"...Um, sure. Ten, nine, eight..." 

"Honestly, Van, do I even want to know what you're doing?" 

Vanyel doesn't get to seven.

"- okay, now," Cam says to the healer.

The healer lays her hand on Vanyel's forehead.

Yfandes is an extremely unhappy Companion, but only briefly. 

Vanyel tries to sit up, fails, mumbles something indistinct, and settles for flopping over. 

"M'fine...just a minute... Cam, need paper. Notes. Useful conversation. Long though." He feels a lot like he was just woken from a deep sleep in the middle of the night after an evening of drinking far too much. He's also inexplicably freezing cold. Overall, though, it's one of the most pleasant ways that he's ever almost died. "Should we – door – inside?" 

Lissa doesn't let go of the door and run to Vanyel, but she looks like she wants to. Instead, she turns to glare at Cam. "You. What just happened?" 

Paper appears. "- uh, he decided to postpone explaining, so I think I'm going to defer to him on that? Please don't let go of the door -" He appears a wheeled platform under Vanyel attached to a rope, wheels it in.

"That's really neat! How did you do that?" Lissa aims the glare at her brother instead. "Van, you really owe me for this one. Oh – if we're all coming inside now, can I let go of the door? Van promised me a drink but he looks, um, indisposed. How do I order? I don't see anyone..." 

Yfandes stares longingly at the door, which is slightly too narrow for a horse to squeeze through. Vanyel is busy trying to write out a list, with dubious success. 

Cam hands Lissa a little sack of coppers. "The bar is magic and can hear you." And he makes toasty air around Vanyel. "Uh - Yfandes? You should be able to fit in, door's magic -"

Yfandes rushes through the door, which somehow gives her no difficulty, and settles herself onto the floor, resting her head on Vanyel's stomach. 

He shoves at her, not very effectively. "'Fandes, I'm busy." 

"Ooh!" Lissa beams at Cam. "That's incredible! Did you make this place too?" She darts over to the bar. "Bar? Can I get a – actually, never mind. Surprise me. Just make sure it'll get me tipsy." 

First one's free! Here is something fizzy and pale yellow.

"No, I didn't make it, I found it same as him."

Vanyel levers himself up on one elbow. He smiles in Cam's general direction. "You made the, um, the warm? Thank you, s'nice. Have some thoughts..." He rubs his eyes and then absently reaches for Yfandes' made. "Sorry. Had to write it down. Talked about some other things too, relevant to my world. Anyway."

He makes an apologetic face. "The bad news is that the Shadow-Lover doesn't think he – er, the larger god that he's an avatar for, that is – can help directly. Though he said I could try the same thing again in the world in question, and if I do still end up in his realm, They can try to follow me back."

Pause while Vanyel scrabbles at the paper. "The rest is, we mostly talked through half-baked ideas. Suggestions were, hmm... I experiment with my kind of magic in that world; which kinds work and how might tell us more about the way magic works there. In particular, could try scrying or Farsight on the affected area, um, where the planet used to be. And I could talk to other gods. Since they're not mad at me. Um, also. Really should bring in my, er, acquaintance. S'not just that he knows everything about this world – he's immortal, see – but he's smart, he thinks like...like you did, making that plan in the first place. He'll see things I don't. Problem is he might be evil. Dunno for sure how to verify he's not, but if you're willing to contribute your maker power, can arrange something." He grimaces. "You're not gonna like it though. Thing I need most is to read his mind. On neutral ground, safe... Could let him read mine too, just to – need trust. Unless you've got better ideas."

And he flops back again. "Might need a nap." 

Lissa nearly spits out a mouthful of her drink (which is delicious). 

"Van, what in all hells are you talking about?" She looks imploringly at Cam again. "Are you sure you can't explain? He doesn't seem like he's going to." 

Cam tows Vanyel toward the couches by the fireplace and heaves him up onto the couch, presuming Yfandes allows this. "Uh, this is a magic interdimensional crossroads place. I found it. He found it. He wanted to ask your world's death god something. She's a healer from another world - you can go back to the infirmary," he adds to the healer, who scurries. "And was on standby to make sure he was okay while I provided a safer near-death experience than his own idea. He asked the death god if he could help with some people where I came from who are dead and I want to resurrect."

Lissa's face goes through a series of interesting expressions. "Oh. I see. Right. That's...gods, that's the most Vanyel plan ever." She rolls her eyes. "Thing you need to know about my little brother. Is that he will look for excuses to do self-destructive things and argue he's being helpful. Not saying his crazy idea wasn't worth trying, just, try not to indulge him in future?" 

(Yfandes hovers nearby and watches Cam intently, but doesn't try to intervene.) 

Lissa gulps the rest of her drink. "Anyway, I'm sorry the Shadow-Lover doesn't want to help you. I'd offer to help but I don't have magic or anything, I'm just good with a sword. In case that's useful at all. Bar? Can I pay for another one of those?" 

"I don't think it is but I'll keep an eye out."

Two copper.

Vanyel lies with his eyes closed, snores briefly, wakes up and grabs for his paper again, blinks at the ceiling for a while, yawns, and finally sits up. 

"Sorry. I'm awake now. Lissa, I'm sorry I didn't explain. I think Cam covered it? Cam, if you have more questions, I know that came out pretty jumbled–"

"He most certainly didn't!" Lissa slams two coppers down on the bar, and then yelps. "Sorry! Bar, that was rude. I'm mad at my brother, not you." She spins back to face Vanyel. "First of all, are you friends with the Shadow-Lover or something? Secondly. Who in all of Velgarth is your 'acquaintance'? Immortal? Maybe evil?" 

Vanyel sighs. "Sorry. I should explain it properly to both of you at once. I want to hear Cam's initial thoughts, though." 

"Uh. If the both of you and whoever you're talking about are okay with trust-establishment mindreading between the two of you I don't really consider it my business to object, but I'm not clear on what help you expect him to be."

"I don't have specifics or anything. Just that he's smarter than me and he'll pull out something I would never have thought of. If he's telling the truth about his motives, he deliberately figured out a way to become immortal some number of thousands of years ago because he thought the world had too many problems and he needed to stick around longer to fix them. He's founded half a dozen empires and tried all sorts of experiments in government and written treatises on an unbelievable number of topics. Unsurprisingly, he knows more about magic than literally anyone else alive. And he hates the gods of our world and is trying to scheme around them, so he'd be sympathetic to your situation.

"...Um, also, the way I know him is that I've had a Foresight dream for the last, er, fourteen years, in which I'm facing off his army which is about to invade our kingdom. He told me that invading is the first step in a plan to fix everything. Since then we've had some further negotiations. Still haven't sorted it out. He might be lying about his values, but he definitely isn't lying about the immortality or about his competence." 

"If you want everything thrown at your problem, I think it might be worthwhile. Oh, and his name is Leareth."