:What- oh, bringing you back here. No: He hesitates for a moment. Takes a breath. :Pexa - disappeared. Despite all of the precautions here. No alarm from the artifact she was wearing: 

: - weird. Do you - have a theory -:

:...It did not seem likely it was Valdemar but I could not be sure. It - could be the work of a god, somehow. I am not sure how: 

Leareth releases her and steps back. His body language is, as usual, very calm, but there was genuine distress leaking through in his mindvoice. 

:Or it could be the people who lost her in the first place? If they had some way to find her?:

:...I mean, yes, that is a possibility. It is the one possibility where - nothing is actually wrong - so I have been focusing on the others until we - know more...:

Nod. :I don't think it was Valdemar. They didn't seem at all equipped to provoke a fight and they didn't ask about - how you tracked me, stuff like that...:

Leareth nods. :I am glad you were not harmed: 

It's - nice, almost seductively so, to feel like he cares that much whether she's alive. She tells herself to consider, instead of being stupid, not being stupid. :Are they, uh, going to be mad at you.:

:I cannot imagine they will be pleased. Presumably they will be more alarmed than angry, but - yes. I had better send an apologetic message promptly - after I delegate some things relevant in the case where this was one of the gods, I had better go do that now: 

His eyes stay on her for a moment longer before he turns to go, though. 

Maybe her next headband update needs to be wisdom instead of cunning because she keeps having no idea how to read him and that seems like a bad thing to be unsure of.  

For a while no one pays much attention to her, as Leareth's people bustle around. 

:So?: Nayoki asks her eventually. :Was everything all right there before we picked you up?: 

: - I think so? I might have offended them. I wasn't really trying anything sophisticated what with all of the mindreaders but Vanyel got very upset that I think it's fine to torture people and the other Heralds were harder to read but I think various things upset them, too.:

:...Maybe. Though I think Vanyel is upset by many things and it is - probably not your fault: 

:He did seem that way. Upset by many things. I - it has to do with the thing his gods did to him, right, to damage him enough he'd want to die.:

Nayoki winces a little. :We do not know the details of - what happened to him. But likely yes: 

:He said that he had a lifebond, which is a kind of soul thing, and then his lover died in the incident that gave him his unusual abilities.:

:Obviously the gods will use us all however they will, but - it seems like using awfully little of him.:

:...That the gods here would do such a thing...: Nayoki hugs herself a little. :Where I come from, lifebonds are sacred to the gods, and they curse anyone who interferes with them. I am - it is very horrifying: 

:Golarion doesn't have them at all. It - seems very horrifying.:

Shiver. Nayoki doesn't seem to have anything more to add, and awkwardly peels off thirty seconds later. 

Carissa feels a bit at loose ends. She will....go back to her room, then. And maybe contemplate if there's any way to mindread Leareth without him noticing, so she can stop being vaguely bewildered by him, which is not a good way to be at all.

(Having been woken in the middle of the night, she probably won't be able to prepare spells today at all.) 

No one else disturbs her for the rest of the night, though. 

In the morning Leareth is in the dining hall, mostly quiet and subdued. 

:Still nothing: he tells Carissa. :Which is - some evidence it was not a god's work, I would have expected some other related hostile action by now: 

She naps a bit. Plans her espionage operation. Probably he doesn't keep notes on why he occasionally stares at her searchingly, so she needs to read his mind. However, he's very well-shielded against Thoughtsensing at all times. She could disable his magic items, but it'd be very hard to do without him noticing and he might kill her reflexively even if he wouldn't execute her consideredly. 

...probably it is absurd to do anything about him confusingly hugging her. 

She nods at Leareth. :I would assume if the gods could do that there'd be no real reason to do it about the kid.: