"Welcome to Milliways."

“Hi Leareth! I’m Van’s sister Lissa and I’ve heard a bunch about you!”

(Lissa cannot help but notice that, in addition to everything else, Leareth is reasonably attractive in person.)

Leareth nods politely. “My pleasure. And, Cam, thank you for the invitation here.” He glances around, spots the couches and bar area. “I do have more questions, however, I would like to sit down first.” He doesn’t wait for acknowledgement before heading off couch-ward.

"Yeah, we've got all the time in the world, no rush."

"A useful property for a place to have. I see why this is something you wished to be cautious about sharing." He looks over at Vanyel. "I expect I have not received the full report on Milliways from Vanyel. Do you have a brief summary?" 

"This is an interdimensional bar. The bar is a person named Bar; she does not control the door, which assumes the location of ordinary doors in various worlds at idiosyncratic times. Typically, while the door is closed, time is paused in all worlds belonging to persons in the establishment. Non-interacting locations in the establishment may also experience different rates of time. There is a security office and an infirmary which are both via causality shenanigans guaranteed to be sufficient to perform their functions for whoever happens to be here. Bar can sell medium sized nonliving nonmagical nonweapon objects and in particular has all of the published books from anywhere ever. There is also a backyard. With a giant squid."

...Which is enough to produce an actual visible expression of surprise, as well as a fleeting hungry glance at Bar, on the phrase 'all of the published books from anywhere ever', that hints that the only factors holding Leareth back from instantly buying several million books are politeness, monetary limitations, and the fact that it requires standing up. The giant squid is anticlimactic in comparison. 

"I see. Do you know why the interdimensional link between worlds happens to take this particular form?" 

"I don't know and Bar doesn't either. I do think the details of the form vary sometimes if she needs to accommodate, like, aquatic species or whatever, which she has hinted sometimes happens."

"Fascinating. How many different worlds have visitors here currently? If you were to open the door instead of Vanyel or Lissa, would it open to your world rather than ours?" 

"She won't tell me for patron privacy reasons. It would open to the world where I was when I found my door, which is not my native one or the one where I live when I'm at home."

"Ah. Is it the world where your dead that you would like resurrected are located?" 

"Yeah. Though not on the same planet. The planet my door opens to is the replacement planet I made."

"What a useful power you have." Leareth falls silent, thinks for a bit. "If you did not reach that world via this place, how did you come to be there?" 

"Members of my species and two other similar ones can be summoned. Usually to a world with humans, but by some freak accident I happened to be summoned instead to Arda without the usual precautions and safeties guaranteeing my restricted behavior."

"I see." A slightly raised eyebrow. "It makes sense that humans would be more willing to call on beings of your power level for aid with such security in place. I imagine that if you had had the usual safeties, you would not have been able to destroy a planet and everyone on it in order to end the war?" 

"Right. Not unless my summoner disabled the safeties. He's a little boy, yea high -" Cam gestures at about the height of a human eight or nine year old. "He - doesn't know anything about how the war went. I can't risk going and getting him and his family out of their hiding place till it's okay if he dismisses me."

“I see. Time is paused in Arda currently, correct?”

"Yeah."

"Then I hope that I might help repair the damage enough that your presence is no longer necessary." Leareth bows his head for a moment. "Since we are not rushed, however, it might be wise if I rested rather than begin immediately. I have just Gated nearly five hundred miles and I am somewhat tired." 

"Bar can get you a room key. She accepts counterfeit, I'll cover it."

Leareth blinks, like someone who has more new questions than answered ones from Cam's statement, but he stands and follows Cam's instructions, obtaining a room key from Bar and heading up the stairs. 

Vanyel lets himself slump back against the couch where he's sitting. "...That went shockingly smoothly." And was still exhausting, even if the medication from Bar helped with the worst of the feeling-terrified in the moment. "Er, any new thoughts?" 

"I don't really have context on whether that's a normal amount of tired from the gate."

"...Honestly, he walked in here on his own feet and had a conversation for a few minutes, that's shockingly not tired. I'd be," not conscious, "in much worse shape. Savil's a better example, I have - problems with Gates - but she'd struggle with that distance at all, and Leareth was doing something additional. He didn't have a threshold to build it on and he's never been here before; until recently I would've said that was impossible, and I bet it's less efficient." 

"How does a threshold help?"