drifted off like the land split by sea

the-final-accounting

There's a lot to be done, in the immediate aftermath of finding Carissa and young Ma'ar in Urtho's Tower, and for a while Leareth is very very busy, as well as very happily distracted in his scant free time by having his wife back. And Ma'ar needs lessons, in magic and other things, and he has a baby daughter and spends more time than he strictly needs to visiting the nursery to hold her.

He introduces Ma'ar in the palace as a 'relative' who's going to be fostering here with him and Carissa for the next few years; he doesn't try to further explain the situation. There are curious whispers and various rumours about this for a little while, but then it stops being controversial.

Running Cheliax continues to hold many ongoing headaches. There are nobles used to getting away with more than he especially wants to let them; there are a handful of local insurgencies that need dealing with, and uncertainty around whether there's any larger organization behind this; some neighbouring countries are still discomfited by the rapid changes of the last year. But nothing goes sufficiently wrong to reach the threshold of being an emergency, rather than just a hassle.

They try a Sending to the other Velgarth he found, but it doesn't work, maybe 'the Leareth who lives there' isn't specific enough, and even after consulting his records he hasn't been able to narrow down what name he was going by or what he was doing at the time.

After six months, he finds time to slip off with Urtho and return to the Velgarth of a millennium ago, and check the cache where he left a note for his younger self. There's no reply, which is unsurprising - even over the entire course of a given lifetime he won't necessarily visit all of them - but in the meantime he's looked up the locations of a dozen other records caches, spread around the world. He leaves more notes.

Another six months later, there are still no replies. This time he brings a Chelish wizard with him too, to attempt a Sending from within the same world; this doesn't work either.

After that point, he stops going in person, and sends one of his mages every so often, equipped with a map and a list of locations to check, plus knowledge of the counterspell-techniques to his protective wards. Someone who's travelled widely throughout their Velgarth and can manage Gates to places that haven't changed too much, and compensate with scrying for the differences across a thousand intervening years.

At the two-year mark there's still nothing. Leareth worries about this a little, and then puts the matter out of his mind; the very fact that this is taking place during a gap in his records, and that there are no large-scale activities that hint at his presence, means it's not as time-sensitive as many of the other things on his plate.

He still sends another mage a year later, though, with the same briefing, a list and a map.

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He scries a record-site from the Void-ship; a thousand years from now, the canyon it's in will be wider, but it's not much of a change. He Gates to it; opens the wards; looks inside. It is unchanged.

He scries the next one. There's a river. In a thousand years it'll run some different route. He Gates to it.

The cache by the river is also untouched. So is the next one, below the stone ruins of an emperor's palace, already abandoned now though less crumbled and weathered.

The next one is at the top of the limestone cliffs on the far southern coast, in the country that will someday be called Acabarrin and is currently known by some other name.

This one shows signs of more recent disturbance from the very start; the wards on it are visibly new, redone in the last six months or less.

- huh. He leaves a note on the Void-ship, just in case. He does the counterspells. He enters the cache.

The dust on the shelves has been recently cleared in some places, though everything has been put back in its proper place.

The long narrow underground room has a small stone table, at one end, for reading at. There's a sealed letter on it, placed to be very obvious.

He checks it for magic. If it's safe, he'll open it and read it.

It's written in archaic southern trade-tongue, which at least shares a common alphabet with extant languages, and which Leareth had instructed him to study along with some other common languages of the relevant time period. It looks like it was written hurriedly.

To whomever is reading this.

I am not sure who you really are or why you are making the claim that you come from another world in my future. If this is true, and you truly want to help, then I would not begrudge this, and I am sure that anyone who could enter this place has the power to seek me out.

You ought look across the sea, to the west.

Tadesse, who was once Kiyamvir Ma'ar

If they could directly seek him out, they would have done that! He doesn't have Gate-locations on the other continent - he has no idea what was going on there a thousand years ago. He has only the faintest sense of what is going on there in his own time.

...though with a name, they can probably do a Sending, now.

He leaves a return note, acknowledging this and saying they'll attempt to find him and get in touch.

He heads back to Golarion.

the-final-accounting

Leareth takes his report with a level, unreadable expression, and then thinks silently for a long minute.

