The trellis might actually be mostly natural? The same way some people have potted plants, this guy has trellised plants. The missing old trellis might be more like the kind of thing that happens if somebody dies, not even somebody you're magically bonded to, just someone who acted as a lens on all your thinking. He does have some skills that don't look homegrown, some weird instincts that appear to have been placed to ornament this garden from without, but they're not really messing with the plants beyond being a thing some can grow on in the course of finding the trellis.

No Mindhealers have ever touched this guy.

That's incredibly fascinating. Jisa doesn't think she's ever seen a mind that - pervasively structured - in a way that wasn't somehow magically imposed. Lifebonds don't look like that. Heralds don't look like that. (Insofar as it reminds her of anything, it reminds her a little of the structure in a Companion's mind. Up close it does look less obviously artificial, more - just the way his mind grew or the way he decided to grow it - but the fact that it's not original to his mind, that it seems to be replacing some previous structure, is weirder - she's seen people with rebuilt-looking minds but not in this particular way and usually with a lot more mess...) 

- the little not-homegrown ornaments are weird but not relevant to what she was supposed to be checking, and neither is the rest. With enormous reluctance, she backs off. 

:I really don't think Leareth had anything to do with this. - at least I think Leareth hasn't done anything to his mind, and I don't see how Leareth could have hauled someone here from another world or why he would do that. I - guess I can't be totally sure without deep-scanning him, but given how unlikely it seems, I'm not comfortable doing it without his consent. And obviously I couldn't do it without him noticing.: 

Vanyel lets out his breath and some of the tension with it, and abruptly feels very very tired. 

:All right. I think we owe the poor man an explanation, then.: 

Sigh. 

:You shouldn't be involved. Just because it's not Leareth's doing doesn't mean it's - safe - just get back to Mindhealers', all right? I'm sure they need you anyway.: 

And he wants to tuck her away somewhere safe. Jisa tries not to feel hurt, and does manage not to retort that she can look after herself just fine; it won't help. 

:All right.:

Pause. 

:I think he's - I don't know for sure, I'm missing a lot of context, but I think he's trustworthy - or, I mean, I think there's something he's loyal to, something he's built himself around, and he won't go against that. I guess I don't know what 'that' is. But it's probably not 'working for Leareth'.:

Sigh. :I guess that's what we have to figure out.: 

Jisa is admittedly not sure what happened to his last trellis. She doubts what happened was him deciding to break with it, though. She - isn't sure that's possible from within the structure of a mind like that. 

She turns Enara back toward the House of Healing, deep in thought.

Vanyel reaches out to Mindspeak Katri, which is a lot easier to do through shields he's keyed to than full Thoughtsensing on someone who's weirdly hard to read to begin with. 

:We checked. He's not working for Leareth. We don't know who he does work for and that might be important, but - he's not under arrest, we just want to understand what's happening and - I guess maybe help him get home, if he wants that?: 

Oh good. Katri just barely manages to keep the visible relief off her face. 

:We do know who he's working for, actually! A goddess called Iomedae. ...The explanation is very confusing, he seems to be claiming She used to be human and served a different god? Who's dead but might have visited our world for some reason? This goddess Iomedae has a kingdom in 'Golarion', like how Vkandis has Karse. - he has Her holy book on him and offered to translate it.: 

(Non-Chelish people are actually really easy to read but it's not that weird that she might have several telepathic bonds up. Maybe that's why the one she had left uncast was still and silent.)

That's...a start, at least. 

:I'm going to come over there. ...Tell him he's not under arrest, I guess. I can explain more once I get there.: 

That's such an awkward thing to just say to someone out of the blue!!! 

:You're, er, not under arrest.: Fidget. :Someone else is coming to explain more.: 

Oh that's very Lawful and polite of them. :Thank you for letting me know.:

He's taking all of this surprisingly well, honestly. Katri is pretty sure she would be freaking out enormously more in his position. 

...Still really awkward to sit here in silence for the next five minutes or however long it takes Vanyel to get here, though, she should - think of something else sensible to ask... She scrabbles for a moment, trying to remember some previous thread she could follow up on.

:What was the name of the god you said was dead, again? And, er, how exactly does a god end up dead...?: 

:His name was Aroden. He attempted to incarnate on Golarion to bring about an Age of Glory and it did not work. It created a portal to the Abyss which stood for a century and a permanent storm which persists still and broke the functioning of prophecy all over the planet in addition to killing him.:

Wow that's horrifying and disturbing???? Possibly Katri should ask more questions about it but she almost doesn't want to know, yet, it feels like she already has more than enough to process. 

:Is there anything more you can tell us about magic in Golarion? It sounds like it works a bit differently from here.: There, a safe topic that definitely won't be upsetting. 

:Sure. The most common kinds of spellcasters there are wizards and clerics. Clerics are like me, though of course different gods prefer different alignments and personalities. We cast from wisdom and ask for our spells in an hour of prayer every morning. Wizards cast from cunning, use books to store the spells they've learned, and learn to cast their spells in schools or apprenticeships. I technically know one wizard spell but it's a zeroth-circle one and I can't use most of its features reliably. There are also sorcerers, who have a hereditary or idiosyncratic magical power - often they're like narrowly scoped wizards, and there's a relatively common kind that sings to cast their spells instead of speaking, but they vary a lot more overall. And there are rarer kinds of casters like druids, and there are casters whose magic is a lesser component of what they do, like paladins, who don't get first circle spells until they're nearly as powerful as I am at third circle but have some non-spell abilities that come in before then. Some magic users learn to create magic items like scrolls and wands and enchanted weapons but I don't know how myself.:

What a fascinating blend of familiar-sounding and bizarre. 

:...Huh, do you mean that 'wizard' magic isn't hereditary? - all the Gifts we know about are something you have to be born with, or at least born with the potential for.: Which is very relevant for Katri in particular, who was a mage in potential only until rather recently. :We have a lot of narrowly scoped Gifts - like Mindspeech, which is how I'm talking to you - but mage-gift is hereditary as well.: 

:It is understood that cunning is hereditary but the spellcasting must be trained. It sounds like you would be considered a sort of sorcerer on Golarion, though I don't know if this is more like a spell or like some other sort of ability. Do you mind if I get out my lunch now, it will expire soon if not eaten.:

Katri has no idea what that means but going off his affect she really doesn't think he's planning anything nefarious. :Um, sure, go ahead.: 

He pulls a roll out of his bag and a table knife and a chunk of rock salt. He cuts the roll in half, revealing that it has butter and an entire hardboiled egg inside, though the egg doesn't seem to have a shell even though it would not retain that shape while cooking/baking without one. He scrapes some salt off the chunk onto the cut halves of the roll on his lap, and then eats it.

That looks really tasty. (Katri may have missed breakfast today; she was planning to grab something at one of the food-vendors' stalls once those were set up.) She tries not to look envious. 

:What's the difference between using Wisdom or using Cunning for doing magic?: The different connotations do sort of come across through Mindspeech, but she's just holding a link for him, not trying to fully read the guy's mind. She has to be missing some nuance or other, since from what she is getting it seems like...both...should be important for literally any skill? 

:Wisdom, cunning, and splendor are the three basic features of how well someone's mind works, and different kinds of magic require different ones - sorcerers normally require splendor. Some people have fairly balanced abilities but the most powerful wizards are going to be the most cunning ones, the ones who are good at math and memorization and making logical leaps between concepts, and this remains true even if they have very poor reflectivity and judgment - Wisdom - and bad communicative skills - Splendor. I can cast spells to enhance Wisdom and Splendor, though not today; clerics don't get the one for Cunning. There are three physical features likewise that also each have an associated spell but as far as I know nobody uses those to put force behind their spellcasting. Do you want the other half of this?:

Why in the world would you divide up the different ways people's minds can work better or worse into exactly three categories– oh, right, if there were exactly three different magical techniques to improve particular elements, that makes a lot of sense actually. Also that's so cool! Katri isn't even sure if Mindhealers can do that, exactly - Jisa mentioned something like that, but maybe it only worked on herself? - and in any case there aren't enough of them to afford recreational use of Mindhealing to make yourself think better. 

- she blinks, confused by the change of topic. :Oh, er, it's fine, I don't need your food.: 

When is Vanyel getting here? If she weren't expecting him any minute she would be considering if she ought to be taking notes or something, but it doesn't feel worth it when she expects to be interrupted soon for him to take over. 

:How many gods do you have in Golarion? And what are they like?: 

If she doesn't want it after all he will eat it. :I don't know an exact number! There are many minor ones and plenty of beings where it matters what your technical definition of 'god' is, and different ones are popular in different regions. Certainly there are dozens. Gods come in all alignments just like people do and also have different areas of concern - Erastil is Lawful Good like Iomedae, for instance, but He's the god of agriculture and hunting and the family, they don't have a lot of overlap beyond the alignment itself.:

Well, it seems rude to eat his food - though it's thoughtful of him to offer - and also she wasn't sure if she should be worried about the thing where it apparently wouldn't be okay to eat anymore in another few minutes?

She nods along. :Huh. - you keep talking about 'alignment' and I'm not sure I actually know what you mean by that?: