Pexa is not allowed in the Work Rooms because they are VERY DANGEROUS and she is not allowed in the streets because she will get LOST and everybody will be WORRIED but she is chasing a cat, which they will surely understand is a good reason. 

There is an explosion.

Pexa wears a special necklace her daddy made and she is uninjured but she is ....not in the same place as before.  And she does not see the cat.

She is not! She’s on a very wet muddy path beside a very wet field. There are some slightly flooded-looking flowerbeds, and beyond that some low stone buildings.  

She should NOT bite her emergency ring unless it is a REAL EMERGENCY and not being able to find the cat is NOT a REAL EMERGENCY and her daddy will come running but he'll be very sad and disappointed. 

She does not bite her emergency ring because of it not being a REAL EMERGENCY. 

She walks off towards the buildings because she wants to tell her nursemaids that there was an EXPLOSION and now she can't find the cat.

And suddenly someone riding a big white horse - not Vanyel’s talking horse, this one is bigger and probably a boy horse - is galloping around the corner toward her! Mud flies everywhere.

...Savil leans forward, what was that - some sort of magic but she didn’t recognize it at all...?

That's so much mud!  She will be declared VERY MESSY and BATHED and it wasn't even her fault. 

At the site of the flash of magic there's a girl of maybe three, wearing very fancy clothing for warmer weather than there is, and wearing - three different incredible, unfamiliar magic artifacts, a ring and a necklace and a bracelet, each of them individually a candidate for the most impressive magic work Savil would have ever seen. 

Kellan plants his hooves and skids to a stop well short of where the little girl is, and Savil - sits there for a moment, blinking.

:Kellan, can you -: Tell Taver, she means to finish, but she doesn't have to.

     :On it. You should - hmm, probably try not to scare her:

Great, now he's distracted talking to Taver and Savil does NOT know how to tell by looking whether a tiny child is scared. She sighs and eases herself down from Kellan's back, wincing; her hips always bother her in this sort of weather.

"Hello?" she says. "Er, are you lost?"

Pexa speaks Taldane and Celestial and in principle she has heard a fair bit of Valdemaran but she would not be accurately characterized as speaking it. She looks confusedly up at the woman. 

The girl isn't Gifted, Savil thinks - at that age you generally can't even check for potential yet - but her mind...has the look of one that's interacted with Mindspeech before, it's hard to characterize more precisely but it's familiar.

She's a strong enough Mindspeaker that this should work.

:Do you understand this?: she tries.

People Mindspeak Pexa all the time. Her daddy does it and his guards do it and Vanyel does it and Yfandes does it. :Yes!: she thinks back at Savil cheerfully. 

:Er, where are you from - are you lost...?: Savil is SO CONFUSED but at least the little girl isn't wailing, that would make things much worse.

:I'm from Cheliax. Are we not in Cheliax. Are we in Valdemar?: She is guessing this because of the white horse. She has only met one great white horse like that, Yfandes, who is from Valdemar.

:Y...es, this is Valdemar: How in all hells has the girl heard of it when Savil has never in her life heard of anywhere called 'Cheliax'.

- Either way this should probably be sorted out somewhere other than standing in the rain. :Are you cold?: Savil asks. :We'd better get you inside:

:I'm MESSY and must be BATHED.:

:It...does look like it, doesn't it: There are multiple reasons Savil never had children and she has no idea what to do about bathing one. :...Well, I'll bring you in near the women's bathhouse and we can see about that: Maybe someone can rescue her. She tries to remember if Sandra had younger siblings...

:Sandra?:

A teenage girl reading a book in her bedroom jumps. :What? I thought our lesson wasn't until later:

:Need your help. We have a mysterious lost child and among other things she needs a bath:

Ugh why is she being dragged in for THAT of all things. :Is Van free?:

:I don't think I should get Van to bathe the toddler:

:Why not? ...All right, fine, I'm coming:

Savil sighs heavily. :It's this way: she says to the little girl. :Er, a bit of a walk. Would you like to ride up on Kellan?: One of the few things she recalls about children is that her nieces and nephews adored her Companion when she visited that one time.

:Yeah! Is he your -: She has forgotten the word for Companion so she sends the general concept of Yfandes.

:- Huh. He's my Companion, yes. You've heard of Companions?: Also that particular Companion-concept was bizarrely familiar but Savil is already overwhelmed with bizarre observations and doesn't make anything of it. She gingerly picks up the child and hefts her up into the saddle, and then starts walking, one hand on the pommel to avoid slipping.

Pexa bounces on Kellen and says "hi!" to him in Taldane and plays with her EMERGENCY ring which she is NOT going to bite because it is NOT an emergency.

They reach one of the stone buildings and Savil scoops the little girl down. :...Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't think to introduce myself. I'm Savil. What's your name?:

Introductions! "I am Princess Dierne Aspexia Iomedae," she says very seriously, in Taldane.

Wow that's a mouthful. Savil is also not quite sure which parts of it are, per se, her name. She repeats the whole string carefully while she ushers the girl inside.

:Is there, er, something shorter people call you usually:

:Pexa!:

Oh, phew, that's much better. :Well, Pexa, it's lovely to meet you. Bath is this way: And to someone else: :Sandra where ARE you:

Mental grumble. :Nearly there:

Savil is competent to get hot water into the copper bathtub, at least. Do children this age need an adult to undress them? She isn't sure.

:Pexa, do you - know where your parents are?: This is arguably the first question she should have asked, really. She's not any good at this.

:They're WORKING and I SHOULDN'T USE THE EMERGENCY RING if it's NOT A REAL EMERGENCY, it's REALLY IMPORTANT.: She gamely attempts to undress herself but she's not very good at it. 

:It's - no, I suppose it's not an emergency. We'll just need to, er, find a way of telling them you're safe. Where do they work?: She tries to get a closer peek at what she assumes is the ring in question with mage-sight.

Sandra arrives, does her own double-take at the absurdly powerful magical artifacts, and then rescues Savil and undresses the small child in order to plunk her into the bath. Probably the magic jewelry is fine to stay on her.

The ring is incredibly complicated but is at least recognizably made by a Velgarth mage, unlike the necklace, done with some technique that's utterly unfamiliar and looks like it might be made of inherently magic material or something. Pressure on the ring looks like it would trigger an alarm of some kind and also a very aggressive physical shield of some kind and also something else that's hard to determine by inspection.

Savil is really unsure what to do so she sits and watches while Sandra deals with bathing the mysterious small child and then does her best to dry her wet clothes with magic, since they don't have anything else on hand that will fit her.

     :Answered any of your questions?: Kellan asks eventually. :Lancir wants to know if this is urgent enough that he should come over himself:

Savil has no idea. :Why don't I just take her to my suite for now and get us some lunch, and then I'll ask her some more questions:

Sandra, who is in fact used to younger siblings, patiently gets Pexa - what nationality is that name, anyway, it's very unfamiliar-sounding - dressed back in her dry albeit slightly rumpled fancy clothes, and then leads her down the hall to the suite she shares with her teacher and shows her to the sofa.

Savil sits as well.

:I think you're quite lost: she says. :You don't seem to speak Valdemaran, even. Do you know how you got to be here?:

:I was chasing a cat and then there was a REALLY BIG EXPLOSION.:

- That's a bit alarming. :Are you, er, hurt anywhere?:

:Noooooooo. My daddy shields me and my amulet shields me and probably if they were not good at it Iomedae would shield me. Cause I'm named after Her.:

:I see: She doesn't. At all. :Can you tell me who your daddy is? Is he a powerful mage?:

:He's the King of Cheliax! He's the bestest mage and Aroden is also him, and a god, and Ma'ar is also him, and a kid, and Tadesse's also him, and sad.:

Savil blinks helplessly a few times, completely unable to make sense of that. - Oh, right, little children make up things sometimes.

:Is that, er, in a pretend game he's all those people?: she asks, and immediately wants to smack herself for not thinking at ALL about tact.

:No, Queen Carissa my mommy found Ma'ar on another planet. I don't think anyone found Aroden because He's a god and He's everywherrrrrrre.:

...That doesn't sound less like pretend, but Savil is reluctant to upset the child any more. :So your parents are - the King and Queen? Of Cheliax? But you'd heard of Valdemar. Do you, er, know where Cheliax is on a map compared to us?:

:You have to go through the special forever Gate in Westcrown.:

:I - don't follow what that means, I'm sorry:

:To get to Valdemar from the palace in Cheliax you have to go to the forever Gate in Westcrown, and then a mage makes it a Gate-y-er Gate, and then you through it, and then you're in Valdemar.:

Savil goes very still. :It's - a permanent Gate?: She wasn't even sure those still existed, there are vague rumors the Eastern Empire has them but that could just be a myth. :I'm...still very confused, though. Do you, er, know when it was last used?:

:No.: 

So the thing could be centuries old and long out of use, maybe? ...It still doesn't make a lot of sense but she's grasping at straws here. :Er, Pexa, do you know anyone who say's they're from Valdemar?:

:Van! And -: She can't quite say Yfandes's name but she can try to shove the concept.

That gets her a very surprised look. :- What, really, you remember Vanyel? And Yfandes?: Savil feels like she was maybe just barely starting to make sense of this and now she's lost her footing again and it's deeply unfair. She wants a drink.

:Van's nice! Is he here? Can he play with me?:

Savil doesn't answer right away.

:It's, er. Complicated. He's - around, yes, but... I think we're - not on the same page about something, here...: This isn't the most coherent answer, especially not for a three-year-old to parse. Savil shakes herself a bit.

:He's busy right now anyway. I'm going to, er, ask a friend of mine to come over. Are you hungry?:

And to Kellan: :I think we'd better get Lancir here:

:I'm hungry!:

Then food can be gotten for her! It's not as nice as the food they eat at the palace in Cheliax but it's decent.

And ten minutes later a new man arrives. He's also old and grey-haired, and has bright blue eyes. He sits and smiles at her, and reaches to tousle her hair - really this is so he can at least try to get enough Mindspeech rapport to talk to her, his Gift is very weak and only works with people in the same room.

...He can't, but this seems very important. Important enough that Taver is boosting to talk to him, even though normally Lancir needs to be in trance to do that from a distance. Having such weak Thoughtsensing can be awfully inconvenient sometimes. :Taver: he sends. :Can you -:

He doesn't need to finish the question. Taver is a Groveborn Companion and has MANY capabilities that he mostly keeps to himself, and apparently one of them is boosting Lancir directly so he can talk to the tiny child who claims to know about Vanyel and also permanent Gates.

:Pexa, right?: he says to her. :My name is Lancir. I'm the Queens Own Herald to Queen Elspeth. Have you heard of Elspeth?:

:No.:

He's not very surprised but he is confused. :Do you know who the monarch is in Valdemar:

:....no.: She is pretty sure she has been told this but she does not remember it at all.

Well, she is a very small child. :Do you happen to know if Valdemar has a King or a Queen, in, er - when you were last told about it?:

:Cheliax has a King and a Queen! Valdemar has Companions.:

Well, it's not false. Lancir smiles reassuringly at her. :Yes, indeed. And you know Vanyel and Yfandes? How?:

:They play with me!! Van is the bestest at magic.:

...He's so confused. Vanyel is...well, he's the most powerful mage ever seen in Valdemar but describing him as the 'bestest' does not, exactly, fit.

:Did you visit him in Valdemar or does he come to, er, to Cheliax?:

She tries to think through the question for a while and gets stuck on not being clear which places are which places.

Lancir sighs. Move on to something else. :Savil says that your daddy is a powerful mage and he made you that ring?:

:Yeah!:

:Well, good for him! It's quite an impressive working. Is there any chance you know where your daddy grew up and what school he studied at?: Lancir isn't expecting much, here, but it's possible the answer will be somewhere in Rethwellan, which he might even have heard of.

She is pretty sure she doesn't know but he seems to think it's very important so she tries considering it very hard. :Urtho taught him. He'll teach me too when I'm bigger.:

:Oh, I see: Lancir doesn't recognize the name at all. :Are both your parents mages?: It sounds like she's expecting to be one when she grows up.

:My mommy is a wizard and that's different.:

:Oh? What's different about it?:

She does not come up with an answer to that.

...Wow, attempting to interrogate small children to figure out what in all hells is going on is frustrating! Lancir smiles rather than show any of that frustration.

