"Thank you." Leareth does not say out loud that Vanyel already isn't doing much of anything so it can hardly make things worse on that front. He does slip in and update Vanyel on the plan. 

Meh. Sleep sounds good. He doesn't really care about the other side effects, right now. 

Then someone can come up and explain dosing for various powerful painkillers that will cause him to be asleep. He can try a couple and see which has the least annoying side effects. 

Side effects such as being totally unable to think seem fine, maybe then he'll stop getting stuck in the constant stupid loop of how it would be a great idea to kill himself, except for the part where nobody is going to let him, which seems horribly unfair right now. 

(Leareth discreetly tells Mahdi that they should probably not leave the drugs anywhere where Vanyel could get to them if someone stops watching him for thirty seconds, he probably isn't going to impulsively try to kill himself by taking five times too much or something, but he's evidently not thinking that clearly and being drugged half out of his mind is probably not going to help on that front.)

And then he finds a moment to ask Fazil. "What exactly did you talk about with the pharaoh? He is casting a spell to search for his lifebonded's soul?" 

" - well mostly he just wanted to answer the questions prompted by the revelation that apparently he's not Abadar. And then about the fact that he imagined I might have been put in the difficult position of being asked to keep things from him and from Abadar and not being clear on whether that's allowed or not. - it is. Apparently. He said you can decide what to explain on your own time, because - part of what the essence of Law is is being the kind of person other people can successfully cooperate with, not just when it's momentarily advantageous but all the time, and he's glad we came to him and prefers to predictably be someone we're glad we came to. 

And then he said that the afterlife question seemed more immediately important to us than the question of what would happen if hypothetically we got ourselves killed usually is, to adventurers, and I said we were going to try to get someone back, and he said that. I think he  - probably got more out of the conversation than this summary implies, but - it is not actually my job to keep things from the pharaoh in extended personal conversation."

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking about how I was putting you in a difficult position."

"I wonder if it's because you have been making a habit of not thinking about how you're putting me in a difficult position for as long as we have known each other."

"The pharaoh had a bunch of nice simple clear-cut instructions on when he'd consider me obligated to obey you and when he wouldn't and how to adjudicate edge cases and I'm just going to listen to him about that until I encounter any evidence you are trying to offer me that."

"My theory of when you should listen to me is 'when you think I'm right'! It is incredibly stupid to listen to me because someone put a funny hat on my brother's head!"

"And yet, for the last week, you've been operating with more context than the rest of us on some considerations that are really really important if we might be starting a war with Cheliax, and for the last ten years you've been operating with more context than me on some considerations like how bad for Osirion it would be if you were - taken hostage, or something -

 - and the government anticipated that this situation might come up a lot and decided to patch it with the general rule that your brother's subjects are obligated to listen to you and to protect you and to avoid getting you killed, and I swore to do my best to follow those laws, and I meant it. And you decided not to let me mean it, because you think it's stupid."

"Yeah. I - I understand why you are angry. I can - leave, if that's easier. I don't - think it's very important, what I do now. But I do. Think it's stupid."

"I don't want that. I just -

- I wouldn't lie to you. You know. If there were some - situation where I figured you would intervene in a stupid way and commit a bunch of crimes. I would tell you not to do that. But I wouldn't try to hide it from you because you'd act more like me when more crippled."

"And I think you owe us the same courtesy."

"Did the pharaoh tell you to -"

" - uh, more just made a convincing argument it wouldn't be illegal to?"

Leareth keeps his face carefully neutral. He's still mulling over the pharaoh's apparent reasons for not demanding answers from Fazil 'Part of what the essence of Law is is being the kind of person other people can successfully cooperate with, not just when it's momentarily advantageous but all the time, and he's glad we came to him and prefers to predictably be someone we're glad we came to.'

...It makes him feel significantly more inclined to cooperate with the man, actually. And maybe with the god. Unclear to what extent those are a package deal. 

"Then I suppose we wait for his answer," he says, "and I will talk to his magical researchers. And - consider telling him the full story. I am more inclined to trust him now than I was merely on priors."

Mostly, at this point, he wants to spend some time mulling over how to explain it, which pieces in what order. Probably he shouldn't open with an argument about slaves and economic efficiency even though it's tempting; he really ought to regain access to Velgarth and get some of his old treatises first. The pharaoh is supposedly very good at winning arguments and Leareth can believe it. 

"I would like to check back with my organization in Velgarth at some point," he adds. "I suppose I could Gate back, or ask about a crystal ball here." 

"They have crystal balls here but I don't think they have one that's as good."

"I would somewhat prefer doing it from an independent location, if that is an option." Not because he expects them to be trying to listen in, or that anything bad would necessarily happen if they did, but just on principle. "Does it make sense to continue thinking about selling the magical artifacts you and Vanyel found, or is that on pause now?" 

"I don't want to start putting out feelers about selling the contents of the palace until we've secured it more thoroughly, people will be all over the place once they figure it out. I would expect -" he glares at Hagan - "that we are not immediately in financial need."

"I spent down my allowance when we first learned about Velgarth, on being able to operate there if we needed to." He gestures at his bow. "Pharaoh's got much more money than me but a Wish isn't a whim even for him. I think we are unhurried on selling stuff, at least.

Rahadoum was offering excellent pay. If we want to go scout it out and see if our guess was right."

"Maybe once," if, "Vanyel is better. I would like to take advantage of the pharaoh's offer, here, to learn as much as I can about the interactions between our kinds of magic."