:Thank you. If it does not work, I can dig up Aroden's magic item for permanent Detect Thoughts and try with that: He hasn't ever used it, yet, since trying it out as a test; he's a strong Thoughtsenser and is used to that and finds the Golarion version disorienting. 

She will wander on over to where Tadesse is and cast Detect Thoughts out of sight of him.

This does not work. 

Annoying but not very surprising. She circles back to inform Leareth.

"Thank you for trying." He squeezes her. "I suppose I will go try with Aroden's amulet." 

Inconveniently, it's currently in his operations building in Aktun, somewhere in a magically-locked box in a magically-protected storage room, alongside some other magic items Aroden left him that he uses rarely if ever because his own magic covers their purpose already. He tracks down one of the palace staff who can do a Plane Shift for him there and back, and spends fifteen minutes hunting around for it, and eventually is back and hiding just outside the guest-room. 

He tries to read Tadesse's thoughts. 

This time it works. Both on Tadesse and on Ekunde, actually, but Ekunde is mostly daydreaming and enjoying his family being safe. 

Tadesse is...feeling very tired, in a way that has little to do with the physical. He's sort of caught in a recurring loop of noticing that this is an incredibly significant thing to have just happened, possibly the most significant thing that has ever happened, and - well, he should care, right, this matters, it changes everything - 

- and yet for some reason that's a thought that hurts. 

There are a lot of thoughts that hurt, right now. 

He keeps being tempted to ask Leareth if he ended up doing it (his thoughts bounce away from 'it' and leave it unclear what it refers to, except that it feels doomy to him), and then...not doing that...because it's unclear whether either answer would make him feel better or just stupidly, pointlessly worse. 

And it's not an emergency, right, it would be easier to pull himself out of his moodiness and do things if there were a pressing emergency, but there isn't, not really. 

...He wonders if Urtho is still alive, in the teenage Ma'ar's world/timeline, and both answers to that question would hurt, too, so he hasn't asked it. 

He does not at all expect to feel this way forever. The black moods that catch him sometimes lately don't tend to last more than a few days or weeks, if there are in fact goals and plans he can pull toward, and...probably tomorrow there will be, again. 

It's just that he's tired, and it's not an emergency, and tomorrow is probably fine. 

Leareth stands and listens for a longish time, and then Mindspeaks Carissa. :Can you come try with the amulet as well? I...want a second impression, I think: 

:Sure.: She heads over to do that.

Tadesse is now thinking about Carissa's request, that he help Ma'ar fix things in his world. It's - good news, right, really, that things are still fixable he nudges his mind away from that thought, it's not as though it's determined that his own Velgarth isn't fixable, it's just...

...it's been such a long eight hundred years. And he wants to stop and he wants to not be alone, and it– and neither of those feelings even makes sense, anymore, but apparently the feelings are ignoring his sensible objections. It's very inconvenient. 

He keeps dwelling on the thought that in the original version of this history, he must have died alongside his alongside Ekunde's family, lost and adrift in the ocean, because they tried something beyond their capabilities - because they were brave and curious and willing to think new thoughts and travel new places - and it feels so bitterly unfair, that he would have survived that, come back to try again, and none of them would have. 

He's sad and tired and wishing vaguely that the world would go away and leave him be, just for a little while, and he doesn't want to be feeling that way, it's pointless, but as usual, wishing reality would be different is not by itself the solution to any problems. 

:...sounds like he's moody about lots of bad things having happened and not having any idea what to do.: she says back. :I don't know if that's all, but - it didn't seem like there was any other really big thing...:

:I agree, it does not seem there is any other major thing, just - well, it was always true for the last eighteen hundred years that many bad things had happened and often I was not sure what to do. But I do not think I am usually that upset about it. Not to the point of being - that disengaged and existentially tired. That aspect worries me:

:It's worrying! I guess if it's not anything more - adversarial - then at least we can ask him what he thinks is up with it.:

:I see no sign of it being more adversarial, just - whatever the cause, he...does not think the way I do, at least not right now:

:Well, maybe he'll be able to explain it.:

:All right. We can let him be today and speak with him tomorrow. I am not the kind of worried where I want one of us watching him all the time, I think? But would like your impression too:

:That seems right. He's - off but not in a dangerous direction, that'd be too much work.:

:I think so: Leareth sighs again. He’s feeling a sudden craving for Carissa’s arms around him.

Lean. :I guess somehow I imagined you were never lost or sad or - wasting time, stalling -:

Leareth rests his head on her shoulder. :Two thousand years is a long time. And - I suppose maybe I would find it less useful, when I have a limited total capacity for memories I can hold onto, to remember in detail those times:

:I guess. You know what else you should do, you should get your pharaoh to meet him, see if he thinks anything else is wrong.:

:- Oh, I had not thought of it but that is a good idea, he is - particularly talented in the domain of understanding people:

:It is terrible of him.: Carissa has not entirely forgiven being discovered when she and Leareth first met. :But it'd probably be useful.:

:Yes:

Leareth leans into Carissa’s embrace for another few minutes, and then excuses himself to continue catching up on the administration of Cheliax.

She remains vaguely on edge about the Leareth who is mysteriously off, even though she can't pin down anything she expects to go wrong.

Leareth is also uneasy. Less because he expects something to suddenly and unexpected go wrong, and more that - something already is wrong? There's another of him right nearby, from a timeslice of Velgarth that matches up to his own world, if not one he remembers, and...

Something feels wrong.

He has a Telepathic Bond with Khemet, but both of them very rarely use it during the daytime hours, the default assumption is that neither of them is interruptible them. He sends a message instead. 

Found my younger alt in past Velgarth. He seems unwell. Non-urgent but would appreciate your advice, reply whenever convenient. -Leareth.