"It is not lost in my world. The gods use it quite effectively." He frowns. "Nethys, we think, sees all worlds. Thus recognizing the similarities in our stories. If any of your gods could have engineered this, it would be Him, but - my impression is that He is not so much one for engineering things at all." 

He goes still for a moment. "I see." 

"I don't suppose you could fix our headbands."

"I cannot re-enable yours while you are here - and I hope you will understand why I wish you to stay here awhile so I can think. I can lend you some of my own spares, if lacking them is distressing to you." 

"I have only had mine for a week, it was a bribe from the pharaoh, but - all else being equal, yes, I would like that." He is incredibly not surprised and can't muster any offence that Aroden is intending to leave them here for a while. 

"I would too." He is only slightly more surprised.

Surprised is the wrong word but he likes it when people who are imprisoning you put bars and say 'because I can', instead of putting libraries and saying 'I hope you will understand'. He doesn't say this; it won't help.

He goes to one of the locked cabinets beside the locked bookshelves, unlocks it presumably with some sort of magic, and takes out a couple of headbands, which he offers to Mahdi and Leareth. "Hagan, did you want one as well? I should not be too long. An hour or two." 

"Uh, sure, why not."

He can have one too, then. 

Leareth notices right away that the headband is definitely better than the one the pharaoh gave him. Interesting. 

"I will return shortly." And he Plane Shifts out. 

"Could've gone worse. I guess. Presumably you have a better read on how likely he is to panic and turn us into stone statues until his war is over."

"I think unlikely. He was definitely reading all of our minds while he was here, and I default less to massive overkill the more information I have about what exactly is going on. I suspect a great deal hinges on whether he believes my claim that we are alternate version - I could say alts - of the same person. I believe it, though, and he would have seen that."

Leareth's eyes narrow slightly. "I suspect he is uneasy about Nethys - and Abadar though less so. I do not think he is so spooked by this that he would refuse our help. He might want to place us under a geas, I suppose." 

"'s just - trimming," he says to Hagan.

"And there's a kinda trimming I'm allergic to and my life has been nonstop that, lately."

"I think you did the right thing."

"I know I did the right thing."

Leareth is confused what Hagan is upset by and would usually read his mind about it, except he can't due to not having Thoughtsensing, which is maybe a good thing. 

"Hagan, what is bothering you? The geas?" Slight shrug. "I - apologize for being like that?" 

"I don't care about that."

Leareth narrows his eyes. "...I suppose you do not have to tell me. If it is not important. I - I feel that Aroden is being very reasonable here, since I would be a similar level of very alarmed if I stumbled on some people infiltrating my organization with the level of secret knowledge we have of his, and we did - come here knowing what we were up against. Still, it is objectively a hostile act, keeping us here, and I would not be bothered if someone were angry about that so I assume he will not be either." 

"You don't have to - I'm not going to do anything stupid."

"I am not worried about that I am just rather confused." 

"I spent - twelve years - a prisoner in the palace and I hate it there and I also hate places that are - nice, and pretty, and important, more important than you'll ever be and so obviously it makes perfect sense for them to - the more sense it makes the more I hate it, since I can't even be upset for a reason like that something is bad. And I'm not going to fuck anything up and so it does not actually matter.

Okay?"