“I see.” His expression is still gentle. “And what have you learned of Leareth so far, from your spying?”

Deep breath. This is the worst part but it'll be worse if she's trying to hide any of it -

"Learned about Abadar's war with the Velgarth god the Star-Eyed. Learned you also knew of it so I figured it wasn't the thing I was here to find out about though it might have been related to it, if there was - I wasn't sure if it was some danger to him or some danger he posed to Cheliax - there were some Tayledras assassins sent to try to kill him and it caused a lot of problems but they were sent to try to kill him before I even got my first vision so it can't have been the thing I was supposed to prevent. You trust him - couldn't figure out why, I don't actually think he's your son even though that's what most people were assuming - I was working on an artifact that made me show up not-suspicious to mage-sight, it was harder than looking normal to our magic since I have our magic, I thought I'd gotten it down this week but - obviously I was wrong about that - and then I figured it'd be safe to be in the same room as him or to - leave my familiar in conference rooms again -" lots of internal screaming about that because it's the most definitely a capital crime of everything but - "and then I'd find out more. Thought the pharaoh might be important."

The thing Aroden is thinking is that he wants to go yell at Iomedae right now, but the yelling can wait, it's hardly going to help this poor girl calm down, and he keeps all hint of irritation from his face. Instead, to her surprise, he smiles.

"Is your familiar by any chance a cactus?" 

Flinch. Nod. "Made it a little custom - sword, I don't actually do amulets, I just do swords, but they can be tiny swords, hat pins and toothpicks, it was one of the spines - to conceal it - but I didn't know about mage sight so it was too shielded, it looked dead to him."

"I remember that! How impressive. Both of us failed to be paranoid enough, it seems. Leareth asked me if it seemed odd, he thought it looked fine on the outside - neither of us is enough an expert in cacti, it seems, I should have asked my wife to come look."

Aroden takes a step back, gestures to some armchairs over to one side of the library. "Please, make yourself comfortable. I will just be one moment." 

He prepares a Sending to Leareth. "Sent by Iomedae, not obviously a threat, you should come, where are you." 

And a separate Sending to the pharaoh. "No threat to you or Leareth, Iomedae up to mischief, Leareth busy next few hours, you are invited if you wish." 

Leareth replies with his location. And then Mindspeaks the pharaoh himself as well. :Apparently Iomedae sent her?: He's instantly relaxed. :I may be wrong but I am suspicious I know exactly what this is about, and that She is laughing at us right now: 

:...now I'm curious. Is Aroden offering to give us a lift, we have no other way to get to his demiplane.:

:He asked for my location so I assume he is going to come collect me. I can Gate you over here too to save on Teleports?: 

:Sure.: And he will make his excuses and leave the party which has been much energized by all this drama.

Leareth Gates back to the side room behind the party, calls out to Khemet in Mindspeech, brings him over to his shielded hideout. 

"Did I get around to mentioning," he says, looking like he can't decide whether to laugh or scowl, "that I asked Iomedae for advice on finding a wife?" 

"...no. You didn't. She...sent somebody to spy on you?"

"I am not sure yet! All Aroden said was that she was sent by Iomedae and did not seem to be a threat, I am interpolating." He glances around. "I am sure Aroden will be here soon to say more." 

Aroden isn't there yet, because after Plane Shifting back to his hallway demiplane (now relocated to Egorian along with all his other setup), he pauses in his office. 

Parmida was entertaining some other guests during the drama, but they have Charm Person active because they always do at events. 

Parmida, dear, I have a very frightened cleric of Iomedae in my demiplane, who was given mysterious visions of Leareth and gathered she was supposed to spy on him. She thinks I am going to have her executed. Would you mind accompanying us there to talk to her? Neither of us is very good at not being intimidating and the poor dear is so terrified of me. 

- sure. What are you going to do?

Have a very delicate conversation where we try to find out whether, as I suspect is true, Iomedae in fact sent her as Leareth's prospective wife. In which case Iomedae will be hearing a piece of my mind rather soon, but I will first need to...inform the poor girl of this... It sounds terribly awkward. 

Oh no! And she heads over to meet him.

He kisses the top of her head and then takes her arm and Teleports them to Leareth's hideout on the edge of town. 

"Ready to go?" 

"- Aroden, are you thinking that Iomedae–"

"Is having some fun at our expense while fulfilling your matchmaking request? Yes, rather. I think you will like her, she is awfully impressive for such a young person." 

Leareth nods, makes a 'hmm' sound, and holds out his hand for the Plane Shift, taking Khemet's hand as well. 

I'm impressed, Aroden said, and something inside Carissa's heart swelled with hope for a second before she realized that she was an idiot. 

She took a class on interrogation at university. Decided it wasn't the career path for her, whatever, that's the end of it. But they'd said, in that class, that that was a tactic that worked shockingly well. I'm not upset, I'm impressed with you! What a clever criminal you are! Most people would never have thought of that - say, tell me, how did you pull it off...

It'd seemed implausible to her at the time, that anyone would be dumb enough to believe an interrogator saying that. The book had said that establishing rapport is surprisingly easy, because people who've been engaged in illegal worship or defiance or whatever have been keeping their secrets for a long time, are often desperate to have someone to talk to - and they're scared, casting around for any kind of story in which they were clever rather than stupid -

- it's astonishing how well it works even knowing that she could have read the line out of her textbook, she wants to believe it, she can feel the warm embrace of the world where Aroden is impressed with her and sees her not as a common criminal but as a clever person worth preserving. 

She's not an idiot. 

Aroden is not impressed with her. 

She sits in her chair and waits for him to return.

When Aroden returns he does so with three other people in tow. Leareth, the pharaoh of Osirion, and his wife. 

"Well, we should all sit down," he says, his voice still warm. He bustles around for a moment moving chairs, pulling one out for his wife. "I will get us all some tea and biscuits, they should be in here somewhere..." 

They are, in a cupboard. A minute later all of the new arrivals are sitting down in a little circle of chairs around the nice coffee table in Aroden's private library, which is also his magic-free demiplane. 

Leareth looks briefly dissatisfied (it's about the lack of magic, he still hates this), but folds that away quickly enough. He's giving Carissa an intent, piercing look. 

He sits next to the pharaoh. They're holding hands. Leareth figures there is no point whatsoever in hiding that, in front of the person who may or may not end up being his future wife.

Whatever the success condition for her talk with Aroden was, and she's not totally sure that there ever was one, it was probably not 'Aroden immediately tells Leareth everything and now Leareth and the pharaoh are here'.

She takes some tea. She kind of wishes he'd just get to the torture but this is a stupid wish that speaks poorly of her, probably. 

"I owe you an apology," says the pharaoh, taking some tea. "I was rude to you when we first met."