"They really did and I don't approve."

Leareth smiles despite himself. "It is very rude of the world. Well, mostly of the gods, I would not blame the rest of the world for Their misbehaviour." 

"Yeah." Sigh.

Leareth is silent for a while, thinking. He's pretty sure thinking is supposed to be easier than this; it feels impossible to get traction on any of it. 

"I am - still trying to orient to this entire situation," he says eventually. "What are your main considerations, here, in terms of deciding what to do next?" 

"I mostly just want a while to not do things, honestly. I can do things but -"

"- No, that makes perfect sense, I should probably have..." Anticipated it, tried to be considerate about it, something, he isn't sure. It's maybe difficult to tell because he's been stepping very hard on his own internal whining about wanting things to stop happening and not to have to do things. "I think nothing is currently on fire in the current situation, and - probably you can and should just take some time. What was the outcome of your talk with the Star-Eyed, did She agree to leave you alone...?" 

"I," sigh, "should come up with some way to go to the Moonpaths without you specifically, I guess, so that I can update the agreement as needed, but currently I'm told that if I stay out of four locations that I assume are not here or in Fairyland they will not get in my way."

"Their territories, I assume - Karse, Iftel, the Pelagirs and the Dhorisha Plains? If so, yes, here is safe and Fairyland would be also. Possibly if I bring you to the Moonpaths once, you would be able to return using your own magic? I am not sure what your transport capabilities between planes are, but you thought you could make your own way back to Fairyland, and the Moonpaths are much 'closer'." 

"My sort of gate can take up to a week to settle."

"Ah. That does seem less than ideal for this. What is it doing in the meantime?" 

"...settling. I'm not sure exactly why it works that way, sometimes it happens right off."

"Huh. Our kind of Gates do have a period where the spell is searching for the destination, and sometimes this can take minutes if it is a complicated sort of Gate - or the mage is not very good at the spell - but once the search resolves, the Gate goes up instantly." 

"I don't think it has to do with the skill of the sorcerer or the distance of the destination. I guess it might have something to do with how well specified the destination is?"

Nod. "Anyway, I think now is not the time for me to question you extensively about your magic." He takes a deep breath. "Do you want a summary of horrible things I have done now, or after you have had some time to decompress." 

"I don't know, are you still doing any of them?"

"Not actively, and I have called off or put on hold all ongoing plans with my organization, or with outside contractors, that might involve horrible things in some contingencies. I am trying to think if there is anything I did a long time ago but that still has effects now... There is only one thing that occurs to me, which is that up until a decade ago, for - reasons, I had set up for mage-gifted children to be kidnapped from Valdemar before they were Chosen and then recruited to my organization. For reference, Valdemar has an odd system of government where sentient magic horses soulbond to nearly all of the Gifted children and then they are trained to be part of the kingdom's leadership. Most of the people in question now work for me on an entirely voluntary basis, but a small fraction of them are still under a compulsion, which I cannot claim was uncoerced given the circumstances of their recruitment. I do think nothing bad would happen if I undid all of that now. Additionally, many people in sensitive positions in my organization are under entirely-voluntary compulsions, for operational security - this is mainly protection against someone else coercing them to divulge secrets, and I do not think it is an especially horrible practice, but I can see how some people might disagree." 

"I don't have an issue with voluntary protective orders and compulsions seem about the same, though I may be missing something. If you have involuntary captives and nothing bad would happen if you let them go, uh, you should let them go."

"I will do that." 

"Thanks."

"Given that, and the fact that the current situation is stable, would you prefer to take a break for a few days or weeks before we discuss anything further?" 

Nod.

"All right. You are welcome to stay here, of course. - Do you need Sunspring or," he hesitates, trying to remember Enaka's nickname, "or the Healer here, in order to be able to eat?" 

"Yes. Or I suppose if anyone finds how I've behaved with the names I have so far encouraging I could learn some more and take food from those people."

"It does seem it would be good to have more flexibility there. I will ask around." Leareth starts to stand, pauses. "Is there anything else you need to be comfortable here? I am afraid this compound does not have nearly as good a library, I am quite sad about losing that library, but I can show you what we do have - well, once we make sure to remove books that contain the names of currently-living scholars or royal families of various kingdoms and such." 

"And maybe also the names of more gods."