Cam offers her a hard copy of the letter, and some paper and a pen.

I'm keeping this short out of consideration for my scribe. I don't know if the translation magic I'm using will work at this distance, but if it does, the device which carried this letter will also carry my voice. Failing that, it can carry a letter back if you write one and give it to the device; my preliminary thoughts on the reading you suggested...

It's pretty short, as promised. Some "this was clever", some "the reading presented didn't fully explain this decision to my mind", some "equivalent political experiments in my universe of origin were unpromising", some "this magic might have an application for my problem". He's signed it Cam.

"Van?" Lissa calls back to her brother. "Wanna come check this?" 

"I guess." He gets up, grumbling, and crosses to her, leaning over the table. It doesn't take him long to read it. He rubs his eyes. "Looks fine. Curious how he'll actually collect it – might not send a person." 

"Well, then he'll have to wait longer for a high bandwidth conversation."

Vanyel shrugs. “He’s generally not in a rush. Goes with the immortality, I guess.”

"...Elves are immortal too but they could speed up in emergencies."

Another shrug. "I don't know – I've never actually seen Leareth react in an emergency." He goes back to his table and sits down. 

(He's not having a good day right now; he has a headache, and Yfandes is being weird and grumbly about the message without actually saying anything specific that he can object to.) 

"You're going to use the little flying machine to send it?" Lissa says expectantly. "Can I watch?" 

"Sure." He tucks the letter into his drone and it takes off; he watches through its camera on his computer to send it way up in the sky and to the drop point.

Lissa watches with fascination over his shoulder – until, quite suddenly, the image vanishes. 

"...huh. I'm glad I didn't need that for anything else."

About fifteen seconds later, the screen comes to life again. An image resolves: a cave, lit by a soft globe of white light, a man in brown leathers half out of view, and a weird sort of crystal hoop, which shows a shimmering image of a dark-haired man wearing black. 

Vanyel belatedly notices that something is up, and wanders over. "What's going o–" he cuts off. "Oh. How...?"  

"Oh, it came back online, good for it - Hi! Can you understand me? The signal cut out for a moment when you teleported the drone but it's working again!"

The man in brown yelps and does something that makes the entire image careen sideways, but the drone doesn't go down again, and the picture stabilizes a few seconds later. 

"Greetings," says the man in black. "I imagine I am speaking to Cam? This is not actually the method by which I expected a reply." 

"There's also a letter attached, I wasn't sure if translation would work this way."

"We noticed," Leareth says, quite calmly. "I was about to read it. In fact, I would appreciate a moment to do so, unless you would prefer to convey the same information in speech." 

"No, go ahead."

Leareth acknowledges him with a slight nod and then, presumably, reads the letter silently for a while as held up by the assistant.

He holds up a finger. "I would like to take a moment longer to think," he says, and then turns slightly away from their view in the crystal hoop, and is silent for even longer. 

Finally he turns back to them, his expression impassive. 

"I will confess," he says slowly, "that I did not expect such a prompt response, nor for us to have a means of instantaneous communication so quickly. I have not had the time I would usually take to consider or plan. However, knowing what I do now, there are some things that I can say already." 

Another pause. 

"You are clearly extremely powerful," Leareth says. "Not only were you able to receive a message send by a method that simply ought not work, and obtain all of the further sources I suggested, you also did so and were able to read them nigh-instantly, I am not sure how but this certainly implies you are able to out-think and out-plan me if you wish. Also you are currently communicating with me – and presumably translating, given that you come from another world and it would be very surprising if we shared a language – and with an artifact that is not even magic. You are also making no attempt to conceal the extent of your power, though you could easily have done so and I am sure Vanyel would have advised you to. From this I infer that even though Vanyel is uncertain of my trustworthiness, you do not feel I am a threat, which is honestly quite reasonable on your part." 

Pause. 

"Given all of that, and the fact that you somehow have the ability to summon arbitrary written works of mine – and thus could and perhaps already have learned of my plans anyway – I see no point in concealing information, so I will be forthright. I am..." a shorter pause, a hint of a frown, "impressed, by your accomplishment in defeating this shockingly evil god, and I am sorry about the cost. I wish to help you mitigate that and I am motivated to put significant resources toward this cause, if you are willing to accept my help. The area of magic you mention is one that I have explored relatively little, so there is hopefully some relatively easy progress to be made there now that I have reason to apply my full efforts to it. If you are, in fact, interested in this, I would plan on transporting myself to the location where you left your message, and at that point you can decide whether to meet there or give directions elsewhere.

"I will also admit that I have reasons other than pure altruism to wish to work with you," Leareth adds. "I am sure you have noticed, in the readings I gave you, that the gods of my world, while they are not nearly as evil as the god you fought, are...very inconvenient. They wish things to remain a certain way in the world – I assume, I do not know their minds and can only infer their goals – and thus, while they are not sufficiently omnipotent to thwart all of my plans, they do make it difficult to lastingly change anything for the better. Some centuries ago I finally decided that it was stupid to remain in this impasse and expect the same actions repeated to ever have a different result. I have been, for some time, carefully planning a way to take this disagreement to their stage. My current plan is not one I like, it is simply the one that I think has a chance of working. Briefly: I intend to create a god, who can then fight or negotiate with the existing gods directly. I am quite sure I can do this safely and create a god who is in agreement with me about how a good world ought to look.

"However, the power cost is high. I have been seeking alternatives and am not fully committed to this exact plan, but the current default would involve a...very large blood-sacrifice. I am aware this is horrific; all I can say is that the ongoing pointless, fixable suffering and waste I have seen over millennia, and can imagine stretching millennia into the future, is also horrific. It is likely though not certain that I can mitigate the cost after the fact, once I have the aid of a god who can access our afterlife-plane and resurrect people on request.

"However, learning of your existence is a very significant update, and perhaps it offers me alternatives – either in terms of power source or a deeper change to the plan. You have fought gods before. I wish to ask your advice. My offer to help is not conditional on your helping me in turn; I do, in fact, simply want your dead to be restored to life, independent of anything else." 

Another longish silence. 

"...Having said all of that: do you want my help? If so I will prepare to travel and can be at the location within a day." 

"Do you have specs for your god written up?"

"Of course. Several possible versions. It is all within my private notes – I am not sure what details you need from me in order for your power to summon said notes?" 

"A time range, if you don't mind my getting everything in range, or titles, or where they're physically located."

"One moment." 

Leareth disappears for a bit, and comes back with a list of physical locations, which he points out on a map, and some section titles. "I think this ought to specify it sufficiently. Would you prefer that I wait while you read them? I cannot keep this portal active indefinitely, but I can reactivate it at a time of your choice. Or I can proceed to the location in person." 

"Give me just a moment, I'm going to do the instant reading again." He nods at Vanyel by the door.