"...I read Vkandis's name but I didn't do anything with it."

Leareth goes very still. 

"That - might do it," he says faintly, after a long pause. "I am not sure how, but - the gods of this world mainly perceive things in terms of Foresight, is my understanding. And it seems likely your - acquiring Vkandis as a vassal, I did not even think to consider whether that would work," he's half-stunned and awed and shaky with it, "would show up as a significant Foresight footprint immediately, even before you acted on it. Which - would cause great alarm." 

He frowns at her. "Our scrying picked up on Tayledras warriors, but also gryphons and others bearing a military standard I recognize as Iftel's emblem. Iftel is Vkandis' country. I assume He cannot harm you directly, but - can He order His army after you...?"

"Yeah.

Can he hear me?"

"I have no idea! I am trying to think..." Leareth brings both hands to his temples. "I think the gods do hear prayers specifically from Their chosen people - those in binding magical pacts with Them, and perhaps Their priests. Possibly all prayers made in Their temples, there is controversy about that and it is hard to verify since the gods do not usually answer prayers." He lets out his breath, shakily. "It - seems worth trying, in any case. Perhaps this counts as a...magically binding pact with Him..." 

"Ordering hostile vassals is dicey. What would you expect to go wrong if I ordered him to direct all his people home - is he smart enough to have warned them to ignore him - what's the Star-Eyed's name, do you know -"

Frown. "I - am not sure - you must have gotten lucky with Vkandis, He goes by several variants but they are all phonetically similar, perhaps that was enough. The Star-Eyed Goddess has variants on Her name that just mean similar descriptors in several languages, and I am not sure what would count as Her original name...the oldest I know of, perhaps, but I would need to look it up, I do not actually remember all of my Ancient Kaled'a'in perfectly. Should I see if I can find those records here." 

"If that's faster than guessing and checking. I don't know how many different syllables the language has."

"How does guessing and checking work?" Leareth is already on his feet, scanning the index-notes on sealed boxes; he grabs one and moves it to the floor, with a touch of magic to cheat, and then opens it. "How does your language-reading work, actually - can you decide to read a book in Kaled'a'in phonetically rather than the concepts directly, that would give you many syllables to guess at while I try to do a more targeted search for records on Her." 

"I guess I can try!"

Well, finding her a book in archaic Shin'a'in - more recent than the Kaled'a'in records he's hunting for, but a closely related language that evolved from it - won't take long at all. Leareth passes it to her and then moves on to look for older boxes. 

She squints at it, thinking about how each word would be pronounced if she were trying to repeat it exactly, and decomposes them into syllables and tries each one on the Star-Eyed for size.

That syllable is not the Star-Eyed's name. Neither is that one. Neither is that one. 

Leareth is digging through another crate. 

"- Her spirit avatars are called leshya'e Kal'enedral," he says suddenly. "Does that...?" 

Le, lesh, shy, shya, ya, e, Kal - "Yes got it."

"- all right now what." 

"Well, now I need something to tell them. Is there a way for them to talk to me, getting feedback out of them would help -"

"I am thinking. Previously I had no way to get answers from gods without Their cooperation, but I could not give Them orders either. Vkandis speaks through his Suncats sometimes, I think... And the Star-Eyed has leshya'e Kal'enedral, in the spirit world, I could take you there and maybe it would work if you order Her to send one..." 

"The leshya'e Kal'enedral could still attack me unless I had my orders well specified first."

"That does seem like a concern here. ...Are there best practices or something for making orders well-specified enough to prevent sabotage by hostile vassals?" 

"I learned from the best. But it's hard and them being a weird sort of entity can only make it harder and the process wants feedback."

Sigh. "I am not sure what to do. I - know a substantial amount about the gods, in general, but - this is not a problem I anticipated having!" 

"I didn't either! Is there a way to - catch one person from one of the armies, and ask them -"

"Let me think." Leareth narrows his eyes. "I could scry the area outside the compound, and - attempt to aim a Gate that way, and capture a human soldier, they will probably be less dangerous and if I grab a mage by accident I can probably contain them... What do you wish to ask them, though, I am unsure a random soldier would know very much about what is happening." 

"How was I supposed to know what they'd know??"

"I could try to go for a priest of Vkandis, maybe, they have distinctive uniforms - they would be much more dangerous, though. At least until you could obtain their name. I...could read their mind to get it?"