"Suitable for royalty, really. Which makes sense, I reckon, Leareth is royalty after all." 

Ayodele grips Ekunde's hand. "Is there lots of magic? Kun, can you see magic things around?" 

Tadesse is still being unhelpful, but Ekunde can prod him into interpreting some of what he can see with mage-sight. Lots of shields, mostly. "This place is very safe." 

"Well, I'm glad to hear that at least." 

They explore for a while and then retreat to their lovely guest suite. 

Leareth finally catches up, and puts the paperwork away. 

:Carissa, any updates? ...Where are you, I miss you: 

:They wandered around admiring the gardens and the plumbing. I think mostly Ekunde, but I wasn't watching very closely. I'm in our rooms.:

:Coming:

Leareth heads over to join her there. He hugs her silently for a long time before saying anything. 

:Did your pharaoh have any ideas?:

:He asked about magic interference or mind control - I told him nothing visible to mage-sight - he agreed to meet him, I will go over to the building in Aktun with Tadesse when he is ready: Sigh. :...Which means I need to speak with Tadesse and - tell him why we are concerned. You would think it would be easier to have that conversation with another me, not harder, and yet...: 

:It seems awkward. And if it were me I'd be scared to be confronted about it, though I don't know if that's what it'd be like for you.:

:Hmm. I mean, I was not scared of Aroden when I knew from the beginning he was my alt, but - Tadesse could feel differently, if he knows he is - not the shape he should be...: Leareth grips her hand tightly. :Would you mind coming with me, in the morning, when I talk to him?:

:Sure.: She is reminded, suddenly, of Aroden bringing Parmida for tea, when he first kidnapped her. It was more confusing than reassuring but it was a little reassuring, when one was expecting to be handed over to his internal security to be killed. 

Leareth leans on her shoulder for a long moment. 

"Speaking of - mes having feelings I find baffling," he says finally, out loud, "Ma'ar seemed a little upset by this situation? I am not sure why, though, I tried to ask him and he said it was fine. Has he spoken with you?"

"...no. I can try to talk to him. ...he might be missing his parents?"

"- Oh, you mean Ma'ar."

And Leareth blinks in - not surprise, not confusion, but something like it, for a moment.

"Oh. Right. I - it is too easy to forget that of course he remembers his, our, parents, as - specific people, who he loved, when..."

When he doesn't, not anymore. There are no images. He doesn't know what their faces looked like, and somehow he never even thought to ask Ma'ar to read his mind for it, they're just people he lost after all...

(Along with everyone else who he's lost, over the years and decades turned to centuries, millennia...)

(Except for his baby sister, killed as a newborn, somehow that still stands apart, and it's not like he remembers any specifics or visuals - maybe that's why it stands apart, because he never saw a face he could have recognized, just the fact– it's not as if he even knew her as a person, she never had time to become that...)

Leareth pulls back. Looks into Carissa's eyes. 

"I - meant to talk to him. About bringing them back. But he never spoke of it...and we had such a long backlog for True Resurrection after the war..."

(They still do, though it reached the less-time-sensitive prioritization category sometime last year, and really he ought have thought to do a re-evaluation then,  but there was so much else that mattered so much -)

"- and - I suppose I did not think to check back - Ma'ar seemed fine, like he was learning, growing..."

Nothing seemed like an emergency, and apparently even now, that's still woven into how he decides on his priorities, even though for years he's been in a world where multiple gods are on his side and one of those gods is him...

(But Aroden doesn't remember almost any of the people who mattered to him either...)

He hugs her, tightly, tears held back between multiple levels of barrier. 

"It's so far, it's going to be really costly for Aroden even to negotiate there, isn't it, you might have to invent something for it, it might not even work, and it's not the gods we're familiar with so who knows if they'll even agree - I haven't talked with him about it, it seemed cruel when we have so little idea when - but I think he does miss them."

:I know.:

:...I know that both uncertainty and distance lie in the way - higher than average cost, on each of those dimensions, which is why I did not prioritize this sooner -and if he had asked I would have harder tried anyway, and explained..."

And he kisses her. 

She hadn't realized that it wasn't already on the radar in approximately the same distant wistful sense it was on hers - or moreso, it's his parents - but perhaps that's exactly why it wasn't, it's his parents and he doesn't have enough there to mourn...

It is always strange and slightly disconcerting to realize he needs her, even for the smallest things. She kisses him back. 

"Other you is a handsome man," she informs him. "I assume you don't pick bodies for that on purpose."

Leareth answers in Mindspeech, since his mouth is occupied with kissing. :No! I am not even sure how I could add that as a specification - are you sure you are not just biased...?:

:Me? No, not at all.:

It doesn't seem to Leareth like those words are particularly in need of an answer, so he doesn't bother with one, and just goes on kissing and snuggling Carissa. 

She got the best Leareth.

Leareth does not dispute this! 

And eventually they fall asleep snuggled together, and wake up at around the same time, just before dawn and probably well before anyone without a Ring of Sustenance is awake. 

Leareth kisses Carissa's cheek, stretches, and then starts praying for his cleric spells. 

Carissa prepares her wizard spells first and then prays, too, beside him. She has taken to letting Iomedae pick her spells, the way small-town clerics do it; they are of course always well-chosen and it feels a little bit more like - relying on someone, which isn't something that comes naturally.

Leareth requests his usual stack of Recharge Innate Magic and Lesser Restoration, and then leans into the feeling of prayer, of Abadar's recognition/appreciation/affection, for a little while longer than he strictly needs to. 

Eventually he straightens up, glances to see if Carissa is done. "- Are you ready to go speak with Tadesse, now?"