They land on a sharp slope in some mountains; there are peaks towering above them in three directions, and a hazy yellow horizon in the fourth.

"Do we know where we are? Should I just Gate us right back now?" 

Yfandes scrabbles a bit to keep her footing on the slope. 

"Probably in the Barrier Mountains somewhere and yeah - if it's too far that doesn't fail in some incredibly deadly way, right -"

"No, I'll just notice the spell is too hard and abort it, and I should have a lot of Gate-range now that I'm, er, it turns out I don't have a stupid Gate problem anymore."

He finds a rock-arrangement that is sort of vaguely doorway like and convinces his mind it's good enough to stick a Gate on, and puts the other end back in the winter Palace. 

And then they can all head back. It's late at night by this point, but maybe the pharaoh wants to be made aware that they have all these journals on Ma'ar - "did anyone notice anything particularly incriminating or illuminating, I didn't have Tongues up for most of the copying -"

"We can maybe put the entries from the war on top."

"I skimmed some from the student time period and they were interesting too, he - seemed pretty fond of Ma'ar at the start." 

"Honestly I cannot fathom what he was thinking, with the war. 

I guess we're starting a war unprovoked, now."

Nod. "We should read through more of this. I still feel like I'm missing a lot of context." 

"Same. But - tomorrow, maybe."

The pharaoh does not come out to get the stack of notebooks but sends a representative, one of the magic researchers, who has the news that interworld Gates have been developed and that  Leareth is a cleric of Abadar now.

" - wow. All right."

"That's - I mean, I did keep having the thought that if there was any god he could get along with it'd be Abadar, but that's still surprising! I think probably good? It'll mean - more resources for the war..." 

Moondance glances over at Starwind. He seems very unsure what to think. 

"It means Abadar's sure of him and I don't think He can be wrong, about that. Not about Leareth's present intentions, at least."

Vanyel nods. "That makes sense. And is pretty good to know." He must have already been more sure than he'd realized of Leareth present intentions, that part doesn't feel like news. 

"Valuable information to have, I suppose." Starwind's expression is unreadable. 

"Yeah." He looks much more at ease. "Are we in the same guest rooms?" he asks a servant, and gets a nod, and then they can go get some sleep.

Leareth is kind of miserably sleep-deprived in the morning - he should have just napped all afternoon, or not let them use Delay Pain in the first place, it helps Khemet out but it's much less helpful for anyone not in possession of a Ring of Sustenance. Also he still has the lingering ghost of a headache. He can at least use magic without making it worse, though.

He drags himself out of bed at dawn and requests his spells from Abadar; he's very careful to request absolutely nothing else from Abadar. As suggested, he asks for the one for detecting alignment auras this time. 

Day five. Highly inconvenient timing to be fatigue-impaired. Maybe the local magic can do something about it. 

First, though, he somewhat muzzily goes through his notes and then contacts Malduoni with the mirror. 

"Yes?"

"I am now a cleric of Abadar. He also answered some questions I posed to Him. He - allowed me to read Khemet's mind, for additional verification, He thought that it would help us to cooperate and so He was in favour." 

Malduoni, a little like Leareth himself, has a tendency to be still and silent for a moment when startled. Of course, he also does this when he's just thinking, so it's not a perfect tell. 

"I see. And?" 

"Abadar can cooperate. With me. With us. He is - not exactly the god I would choose, could I do so afresh," even in their secure communications he avoids talking about building or becoming gods, "but he is a sufficiently compatible shape. He is not skilled at communicating with humans and so I ought avoid asking him more questions, but I saw enough."

He can provide a very condensed summary of his notes. The prediction about Asmodeus. The shining, portal-filled city. Abadar pinning him down and recognizing him, as a pattern that will walk the paths Abadar prefers, and better paths with more information and resources...

He doesn't especially try to convey the alien godemotions, the pride and affection and reassurance that still hang vividly in his memory, the sacredness in feeling - seen, recognized, understood. That this is a general phenomenon of clerichood is presumably information Malduoni has. 

"And Khemet."