:So your daddy made the ring, but what about your necklace and bracelet?: Savil asks. :Where did you get those?:

:Urtho made my bracelet! My mommy made my necklace.:

:Right: This doesn't really help at all! :Er, and - is Vanyel friends with your parents? If he plays with you sometimes?: This is the most inexplicable part. The rest could maaaaaybe fit, somehow.

:Yes! He and my daddy are bestest friends.:

:Really? Do - you have any idea how they met each other?:

Pexa is bewildered at the idea that adults have not always known each other. :No.:

Sigh. This isn't likely to be any more helpful, but. :What's your daddy's name:

She knows that one! :King Leareth!:

Savil jumps in her chair and gives Pexa a horrified and - frightened? - look. :What. Are you sure:

Lancir doesn't look any happier!

Pexa is upset to have done something wrong! :I'm right!:

:We're not angry with you and we're - not saying you're lying...: Lancir says quickly. He still looks very upset.

Pexa is wide-eyed and a bit sniffly about this. 

Gods. She is so incredibly not equipped to soothe an upset small child while also dealing with this revelation.

:Sandra: Savil sends, half-desperately. :Can you, er, play with her or - something...?:

Sandra was not included in the recent Mindspeech exchange and wouldn't have recognized the name 'Leareth' anyway. :Uh, sure, I'll take her out for a walk: To Pexa: :Come with me, let's go exploring:

...And she doesn't care what Savil says, Van is good with littles and she wants his help here. :Van?:

He's in the library, and startles a bit. :- Sandra? What is it:

:Come back to your room, I'm supposed to entertain a sad little girl and I think you should play the lute for her:

...None of that makes any sense but he's hiding not doing anything useful and it would be embarrassing to say he can't play music for a child because he's having a bad day. :Er. All right. I'm coming:

So this is how Sandra ends up walking Pexa up and down the hallway, 'exploring', until Vanyel - harried-looking, with dark bags under his eyes, and also mostly black-haired and clearly about eighteen - comes in at the end of the hall and stops in front of his door.

"Heya!" He waves at the little girl and tries to smile.

She looks so relieved and immediately flings herself at him. "Van!!! Your hair looks silly," she says in Taldane.

Vanyel also grew up with littler siblings and was nicer to them than his brother; he obediently scoops the girl into his arms. "I didn't understand that," he says apologetically. :Sandra, what's going on?:

:- Sorry, she doesn't speak any Valdemaran but for some reason she's used to Mindspeaking so we've been doing that. She seems to like you, anyway: Sandra feels very vindicated that Van is good with littles.

...That's also very weird but sure, he had very bad nightmares last night and he's too bleary to argue. :I didn't understand you: he says apologetically to the child. :I can play some songs for you if you like?:

:Yes! You should do that. There are lots of people and some of them were mad but it's not an emergency, right?:

Vanyel blinks. :- Er, Sandra, is it an emergency?:

:...I don't reckon it is or Savil would've said?:

:It's not an emergency: Vanyel tells the child as soothingly as he can, boosting her up so he can hold her with one arm and unlock his door. :I need my arms back to play the lute but you can, er, sit on my bed if you like:

:Okay!: She's kind of clinging, though. :Are my mommy and daddy busy?:

:- Hmm? Er, sorry, I don't know. I haven't met your mommy or daddy:

Pexa looks skeptical but does not articulate a disagreement.

Vanyel is too tired to ask Pexa why this is so surprising. He plops her down on his bed and then gets his lute and starts playing ‘My Lady’s Eyes.’ He likes the fingerings for it. It takes him until the start of the vocal part to remember that it’s silly and embarrassing, and he turns bright red, but - well, maybe small children don’t mind? He keeps going, only audibly clearing his throat a little bit.

Pexa is so much less scared and sniffly now and has flopped against him in contentment.

Awww. Vanyel remains puzzled about all of this but snuggly small children are very cute.

(Yfandes has heard some NEWS from Savil and...should probably tell her Chosen...but he’s doing okay right now and not curled up in a ball sobbing at all and someone needs to watch the little girl while things get figured out, it’s not her fault whose daughter she is. Yfandes does not interrupt just yet.)

The adults are busy figuring out what to do, but Savil, a supposed adult, is still very much at a loss.

:...I suppose we should talk to the little girl: she admits eventually to Lancir. :We can at least - find out more about his operations that way, at least:

Pexa being Leareth’s daughter and also a princess doesn’t...exactly...explain all the baffling parts here, like how supposedly her daddy and Vanyel are “bestest” “friends”, but at least it’s a thread she can grasp at.

- Vanyel abruptly sets down his lute. :Savil wants to ask you some more things, all right?: 

(And Yfandes is being infuriatingly cagey and thoughtful in the back of his mind, but Vanyel’s head hurts from lack of sleep and he’s thirty seconds of tactless conversation away from running out of the room in tears and he is not. in the mood. to ask.)

Pexa has been singing along to Vanyel's songs, not very well. :Okay!:

So Vanyel puts away his lute and takes her hand and leads her down the hallway to Savil’s suite.

Savil and Lancir are there, not looking as upset anymore, but very serious.

:Pexa: Lancir says to her, solemnly. :This is very important. Can you tell us where your daddy lives?:

:Cheliax! In the palace.:

Maybe 'Cheliax' is what Leareth calls his...kingdom, whatever it is, where-ever it is. :Is Cheliax in the north?:

:...yes,: she declares, but not with the air of someone who has any idea what she is talking about.

...Well, she is very small, small children are probably always like that. :Can you tell me what living in the palace is like?:

:I have a cat named White and I live with my daddy King Leareth and my mommy Queen Carissa and Ma'ar and ...lots of people. Tadesse and Ekunde and Ayodele. And Van. And my nanny Tia and my nanny Sefina.:

Lancir blinks. Absorbs that for a moment, turns seriously to his paper and writes some notes. He can ask about Vanyel in a moment. :Who is Ma'ar?:

:Ma'ar is a Leareth like my daddy but he's a little one not a big one. My mommy found him and had me.:

- Lancir's brain skids over this for a moment and then he decides that the simplest interpretation here is the little girl having some very odd imaginary friends. He won't press her on it. (He does write down exactly what she said anyway.) :Right. I see. And your mother is called Carissa and she is a 'wizard', yes, which is different from a mage? What sorts of magic can she do?:

Maybe 'wizard' is some confusing local dialect for a different Gift? He has the vague feeling that he's trying too hard to make sense of this, but what is he supposed to do, not try to make sense of it?

