"Whoa, telepathy," he says. "Nice one. Yeah, I am undeterred. Bring on the useful magic powers."

"If Ashras is in, then so am I."

"Same here."

"It's a little weird having the one of you be clearly my alt and the other two just - people I've never met who are definitely my alt's brothers that he's known his whole life."

"I can make it weirder," says Inlaith brightly, in an exact imitation of Ashras.

Ashras snorts.

"Wow, yes you can! Congratulations!" laughs Taliar. "How - what even was that?"

"I know him so well it's effectively as though I can become him at will."

"Well. I'm glad to see that having more people in it doesn't make my family any less crazy."

"What an entrance line," says a voice from the doorway.

"...Wow, are you their mother? You must be. You're so... young."

"How old is my alt?"

"Two thousand and change. And you're - not that. Are you."

"I admit I am not."

"So how is this strange glowing version of my child going to save the world?"

He laughs. He goes into the explanations again.

"And as I understand it, you're not currently in contact with Raika-seren?"

"Not directly. We have a line of communication in case of emergency, but we can't reach each other through the maze."

"In that case, I think perhaps you want to get out there again quickly, with the means to return via portal. Azair, take him out to put a portal nearby. Then go with him if possible, in case his wings are cut-rate somehow and you can create portals to your Sphere in places he can't do the same."

"It won't be a comfortable trip," he warns, "there are stops on the way that have no air. But my healing aura will make sure you don't die of it. And taking two people out won't be significantly harder than one." He glances at Dalvor. "I think I'll go all the way to Nuime first thing. If portals from there don't work, I'll come back and try one from closer by."

"Suits me. Get going."

So Azair leads Taliar out of the palace and a little ways down the hill. "Try there. Making the portal should be fairly intuitive."

He thoughtfully examines the indicated spot.

He... makes a portal.

He glances at Azair and says, "Come on in?"

So he follows Taliar into the Sphere.

It's... beautiful.

He pulls in his healing aura just to make sure - yes: this place has its own version of the healing aura, filling it with soothing golden light. There's a... castle, sort of, something in that genre, and it's built like his road through the Helcaraxe, graceful and sweeping and gorgeous. The edges of the Sphere, its 'sky', are an enchanting swirl of blue and silver and gold.

"Wow."

"Yes, I agree. May I link my Sphere to yours?"