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." 

"I would love to do that but I have no idea how to manage it. Until I heard it from Aroden I didn't even know it was possible. Hmmm, maybe I can have a walled room which opens to a looping outdoors, so people can have it both ways and also I don't have to feed them. And then if I want a terrifying dungeon I can do that one separately - I probably don't want a terrifying dungeon, it's tempting right now but I think that's just the motivational architecture humans have for retaliation being very loud and not very good at direction."

"- I am not sure a dungeon would be much more terrifying, either. It makes you look more powerful and in control, that you can capture and hold people in a pleasant demiplane, and you could do so in a dungeon but you do not even need to." 

"Hmmm. I think if I am captured to someone's pleasant demiplane I am likelier to think that they have scruples and will not have me continually devoured by demons in a plane with fast healing that barely keeps up with the demons."

"...Are you tempted to do that because of my murder? I - appreciate the sentiment that you care about me and are very angry, but I would actually very much prefer that no one ever be tortured over it. People murdering me is not that beyond the pale, it has happened often." 

"The thing I want is to have people believe that assassinating people in my palace is a terrible idea. I - humans can't really do that and not fuck it up, but -

- also it absolutely was beyond the pale, it happening frequently doesn't make it less so."

“I - yes - there is a reasonable deterrence objective here, I, just, I do not actually think threats of torture would have stopped them if it were the best path.” Though he’s actually a little surprised that Osirion doesn’t already have terrifying dungeons for prisoners; it seems like the sort of country that would.

”If I were you, I...would wish to appear powerful and clever and cautious in a way that made people think they could not succeed at an assassination mission in a place you control, or at least it would be more difficult than the alternatives...” 

Leareth is having some trouble thinking through it, because Khemet’s words and the intensity in his voice are giving him a fresh set of confusing emotions. He wishes he could stop being so upset about this but he’s, nonetheless, still upset. He wants a hug. He wants - something...

He can do a hug. And give Leareth some time, because he really really didn't mean to hurt him...

"Tried that," he says, his voice shaking, after a while. "Being powerful and clever and cautious and they - they noticed that it meant you were less on guard and determined that made it a better target. I'm - sorry - I didn't mean to put you through thinking about all of this again, only I think I am going to need your advice about it at some point, to point myself in a useful direction about it -"

"Of course, I - think it is an area I am well placed to advise on." When he's not busy having a lot of feelings. "I am sorry that I keep - telling you to treat this less seriously, and then - being very upset about it myself... It does not seem very strategic but my mind seems to be doing it anyway." 

"You are a perfectly reasonable amount of upset about it! And you don't need to worry that I'll - scale my reaction to your feelings and end up doing something I don't endorse, I won't, Hemaka already has a veto on stupid things I might do when angry. And in my experience trying not to feel bothered by things doesn't work and just makes them bother me more on more levels since now I'm also bothered that they're bothering me."

"Yes, I am aware of that pattern! I am - trying not to be stupid about it." He lets his head rest on Khemet's shoulder, tries to relax. Pokes at the feeling. "...I think that maybe I am incentivized to be sad, more than usual, because when I am sad you hug me and I feel better and also - closer with you? And in the past that was not ever going to be the result, so there was no point." 

"Huh. You know, if you'd like we can do intimacy-building things when you are not sad, too, if we've decided to indulge this it would be sort of silly to indulge it only so far as getting up to baseline when sad."

"I would like that." He's quiet for a minute, thinking. "I suspect there are two elements here? One is that - I am aware it is normal for humans to have feelings to process about traumatic experiences, I have just - mostly not had the luxury, before. I think it is good overall that I do now. And - separately from any of that, I like you and I find it pleasant when you touch me and - honestly I have several layers of confusing feelings here, it is probably helpful to separate that part from the part where I am upset about nearly dying." 

"Yes, I think it's a good idea to separate those.

You were the slightest bit disappointed when I wanted to design demiplanes - did you have hopes for what I'd want to do with you this evening?"

Of course Khemet noticed; Leareth shouldn't be surprised at all. "I was a little disappointed and it was confusing! I think I wanted you to hug me again, and...I am having a very difficult time figuring out what else..." 

Khemet looks at him consideringly for a minute.

Then he kisses him.

Leareth is so surprised! Usually he doesn't much like being surprised, it means he missed something, but - this is an actively pleasant, even delightful surprise so he has no complaints. 

He doesn't especially feel like he knows how kissing someone - works - but Khemet is making it easy to figure out. 

Khemet pauses, eventually, and pulls back to look at him. He looks pleased with himself. 

He should be pleased with himself, Leareth is thinking. "Apparently I wanted that! I am not sure how you figured it out, when I did not know so even reading my mind would not have helped." 

"It is a very usual thing to want when you are having romantic feelings about someone."