"Anyway. How is your work with Vanyel on the Heartstone?" 

"- I am going to be up for six hours tonight with a headache again, I needed to translate the rest of my stripped-down ritual to Abadar so that He can give us his version of it. Thankfully that is the last of it, though I will need to speak with Him again in a few days to obtain the specific instructions for Vanyel. We are going to be ready in plenty of time, though, I think finalizing Nefreti's divine spell will be the holdup here." 

"We are nearly ready on that. Certainly we can move by the end of this week, and I think we ought not delay unduly." 

"...No, I agree." This is possibly the most anxious Leareth has ever been about bringing off a plan on schedule. "We should discuss your approach for the Tower further, I think - are there any more artifacts I ought to obtain from Velgarth..." 

They bounce around on various topics for the next couple of hours, mostly some discussion of the Tower layout, from Vanyel's debrief with Leareth, and what traps the Star-Eyed might have the ability to spring on him without actually being able to get any people in there. (They're also assuming that possibly She could get someone in there, somehow, but they've discussed contingency plans for that in a lot of depth already.)

Leareth makes sure his note is visible and gives the cactus a slightly closer look with mage-sight. And his eyes. "It looks fine on the outside - is that odd?"

"...I confess, I do not know anything about succulents. Parmida would, she adores plants."

Aroden frowns, though. This is kind of a ridiculous level of paranoia even for him, but... "Maybe it is a fake cactus - I am not sure why it would be, but–"

He casts Dispel Magic directly on the cactus. 

The cactus is not a Polymorphed person or anything. The cactus is not subject to any ongoing spells or effects. 

The cactus remains a cactus. 

The cactus is terrified, but the tiny sword which was not the effect target keeps doing its thing and the terror of the cactus is concealed unless anyone attempts a Divination on the cactus.

(Dispelling magic on the tiny sword would have more interesting effects.)

"It is not a magic item or a spy disguised as a cactus," Aroden says, unsurprised. "It is just a cactus which is dead." 

The two of them leave, Leareth's tidy note sitting in front of the cactus on its shelf. 

She avoids ever being where Leareth or Aroden can see her but makes a point of being the person to clear out the conference room. 

She reads the note. 

She barely, barely manages not to burst into tears or do anything else obviously revealing. If they killed Batty and left this note they are definitely watching for reactions. Though why even bother, they could've learned from Batty whose familiar he was -

- she should have felt him die, they have an empathetic link -

- also he's not, in fact, dead, he is right at this moment projecting that he's relieved and glad to see her -

- she scoops Batty into the trash bin she's carrying and cleans the conference room while her heart pounds too loudly to think. Is it a trick? Is it somehow not a trick? How would they have arrived at the conclusion that Batty is dead.

She stays for the rest of her shift. The likeliest thing is that they're trying to figure out who planted Batty.

Except that this still doesn't make sense. It wouldn't be hard. Why let her wander around, maybe get a message off...is it possible that Nondetection makes people look absent to Leareth's magic senses, somehow. And since it was a cactus he assumed it wasn't shielded, therefore, dead, therefore leave a note for the staff...

She prays for guidance and gets none. 

The question is whether to try to retrieve Batty from the trash. It'll give her away, if they're watching. 

She doesn't do it. She goes home and cries about how she nearly died, today, or else did die and doesn't know it yet. She plans Batty's retrieval. 

She gets into work early the next morning and looks to make sure no one's around and stuffs Batty into her underpants and goes the whole day like that, healing herself periodically. It is not her most glorious act of service to the Inheritor but she isn't executed at all. 

When she gets home that evening she asks Batty for a debrief. Batty heard a very confusing conversation about Abadar and the Heartstone and the Star-Eyed. She talks to him patiently all evening and apologizes and promises not to send him on spy missions again unless it's really important and takes notes by underlining words in her favorite dime novel.

She prays for guidance and gets none. 

Fine. 

The day before the expedition to Velgarth, Leareth plans an evening visit to the palace in Osirion. Officially so that he can update Khemet on their final plans; he also desperately wants some hugs before he has to go put himself within touching distance of a Heartstone. He is carefully not revealing it to anyone but Aroden and Parmida in private, but he's really, really scared. 

He can do hugs. He can be more distracting than that, even, if it might help. And Abadar'll be trying to stop the Star-Eyed interfering; there's only so much he can do on her home turf but Leareth and Vanyel are both hard to kill, and she'll be distracted by the theft of her superweapons and Nefreti doing whatever Nefreti'll be doing. 

Leareth appreciates the distraction, and the reassurances, and as usual there's quite a lot of evening before they have to sleep. It's a good thing that, after many centuries of practice, he's capable of sleeping fine even when he's very worried about some upcoming event. 

In the morning he kisses Khemet goodbye and then requests a Teleport back to Cheliax so he won't be tired going into it. Nayoki and a few of his other mages still in Cheliax are going to do a concert interplanar Gate for him and Vanyel, and also to evacuate the important people still in Haven. 

Aroden has agreed they can bring Starwind and Moondance to Cheliax, as long as they're guarded by a Velgarth mage and a Mindhealer. Obviously the two of them absolutely should not be in Haven for any of this. 

Vanyel is so nervous! It's amazing he managed to get his requisite two hours of sleep, and it's only because he went and slept in a pile with Yfandes in the stables. 

Nayoki checks that everyone is ready. 

Nefreti isn't here yet but there's no point trying to coordinate with her, she'll either show up for the Gate or she'll use her own magic to meet him in the Pelagirs. 

"Leareth, please be very careful and do not get killed more than once." (He has a Contingent Resurrection in place as a precaution.) 

Nayoki raises a Gate to the Heralds' Temple. 

:Savil, we're getting everyone out of Haven: 

:–What?: 

:I'm sorry we couldn't warn you but there were good reasons. We're doing something pretty dangerous. Please get Starwind and Moondance to the temple, there's a Gate to just outside Egorian, you'll all be safe there. Bring Melody, please: 

Long pause. 

:Ke'chara, you owe me an explanation and several apologies for this, but - damn it, we're on our way: 

Vanyel barks orders in Mindspeech to the other Heralds while Yfandes spreads the word among the Companions. 

They wait.

Aroden stays for a few minutes, in case something goes terribly wrong with the evacuation that he can intervene on. He glances around to see if Nefreti is turning up. 

Not yet, apparently.