:She made my necklace! And she can do wizard magic.:

Savil has already examined the necklace and told him she can't make heads or tails of it; she's far ahead of Lancir as a mage and he won't get any further with it.

:I see. Any chance you could give us an example of wizard magic that, er, that mages can't do?:

:I don't know.:

Sigh. :That's all right. Does your daddy have an army?:

Her daddy has ALL the THINGS. :Yeah.:

:Do you know anything about what he's planning to do with it?:

:...magic?:

:I mean in what country:

:...Cheliax.:

Of course Leareth might not tell his toddler anything - in fact, it would be stupid to - but Lancir asks anyway. :You haven't heard anything about him planning an invasion?:

:Noo-ooo.:

Sigh. :Do you know how many mages work for him:

:Lots!:

Unsurprising and unhelpful!

Lancir tries and fails to think of any more questions. He sighs. "Van, would you mind, er, entertaining her for a few more candlemarks here while we talk?"

Yfandes still isn't telling him ANYTHING and at this point it's getting frustrating, but Vanyel shrugs and nods. "Sure, I'll go get my lute." :Pexa, I'll be right back, all right?:

:Okay. ....is it still not an emergency?:

Vanyel no longer has any idea what's going on. :No, it's not an emergency: he says, as reassuringly as he can manage.

:Okay.:

Presumably Savil will tell him if she needs help with something. Or Yfandes will reveal what she's being all worried about in the back of his mind. In the meantime, he's not going to insert himself into whatever-it-is.

Vanyel goes back to his room, fetches his lute, and returns to start playing songs for Pexa again.

Savil and Lancir go off to Savil's bedroom to discuss.

Savil shoots a look after them. He...vaguely remembers that maybe they had some sort of commitment tonight? ...Nevermind. Too tired to worry about that. He will launch into the Windrider Cycle instead.

Pexa snuggles up at his feet and sings along very badly and twiddles with, but does not bite, her emergency ring.

Maybe a candlemark later, there's a sudden knock on the door. And then Lissa's voice.

...Damn it, right, that's what he forgot. Lissa and her new friend.

Vanyel jumps, and then forces himself to take a deep breath and smile reassuringly at Pexa as he sets down his lute. "Er, one moment..."

:Savil? Lissa's here:

In the bedroom, he hears Savil swear suddenly, and then she's up and opening the door. "I'm coming!" She looks annoyed with herself as she heads to unbolt and open the door. "I'm sorry, Lissa, I completely forgot..." 

"Should we come back tomorrow?" a woman's voice says.

- and Pexa, who has been slumped gloomily on the floor, jumps to her feet and dashes to the door. "Mommy!"

Carissa does not scoop her. The kid collides with her legs. She looks down at her, utterly baffled. "Sorry, no, I'm someone else," she says in Valdemaran.

"I missed you SO MUCH," the kid is declaring in Taldane. "I don't LIKE it here and I WANT TO GO HOME."

She's speaking what.

"You're - Lissa's friend -" Savil breaks off. Spins around. :Lancir, we have a -:

:Yes. I heard it: Another older man in Whites ducks out of one of the bedrooms. He addresses the little girl in Mindspeech. :Pexa, this is your...mother...? Who is married to Leareth?:

:Yes!: She's clinging happily to her mommy's legs and explaining about the explosion and the cat.

For a moment all he can do is stand on the spot, making eye contact with Savil, frozen.

:...Invite her in and lock the door: he manages finally.

:Er, yes, of course: Savil takes the new arrival by the arm and pulls her into the room and bolts the door behind her.

Carissa takes a second to process this because she is so distracted by the fact she is being hugged by a Taldane-speaking child who insists Carissa is her mother. Only a second, though, then she flinches. 

"- I have never met this kid in my life," she says, "I don't know what's going on here, but -"

"Mommy pick me UP!"

"I am not your mother," she snaps in Taldane.

- Pexa bursts into tears.

...All right, fine, if this is a bluff it's a clever one, but now there's a wailing child in front of her, which is exactly what Savil DIDN'T want, and she's so incredibly confused.

:Van can you -:

Vanyel still has no idea at all what's happening, though Yfandes is suddenly feeling very antsy in the back of his head, but he reaches in and scoops Pexa up again. :I, er, why don't we go sit in the bedroom again and I'll play a song for you...?:

:Savil, shields:

She can do shields, if he's going to do the talking; she's very happy with this division of labor.

Lissa, who followed Carissa in, is staring around in bafflement.

Pexa is resisting Van. "I want my mommy. I want my mommy." 

And she bites her ring, and suddenly she's - shielded so thoroughly no one can get within a foot of her physically or with magic, and also there's an alarm -

"- I don't have kids," she says to Liss. "I'd think I'd know. Your friends can, uh, do a truth spell about it, if they'd like."

Vanyel jumps back, knocked away by the sudden shields - so that's what the ring does - and staggers into the wall.

Huh, she at least seems to speak Valdemaran. :Savil. Make sure she doesn't leave:

And he fixes his eyes on Carissa. :Do you know a man called Leareth:

Well, shit. 

"...no?" she says, going for vaguely bewildered but less affronted by this than by the kid - but they have mindreaders - and she calls an invisible needle to her hand and tries to Teleport.

It's instantly visible to mage-sight, something very very powerful and very very intricate, blossoming at her fingertips, a second from snapping complete around her.

Savil has been a Herald-Mage for more than forty years and her reflexes are correspondingly well-honed, and she's very much on edge. She instinctively rips at the forming spell - and then wrenches it away from the stranger and shoves up a shield because, on reflection, it seems like the sort of thing that might explode when broken -

It does do that, at least if you break it like that! It blasts at her shield.

Savil manages to hold off the explosion, just barely, but the force of it knocks her over and she lands hard on her bottom on the rug.

It's been a long time since Lancir was last in combat of any kind, but he still has the reflexes. His eyes fly around the room. Savil: distracted, hopefully not injured, but not callable on right now. The child: safe, for the moment, if inexplicably so - is that shield Leareth's work, it's - terrifyingly good...

