should not like to give the impression that he might be accepting gifts under these circumstances, no.

He'll get another meal to ignore in the evening, but no further messages yet.

These people are really inefficient kidnappers, which he supposes is good because it's not something you want people being efficient at but it's aesthetically displeasing.

He nibbles his created food and Guidances and Resistances his way through it and manages to get the worst of the evidence of two weeks' continuous wear off his clothes. He sleeps. He dithers for a bit about whether he can sleep on the bed or if it has to be the floor, but the bed is a durable good so it seems okay. He sleeps in it.

But you see, tomorrow someone will change the sheets, so you've indirectly used the laundry services! You've fallen into our trap! No one is tracking this at all.

What spells are he prepping this morning? Does he want to try another escape attempt?

Guidance, Create Water, Resistance, Detect Magic. Detect Charm, Remove Fear, Unbreakable Heart, Protection from Chaos, Protection from Evil. Owl's Wisdom, Suppress Charms and Compulsions twice... Zone of Truth... and Qualm. Prayer, and also - it's tempting to go for Planar Inquiry, a lantern archon could go tell people in Liscor that they should keep all the pieces of Klbkch in case he can get back to cast Make Whole and earn enough circles to depetrify him - but he can't guarantee that the archon would be safe from the effects on this place and it might also be one of those spells that costs intervention budget even if it's not as bad as Commune - so not today, at least. So Create Food and Water again instead. And he has another slot, now. The scorpion probably. And -

- hm. The spell Homeward Bound wouldn't land if he tried to cast it on a demon. Once in a great while someone would capture a demon alive for information and volunteer to send it back to the Abyss out of the immediate environs of whoever was commanding it in exchange for the intel, but he never personally had the chance. But maybe he could just - cast it on himself? It probably won't work but if it did...

...well, he'll prepare it, but he won't cast it immediately.

He gets a fancy letter around noon. It's written in Drake script, so he can read it, though the script is slightly nonstandard compared to what Blai is used to.

To Select Blai Artigas,

I shall keep this message short to spare your time. The Kingdom of Reim, and I, the King's Steward and current regent, did not order, enable or intend Adventurer Gazi to abduct your person, and do not endorse her actions in doing so. Adventurer Gazi has not been in the employ of, nor working on behalf of, nor in formal communication with the Kingdom for the past six years. Our most recent personal correspondence was two years ago, whereupon I advised her against her quest which led her to eventually kidnap you. I was not notified of your existence, nor of your abduction, until yesterday when she delivered you to the palace and requested that I take custody.

The purpose of her actions were to seek a way to dispel the twenty-year slumber of King Flos of Reim, whom I steward this Kingdom on behalf of, and to whom she bears deep personal loyalty. It is this personal loyalty upon which she acts, using her personal resources; she does not consider herself answerable to the Kingdom, nor indeed to what my lord would wish, were he awake; for I believe my King would condemn and forbid her actions towards you as well, and I believe she knows this.

Nonetheless, she believed that you have the power to restore my lord, which I do not take lightly. However, neither can I countenance the abduction and continued detainment of a man who has done no wrong, and who has conversely had much wrong done unto him by one misconstruable to be working on behalf of Reim.

Therefore, I would invite you to dine with me tonight, such that I may understand what drew Gazi's eye to you and plead my King's case. If, thereafter, you still wish to leave, you may depart unimpeded with all the belongings we can see returned, and five hundred gold pieces in apology and to fund your return to Izril, and a letter of safe passage if you so desire. I have spoken to Adventurer Gazi, and believe that in this event she will not further trouble you, as you have demonstrated the futility of such an approach.

By the grace of my lord,

Orthenon
Lord Steward of His Majesty The King

Followed by a lot of titles.

Wow, recognizable Law! It's not amazing, in particular he'd like to know if they have the means to put Gazi on trial for running around committing crimes or what, and what's become of his armor and mace and the other stuff she stole more specifically than "all the belongings we can see returned" - how confident are they she fessed up about them all? - but it's more than good enough that he will accept the dinner invitation and is glad he didn't yeet himself into a 20% chance of appearing on a random plane and a probably about 40% chance that the spell doesn't care that he started out on, specifically, the planet Golarion. He will tell the servant who brought the letter that he may convey an acceptance.

The servant nods.

The staff has no special information on the accuracy of Gazi's accounting of his property, but they can tell Orthenon that Blai asked about it so he can answer at dinner?

They'll send someone to fetch him at six—does he know how to read the timepieces, they don't know if the ones on Izril are the same?—also would he like a change of dinner-appropriate clothes. Their lord steward is unlikely to take offense, considering the circumstances, but...

He has not learned to read timepieces. Tragically he does not yet feel comfortable accepting replacement clothes but he should be able to get these cleaner by dinnertime.

Also, about how long was he intermittently conscious? He has a monthly obligation and would like to know if he's coming due.

The timepieces are read like this. They can give him the date. (It's been seventeen days since the morning he was kidnapped.)

Oh good, he's not due, which matters because in this particular universe playing chess with someone has the potential to grant them resources and playing against himself is not really obviously fun enough to count, it's just kind of arguable.

When it's time, someone will come fetch him and take him to a private dining room. The table is set for two.

A tall and gaunt man in the dress of a chamberlain enters shortly. His features are distinctly Tian, unlike the Garundi-looking locals. A servant introduces him as "Lord Orthenon, the King's Steward."