"Maybe you should take a nap. I will figure out transport back to Velgarth." 

"I am not–" There really isn't much point in arguing with Nayoki. "Keep me updated. You have your copy of the code-book?" 

"Yes." Sigh. "Please do not attempt this again when we are about to go into battle or something." 

"I am not actually stupid, you know." 

"Usually not! But sometimes I wonder." 

"I have an intelligence headband and everything." 

Nayoki just smiles to herself. "I will see you again soon, Leareth." 

She leaves, alerts Narva of the situation and that he can probably go back to poking things with the researchers because it'll be a bit, and then tries to find out if the pharaoh is available. 

The pharaoh can be available once he's made aware she's looking. 

She prostrates herself and waits for his acknowledgement. (Nayoki is, in general, better at remembering the protocols here and following them in spirit as well as in letter than Leareth is.) 

"You can sit. I hear you succeeded at the interworld spell, congratulations!"

"We did! Also we have a difficulty. I had been planning to leave nowish, but Leareth decided to talk to Abadar and then suffered what appeared to be a very awful headache, and should probably not do a Gate even though one of the clerics cast Delay Pain for him. I can probably do it but I will be very tired. I am trying to gauge which option is least costly, out of doing it myself, asking you for your transport spell, or waiting until tomorrow morning." 

"I think Valdemar isn't ready for transit yet and can wait until dawn; I can Gate you both back if you'd like."

"Thank you very much. I am sorry for the inconvenience." 

"I hope Leareth learned something useful."



And he can make arrangements to Gate them.

Nayoki extracts her colleague from the researchers' grasp again and collects her bag. 

And if she can provide a location he can drop them there.

They head back to the same facility in the north to continue their preparations. 

And he goes in to see Leareth.

Leareth is still in his room, trying to get down notes from his conversation with Abadar. It's not easy. 

"Nice aura of Law, it suits you."

Leareth blinks. "Oh. Is there something visible to you?" 

"Yes. Tomorrow you should pick up the spell and try it yourself, actually; I'm curious if it's something you can detect with your Othersenses once you know what you're looking for. Did you have a productive conversation?"

"Yes. I did. It was probably worth the headache, even, though if I had known it would be this bad I would have scheduled it for after Nayoki's Gate." Aaaand now he feels very awkward, because Abadar had said He would tell Khemet about the mindreading but Leareth has no idea whether or not He has, yet, and it seems even more fraught to be the one to bring it up.

"He gave me a summary. Said He liked you. Said he can ignore all the spells He lets me cast, which is in hindsight unsurprising." He is as usual hard to read but definitely not annoyed. "The headache is pretty frustrating; I use Delay Pain to schedule it for the six hours when other people have to sleep and I don't. I tried the obvious thing of just going around with Delay Pain all the time - you constantly give yourself minor injuries from biting your tongue or not tossing in your sleep, but you can heal those - but over time it worked less well and if anyone ever dispels it you'd fall apart right there, so I don't recommend that."

Leareth nods. "I do not intend to do that, it sounds ill-advised. I am slightly worried that I will be in pain again at bedtime and it will keep me up all night - I do need a usual amount of sleep. I suppose I will find out." He grimaces slightly. "I cannot say you failed to warn me, but you were very - casual, about it, so I was expecting an ordinary level of backlash headache, and not 'literally worse than being stabbed.'"