"- Across the sea," he says finally. "I know I explored the other continent and islands at a few points, but I have no memory - or any record, apparently - of this instance. I...wonder why."

The most likely cause is that something went badly wrong, and this particular incarnation - Tadesse, apparently - ended up dying prematurely, without the time to update far-flung records. There are other reasons for gaps but that's the most usual one.

He thanks the mage, says he expects to have further instructions soon, and goes to find Carissa.

to-let-you-in

She's in a meeting, but it wraps up soonly enough, perhaps nudged along once she's aware he has news for her. "Mmm?"

the-final-accounting

"I received a report back on the other Velgarth. There was a reply." He summarizes the report to her. "I - cannot blame him for being cautious, but it is inconvenient, and...I am worried that the reason why I have no records on this lifetime is not a hopeful one. Apparently he went across the ocean, I assume seeking other continents. Such a journey might be quite dangerous even for a me."

to-let-you-in

"Huh. Is the other continent dangerous? Who lives there? What are its gods like?"

the-final-accounting

"There are a handful of other continents, but the one he would most likely reach by sailing west from Acabarrin - also the largest, though significantly smaller than the main continent you have seen - has a much more arid climate, the interior is mostly desert, and the northern half of the coastline straddles the tropics and is very hot. The southern half of the coast has the most dense settlement, but I do not think it was ever unified in an empire, and mostly not even larger kingdoms."

Shrug. "The gods are...differently frustrating, at least. They did not interfere with me in particular; looking back, I wonder if they were much less troubled by the Cataclysm, being on the other side of the globe from it, and also do not communicate much with the nearer gods? Nonetheless, overall the conditions were not any easier to work with. The gods there seem - more Chaotic, I suppose is the best description I can give them? Also they seem individually less powerful but shockingly numerous relative to the mortal population, and I saw no sign that they claimed separate territories. They seemed more hands-on, in a way, but not any more legible? I am not sure, I would need to dig up and review my notes of one of the later journeys I made there."

to-let-you-in

"Hmmm. Well, if he's still there we ought to be able to do a Sending off his name, I'd think. If he's died in the last six months that'll be really inconvenient but presumably he'll find the letter again soon."

the-final-accounting

"The next step is to try a Sending," Leareth agrees. "I am sure he will be very startled, if he is alive to receive it, but hopefully it will be - well, more convincing evidence of something."

to-let-you-in

"It's a shame how you're so paranoid."

the-final-accounting

"I could wish that my past self had had the foresight to choose a phrase that any future version of me from another world could use to confirm that! Unfortunately, that prospect was not even a hypothesis I had." He smiles a little, though. "Are you up for doing the Sending for me?"

to-let-you-in

"Sure. From here, or do you want me to actually go out to the planet so that we can get him if he agrees to be gotten."

the-final-accounting

"From here, I think. It is nearly a day's journey in the Void to get there, and if he agrees to be gotten I would rather have that time to plan our arrival - and it would be good to know whether making that trip is time-sensitive."

to-let-you-in

"And if it turns out to be an outright emergency you can Wish-kidnap him probably even at that distance."

the-final-accounting

"Mmm." Leareth takes a deep breath. "I am considering what to say. That we received the message and left a reply...that I can provide further evidence of my claim about my identity, if he wants...that I lack any specific records on this name or lifetime and - am therefore concerned he might be in danger, and am willing to come urgently if he is in need of help..."

to-let-you-in

"Twenty-five words," she reminds him. "I could do 'replied to your message in cache, can provide further proof of identity, lack records of this lifetime, fear for your safety, help needed?"

the-final-accounting

Leareth reviews that mentally a few times. "Yes, I think that will do."

to-let-you-in

It takes ten minutes to cast; she starts. "What sorts of things were you doing in your lives around then?"

the-final-accounting

"Quite a variety of things. It is not very long after I - made the update, that the gods were my true enemies and that my existing strategies were not going to work. I must already have been considering the plan of creating a god, but likely as only one option among many, at that point." He looks down at the floor. "I think it was - not an easy time, in my life - lives... I was very frustrated. And very weary."

to-let-you-in