:You sure were. Also Vanyel really hit it on the head when he said he figured you'd do the same thing in his shoes.: 

Leareth nods. "I do not think I have any particular preparations to make, so - I am ready to go back when both of you are." 

"I can just prepare half a dozen now, if we're likely to spend the day in meetings anyway." He has already started doing this; it feels good to have magic in his hands again. 

"I would not mind at all if you wished to take longer to prepare and neither would he. Up to you, I suppose." 

"I mean, leaving some slots open is also added flexibility later. - you should ask if you can watch him prepare spells sometime, I bet it'd be fascinating. I've never seen anyone stabilize a ninth circle spell."

Leareth's face lights up, albeit in a very muted way. "I am definitely going to ask him. Flexibility makes sense." He waits for Mahdi's half-dozen spells to be prepared, while absentmindedly digging out and consuming some breakfast from his pack. Leareth isn't especially fussy about what he eats. 

He prepares a quarter of his spells. And then they can go get directed to wherever Malduoni is when he's not skulking around invisibly kidnapping people.

Malduoni's public office is a spacious, comfortable room with lots of natural light from a skylight and windows. It has plants in pots. He's reading something at his desk; when they're ushered in, he slips it into a drawer and stands. "I am glad to see you back. Have a seat."

There's a small table set out for them, with comfortable chairs around it. Malduoni ducks out from behind his desk and shuts the door before sitting at the table as well.  

To Leareth's Othersenses, it's obvious that the room is thoroughly shielded. He has more experiencing in parsing the very weird appearance of Golarion arcane magic; he would guess that this spell is permanent rather than cast for the occasion, it has that extra-stabilized look to it, and it blocks Thoughtsensing and mage-sight thoroughly; he would guess that it also blocks scrying (and incidentally Farsight) and prevents sound from escaping. Where he would use multiple layers of different shield techniques for the same purpose, this is a single, very complex spell. 

Mahdi knows the spell, can cast it himself, and is slightly pleased to learn that it's in fact the gold standard for this and you don't need anything more complicated. There has been enough feeling completely outclassed for today. (There is definitely going to be a lot more, realistically, but.)

Malduoni hasn't negated the clause in their geas about what name to call him and think of him by, which hints that he doesn't feel quite as secure here as in his personal demiplane where magic only works for him, but it's hard to imagine many things as secure as that.

"So. Leareth, if I wished to advance the timeline on the invasion and also to take you up on your offer, how quickly could you have your army ready to move?" 

...Wow that is diving right into things and also why is he surprised. 

"My official contingency-plan is for four days. That is assuming nothing goes wrong, which is a dubious assumption, and also does not take into account the existence of other worlds or the fact that I do not think we have yet mastered inter-world Gates. So, a week." 

Malduoni nods. "I imagine this draws on your easily available forces, not all of them. How many." 

"I could give you twenty thousand soldiers on that much notice. Assuming it becomes feasible to transport them. Three hundred mages."  

"And you think Valdemar would lend their forces for the Worldwound, if not the invasion itself. How many?" 

"I am guessing there. Both at their willingness and their available numbers. My not particularly justified estimate would be five thousand troops and - perhaps thirty to fifty Heralds with combat experience? Not all mages but they have Gifts of various types." 

"We can get them back if they die here, right, this is probably relevant both to commitments of forces and to whether Van will do that thing where he can die and kill everything around for half a mile -"

"...Did he volunteer to do that?" 

"I think," Malduoni says slowly, "that I am going to need a much more thorough explanation of your world's magic, Leareth. I assume you have already put some thought into clever ways it might be combined with ours." 

Really that should go without saying, so Leareth just nods. 

Malduoni turns to Hagan. "And do you have a prediction of what the pharaoh will do? In general, and also in the scenario where I decide to move a week from now and with Leareth's aid." 

"Osirion doesn't fight wars. I think he'd probably raise people for you, though someone will have to supply him if you needed more than a few of them, and I think he said he'd be willing to do infrastructure in Cheliax afterwards. Abadar could probably coopt a bunch of the Asmodean church unless - are you planning to be a -" he runs into the geas and makes a face. "I think you should talk to him. I'm not clear on Abadar's constraints." 

"Noted." Malduoni frowns. "I am not sure whether Velgarth natives can be raised if they die here. And I am not sure of, well, a way to test that less costly than the most direct test." 

"That is also something that Abadar might know." Leareth drops his gaze. "I was expecting to end up speaking with him anyway, after this mission. If we are going to be coordinating on this anyway, then I suppose I could ask ask him some questions on your behalf."