"Fine. Yours?"

Mahdi does not answer that.

"Can't say much more than we have. The pharaoh can."

"I see."

"I suspect the pharaoh will wish to speak with you soon." Leareth turns and nods to the Heralds and the Tayledras. "Welcome. I am Leareth; I am sure Vanyel must have spoken of me." 

Callia has no idea who Leareth is, actually! She is getting a very hurried Mindspeech briefing from Keiran and making various faces about it. 

"Starwind k'Treva. This is my partner Moondance." Starwind looks kind of uneasy about Leareth's presence. 

When everyone has introduced themselves the pharaoh's security people would like to talk to them briefly and confirm that none of them intend to harm the pharaoh or anyone in the palace, and explain protocols for meeting him. 

Wow, no, they have no intentions to harm anyone at all! The Heralds seem pretty nonplussed by the protocols and the Tayledras even more so, but they listen attentively. 

So does Vanyel, since he was mostly unable to focus on anything when he first arrived at the Palace and feels embarrassingly unsure of what the protocols are. 

Then they can meet the pharaoh, who seems to also be a bit tired of the protocols, going off his tone as he invites them to sit down.

"Welcome to Golarion. This is far from a traditional welcoming committee, for which we apologize, but we're trying to keep this news very quiet for now. We have learned that forces in Rahadoum are preparing for an invasion of Cheliax. We are interested in helping."

And he has had nice maps made so that everyone can get oriented about where Rahadoum, Cheliax, Osirion and the Worldwound all are, and he can summarize the current state of forces at the Worldwound. "We don't know what plans our allies in Rahadoum have to manage the Worldwound during the war; they have some, but thought that they could use more help, and that's all we know now."

Keiran takes a map right away and peers at it. 

"We have come to see if we can help with the Worldwound," Moondance says, and briefly describes the Tayledras Healing-Adept magic. 

"That sounds like it could be extraordinarily valuable as soon as the area is clear of demons. It seems likely to us that our acquaintance in Rahadoum has a way to achieve that, and that if we're prepared we can move the ward-stones in at least a few miles and take some land back from the demons. What would you need, in order to work on the land, there..."

"I do not need special equipment. Ideally we would bring in other scouts and Adept mages from k'Treva who are used to working with me, but if that were too difficult, Starwind and I could make progress alone. I do need a source of magical energy - Vanyel says that there are nodes, here, but I am not sure if the damaged lands would have usable local magic." 

"We don't know much about that at this time but could send some people ahead to check - and should send some people ahead anyway, so that we can Gate people in when the time comes." He glances at Hagan. "If you and your friends wanted to head up there discreetly -"

"We can do that, your majesty."

"Is there interest from any of you in participating in the offensive in Cheliax? We know even less of that, but they can certainly make use of soldiers."

Keiran looks thoughtful. 

"This isn't something Valdemar would normally get involved with, but - it sounds like the situation in Cheliax is much better grounds for an invasion than has ever been the case in Velgarth. Maybe. Though we can't spare that many soldiers, especially on short notice - the situation in Karse is still kind of unstable and it's worsened after we pulled so many people to the northern border, though fortunately we've been able to reverse that now." 

He nods. "Osirion is committed to attempting to raise anyone committed from Velgarth who is lost in the course of the war. This is much, much easier if we have a body, so please prioritize retrieving those, if you can. Resurrection uses, and destroys, a diamond as a focus." He looks at Vanyel. "We thought it was possible you might be able to make those. Conjuring them doesn't work but we think imitating the conditions under which they form in the earth...might."

Slightly awed looks are exchanged by the Heralds. 

"Oh. Hmm. I don't recall how diamonds form in the earth but I'd be happy to try. Was that Leareth's idea?" 

"Yes. I think he had an idea of a specific spell to try, too. Also, we are aware that when Heralds die their Companions usually do, too - is there anything that can be done to hold onto them for a day so we don't need to do two perfectly timed resurrections?"

Yfandes, listening through Vanyel's ears, jumps in to answer. :I think probably? Assuming that whatever killed the Herald didn't get us at the same time, we - it's not usually instant when a Herald dies of old age or something, we get time to say our goodbyes, so I think if we knew they were coming back we could probably hang on. Might be a good idea to keep us asleep or something for that day: 

He nods. "I think it's plausible that Leareth has more ideas about what can be done with additional help from Velgarth. However, he's very busy on the interworld Gate and also under a spell placed by his acquaintance that restricts how much he can tell you about the plans for the war. I could remove it, but it would be a substantial resource expenditure and potentially taken as hostile by the acquaintance; if Abadar tells me to do so anyway I will, of course. 

You must have a lot of questions, both about the war and more broadly - may I answer them?"