"They never existed, people just - attributed natural phenomena to imaginary beings for some reason until humans learned more about science."

"I....see. And you are - unsure if we're doing that too?"

"You do have real magic, I think. But it occurred to me to wonder."

"The gods raise people from the dead. I have seen them do it. In the Inheritor's divine domain in Heaven, the forces of Good are marshalled for war, and there are people I knew who are there now among them. And a god died, a hundred years ago, and it was immediately obvious to everyone because storms tore apart the harvest everywhere and quakes swallowed cities and countries drowned and his followers stopped receiving miracles."

"People coming back from the dead is very impressive magic - if they didn't die ten minutes ago and gently - but terrible storms can happen on their own."

"The god, Aroden, had announced his plans to manifest on Golarion. Instead, the whole world, places thousands of miles apart from each other, had two weeks of storms and lightning, even in places where such weather was very rare, and five cities were swallowed by the earth, and a permanent hurricane formed and drowned the country that had previously been there below the sea. Two weeks later the storms cleared, everywhere at once. At the same time the god's clerics stopped getting spells from him."

"It's less drastic than the entire planet melting," Kyeo points out. "Which isn't magic at all."

"...I don't really understand the distinction you are making. Things have causes. If the planet had melted with no cause that would be very confusing. Instead, the melting had a cause - a war - so it isn't. Storms all over the world would be very confusing if it happened with no cause, but instead it was caused by a war.

The precise thing we are worried about is that planets melting is the kind of thing the gods might be able to cause."

"That's understandable. I don't myself know how to build a melter."

She nods. "Anyway. After the revolution, Ibyabek stopped using money? To marshall its whole world as Heaven, as an army in wartime, as a single pool of resources to be dedicated as needed?"

"...what I know about Heaven is what you've told me, but the single pool of resources thing sounds right."

"Towards what do they direct those resources?"

"Policing the space border with Outer Sohaibek - it's more manpower-intensive than a land border by a long shot. And making sure everyone on the planet is fed and cared for appropriately."

"What danger does Outer Sohaibek pose? Are they trying to melt another planet? Is there an active state of war?"

"Not active war. I'm not sure I should describe the state of affairs beyond that."

"That's fair enough. But - we want to help. We would be interested in adding our resources to your own, and addressing our shared problems as one."

"I'm not authorized to entertain the offer myself."

"I understand. I hope you'll convey it for us."

"I'll give my captain a complete report when I can."

"Working on it," says the person praying over the pool of water.

"Ideally he'd be able to take the complete report in private. I will give him as much report as he asks for over the magic thing."

"Hopefully once we have a scry he'll be able to come here, but we can give you our oath that no one in this room has Tongues up or a way to speak your language - the language-spell we're using only gives you ours," says Isavel.

"I can tell him that you gave oaths on that, then."

She looks slightly nonplussed, but shrugs. "I'll have someone bring breakfast. Are there other things you'd want to know for your report?"

"Are there star charts to be had yet?"