"When Aroden attempted to summon Leareth's remains from the Work Room so they could be used to resurrect him, he determined that there were none. I can prepare True Resurrection tomorrow; we can't speak to him in the meantime. We attempted to raise Starwind and Moondance but the Star-Eyed, in violation of the agreements about jurisdiction over souls that Abadar understood to be in place, interfered and took their souls herself."

Savil just looks baffled by that, and gives no response. She has the look of someone in deep over her head. 

"If this was the work of someone in Osirion, using them," she says, icily, "then - I am not sure exactly what Valdemar's response will be, but we will certainly have a grievance with you." 

"I am sure that if that turns out to be the case Aroden will be possessed with the same grievance and fewer reservations or practical limitations in pursuing it."

"Valdemar will wish to conduct our own investigation." 

"By all means."

"If and when you do successfully raise them, I would like to–" She hesitates, biting her lip. "To take them into Valdemar's custody, to complete an investigation there. We have Truth Spell, and - a better claim, I think, they're from Velgarth and they're our allies. And whether or not they were even guilty of this - horrific accusation, they're demonstrably not safe here." 

"If and when we successfully raise them, Aroden will want to speak to them. Once he has done so I would expect him to be open to releasing them into your custody."

Savil looks like she wants to object on principle, but she presses her lips together instead, so hard they turn white, and is silent for a long moment. 

"All right. Acceptable, I suppose." She glares at him. "Whatever actually happened, you made a massive goddamned mistake, letting it happen here." 

"We are taking steps to ensure similar incidents don't occur in the future." 

Savil nods. She looks like she wants to do a lot more shouting, but - 

"Just so you know that I'm deeply unimpressed with you and your people right now." Sigh. "But - whatever happened, is done now. I would like to speak with Aroden. Do you happen to know his location right now." 

"No. We met in Axis after Leareth's murder in the hopes that a quick conversation could get farther than a formal negotiation on averting a war with Cheliax; after that he came to the winter palace to conduct his investigation and to interrogate the corpses; after that I think he returned either to Cheliax or to one of his personal demiplanes. I know he intends to return tomorrow morning for Leareth's resurrection."

"Where's Van." 

"In Egorian. The Queen told him the news, and my understanding is that he was very grieved."

"Gods, I can imagine, you just told him that allegedly his best friends murdered his ally - their ally too!" Her eyes narrow. "I find it awfully hard to believe they sabotaged the entire Worldwound project in order to do something like that. Anyway, I'm going to go find him, and then I'll be back to question the people in your winter palace." 

"Safe travels."

Savil waits to be dismissed, and then leaves the dome at a fast March and Gates to Egorian the second she's out of the Dome.

:Van?:

:–Savil? Who - did they tell you...: 

:Yes. I'm so sorry, ke'chara - I think they may not have really done it, but - it's awful, they're dead, it's such a disaster... Where are you?: 

:With Mahdi. You can come over: 

Vanyel doesn't even try to address the fact that, no, he thinks it's very plausible and likely Starwind and Moondance did this and he - should have thought - should have guessed or at least worried, and he didn't, and that means it's his fault that Leareth is dead...it could be worse, they're going to get him back, it's retrievable, but still. 

Savil heads over. 

Mahdi rented a place in Cheliax as soon as the war ended. There was clearly going to be a year or so with plenty to do and it seemed better to leave his family out of it. They're sitting in his parlor letting Van cry about things.

He has an Unseen Servant get the door for Savil.

Savil goes straight to her nephew. "Oh, ke'chara." 

He's so grateful to see his aunt and maybe later at some point they'll need to argue about the Star-Eyed and the plausibility that She would order someone to take a weapon and use it to murder Leareth. But - not yet, right now he's just going to sob on her shoulder for a while. 

Savil does, eventually, bring up the topic. Once Van has cried himself out, and kind of tentatively because he still seems fragile. 

Do Mahdi and the others think the Tayledras would really have done something like this? 

"They seemed pretty discomfited by the alliance with Leareth? I would not have expected them to - betray an alliance to murder him inside the pharaoh's palace just because that guarantees an enormous international disaster and also is a chaotic evil suicide mission -"