Lissa: diving forward to shield Carissa with her own body, clearly not processing anything about the situation yet except for EXPLOSION.

Vanyel: straightening up from the wall, blinking, disoriented, with the glazed look of someone receiving rapid Mindspeech from their Companion.

Good. He has enough rapport with Van.

:Second-stage Truth spell: he barks. :Now. ...And shield the door:

Vanyel feels like he's either about to throw up or pass out; Yfandes' voice cuts off in his head in response to the command, but until that second she was busy very very quickly catching up the fact that the child he's been babysitting is Leareth's toddler. What. How. Why.

- One thing at a time. What first. Shields. He can fling up an absurdly overpowered shield over the door, just from reserves, that takes half a second - he's had practice - and then he grits his teeth and concentrates and summons the little rhyme for the vrondi.

The blue halo settles over Carissa's hair. (Leareth's...wife...? Nevermind he is not going to try to work through that just yet.)

"Van, wha...?"

It's been a couple of seconds. Everything seems to have slowed down.

"Tell me why you came here," Lancir barks at the terrified woman - who is currently being protected by Vanyel's sister - what is going on ...?

Carissa collapses tremblingly to the ground mostly for cover to fish the item Leareth gave her out of her pocket and snap it. While she's doing that she's - talking, which she didn't mean to, she was planning to act too distressed -

"To meet Savil for dinner."

Savil, just starting to recover, clearly senses the powerful discharge of magic. :Lance -:

:Not now:

"Do you know Leareth. How did you meet him."

Their magic is doing something to her and she fights for - "Leareth the guy who recruits mercenaries in Ruvan? I wouldn't say I know him well but we've met? I think one of his staffers introduced me."

Well, obviously anyone who worked for Leareth would be very good at evading Truth Spell. "Are you married to Leareth."

:Savil, check her for any mind-affecting magic...:

Savil drags herself up, wincing, and forges across the room, mage-sight fully open, searching - are there any compulsions on the woman's mind...?

"Am I what?? No!! Absolutely not!"

There is definitely a compulsion there, fairly complicated and elaborate.

Savil is not, exactly, good at this, but she reaches for the woman - half-falling on top of her and Lissa in the process, she's still dizzy from being thrown into the wall while trying to shield whatever-exploded - and snaps the compulsion. It'll give the woman a headache, probably, but shouldn't cause any long term damage.

"What did Leareth send you here for," Lancir snaps at her. (It's a gamble, she might in fact be nothing but a mercenary, but...the child knows her...nothing makes any sense...)

"Decide if I - wanted to work for him. If he was lying about everything."

Lissa is scrambling to sit up, her arms still protectively around Carissa. "Savil, what is going on -"

"What work does he want you to do for him."

"Enchanting magic items and reinventing Golarion spells."

"...I, what - what are Golarion spells."

"The kind of magic I know how to do. Magic as practiced in Golarion, where I am from."

Lissa is still holding tightly onto Carissa. She whispers in her ear. "Do you - can you please tell me if you have any idea what's going on?"

"I swear, I don't know who the kid is, I haven't done anything - they're mad at me, maybe because they have some grievance with Leareth? He's the kind of guy who might pick up grievances but I don't even work for him -"

"Who is-" Lissa cuts herself off. Maybe this is the sort of situation that she had better stay out of. Except for making sure that anyone who wants to hurt Carissa has to get through her first.

"Where is Golarion."

"I don't know where it is relative to here, I was sent to this continent as a prisoner after I got in over my head in some stuff."

"Are you Leareth's prisoner."

It...doesn't seem totally out of character for a foreign mage-warlord to keep someone prisoner and have a child with them. Though that still far from explains everything and Taver is hovering cryptically and not-saying something and Lancir just wants the world to make sense again.

"I - don't think Leareth would..."

Vanyel trails off. There's probably nothing at all he can say, right now, that will make the situation better rather than worse. He's so confused.

Pexa is sobbing on the ground, saying "I'm sorry I'm sorry I thought it was an emergency please come daddy".

It's very distracting and she has a headache from the spell snapping. "I'm here and Leareth is somewhere very far away I don't know where," she points out. "I don't think i'm very his prisoner. I, uh, was?"

"Did he send you to kill Vanyel."

"What?"

"...What - ?"

:Van can you PLEASE do something about the screaming child -:

"What? Of course not! Why would I want to do that. Also if I wanted to do that I'd have done it last night - I mean, I don't have the means, and I don't have a reason, and I didn't even consider it, but if I were, instead of being me with all my reasons not to do that, an assassin, then I would've done it last night - I don't think Leareth wants Vanyel dead -"

For some reason that's the thing that puts Lancir the most off-balance. "...Why not? Why would Leareth not want Vanyel dead."

(Vanyel is NOT SAYING ANYTHING and it feels to him at least that this is probably very conspicuous, but everyone else is so distracted. He ignores Savil asking him to do something about Pexa, what's he supposed to do, also he's busy shielding the door.)

"I think Leareth doesn't like killing people," Carissa says. "Or torturing them. Even when they're defying him on purpose."

"Don't - most people who aren't literally insane - not like torturing people?" Lancir says blankly. This is probably not a helpful question but he's at a loss for what would be.

"I mean I think it's popular to hire out?" 

Hire out to who, Lancir is thinking but doesn't say.

He takes a deep breath. "When is Leareth planning to invade Valdemar."

"I don't know if he is going to do that."

"What has he said to you about it."

(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah)

"Said he wants to come up with something else."

Lancir blinks again. Lifts a hand to rub his chin.

"...Why does he want to invade Valdemar? What's his, er, objective?"

Carissa bites her tongue, hard, and then answers anyway, a bit garbled because she's also stuffing her hand over her mouth.

"Say that again clearly, please."

(Vanyel is involuntarily leaning forward, and also sort of crying at the same time.)

Apparently 'please' was... literally just a request she is still physically capable of ignoring and keeping her hand in her mouth. And not swallowing any of the blood.

"Wansapplmillnbillgd."

...All right, that is VERY CLEARLY deliberate evasion.

Lancir crosses the room to her and grabs both of her wrists, wrenching her hand out of her mouth. "Tell me. What Leareth's objective is."

