"It is a profound wrong to women to not arrange life circumstances under which they can bear and raise children. I worry that leaving them obliged in time-consuming male jobs but paying them enough to afford servants who can raise their children for them doesn't actually satisfy that for most people. But maybe it'd be better than nothing, at least."

"I suppose that depends what your model of most women's desires in life is, and to what extent women who are accustomed to one set of cultural norms versus another end up wanting different things. In my opinion, it is a tragic waste if a woman who wishes to, say, build bridges as her profession, has no route to do so, or can only pursue it by sacrificing marriage and children. I do think that not all women in Cheliax need to work in order for their families to manage, and many will choose to spend time with their children rather than use the free childcare. And part of this is intended to - break the cycle where the children of parents living in poverty have poor home lives and so grow up less able to pursue better opportunities; Aroden says the poorest children in a city often grow up much less intelligent on average due to poor nutrition early in life. I suspect one reason Cheliax could teach such a high fraction of its population to be wizards is because the childcare institutions provided two meals a day, and so several generations of children in poverty nonetheless grew up well-nourished." 

"Huh. Well, we'll certainly be watching closely. 

I do - want everyone to get to build bridges for a life. But they can do that in Axis, while they can only have a family here."

"- The existence of an afterlife does change things. Though I think it matters if twice as many bridges can be built, here in the material world, and...I think it matters whether people can - become fully themselves, the shape of person they want to be. But perhaps that intuition is formed from my past in Velgarth, where - people are not entirely gone, when they die, but they are certainly not happily riding trolleys in Axis." 

"If Cheliax ends up looking like a place where people get to be fully themselves, and they mostly still get decent afterlives, we'll copy you. We want that too."

"I am very curious to find out what we can make of Cheliax in a century. - I think most people had good afterlives back in Aroden's time, before the - mess happened, and the norms around marriage were not the same as those in Asmodeus' time but they were not those of Osirion either." 

"They weren't. Avistan's always been more permissive. It always looked to us like a - low-trust equilibrium, where no one pursued the strategy of waiting for a worthwhile commitment from a worthwhile person because no one had any reason to think such a thing would really happen."

"Maybe. I did not have the impression it was that common for couples to separate, then, and - I suppose I could try to dig up records and statistics on the age at which people married, and compare to see if women were actually not waiting as long. In Velgarth at least, women tend to wait longer to marry and have more freedom to choose a partner they prefer when they are supporting themselves independently for a while." 

"That's what I'd expect, though I don't have numbers on it offhand."

They can compare country-running notes for a while, and then he'll start assembling a diplomatic party to send to Haven if Abadar tells Leareth it's safe.

Leareth plans to stay in the Dome that night, since it's already midday day and he'll be spending either the rest of the afternoon or the nighttime hours his Ring of Sustenance saves him on sleep with a headache, depending whether he asks for Delay Pain.

He obtains a guest room again, lies down in the comfortable bed with the curtains shut, and reaches out for Abadar. 

And he's in a fast-moving flood of magic that pulls itself away from him to keep him safe from it (well, mostly safe from it):

:Leareth.:

He's got his two queries lined up, but instead of either, he finds himself musing on whether all the research he and his scholars have done, to shape a Velgarth god that can communicate less cryptically with humans and thus be capable of cooperation rather than manipulation, could help Abadar learn to talk to his clerics with better throughput than Commune, but without giving them a headache. 

That seems interesting! The headache is not the main restriction; it is also costly in attention for Abadar to talk to His clerics and He would not want them relying on it frequently. (The attention costs are not worth worrying about for a cleric of His who is going to rule Cheliax.) But better communication would be highly desirable. The ex-human gods are better at it and Abadar cannot straightfowardly copy what they're doing - He can try but it costs lots of attention and -

- and now there's an illusion of Leareth sitting in a featureless room, staring at an uncannily not-quite-right imitation of a person, while Abadar's thoughts brush against his head just as before -

- Abadar suspects you have to be much better at this than He is for it to be improve the experience for clerics -

Leareth suspects the relevant part here is the concept translation, not the visuals or lack thereof. Abadar obviously sees the world from a much 'higher' angle than humans and thus thinks in an entirely different ontology, and Leareth suspects this is most of what causes the headache. (Aroden complains that he gets headaches when he tries to access his godmemories properly. Leareth is so sympathetic, he would hate it if his core memories that shape the centre of his motivations also gave him a headache to look at!) 

