"I brought some history books, here, so you could have some time to catch up and learn about what happened."

Urtho nods. He dabs at his eyes. "Thank you. I - does he know that you - brought me back–" 

"He knew that I intended to. He had - mixed feelings. He loves you. You are one of the only people he remembers looking up to, I think. And he's had some time to come to grips with his hurt."

"...He loves me?" Urtho drags a hand down his face. "That does not make any sense. Has the meaning of that word changed so much in the– how do you speak my language, anyway?" Surely different languages are spoken after all this time. Or in other worlds. Urtho hasn't even begun to absorb that piece of the shock yet. 

"My world has translation magic. I think Ma'ar is a very lonely person, and has avoided, in the intervening centuries, caring about anyone the way he cared for your approval in his first life."

"- I made so many mistakes, with him, I - tried to teach him how to trust but I failed, I failed so badly..." At least the rest is available as a distraction. "You have translation magic? And the ability to restore the dead? Neither of those are even theoretically possible, that I am aware of!" For the first time, his eyes light up a little with curiosity. "Is your study of magic far more advanced than ours? Or is it entirely different in other worlds?" 

"Some of both. Our world is older - current civilizations can trace their history back eight thousand years, and there was civilization before that too though we know less about it. And while some people in our world have the innate ability to use magic, very few have it as flexibly as your mage-gift. Instead we discovered a very slow and painstaking method of harnessing some magic without being Gifted. It can be used on Velgarth, too, but I don't think it was ever discovered there, partially because it takes a given person years of work to get anywhere at all and a society thousands of years of work before it stops being strictly inferior to having a mediocre mage-gift. We may have invented it only because our gods sometimes give us magic, and it's possible to see the magic they give us and have the idea of doing the same thing on your own without them, with ambient mage-energy for a source.

By now enough has been invented to make it comparably useful to a mage-Gift for those who dedicate themselves to it. One of the books here explains what magic is capable of in our world."

"Fascinating." Urtho is now eyeing the stack of books with obvious desire, almost greed. "I will certainly read them so that I can do my catching up." 

He hesitates. "Is he - Ma'ar - is he...all right? He was so unhappy as a boy, and - I hurt him so badly - I cannot undo that harm, but it would ease my heart, if he has found even a little happiness." 

"I think he's found a little, here and there. And I think he might benefit from hearing that from you, once you're ready."

Urtho nods, slowly. "I am glad to hear it. And, yes, I think that I will need some time to...absorb this. Everything." 

"I can imagine." He gestures at the wall. "The mirror can be used to call for anything you need. Magic won't work for you here or outside; we can relocate you to somewhere where it does work, once you've had some time." He thinks Urtho is very unlikely to decide to assassinate Ma'ar again but he is disinclined to take any chances.

"I understand." 

"I am - sorry it happened like this, but glad we have you."

And he Plane Shifts out.

Urtho sits on the couch and drops his head down into his hands. He stays like that for a long time. 

Eventually, he gets up and heads for the books. 

Melody sits with Starwind and Moondance for the entire morning, and then conveys to Savil and Vanyel that it'd be good if someone were in the room keeping an eye on them but that they probably don't want to talk yet. 

Vanyel and Savil figure out watching them the rest of that day; Vanyel, again, takes the night until a couple of hours before dawn, and Savil goes to bed and wakes up early to take over. 

Starwind and Moondance do not, in fact, want to talk. They mostly hold each other in silence, occasionally sharing Mindspeech-y looks. 

They do both sleep that night; Starwind's bed has been brought over but they both cram into one of the cots and don't let go of each other all night. 

Melody comes back in the morning, kicks everyone out again, spends several hours with them, and then informs Vanyel, Savil, and Fazil that the two of them are probably ready for a conversation where they can try to explain where they're at right now. They're still very shaken and Moondance is emotionally fragile, so Melody is going to stay for it and wants them to be careful, but she recognizes that it's politically relevant how much they endorse or dis-endorse their actions under the Star-Eyed's control. 

Fazil can attend though everyone seems to be forgetting that he's not a diplomat actually. (He's worried Abadar has forgotten, at this point.)

(Melody recognizes that this isn't really his role, and tells him so in private Mindspeech, but she thinks it's relevant that Starwind and Moondance know him at least a little, and actually it seems important right now that this feel more like an ordinary conversation with friends than an interrogation, if he feels like he's under trial Moondance is absolutely going to break down about it - he might anyway but this way seems a little less fraught.) 

Vanyel goes in with Fazil, sits down in one of the chairs brought in. "I, um, it looks like you're feeling a bit better today, I'm glad... Do you want a hug? Either of you?" 

Moondance wants a hug. 

Starwind seems hesitant about it, but he accepts a hug from Savil. 

Melody looks expectantly over at Vanyel. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. 

:Fazil help - what should I even be asking them - I think you might understand better than I do what it means, to serve a particular god...: