"Oh no." He looks very sympathetic. "I really hope you succeed on that. It would be really nice if Abadar was straightforward to talk with. I know the ex-human gods supposedly are."

"Aroden said that Iomedae and Milani were both fine to talk to." He pauses. "I think I will ask Iomedae for advice on finding a compatible wife, I might as well. Abadar said he would try to nudge people who are compatible with him to visit our palace, he does not otherwise know how to assess marriageability but at least we might obtain some talented bureaucrats that way." 

"Huh. Seems worth a try."

Leareth doesn't mention having kind of pointlessly asked Abadar for advice on how to make Khemet happy. He's a little distracted; even without the pain, talking to Abadar leaves him feeling sort of distant, disconnected from the material world. 

"Abadar said that he predicted my god plan would have worked as intended, from the parts I showed Him," he says. "If the local gods had allowed me to use the Heartstone, which they would not have. I - am nonetheless rather flattered and pleased by receiving His seal of approval here, even if I never end up carrying out this plan after all." 

"Huh. I would be too. Designing a god seems like the kind of thing that'd be - astonishingly hard."

"It was incredibly hard. I spent a thousand years working on it. And recruited many other scholars to help and to check my work in the last several centuries." 

"That's really impressive."

He's going to kiss him about it.

Awww. Delightful. Leareth approves of being kissed for challenging impressive things he did in the past, even if this is a sort of unfair metric because he's had so much more past than Khemet has. 

If there's time for more before Leareth has to retire with a horrible headache he'll fit in some more, too.

There's time for a little more. Leareth kind of wishes that he could ask Khemet to stay and hold him and that would help, but unfortunately it really wouldn't, being touched is the last thing he feels like when he's in that much pain and, even worse, Khemet might make noise.

He lies awake and miserable for the requisite six hours, filled with determination to get Abadar the specs for building Himself an aspect that can talk like a person, and eventually he falls asleep and wakes up rested and only a little cranky about his unpleasant evening depriving him of pleasant activities with Khemet. He prepares his spells and then checks if Khemet is available so he can say goodbye before heading back to Cheliax, since after that he probably won't be back here for another week. 

He can say goodbye and wish him good luck with the finding a wife. Or three, though they don't do so much of that in Avistan.

That sounds exhausting. For him at least, it might be less exhausting for the poor wives, given the list of responsibilities a royal wife would have according to Parmida. He'll start with trying to find one, though. 

He Gates back. Spends a while catching up on his day to day work, and then puts extra wards on his room and sits down to try and pray to Iomedae. 

It takes longer.

And then the first part is the same, like falling, but it resolves quite suddenly into sitting comfortably in a - castle, or something. There's a window. A sharp-eyed dark-haired Chelish woman is sitting across from him. 

"Leareth," she says, and watches him.

"Iomedae. Thank you for answering me." Leareth tries to smile warmly. He's a little tense, even though Aroden trusts Iomedae and that should be approximately good as already trusting Her himself. "Abadar was right, you do seem to be better at this. And Aroden speaks very highly of you, you know." 

"You barely had enough of a concept of me to pray to me," she says, smiling. She does not look upset about this. "Perhaps Aroden doesn't say enough, or is inaccurately complimentary."

Leareth smiles a little. "I am unsurprised. He has not said very much, in terms of total content. He trusts you, he said that - which is high praise, coming from him - but, I think perhaps there is history between you that he cannot easily convey to me, and so even though we are in some ways the same pattern, I suppose I will have to get to know you myself." 

"I am the Lawful Good god of defeating evil. I was Aroden's herald, once. I command the forces of Heaven in the war that began before life on Golarion. I think that you came here today to speak of lighter matters, but we can speak of that war, if you wish."

"I came here with a somewhat silly question, actually, and do not wish to take more of your attention than necessary, though I would not mind hearing more of your history. So - Aroden thinks that I need a Chelish wife, since I am to inherit Cheliax when he ascends again, and Khemet suggested I ask Abadar and you for advice on - unusually interesting and talented women in Cheliax, whom I would get along with, since you have the ability to assess if a person is aligned with you." 

She leans back and frowns consideringly. "What is important to you, in a wife?"

It's a difficult question. "That they be competent to carry out the myriad duties that apparently fall on a monarch's wife, and to be my cultural translator and window into people's thoughts and feelings that they would not tell me directly. That they be someone whose opinions and insights I respect, who will catch things I would not otherwise - someone whose alliance would make both of us stronger. And...Aroden and Parmida feel I need someone with whom I can let down my guard. Which is difficult, for me, and I am not sure what allows for it. Currently the people I trust most in that way are Aroden, for the obvious reason, and Khemet, and I am not even sure what makes that work." 

"Hmmmm."

She considers this a while. "I will see what I can do."

"Thank you. I deeply appreciate it; I know it is a somewhat frivolous request." 

"There is nothing frivolous about securing Cheliax's future. Or yours." She's frowning. "You are new to believing that virtue might serve you; that's not a small thing, I think."