Anyway Leareth has spent a lot of time thinking about the translation, there, and how a god might have an aspect or avatar that was, itself, more humanlike, but still part of the god and able to translate back and forth. He has a great deal of in-depth theory on it. 

Then He would really really value seeing it and maybe having people try to translate it.

He'll bring over the researchers and notes next time, then. 

All right, his actual planned questions. Leareth neglected to notice until now that the presence of a Heartstone in Haven likely gives the Star-Eyed disproportionate influence, even deep in the Valdemaran god's territory, and he wants to pass this on to Abadar, and to find out if Abadar has any relevant information on it. In particular, whether the Valdemaran god has any opinion or stance on this that They have expressed to Abadar. 

Oh! He knew this though not in concepts He could convey. Yes, the Star-Eyed has lots of influence in Haven, and yes, the Valdemaran god would probably in light of recent events prefer it were otherwise. Ideally it could be stolen out from under Her in the same moment as the retaliation against Her begins in earnest; Abadar thinks He could use it, maybe, with the right Wish wording and accompanying Miracle.

Oh. Fascinating. Leareth...has a contingency-plan written up, a scenario he had never expected would occur, that would involve using the Heartstone as a container and partial energy source for the first phase of creating a baby god. Abadar is obviously not going to want to do the same thing exactly, but - Leareth suspects the concepts he uses in writing up the god-specifications are at least closer to Abadar's native mode of thought, and might be a useful starting point. 

He can summon some of it in his head and hold it up to Abadar, the conceptual map that he can't actually fit into his head, for humans it needs to be checked one part at a time. Does it make sense to Abadar though? 

There's a long pause, and then - 

- pleased, impressed - 

- a shaky prediction that it would have worked as Leareth intended, if the other gods had permitted that, which they wouldn't have -

Leareth had not in fact expected he could pull this version off, since it requires at least one Adept keyed to a Heartstone, which - well, obviously none of the Tayledras were ever going to side with him. But Vanyel is on his side and is keyed to it, and if Leareth and Vanyel are both there, he thinks Abadar ought to be able to use that channel to access it directly. 

...He's not exactly delighted about the prospect of showing up next to a Heartstone, after what recently happened, but he's the only cleric of Abadar who is also a mage and can be in concert-rapport with Vanyel. 

It seems risky, but better than leaving it there. And if Abadar controlled it, He thinks He could make clerics in Velgarth more cheaply, which would be good for Valdemar.

If Leareth dies in some implausible terrible accident there, does Abadar still have a strong enough claim on him to grab his soul before the Star-Eyed can. 

He is pretty confident that He does. To be safe Leareth could have a contingent resurrection set up.

...If Abadar thinks the plan is safe with both of those factors, Leareth with trust him. 

Moving on from the Heartstone question. His next question...is one that Abadar may just have no answer for, he's aware it's a weird thing to go to one's god for advice about, but, well, Leareth is a weird person. Anyway. He needs to find a wife. He's concerned that finding a Chelish woman he can work well with, let alone love, is going to be very difficult. Khemet suggested he check with Abadar for suggestions, and this was maybe half in jest but Leareth thought he might as well ask. 

Abadar can only see one trait about people, really, which is how aligned with Abadar they are. He can expend more resources to see more detail on their motivations and their current activities and their goals. He has a vague sense that for marriage it is also important that their bodies have specific shapes and capabilities, and that they not already be married, and He couldn't help with any of that.