"I am not sure even I would have predicted that Vkandis would escalate so quickly with a Herald present. I suppose He must have been very alarmed by the otherworld magic." Leareth frowns. "We would appreciate their help by the Worldwound. A plan exists already that should make it somewhat less risky for them to engage. Though - it is relevant whether your Raise Dead and Resurrection will work on Velgarth natives if they die here."

(He is not even going to suggest the idea he had unless the answer is yes.) 

"It will work fine if your people die here. Though you will have to supply the diamonds; I have very few of them and would not want to have none left over in the event that this fight has as much collateral damage as the last one."

"I will check back with my organization about diamond procurement, but we should be able to do so. Raise Dead takes a smaller diamond, no? So if some Heralds are killed in action they would be cheaper to raise immediately." His eyes narrow. "Does the diamond need to be mined? It is not a standard use of Velgarth magic to artificially make diamonds but I would not be surprised if Vanyel in particular could do it." 

"Making them with our conjuration doesn't work but our conjuration is temporary. If you are proposing, uh, putting the right kinds of rock under the right kind of pressure... we should try that right away."

"That was my idea. I know our magic can be used to smelt metals and such - it is not very scalable except in places such as the Eastern Empire with a high rate of mages. For this - there is an adapted force-net spell for crushing things; I am not sure that I could overpower it hard enough, though I do not mind trying, but this is exactly the area where the strength of Vanyel's Gift would be key. He can channel...five times, maybe ten times as much power as I can."

(Well, this, and the size of fireball left by his suicide.) 

"If we had access to as many diamonds as we needed we can commit to raising anyone critically necessary same-day and everyone you lose within two months. If you manage to leave the continent in one piece. I don't know how much he told you about the events of a hundred years ago, but they were very very bad."

"He told me enough." Leareth looks down at his hands. "That is - certainly not the plan, but all of us are aware that plans do not always stay on track." 

"Especially these days.

Is he going to take up the Starstone afterwards? Much of the support we can offer is in replacing the infrastructure of the church of Asmodeus in Cheliax and that looks substantially different, depending. Also Abadar implied it would change His plans in other ways."

"He has not made a final decision on that. - I apologize, I know it would be helpful to know now for planning. In - the best case scenario, yes. I think not otherwise." 

"So then we should expect to need to provide clean water and healing. And to redo the whole currency situation immediately, I learned what Asmodeus is doing to make sure that almost every person in Cheliax is Evil."

"Oh no, did he do something very clever and also horrifying with their currency? That - makes interacting with it at all an Evil act in a nonobvious way?"

(The fact that this is possible is making him feel like the whole alignment-assessment situation is deeply unfair. He thinks it's pretty fair of it to assess him as Evil, but - an entire country of mostly very normal people...) 

"It is possible to take a dead soul captive and confine it, magically, in some fashion. It is then possible to trade, steal, or sell it, and to use it for magical power. The trade in souls is Evil, fairly enough. 

Does your world have the concept of currency that is not worth the face value of its metal but backed by a promise from a nation to redeem it for metal at any time?" 

"Yes, though not implemented in most places." The Eastern Empire has that setup. Valdemar doesn't. 

"The currency of Cheliax is backed by souls. 

They do know this. It is mentioned in schools, it is scribed on bills: backed by House Thrune, by our Patrons, by the Souls of the Damned, for the Greatness of The Chelish Nation. It wouldn't work if they had no way to know. Abadar didn't - see why it was unfair - when gods know things they know the things, the thing is everywhere it needs to be in their model of the world -"

"I..." For once, Leareth is lost for words. He's angry. This is not an emotion Leareth feels often and he has to ride it out for a moment, let it run its course before he can speak. 

"I - see why Abadar thinks that. I think that my mind - works that way, most of the time, because I wish it to and have had centuries of practice. But. Also. From the perspective of humans, I do not feel it is particularly fair." He lets his fingers tighten together in his lap. "We will win this war and we will fix it." 

"If there is anyone I could believe that from, I suppose it would have to be you.

He and I probably should not speak; I can't think of conditions acceptable to both of us and even if there are some we'd waste time coming up with them. But if he needs anything -

- I want to help."

"I know. I told him so. I - persuaded him, and it took some doing, that it is worth trusting you to the extent that you want to help."

(It's a complicated case, right, because he isn't entirely sure that Khemet and Abadar are on their side. He would bet nine out of ten odds on it, higher even, but - for a more normal scenario, the downside risk of being wrong would be too high to risk. And yet. This is a case of a sufficiently terrifying potential - probable - ally, where if he's right of Abadar's alignment with their cause, not cooperating with him has a downside risk as well - of stepping on each other's plans, or of whatever updates Khemet and Abadar might make from said distrust. And it would be different if their victory were more assured, but - it isn't, there's a lot of overkill in store but not nearly as much as either of them would feel really comfortable with.)

"I am not expecting you to know but I figured I might as well ask. Do you know which of Them betrayed him." 

"...several former allies helped kill him in the end. After three weeks, when he had clearly and thoroughly lost but he kept - trying to pull the pieces back together - he didn't have enough left to know what effects it was having on the world but there wasn't going to be any mortal civilization left if it didn't end. Honestly they should have done it sooner. Is that what you mean?"

"Oh."

"...I am not sure. He is certain he was betrayed, but unsure by whom; that is why he drove all the gods out of Rahadoum." 

Leareth is thinking, almost plaintively, that - he would, he would unwittingly tear apart the world just out of desperately unwillingness to die, to have it be over - and Leareth thinks that he would have wished it, too, for his allies to end it sooner, to stop letting him destroy everything around him...

"I can ask Abadar if He knows more." He has been talking to Abadar too much lately, it gives him a headache under the best of circumstances and when done repeatedly it makes the Material World feel blurry and sharp at the same time, and very very distant. The pain is worse if he puts it off but he's been using Delay Pain every day to at least schedule it for the point where everyone not possessed of a Ring of Sustenence is, unlike him, sleeping; then he can lie there in the dark and quiet until the pain ebbs and he sleeps and wakes up with a mind that remembers human things. 

- obviously worth it, if this is all going to be over in a couple of weeks.

"I would appreciate it, if it is not too much trouble." He lets out his breath. "Also transport to Velgarth in a day or two, if we have not figured out our Gates by then. I will try to synchronize it with Vanyel's movements if possible to minimize the overhead for you." 

He takes a deep breath, slowly lets it out. "And - I am considering Abadar's offer to me. We had a very long discussion and then he said he would leave it to my judgement, whether it is a good idea." 

"Your caution has been - warranted many times over, in Velgarth."

"Right. You have learned some things about my past." He wrinkles his nose slightly. "Well, translated via two sets of gods, which must be quite something to absorb as a human, even an extremely clever one." 

For a second he looks tired, more tired than most people who are thirty or for that matter on their first lifetime can look. 

"Your set has even less to work with, I think. Abadar can usually understand and answer my questions fine, even if I don't always understand Him."

He hesitates. 

"No one told me in advance that, uh, you do not actually become an aspect of a god. I hadn't met my grandfather before he became pharaoh, and he was very smart, and it made sense, that Abadar would want to shape someone in such a way He could easily communicate with them. I believed it. I think Abadar does want that but He doesn't know how to do it."

"That - makes sense. It sounds very difficult." He would definitely not want Khemet's job, for multiple layers of reasons.

Leareth hesitates, but only a little. "- If it would help, to have a history of Velgarth, and my life specifically, in easier to understand terms, I - would not mind telling you, at this point."