"Well, one option is that we are professionally friendly heads of state who, when schedules permit them to depart the Material Plane, go on dates. Another is that we cut this out so as not to distract you from wife-finding - for me, at least, being in love with other people does distract a lot from wife-finding."

Leareth considers it, seriously, for a couple of minutes. 

"I think the former would make me very happy. I - am not sure if it would distract from wife-finding. Probably I should ask Aroden what he thinks, or ask Parmida, since I suspect I would be similar to Aroden on this axis." 

"That makes sense."

"Honestly, I do not think I would be less distracted if we we not doing this and I were wishing we could." 

"Fair enough."

Then Leareth will lean on Khemet while they ride the trolleys and stare at the passing buildings and tide of people, and Leareth basks in the sense of good and right and feels like home. 

When he Gates them back, he's instantly a little less relaxed, but he's no longer radiating misery the way he was before their outing. 

He invites Hemaka to dinner with Aroden and Leareth and Parmida.

Aroden Teleports to just outside the Dome with Parmida on his arm and Zahra on the other side. They go in. 

He notices the change in Leareth's body language instantly, and shares a glance with Parmida. It certainly looks as though someone has been hugging him. 

It does! I am slightly confused but - good.

Leareth greets Aroden and his family warmly. He glances sideways at Hemaka as he arrives - he recognizes him, distantly, as the man Khemet was speaking to in the scene Abadar showed him, earlier, but he doesn't actually know his relation to Khemet. 

Meanwhile a Gate opens onto the demiplane where Vanyel and Savil and Starwind and Moondance are staying and a woman steps through it. "Hello!" she says chirpily.

"Nefreti." Vanyel, who's sitting down in the grass a ways away from where Starwind and Moondance are hugging each other against a tree and Savil is mostly not talking to them, nods to her. "I, er, didn't know we were expecting you." 

"Some people require your advice on something. I could bring you back here afterwards, if that's all right?"

"My advice? Oh, um, yes, of course. I do want you to help me get back here, I don't think I can Gate here due to the magic not working." 

She nods solemnly. "It offends the sensibilities, places where magic doesn't work - don't worry, I won't change that! Some wounds cannot be healed with the unstrategic application of magic even though the strategic application would fix them fine." She offers her hand. "I can get you back right afterwards."

Moondance is giving Nefreti the most baffled look imaginable, but neither he nor Starwind say anything. 

"It's all right, Van, I'll hold the fort here." 

So Nefreti gestures a Gate open behind her and walks through with Vanyel.

It turns out to open to just outside the Dome.

This is how it transpires that she arrives at the dinner party just as Khemet is formally introducing -

"- my husband Hemaka, and - Nefreti. Vanyel. Um, sit comfortably."

She's already doing that but she makes her illusory self do it too. 

Vanyel glances around between the various people. Leareth, he thinks, looks about one-hundredth as miserable as he did that morning. Aroden is harder for him to read than Leareth, his long years of knowing Leareth don't fully translate, but he thinks the man is curious, and about as confused as he is. 

"Vanyel. Is everything - all right, with the...?" 

"Wha– er, yes, we haven't had any issues, that's not why I, um, came to join you." He looks helplessly at Nefreti. 

"It occurred to me that I wanted to drop by and talk to the pharaoh and I wanted to do it when everyone else with relevant information was in the room and that one of them wasn't, so I went and got him."

"Is this about retaliation against the Star-Eyed?"