Lissa is so confused and upset and scared! "Lancir wha -"

He shushes her with a look.

"He needs to kill a lot of people to build a better god."

"What. How. How does that work."

"Wh..." Vanyel does not quite manage to actually say a word.

"You don't have an afterlife. You're just - gone - like you're asleep forever - all of you -"

This gets a baffled look. Lancir's mouth moves, opens, closes -

And then a glowing rectangle opens in the air directly in front of Carissa.

And Nayoki shoves her head through and starts set-commanding anyone wearing Whites and within her field of vision to STAY STILL.

:Carissa come through right now you have five seconds - what is happening -:

:I have no idea but you should get the kid too - kid -: She runs through.

Pexa is curled up sobbing on the ground and is being slow to react to the presence of a glowing rectangle. When Carissa moves she toddles to her feet and tries to follow.

Fortunately Leareth is not slow to react to anything. :Nayoki get the kid -:

Why is her day going like this.

:CROSS THE GATE: Nayoki shoves at the (adorable) little girl's mind - she can undo it in a moment -

- She sees a man raising his hand -

:STOP:

- a woman -

:STOP:

...

Leareth is the one holding the Gate (he's the only one in his organization and probably the only one in the world who can Gate to an artifact he has a search-spell anchored on). Which is kind of a large risk to be taking, but he's not kidding about the five seconds.

He waits.

The sobbing kid crosses the Gate. And sees him. And flings herself tearfully at him. "Daddy I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry," she says in Taldane. She is very obviously in a force field that's not going to let her get near him.

Carissa collapses on the other side of the Gate and tries to hold still because she's pretty sure that no matter how tolerant of bad behavior Leareth is, he's going to, at present, be twitchy.

Leareth - holds himself still very deliberately and does not react aggressively to the small child flinging herself at him.

Carissa: check. Kid: check.

The Gate snaps down.

:Are you hurt: Leareth barks to Carissa, who is very considerately holding still so he can orient.

:Leareth should I -:

Leareth already has both new arrivals pinned within a shield-barrier but why not. :Yes:

:Stay where you are: Nayoki commands both of them.

The tiny child's sobbing intensifies.

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.

The tiny child retreats from full on yelling to quiet hiccuping sobs and clings very clingily. Her thoughts are mostly about how she wants her daddy King Leareth to take her back to her playroom and explain everything so it's not scary.

:Everything is all right: Leareth tells the toddler who inexplicably thinks that...he's her father -? :You are not in any danger and I am not angry with you:

People move around him. He snaps out occasional extra Mindspeech orders to Nayoki.

:- Oh. Carissa, what should we grab from your room, if we are evacuating...?:

:You had copies of my notes. I have a basket with notes and in-progress projects, on my desk.: Her knees are starting to hurt because she can't shift her weight at all to relieve them but this actually feels appropriate, somehow, in an odd sense safer than it'd feel to be free to go. She's still very scared but it's not attached to any specific predictions; if he doesn't think she could've done much better then it still doesn't make sense to kill her, and...she also doesn't think she could've done much better. How could she have predicted this.

:Thank you: And since it would seem especially bad for the Heralds to obtain Carissa's notes, not that Leareth thinks it's likely they'll be able to find this base at all but still, he orders that her desk be cleared and moved out along with all the other sensitive work in progress.

And less than five minutes later there's a Gate, glowing not far away, and Nayoki is taking Carissa's hand.

:Come with me: she sends - it's not quite undoing the set-command but it routes around it somehow, and Carissa will find herself able to obey.

She walks through the Gate.

There's a blur of movement on either side of her, and then eventually Nayoki's eyes staring into hers, her hands on Carissa's shoulders.

:Clear: she tells Leareth.

A moment later, to Carissa, :I am going to take off the set-command now:

This takes substantially longer than it took to place it, and feels very weird, but eventually Carissa's vision stops trying to show the corners of everything melting, and she finds herself in a different underground stone chamber, this one quite big with a higher, echoing ceiling.

Leareth leans against the wall, shooting occasional Mindspeech directions to his staff as they carry boxes of evacuated supplies to new storage locations, and hugs the little girl still in his arms.

He's so confused.

Well. She's picked her side, now. She tries to - control her expectations. Obviously there won't be an excursion like that again. That's fine. She doesn't need that. Probably Leareth will be some odd Leareth-emotion, instead of angry, but if he is angry, he still won't kill her. She's not very sure what he might do instead. She hasn't seen him angry and that's itself a bit scary now that she thinks about it. 

"Thank you," she says to Nayoki.

Pexa's daddy came and so now everything is okay. She hugs him a lot and waits for him to explain what's going on.

Leareth is reading both of their minds, right now, and - he really wishes he could reassure the child, and reassure Carissa though he's much less sure that's even possible.

He's suddenly very tired. :We should be safe here no matter what resources they have: he tells Carissa, and then slides down and sits against the wall beside her, the child still in his arms. :I - wish I understood what is happening here... I do not, at all:

:I don't either. I - she speaks Taldane -: 

"What's your name?" she asks the kid.

Her mommy is being very silly. "Princess Dierne Aspexia Iomedae."

" - princess of what."

"Cheliax."

"Oh.

Who's in charge of Cheliax."

"You! And my daddy King Leareth."

"What - year. Is it."

Pexa does not know this! "Where's White, I want White."

"Who's White."

"My cat!"

"...not here right now."

Leareth doesn't speak Taldane.

:Do you know how your mommy and daddy came to be the rulers of Cheliax?: he asks the child in his arms.

:There were mean people in charge of Cheliax so my daddy and Aroden, who is also a my daddy, fought them. And they won, because they are the bestest.:

Leareth turns to look at Carissa, wondering if she's as baffled as he is. He includes her in his Mindspeech answer. :What do you mean, Aroden is also your daddy. ...Also, is Aroden not dead:

:There are lots of my daddy. Ma'ar is also a my daddy and Tadesse is also a my daddy.:

What.

:...I see: Leareth manages finally, long seconds later.

(He really, really doesn't.) 

Of course he does, he's very smart and knows all this already. :I want to go home.:

:I know: Leareth tells her. This is not even technically a lie.

