"I'm wondering how much of - how things actually played out - the Star-Eyed endorsed and intended, as opposed to them being things she couldn't see well enough to reconsider based on them? Like - presumably if She'd known Abadar chose Leareth that would have changed Her plans, since it meant She couldn't claim his soul when he died. "

Moondance takes a shaky breath. "I think - She could not see well once we were in Golarion. I usually have...feelings, about what I need to do. I did not have any of that after we left." He looks miserable about it. "It felt like - being blind, being lost..." 

Nod. "But She didn't tell you - use your best judgment, I will be unable to see to give you guidance."

"She–" Starwind, staring straight ahead, lifts both hands to cup his face. "She - said that it had to be done, at any cost, that - he was a scourge on the world... She spoke of what he had done but I did not remember it until - you cast the spell - only the certainty that She had given ample reason. He has, in fact, done very monstrous things in Velgarth." 

"And a lot of good. Did She mention any of that?" 

Starwind is silent. 

"Destroying evildoers changes the balance of forces between good and evil by one. Redeeming them changes it by two. Or - in Leareth's case probably we are talking about bigger numbers."

"I - am not sure–" Moondance bites his lip, swallows, eventually switches to Mindspeech. :I am not sure he still needs redemption. After Cheliax... We have seen what he does, when given the resources to win without committing great evils. I - could not truly see it, until now...: 

And he dissolves into tears again, scrunching himself up against Starwind. 

Starwind is silent. 

"It does seem to me like he was trying very hard to change into someone who could be a trustworthy ally to the forces of Good, and trusted by them in turn. I'm not sure how he feels about that now."

Vanyel looks at the two of them, his eyes unyielding. "It hurt his feelings very badly. And - made it difficult for him, emotionally, to be open with people and trust them, because - he tried letting down his guard among allies, and just honestly doing his best to help, and then you took advantage of that to destroy his immortality method and let the Star-Eyed attempt to steal his soul." He pauses for a moment, letting that sink in.

"I think it did less damage than it could have," he says, finally, "because - all of us backed him. The pharaoh, and Aroden, and me. So I don't think it's going to result in him feeling like actually it's not safe to cooperate with anyone after all. But it could have." 

Moondance sobs even harder. 

No response. 

"Ironically that would have been almost precisely Urtho's mistake. Taking an eager would-be ally and insisting he could not possibly be cooperated with until it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm not actually sure that we've averted the worst of it. We can't cooperate with the Star-Eyed, now, and that's a very costly loss."

"I do not think it so unreasonable of Her to declare that someone who has done such great wrongs as him ought not be supplied with resources and given a country to rule," Starwind says tightly. 

Vanyel opens his mouth and then closes it again. 

"To say so, of course not!! 'The Tayledras oppose installing Leareth as Aroden's heir and insist he pick somebody else' is the kind of thing allied countries say to each other all of the time! It might've gone fine!"

"There is no chance at all that he would have listened." 

Moondance, still sobbing, abruptly pulls away from Starwind. 

Vanyel hesitates for a second or two, and then goes to hug him. 

"Starwind, I think that's an oversimplification of the situation. He would have taken it into account; Aroden does try to cultivate allies, he's - had more of a chance to have that be rewarded instead of punished. Which is exactly the chance we want to give Leareth, now. He's a very, hmm - he's very sane, he's going to respond to what works." 

"He will never respect any limitations." 

Vanyel is dangerously close to losing his temper. He forces himself to take a deep breath. "First off I don't even think that's true. He - made promises to me, about Valdemar, when we spoke in our dreams, and he kept them - he confirmed later under Truth Spell that he never lied to me. Secondly, I don't know, good for him? Hunger is bad and disease is bad and death is bad and as far as I can tell he IS just the only person in the entire history of Velgarth who's actually said that the status quo is unacceptable and needs to change! And all it ever earned him personally was the gods trying to murder him all the time, but he kept trying anyway!" 

Starwind doesn't seem to know how to respond. He looks away from Vanyel's gaze. 

"Aroden was a lawful neutral god who managed to negotiate the noninterference of more than twenty other gods, some of them Evil and lots of them Good, for his planned manifestation on Golarion. He has a bunch of allies, he's compromised on a bunch of fronts for them. He'd want to know what the Star-Eyed was offering for it, but - gods, She'd have paid so much less than She's paid now."

"We failed Her."