"I think it was just strategically correct to bring them back, questioning them was necessary to do a proper investigation, and the only way the Star-Eyed was going to let us have them was if we sent them back to Velgarth alive. But, yes, it was generous of him. He did sort of threaten to torture anyone working for Her who entered Osirion again, if the Heralds weren't going to find out." (It took Vanyel an embarrassingly long time to puzzle out the subtext of that remark.) 

Fazil looks unhappy but doesn't say anything.

"It's super frustrating, the thing where he's not Good. It usually doesn't come up but when it does - it just feels like it ought to be possible to argue him around and it never is."

Vanyel nods, thoughtful. "That makes me think about how Leareth isn't Good, either, but - he is good, the normal kind? I feel like I can convince him of things, if I actually have new information that's relevant to him." 

Nod. "Well. Maybe he can convince the pharaoh of things, it sounds like he has an advantage at that."

"Maybe! He's very convincing. In - an interesting way, he's not trying to be persuasive in the usual sense but that almost makes his arguments more effective, for me? I've changed his mind before but I think he's changed my mind a lot more." Vanyel's smile becomes a little more genuine. "I'm really glad I can trust him now. It would've been such a pointless waste if we'd never gotten there." 

"It really would have. Also that war would've been - really ugly, I imagine."

"I don't think Valdemar could've won. So I guess we owe Golarion - and Nefreti - our continued existence as a country." 

"And we owe you - maybe not the end of Cheliax but certainly the end of Cheliax being so clean. And the Worldwound. And maybe the House of Oblivion, though it sounds like Nefreti could have done that at any time?"

"Knowing her, she was going to wait for a dramatically appropriate moment." 

Mahdi shakes his head, looking envious.

"Anyway." Sigh. "I appreciate you all visiting to check on me. I - think we'll be all right, eventually." 

Nod. "I think so. I'm sorry it worked out like this, though."

Nod. "Anyway, I think I'll stay here until Leareth seems comfortable leaving. I don't think he's in any danger in Cheliax, but - I think it's good for him to feel safer for a bit, and also the pharaoh is here. And it's good practice for my casting, doing it in here, it forces me not to be sloppy or have bad habits." 

"That makes sense."

Aroden returns to the Dome a little while after Mahdi and the others arrive to talk to Vanyel. He finds Leareth in the library. "Is now a good time to discuss." 

"Now is fine." Leareth frowns. "I had notes, but - of course, they were in the winter palace when - things... I should ask if there is any way of retrieving them, I do not think I remember my ideas perfectly because I was distracted."

He finds a servant and asks if they can find out whether the researchers' notes that were in the winter palace at the time of the assassination attempt were retrieved or copied. 

His notes can be retrieved for him!

That's very helpful! Leareth spends a few hours with Aroden, going over the specifications he was able to chart out for what a divine spell would need to do. It's not all the way there but hopefully it'll provide a good start for Aroden and Nefreti to work from. 

It's only slightly disturbing to talk about during, and he can manage it just fine and fold away his less helpful emotional responses for later, but - they are, in fact, there later, and he feels more shaken than he expected after he bids Aroden goodbye.

He stays in the library, vaguely wanting something but unsure what. 

The pharaoh sends for him after dinner.

Leareth heads over right away. He's very careful, this time, to follow all the protocols, respectfully prostrating himself and waiting to be acknowledged. 

This gives him unexpectedly complicated emotions but, hey, it's good for his Law. "Vanyel suggested I make my demiplane permanent, which seems like a good idea, but now I have to figure out a design I like for it, which I didn't give much thought in the first place because I was planning for it to be temporary. Would you like to help me with demiplane designs? It'll be good practice for once you can do the spell yourself anyway."

This is a very reasonable thing for the pharaoh to request his help with, and Leareth isn't sure why he feels like he was hoping for something else - also he doesn't know what the something else is, his mind is just being unhelpful here. 

"Yes, of course," he says, smiling. 

The pharaoh sits down next to him and puts an arm around him while he explains what he's trying to decide. 

The seventh-level demiplane creation spell accomplishes the bare minimum: you can create a space with a stone or wood floor, filled with breathable air, with 500 cubic feet of space. With the eighth-level spell you can alter its gravity, give it an ecology, give it seasons, make it loop instead of having walls. it's also bigger; seventeen hundred cubic feet. With the ninth level spell you can tamper with how magic works, give it portals to other planes, infuse it with positive energy so injuries heal ultra-quickly, or alter the passage of time. (And it's a little bigger - thirty-four hundred cubic feet, or an 18-foot square with a ceiling at normal height.)

"I observably need a prison. If I had as many diamonds as I wanted I think I'd actually have a bunch of prisons with different characteristics, for what kind of abilities I might need to impede and how frightened I want them to be and how long it has to hold them. ...I guess I kind of have as many diamonds as I want, but it'd be very indulgent, using them on this when there are still global catastrophes. What would you want, if it were you -"

Leareth thinks. "For it to have normal gravity, definitely. I - am not sure that having it loop instead of have walls is actually more pleasant - I would feel equally comfortable, perhaps more comfortable, in a furnished room rather than a meadow that loops - but perhaps some people are more claustrophobic. And edible food is certainly good. Healing would be good if you expect to ever capture prisoners who are injured, but divine healing is also readily available to you. Hmm. An improvement over making just divine magic work, might be making only your magic work, the way Aroden set up his. I am not sure how he did so; I think he needed to have a very clear specification for what defined his magic versus other wizards' casting."