:.....Ummm: 

Aroden was an immortal human from more than eight thousand years ago, and after doing lots of famous things he became a god. He was prophecied to return and usher in an Age of Glory in 4606 but instead the gods went to war and he was killed and a lot of the world was wrecked. 

:All of that sounds kind of concerning! But, um, not actually out of character for Leareth. Speaking of Leareth. What's the state of - you working with him? Is he being cooperative? When I left I think you'd gotten as far as Truth Spelling him but I, er, was pretty distracted: 

Yeah. Uh, we locked him in there for a while while we tried to figure out what to do. Eventually we asked him if he meant to hurt us, and he said he didn't, and we let him out, and that's when we pieced together the Aroden thing. The Aroden thing - I know it must sound not all that compelling? But here he's like - still mourned, in a lot of places, and not so much in Osirion but it's like, I dunno, if you found out that someone was an alternate universe version of the greatest King in the history of Valdemar, or something. If it's true people will mostly trust him. And maybe the church of Aroden just had very good PR and he's a sack of shit, 'lawful neutral' can cover a lot of awful things, and it was always kind of unclear to me whether the Age of Glory was going to be so glorious for the people Cheliax had conquered for the purpose, but - 

- he wants to invade Cheliax, and he thinks that's what the him in Rahadoum would be doing. If it's a him in Rahadoum. And if that's what's going on, we want to help.

:That's– wow. Just...wow. I - guess that does sound like something the Leareth Van knows would do. If all the things he's said over the years were sincere, and he said under Truth Spell that they were, so...: She tosses her head. :It makes sense. To check. And to help if that is happening: 

Yeah. And I don't know if - we can trust him, or if he can accomplish the stuff he said he can, a lot of that's riding on Vanyel's judgment and it's -- too big, too much, to be riding on that - and I'm out of my depths here. But my brother isn't. I don't think this is the kind of thing my brother can be out of his depths on. So - so we came here. Where the grownups can figure stuff out. That last bit is very very bitter.

She gives him an apologetic look. :I'm really sorry we sprung something this huge on you. It is - too big. It's felt that way for years, honestly, but - learning what we did when Van questioned him...: Shiver. :Guess I'm glad your brother knows what he's doing. What's he like, anyway?: 

Charming. Lawful neutral. He's - I dunno. We mostly don't get along. But I don't think he'd let Leareth murder millions of people and I think he's going to be better placed than anyone to talk him out of it. And - and I think Leareth's a person who is paying a lot of attention to what's to his advantage and making the pharaoh of Osirion mad is rarely to anyone's. 

Also Nefreti said something really weird about how they'd be in love, if not for the burdens they have taken up and could not put down? I have not asked Leareth about that because it would be the most awkward question ever but. 

:...What? Huh. Weird: 

Shrug. Anyway I think the pharaoh can stop him if that needs doing and - hopefully find a way for that to not need doing. And when he's wrong he's mostly wrong by being - too slow to change things.

Vanyel leans over; it wasn't obvious until now whether he was even paying attention. :I don't think Leareth wants to murder millions of people. I think he'd really strongly prefer not that, actually. So I hope he and the pharaoh - or the other him, if that's real - can find a way for him to not need that: Shrug. :Also the other him made a god, well, made himself a god, and it didn't fix everything and then he got murdered. I think that might get Leareth to reconsider his plan here: 

It seemed like it was doing that, yeah. 

:Hmm. Well, I guess he's not stupid: 

Even smarter, now, the pharaoh gave him that headband as a present.

:That, now, is kind of a scary thought. You trust him enough to go on a potentially risky mission into Rahadoum with him, though?: 

I like where I'm headed. And I wanna meet Aroden. Figure out - if he actually cares about the right things. It's hard to tell that from myths.

:Hmm. Right. That makes sense: 

:Sort of wish I could go: Vanyel adds, wistfully. :Meet him too. But that really doesn't make sense. If he is willing to talk to you then I guess I'll likely end up meeting him too, eventually: Sigh. :If Randi lets me come back: 

I'm always down for a jailbreak. I guess Fazil's probably not.

Vanyel shrugs. :If I can convince them of what's actually happening here, I think Randi will let me leave again once he's checked that I'm not under compulsion by Leareth. Especially if they believe me that Leareth is going on an undercover mission and won't even be around: 

And once they've caught Vanyel and Yfandes up on everything they might need to know and asked for sleeping arrangements that let a full-sized Yfandes stay with Vanyel, they can go to sleep for the first night in a while to not require a watch. 

Vanyel is very relieved and still kind of shaky. He lies down with his arm hanging over the side of the bed, hand resting on Yfandes' mane, and falls asleep more easily than he has in almost a week. 

Leareth is up early the next morning, packing up everything for their departure. 

Mahdi taps him with Undetectable Alignment as soon as he's done preparing his spells; he does Mage Armor for Leareth and Hagan too and the translation spell for Leareth too, to make it less conspicuous. "Gave you Taldane not Osirian with the translation spell, more people will speak it. You'll have to be cagey about where you're from but lots of people are." Glare at Hagan.

"The key is to be cagey by blatantly lying. Then no one thinks the truth is interesting. 'I sprung fully formed from a bush'. 'I woke up in a brothel with no money and no memory of my entire life.' 'I was a clone designed by a necromancer so he could jump to my body when he died, but I ran away, and I guess he hasn't died yet.'"