Yfandes gets a cross-eyed look. 

:...It does. How in all hells did you, um, produce it? How did you guess?: 

Vanyel glances over. "Cam, what is tha– oh. 'Fandes, you used to be a Herald? Cam, how did you figure that out?" 

"My reading included Leareth's theory that Companions were reincarnated so I checked."

"How did he know?" Vanyel is making a very weird face about it. "How does that even work?" 

"I don't know how he knew - I don't think he was even sure. And I couldn't tell you how it works but it turns out to be a conjurable parameter."

Vanyel nods absently, and is quiet for a while. “What did you want to do next, Cam?” he says finally. “Talk to Leareth more? Er, I didn’t even ask what you thought of the readings. What...were his god plans like?”

"I have... some notes... but want to check if a mindless conjured body works as a replacement for murdering people."

Vanyel stares blankly at him for a moment. 

"...Huh. I have no idea whether that would work. I don't know enough about how blood-magic works." His expression hints that he doesn't especially want to. "Worth trying though? That'd be, um, really good if it worked." 

"Yeah, that was my thought. Uh, I'm ready to open the door again whenever you are. But before inviting Leareth over we should consider that Milliways has categorically adequate security so if he decides he wants to park here and work on stuff and we decide after he arrives that we don't like the stuff we don't have a lot of options."

"Categorically adequate... You mean, he wouldn't be able to mess with us and we also wouldn't be able to mess with him?"

Vanyel frowns and thinks for a long time. "I'm only worried about that in the scenario where he's lying about some or all of what he wants, I think? If he's telling the truth, then, well, I hate his current plan because it involves murdering a lot of people but I have to assume he hates it too and just hasn't found anything better. And even if you can't solve that for him, I bet he would sit down and ask Bar for books from other worlds until he found something else. I think that would be a big win for Valdemar. If he's telling the truth, then I," he grits his teeth and looks over at Yfandes for a moment, "want to help him." 

Shrug. "Seems pretty unlikely he's lying – it'd be a really weird lie with a lot of material prepared to back it up, I don't know how or why anyone would write up full specs for a god if they weren't really planning on doing it. Still, since you're bringing it up, I'm trying to think of a way to actually check before we commit. I, hmm, I could meet him in a neutral location first, and ask him to say something under Truth Spell about his intentions? And if he passes, I'm willing to call that enough. If not, I...guess I try to call Final Strike on him? And then you're warned and can do, um, whatever you see fit about that." 

Horrified look. 

"I agree it'd be a weird lie with a lot of material backup. Uh, you're sure he doesn't have a way to beat your truth spell?"

"No. Unless I leave a hole in my wording somehow, it shouldn't be possible to beat a Truth Spell. It works via little air-elementals that have an innate magical ability to directly read intent, my former colleague Deedre put thousands and thousands of candlemarks into testing it. But I'm not completely and utterly sure. I would feel better about a full shields-down mindread, if he'll agree to it to, but...gah, just, part of the problem is that it's Leareth and I know he's smarter than me and if I think he can maybe beat a Truth Spell then, who knows, maybe he can beat Thoughtsensing too. But at some point I have to be willing to make a leap." 

"...yeah. I don't think he's lying, I just don't want to unilaterally decide to give him the protection of Milliways security. I guess we could avoid telling him about Milliways security right away and lure him into the backyard if we need to murder him."

Lissa clamps down on something that sounds suspiciously like a snicker. 

"He's hard to fool," Vanyel says slowly. "That being said, everything about this situation is weird and new enough that he can't have much to go on in terms of inferences. And I didn't know about the security until you mentioned it just now so it's not obvious. Er, how does the security work?" 

"There is an office with a security person in it. I talked to him, he's from a world where if you want to have magic you can't stop doing it for extended periods of time ever and as long as you keep going it gets stronger and stronger. Being in Milliways lets him take breaks. Uh, it's possible it's someone else now, I don't think we'd know about it if there were a shift change. Security are hired from the normal pool of patrons and they get paid and probably get doors more frequently and stuff and it always just so happens that security which can take you is on duty while you are in the establishment."

"Ooh, Van, you could sign up for security duty! Bet you could take lots of people, and you'd get paid." 

Vanyel gives her a 'not now we're trying to focus' look. "Right. If I go with the mindreading plan I'm more likely to find out if he is lying but he's also very likely to spot something about Milliways security, I can't do a deep enough read without unshielding and I'm not sure I can control my own thoughts well enough to avoid thinking about it. Given the low probability I currently put on him lying, I'm...inclined to go with just Truth Spell. I, er, assume you wouldn't have much trouble murdering him if you decided it was warranted?" 

"I wouldn't like it. I might not react especially fast if this became clear gradually and it wasn't obvious when it became murder time. It wouldn't be technically difficult, if that's what you mean."

"That's what I meant. Obviously you wouldn't like it!" Vanyel hops up and starts pacing. "I just wanted to check because I'm not sure I can take him in a fight if he's expecting it, and most likely the only way I could would involve both me being dead afterward and a very large fireball–" He cuts off, stops, stares at nothing in particular. 

"Yeah, well. It's not technically difficult for daeva to kill people."

Lissa laughs. 

"Did you know," she says brightly, "you would be really scary if you weren't nice– no, wrong word, if you weren't trying to do the right thing so hard all the time?" 

"I can't say it's crossed my mind in exactly those terms."

Vanyel heads abruptly for the couches again, sits, drops his head into his hands. 

"Sorry, I - thought I was fine," he says tightly. "I think, maybe, I'm not that fine actually. Sorry."