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leareth, king of cheliax, searches for his alt in a velgarth 1000 years earlier
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Tadesse tries for a smile. "Just tired, is all." 

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"Join the club. It's impossible to get any goddamned sleep in this storm." 

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The door creaks again. "Language, Dele." 

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"Sorry, Da." She rolls her eyes at Ekunde as soon as their father's back is turned. 

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"So, Ekunde, any progress on mage-crafting your way to telling us where in the heavens and skies we are?"

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"Not yet. I am sorry." 

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Berko pats his son's shoulder. "It's all right. We know you're doing your best." He glances around. "Your ma's got the watch right now?" 

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"She just took over." Another sigh. "Here is your hot water, Dele. I need to get some sleep."

He's not tired - well, not sleepy-tired, it's been such a long time since he wasn't bone-deep tired in the other way. But he needs to think. 

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Yewande Obi, merchant sailor's wife turned world explorer, sits up through the night, stares out at the fog. 

The storm does not break overnight. It worsens. 

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Close to dawn - but an invisible dawn, drowned in cloud - she yells down below-deck. "Kun! Berko! I need you - winds too high - can't take in the sails any more–"

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Tadesse is fully alert and halfway up the stairs while Ekunde is still swimming his way to consciousness. He grabs his– well, Ekunde's mother's shoulder. Has to shout to be heard. "We need to turn and run downwind. Maybe bare-mast, wind's strong enough -"

None of these manoeuvres are really anywhere close to safe, in these conditions, but Tadesse can cheat with magic, as his father and siblings run up to help. 

They're going to completely lose track of their position, doing this; they'll be fleeing the storm in a completely random direction, he won't even know what direction until the compass stops being screwed up by the electrical storm - they're lucky lightning hasn't struck the mainmast yet...

There aren't even that many hours of night left, at this point, but it feels like such a very, very long time. 

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They take turns sleeping, and reach the other Velgarth, or rather the nearest-adjacent point in the Void, in just under a day. 

The ship has a crystal ball, and a scry should work just as well from here as from the material plane. 

Leareth casts it. 

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This does not work. 

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Leareth grunts. "It is not that surprising. I suppose I can drop us in Acabarrin, and from there - hmm, probably you cannot boost your Farsight range to reach the other continent, it is at least several thousand miles away..." 

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Vanyel shakes his head. "No, I really can't. Sorry." 

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"Hmm. I can try to scry it from a map, then, and - probably with some rest I can manage a blind Gate to it." He grimaces. "- And then maybe you can bring us back here to attempt to scry him again." 

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"You're worried." 

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Shrug. "I would prefer to feel less as though I am operating blind."

And Leareth Gates them to his records cache in Acabarrin, where they can take the next step toward getting to the other continent, which is after all one of the best things he could be doing to ensure his alt's safety. 

He gets out his own map, sketchy as it is - probably his Velgarth has more detailed ones somewhere, but he didn't delay to retrieve them. He has an artifact for scrying with, and is very good at efficient-albeit-lower-resolution long-distance versions of the spell, and he manages to get enough of a glimpse of a red stone mesa that appears to be coastal that he thinks he can manage a Gate there. Although, come to think of it, it's probably more efficient to have Vanyel bring them back to the Void-vessel, get as 'close' as possible, and do it from there. 

He scries for Tadesse again. No luck. At this point further attempts are just going to wear the crystal ball down further without much chance of success; it's not surprising, any version of him more than a couple of centuries old is going to be hard to scry, and he doesn't actually...know that much...about his alt. Even though he, presumably, was Tadesse at some point. An entire life fallen through the cracks of his past. 

He rests, and eventually Gates with Vanyel to the red stone.

Even this far from the equator, it's hot. There are trees with beautiful silvery peeling bark and long drooping leaves, a completely unfamiliar species. A lizard as long as his arm hisses at them and darts behind a rock. 

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"Huh." Vanyel has a look around. "It's pretty. Leareth, you should sit down and rest a bit, and then I guess we explore? Find the obvious place a you would go for a meeting." 

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They do that. Find a point right near the edge of the tall bluffs, without tree cover so you can see for miles in either direction; it's not not the obvious meeting place.

And then they Gate back to the Void-ship to sleep, to avoid having to worry about safety, and he tries again with the crystal ball - pointlessly, it's less likely to work on each attempt, and he is totally unsurprised when this time doesn't work either. 

He sleeps.

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Vanyel can do the next Gate, now that he's been there in person. He's tense, but more in an excited than a scared way. Meeting a much younger Leareth is a fascinating prospect. 

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They wait. 

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Vanyel watches the sun rise higher in the sky. "I - guess the time was maybe ambiguous..." 

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It's noon, now, which is the best default time for a meeting they failed to time precisely. They can wait one more hour. 

...Slightly before that hour is up, with the wind blowing fine sea spray into his face, Leareth turns his back on the sea and gets out his scroll of Sending and contacts Carissa. 

"Tadesse no-show for meeting. Unable to scry or otherwise locate him. Please get him out of here. Vanyel and I are safe." 

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"I have a question for you," she says to Ma'ar, writing a letter. "I want a Wish from a wizard. Do I go to him, or does he come to me?"

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