I'm not hurt, Carissa thinks dimly at Leareth. They know about the god. They asked. With magic. In most circumstances she'd try to hide it, since he'll be scared and furious, but the tiny fraction of her brain still running thinks that with Leareth it'll be better not to make him waste time.

Leareth is of course reading her mind right now and yes this reasoning process is correct and so he doesn't comment on it.

:What happened:

:Explored. Eavesdropped. Made friends with - hooked up with - Van's sister. She wasn't suspicious, I read her mind. She took me to dinner with her aunt Savil and Van. The kid was there. Jumped on me. Said - in Taldane - "mommy! mommy I want to go home" They - inferred from this that I worked for you. Asked if we were married. I've never met the kid. They - exploded the teleport, did a compulsion, undid yours, asked - where you were, what you wanted, when you were going to invade Valdemar, what your objective was in invading.:

:I see. Thank you:

Leareth looks down, at the small child. He - can't get through the mage-barrier around her. It's a very good mage-barrier. It looks like - his own work...

...better than his own work, in fact, it looks exactly like his own work except with another decade's progress...

And, whether or not it looks like a spell he cast, he can't take it down.

:Relax: he tells the little girl who keeps trying to run at him and failing. :You are safe. ...Can you tell me what just befell you?:

:I thought it was a real emergency I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry:

:...You need not be sorry: Leareth says, half on automatic. :What did you think was an emergency?:

:Mommy said she's not my mommy and she doesn't love me!:

:- Who is your mommy?:

Pexa thinks he is being VERY DENSE. Her mommy is right here. Kneeling on the floor and bleeding from the mouth, which causes Pexa to burst into tears again but at least her daddy is right here and can fix it.

Leareth is, of course, reading the child's mind, she's very easy to read despite her highly impressive shields.

...He can't instantaneously remedy Carissa's bleeding, actually, but he's already summoned a Healer to the room, who arrives ten seconds later and, after a glance at Leareth, tries to rest her hand on Carissa's shoulder.

Pexa thinks that actually he can instantly remedy Queen Carissa bleeding but maybe he had to do it too many times today already and so did Queen Carissa? Pexa is more distressed that he cannot hug her even while she is shielded by her emergency ring, usually he can do that and he is the ONLY ONE who can and she would really like a hug. People were yelling earlier and there was an explosion and a man attacked her mommy and it was very scary and she bit the emergency ring and he DIDN'T COME and she thought that he was mad at her for biting it when there wasn't a real emergency and so he was never ever ever going to come again. But if it was a real emergency and she is not in trouble then she should get a hug.

She collapses on the floor to cry about this.

Carissa is unable to move, which makes resting a hand on her shoulder easy. She's uninjured except that she bit her tongue very hard and it's bleeding and she's too set-commanded to do much about this.

She's very very scared. 

:- What do you know about the little girl?: Leareth asks Carissa in Mindspeech.

:She's speaking Taldane and she thinks I'm her mom. I'm not her mom.:

:I - gathered that - since she seems to think I am her father and - I am really definitely not...?: Leareth takes a breath. :Did the Heralds get enough from you that they will be able to come after us here:

:Didn't give them a location. They could do the hair thing, maybe, if they got a hair. My suitcase is still at Liss's place.:

Nod. :I - do not think the Heralds know that particular search spell anyway. You did as well as you could and I am not upset or angry with you - I am just - very confused...:

Leareth fixes his attention on the artifact-shield over the small child, the one that looks vaguely like it's his work, trying to gauge how long it'll last by itself and whether he can bring it down early or work around it.

It looks like it only has a couple more minutes in it. He could try to hammer it with enough force to bring down early but that'd be hard to calibrate, and - it looks like there's also something Aspexia could do on her end, to.... (no one else in the world would stand a chance at understanding this artifact), oh, she could retract the physical shield a bit and then hold out the ring to him and then he could put pressure on the spell in the right place...

The little girl is currently wailing on the floor, which makes this difficult, but there's not much else Leareth can do in this moment.

He kneels in front of her. Extends his hand. :Hold out your ring toward me?: he offers.

She does this.

...The spell looks so familiar.

Leareth reaches out with his mage-gift and tries to press against it in just the right place - the trigger-point he would have put there, to shut it down...

It stops.

The toddler flops into his arms and clings and sobs even more intensely. 

- Leareth will hug the toddler back. It seems like the best way to make her be QUIET.

:- We need to evacuate this base: he sends a moment later, to Carissa and Nayoki and his other mages. :Just in case I am wrong and the Heralds do have a way of following us. ...Carissa, you need not do anything, I am just alerting you:

Nayoki nods and then turns to Mindspeak orders to his other staff.

Carissa cannot do anything because she's set-commanded.