He takes a deep breath. :Carissa. Did...you know. What she said, about Aroden...? She mentioned Ma'ar. That - that was my first name. The one my mother gave me, in my first life:

:Aroden's the god who died a hundred years ago. He's  - definitely dead - his clerics stopped getting spells and everything. The paladins of Iomedae thought so too and Iomedae was His closest ally.:

:Yes. I thought I was recalling the name correctly...:

Leareth tries to look into the toddler's eyes. :Do you know if people in Cheliax thought that Aroden was dead, at one point?:

:Aroden is a god, so he lives in Axls where dead people go, but He is watching over us and keeping us safe.:

:Of course. ...Is there any chance that you know what year it is, currently, in Cheliax:

Pexa continues to have no idea what year it is. She sits herself on Leareth's lap and flops against his chest.

If he tries to put her down she’s probably going to start crying again. Instead he - pats her, tentatively.

:...Are your mommy and daddy friends with kings or queens of other countries?: he finally thinks to ask, though this will only be informative at all if Carissa also recognizes the names.

:My daddy is friends with the pharaoh of Sirion.: Pexa is not sure why her daddy is asking her questions about himself but maybe it is a game.

:Mmmhmm. Can you tell me his name?: Poor kid. Leareth feels strongly like he’s  LYING to her, which seems unfair, but the truth is...probably too weird for her to actually follow, as well as upsetting. And it’s not as though Leareth himself knows what’s happening or why, to explain to her.

Shrug.

And now he's out of ideas again. Leareth closes his eyes and leans his head back against the wall, listening to the sound of footsteps and hastily-evacuated crates of supplies being dragged into temporary new locations.

He gathers his thoughts. This...doesn't help that much.

:...Vanyel was there?: he sends finally to Carissa. :Would he have heard them questioning you and your answers?:

:Yes.:

He sighs. :No sign of any pursuit yet - I was not really expecting it, most likely they are still scrambling to remove set-commands from everyone Nayoki trapped. I think we should go through exactly what questions they asked you and what answers you gave, though. Second stage Truth spell, I am guessing, and they must have noticed the compulsion fighting it and known to undo it...:

:They - snapped it, I think? My head was ringing. I... will try to remember the questions but it was hectic, do you have some way to not rely on my memory...:

:I do not have a way to - directly replay it or anything, no, but Nayoki can read your mind and probably do better at getting everything, I can call her over:

She is very curious what the thing Nayoki did is but she doesn't at all need to know. She nods.

Nayoki arrives a minute later, sits down, and walks Carissa through what was really only a two-minute period, though it certainly felt longer. A few times it's noticeable that she's doing something in Carissa's head, making memories suddenly and vividly jump to mind, not always the right memories but she corrects herself.

Leareth lets the toddler snuggle on his lap, eyes staring into the distance.

"Savil and Lissa and an old man and Vanyel and the kid were there. The kid jumped on me. I was telling her I'm not her mother, and they - pulled me in and locked the door. I told them, there must be some confusion, I'm not her mother. The old man asked, do you know Leareth. I said no, and tried to activate the Teleport; Savil intervened instantly, in some fashion that exploded it, knocked her backwards, Lissa jumped to protect me, I activated the item to call you. The old man said, do you know Leareth, and this time there was mind control, so I said, Leareth who sometimes recruits mercenaries in Ruvan? I wouldn't say I know him as a person but we've met. The man said, are you married to him, I said no. The man said, are you his prisoner, I said, uh, not exactly, I'm here - I was his prisoner, though - he asked when you were invading Valdemar. I said I didn't know whether you were going to do that. He asked, um, I think he next asked whether I was sent to kill Vanyel. I said no, and if I had been I'd had a chance the night before, but I was definitely not here to do that, and I didn't think you even wanted Vanyel to die. He asked why you wouldn't want Vanyel to die. I said that you have some kind of personal preference not to kill people, or torture them, even when they're defying you. He, uh, asked whether it was true that that's a preference almost everybody has. I said I think lots of people prefer to outsource it? He asked where you were, I said I didn't know. He asked what your objective was in invading Valdemar, I bit my tongue and stuffed my hand in my mouth. He told me to repeat myself clearly but I didn't actually have to and I didn't. He jumped at me and pulled my hands clear and asked again. I told him you needed to kill a lot of people to build a god. He asked - why you'd do that, or something like that, and I said that they didn't have any afterlife and died forever when they died. They all kind of - weren't sure what to ask, at that point, and then you showed up."

Nayoki notes some of this down. Neither she nor Leareth seem angry with Carissa, at all; Nayoki just looks stressed and Leareth seems preoccupied.

:So I think the only significant strategic information they gained was about the god. Which is - not ideal, obviously, but it is also - less time-sensitive than it could be: Sigh. :...I suppose I am curious now to hear what you learned before this befell you. What do you think of Heralds?: A pause. :Of Vanyel:

Objectively if she thinks about it there's no point punishing people for something they couldn't reasonably have avoided and the reason to punish them anyway is that there's also little reason not to and it's not really worth determining whether they could've reasonably avoided it or not. But Leareth already has to pay attention to this, so.

She stares at the wall. "If the kid told them you're her father - then the actions of the Heralds all make sense. The kid herself still does not make sense, but - they thought they had your toddler, then she declared I was her mother, so they tried to arrest me.....

Vanyel seems very very sad all the time and I'm not sure how you manage to have conversations with him, he didn't seem at all like he liked...talking. Liss thinks being a Herald is bad for him, and said he never wanted it. The other heralds seem...all right, I guess? In their place I would have rendered me unconscious on the spot before indicating any suspicion and then searched me for the artifacts, but in their defense I think they were off duty and they can't have been expecting this and maybe they tried something and it didn't work because I'm a third-circle caster not a random person...I think you're right that people don't have any reason to believe there's an afterlife though I want to reinvent scrying and confirm it. 

Haven was poor. Compared to Cheliax."

Leareth listens calmly to all of this.

"- That sounds right," he says finally. "About Vanyel, I mean. He is very sad and he did not want to be a Herald, he - was steered into it by some Power. I think he puts a great deal of effort into our conversations, but, yes, I do also have the impression he does not like it." He sighs again. "I expect I will end up speaking to him in the dream soon enough, and perhaps find out more about what happened."

