"That makes sense. I mean, I think Aroden specifically must've been less terrible than the Star-Eyed, but..." Shrug. 

Yfandes, in the morning, confesses she was up all night arguing with Sondra, but - she thinks they've finally hit the same breakthrough. Both of them badly need a nap, but maybe after that Vanyel can Gate the diplomatic party over? 

The diplomatic party can be ready at that time!

Savil declines attending the first meeting with them. At her age, she knows her strength and weaknesses, and diplomacy is on the 'weaknesses' list. She'll sit and guard Starwind and Moondance again. 

Vanyel does a Gate at the specified time. 

Randi comes out to the temple where the Gate is being done, and welcomes them courteously, Shavri at his side. Neither of them look like they really slept enough. 

"Why don't we get all of you set up with guest rooms first and then we can meet over lunch and go through your overall agenda here," he suggests. 

That sounds good! They appreciate Valdemar's hospitality. They are unaccustomed to political leaders ever having the problem 'needs a Lesser Restoration' but they try not to show it.

A candlemark later, they and several other members of the Senior Circle can sit down in a meeting-room. (Valdemar is still short a King's Own, although Tran is doing a little better now.) 

Osirion's diplomats are delighted to meet them and glad to have the chance to meet Valdemar's leadership face to face after all the frantic collaborative efforts during the war. They think Vanyel is great. Valdemar is very lucky to have him.

They're concerned that the Star-Eyed will continue committing atrocious crimes and acts of war in Golarion, secure in the knowledge that the perpetrators are effectively accountable to no one. Osirion was initially hoping that there might be some Tayledras authority willing to condemn what Starwind and Moondance did, and offer meaningful assurance that it couldn't happen again; this obviously hasn't happened. And, uh, generally speaking summoning millions of demons into your ally's palace in peacetime to assassinate the heir to the throne of another allied country is an act of war. Obviously Osirion doesn't want to go to war with the Tayledras, but they would like some assurance that there is any other route to preventing future use of stolen superweapons in this fashion, and they're terrified that they haven't gotten one.

King Randale confesses that, until recently, he thinks Valdemar's investigation was perhaps placing undue weight on the fact that the primary victim of their attack, and the only person who in fact died, was Leareth. Who has done a lot of very awful things in Velgarth, and who Valdemar spent the last decade expecting to end up at war against, since they only knew about him at all through Vanyel's Foresight dream where Leareth was his destined enemy. None of the Heralds are really surprised that the Tayledras would see him as an enemy, or that the Star-Eyed would consider Herself perennially at war with him, and - perhaps because of that, it hadn't felt likely to them that Starwind and Moondance would present a danger to other people who aren't Leareth. 

That being said, it is of course relevant that the attack took place in the pharaoh's palace and could have killed over a hundred people, if it had gone down slightly differently. And it's relevant that Leareth is now known to actually care about good outcomes, that he saved Cheliax from Hell, and he might have started out as Valdemar's enemy but he's now their ally. Which means that even if the Star-Eyed does only care about attacking him specifically, other allies of Valdemar could end up as collateral damage. 

Punishing them by burning out their Gifts would be - twisting Valdemar's legal system to a pretty dubious extent, the only institution with applicable laws to try them under is through the Heralds' Court, and they aren't Heralds. But...it's unclear what the alternative is, since the Tayledras aren't a state that can be negotiated with for this purpose, and maybe it's just an irregular enough problem to demand an irregular solution. 

The other thing that makes him uneasy about punishing them as individuals is the fact that they may to some extent have been coerced, or even mind-controlled. It's really hard to verify if they have, and if so to what extent it was relevant to their doing it or not, but neither of them fully remembers the conversation with Her where they received their orders, and both of their minds show weird patterns that in the past have indicated god-meddling. Which...mostly means that he feels very very bad for their position, but - given that this horrible situation is the one they're in, maybe it's actually fairest to them as people not to give them an opportunity to be given orders or mind-controlled into another murder mission. 

Their own gods do not think that the Star-Eyed is only concerned with attacking Leareth specifically.

Osirion would be happy to try throwing high-powered spells at the memory distortions the evil god left in their minds in case it can in this fashion be mended, but yeah, regardless of how culpable they were, it seems likely that it will be done again and an injustice to everyone involved, including them, to permit that. They're relieved that Valdemar is on the same page about that. 

They aren't aware of the full space of options for ensuring someone who has used their gifts to activate powerful dangerous magic in a building full of innocent people can never do so again, but if it's helpful to think of Valdemar burning out their Gifts as a negotiated agreement with Osirion and Cheliax to avoid the harsher punishments standard on Golarion, that seems like a reasonable gloss on the whole situation? It wouldn't set any precedents except that when Valdemar takes custody of people who committed murders in Golarion they'll use their system for Heralds to try them. 

Randi needs to think about it, but - probably that makes sense. He really, really wishes there was a way to shut Gifts down temporarily, without causing other mental incapacitation, in case they're later able to come to some peaceful resolution with the Star-Eyed, or remove Starwind and Moondance specifically from Her influence. (Nayoki apparently has most of a research project done for temporarily blocking Gifts, but the side effects are at this point quite disabling.) 

Actually, if Osirion has powerful spells for this, Randi wonders if that could break their obligations to Her, and also prevent Her from influencing them in future. Since they're safely contained - Mindhealing compulsions not to leave their cell aren't a good long-term solution but should hold them for now - he would be in favour of trying that first before going down the irreversible route of burning out their Gifts. 

They would definitely be willing to try. What does Valdemar know about the pact that binds the Tayledras to their goddess?

Randi frowns and then looks over at Vanyel. 

"We saw records of when it was made, in the Tower - er, actually not theirs, but the Shin'a'in, who split off from the same ancestral group and also made a pact with Her right after the Cataclysm, in order to survive it. For them, the Goddess manifested directly after they...made a blood-sacrifice to get Her attention. And then She made the Plains livable again, in exchange for - binding them and all of their descendants to serve Her in keeping them safe from outside interference. I - don't know the wording of the Tayledras' obligations to Her, but the work they do is cleansing and fixing the damaged land. Which is why we pulled them in for the Worldwound. They get a lot of magic from Her in exchange, including Heartstones, which are extremely powerful magic sources that can also scaffold other spells, and - contain a fragment of Her, we think." 

He lowers his voice a little. "We have one in Haven, it was a favour they did us. I...sort of wish we hadn't accepted that favour, now, but we didn't know at the time." 

Are all children born to people in the pact in the pact? Can people become bound by the pact in any way other than being born into it? Is pact-hood visible?

Vanyel is pretty sure it's a yes on the first question. Pact-hood isn't visible to him, or to any specific Velgarth Othersenses he's aware of, but he wonders if it's like alignment, something that can be sensed using one of Golarion's spells. He knows people can rarely become bound by the pact later, because Moondance is such a case, he was born outside the Tayledras but joined them and became a Healing-Adept. Also Shin'a'in children with mage-gift sometimes join the Tayledras, since magic was forsaken by their people, only shamans can use it to very limited effect. That's just switching pacts with Her, though. 

It's worth noting that he and Savil are both Wingsiblings, which means they can call on k'Treva's resources for aid - or could, before this happened, obviously they can't now. He doesn't think it entails the same obligations to serve Her, or at least that was never specified to him and he's never felt pulled to go there or anything, but he can't be sure. 

They can try throwing a Break Enchantment at one of the prisoners now, and if that doesn't do it they can get an expert on Wish-wordings in to consult. And while they're here, maybe they can hammer out all of the trade and migration and extradiction and so-on treaties that were delayed by the war but would've made this less awkward, if they'd been in place.

Vanyel suggests they do Moondance first, since Moondance seems very miserable right now. 

Randi would be delighted to properly formalize all of their agreements. 

They can do that after, though. Vanyel shows the diplomats where Starwind and Moondance are being kept. 

Possibly they should separate them for this, if they're trying it one at a time? He's not sure if that matters, but he can tell Moondance he needs to talk to him alone, and take him somewhere else. 

That seems ideal, yeah. 

Moondance...is not actually able to step out of the room by himself, apparently the Mindhealing-block Nayoki did is very thorough on that point. He can follow Vanyel if Vanyel takes him by the hand, though. He keeps his eyes fixed on the ground the entire time. 

Vanyel finds them a different random Work Room that isn't currently in use. It doesn't have the benefit of furniture, but that seems fine for just quickly trying something. 

One of the clerics of Abadar capable of it casts Break Enchantment.