Nod. "Oh. He, uh, defended you, sort of, at one point, the old man asked if if we were married and then he asked if I was your prisoner and Vanyel was like "I don't think Leareth would -""

Leareth blinks. "Hmm. He did not think I would what, marry my prisoner? Have a child with my prisoner?"

"I think so? I don't know why he thought you wouldn't aside from that it'd be hard to think of a strategic justification?"

"I am not sure either, I have not exactly tried to present him with a positive slant on myself and my actions, and I thought he was upset with me after our last conversation. We had a fight about ethics."

"Maybe he was just referring to the thing where all your staff agrees you have no personal life. What'd you - fight about? The invading his country?"

"I cannot think that Vanyel has much information on my personal life or lack thereof! Perhaps I somehow convey that impression in my manner, though. We fought about blood-magic - in the abstract, he was not aware of my plan. He thought that killing innocents was a line that he would never cross. I brought up some examples from one of the best-known Heraldic textbooks on ethics, to try to show that this position was not really consistent with how Heralds are willing to act in practice."

Carissa looks like someone who has not particularly encountered the position one should be unwilling to kill innocents. "Huh."

"Anyway. I...am really not sure what to do with the small child who thinks we are her parents. I ought really - tell her that we are not - but I expect quite a lot of wailing." Conveniently, Princess Dierne Aspexia Iomedae does not speak Valdemaran.

"...yeah." Sigh. "I guess I'd explain to her that no one loves her and yelling will make things worse for her and she should work on being cute instead? I think she's old enough she'd better know that."

"I am not very inclined to say that to her! ...Also I am still confused, I have been reading her mind and she is - not lying about remembering us as her parents. I - am beginning to wonder if there is more than one Golarion, somehow." He drags a hand over his face. "And if hers is - well, very very surprising and strange."

"Even if there were more than one Golarion, you're not from Golarion."

"- Maybe there is a different Velgarth where instead of kidnapping you and dropping you here to solve the problem, Nefreti grabbed me? ...Or maybe time travel is possible, that is also occurring to me, but that would require us - deciding to get married and conquer Cheliax together. Which I must admit was not among my top ten plans for going forward."

"I don't know much about your capabilities here but I don't especially think you could do it, Hell has more resources than you. Also even if you did do it and were then in charge of Cheliax you'd want to marry, uh, an appropriately placed noble, not a random deserter from the army. Also if Aroden's not dead then - that's not the world I grew up in -"

"That too. ...Also apparently Aroden is me, in her world, whatever that means! I am so incredibly confused and I dislike it."

"I'm sorry."

Princess Dierne Aspexia Iomedae has fallen asleep on Leareth.

She's probably had a tiring day. Leareth will...try to get up, very cautiously, without waking her, and find an available bedroom to put her to bed in. This is not what he expected his day to look like.

She wakes up while being put down to bed and makes a small sad sound. "I want to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed tonight," she objects. 

Leareth continues to not speak Taldane, but he can pick up her meaning from surface thoughts.

:It is not your mommy and daddy's bedtime yet. I can stay here until you fall asleep though.: What sorts of things do children usually do at bedtime. :I can sing you a song?: Leareth isn't an amazing singer by any stretch of the imagination but he knows some ballads.

:I want the Windrider. And you should do magic stars on the ceiling. And you should fix my ring so I'm safe if there's another emergency.:

:Yes, of course: Interesting that she knows the Windrider Cycle - and fortunate, it's the most popular Valdemaran song cycle and Leareth actually know a couple of the songs from it well enough to probably sing all the way through.

He makes an illusion of stars on the ceiling of the random guest bedroom, and then looks at her ring and tries to determine if it's actually fixable or if he should...what, lie to her and said he did? That seems kind of mean and unfair, but it's going to be hard to explain to her why she's safe here.

It is fixable. She may be in the habit of activating it at least once a week.

Leareth puts it back to the way it was, this time keying the alarm to himself - somewhat reluctantly, it's going to be very annoying if she decides that needing a glass of water in the middle of the night is an emergency, but he would, at this point, feel moderately bad if anything else happened to her.

He sits on the side of the bed and sings 'Windrider Unchained', only needing to mumble through words he can't remember on a couple of the verses.

She falls back asleep pretty promptly.

Leareth puts wards and a sound-barrier on the room and flees before she has a chance to wake up. He briefly scries the facility they recently evacuated - still no sign of any Heralds tracking their Gate to it - and then looks around for Carissa.

She hasn't gone anywhere. She doesn't know where her new bedroom is and she assumes Leareth will want to replace his compulsions.

Leareth doesn't know where he's sleeping either, yet. He's so tired.

:Well: he sends, :does this - recent adventure, update your trust in me? I think it is probably unnecessary to place a compulsion preventing you from leaving, in any case, though I would like to put back the standard secrecy one that all of my staff here have:

(He reads her mind to gauge her response to this.)

- right, the trip was purportedly about her trusting him.

She - didn't get the chance to ask even half the questions she had, but -

 - I don't want everyone to die forever and I'll work with you on that. And not try things, except insofar as it'd be really useful if I had fourth-circle spells and I need to be in some danger, to get that. 

Leareth nods, looking reluctant but thoughtful. :I will consider ways we could put you in a - calibrated amount of danger that I would find tolerable: He smiles very slightly. :Maybe I will have to send you on some other important secret mission:

He redoes the secrecy compulsion. It doesn't feel like anything, to Carissa.

And she has no way of knowing what it does, but - well, she's picked her side. She closes her eyes. "Have I been assigned a room?"

"We do not exactly have a system set up for assigning new rooms yet but there ought be more than enough, I can show you where."

"Thank you." 

Once shown to a room she pulls her blankets over her head and gets her shivering for no reason over with and then tries to come up with a research plan and falls asleep when she's barely started.

Leareth paces back and forth in the hall for a while, stressed and uneasy and not quite able to point it in a productive direction. Eventually he goes to bed as well.

...And, not very surprisingly, finds himself in an icy wasteland, looking out across the snow at a silver-haired man in Whites - Vanyel, as Foresight thinks he'll look in ten or twenty years.

"What was that about."

Vanyel takes a deep breath, and forges out of the mouth of the pass, crossing the distance between them. "No, I'm serious, I think you owe me an explanation. Did you...lose your toddler."