Their conversation is swifter than the one happening among the mortals, and longer at the same time; there is much, much more to cover. But they know each other well, and in this there is no difference between them, and they are the weakest and youngest of the gods but Aroden thought on this for thousands of years before His death and they can use some of that thinking too.

(Their other activities continue as normal, partitioned from the parts of them that are planning so even extraordinary powers of inference won't be able to draw any conclusions.)

Their planning continues. 

After another day of meeting with them on the spaceship, Leareth sends human-Aroden and Mhalir back to their Golarion, to come to some sort of agreement with the Andalites and, if all goes well, haul them back here to stage out of sight. 

He and Urtho sort through all of their notes to date on the Void-ship explorations, combining it as well as they can with the charts that Mhalir showed them how to view on one of his 'computers', which he left for them. Leareth is very much still getting used to it. He hopes Mhalir's Carissa might have more familiarity with the technology, since she spent some time on the ship with Mhalir. 

He calls the adult Ma'ar in for a meeting. 

He's been spending most of his time with Carissa; not all of it cuddling or talking, there's a lot he has to read through and absorb, but just being there. 

After the meeting with Leareth he trails back to her room. :Well. We have the start of an itinerary - do you have any idea how to use this...?: He vaguely holds out the computer tablet that Mhalir left for Leareth. :It keeps doing different things from what I intend to do with it: 

:If it's Yeerk technology I mostly should.: Mhalir was usually piloting while they interfaced with technology but she at least has watched it all hundreds of times, and half has the muscle memory.

:Well, maybe in a moment you can show me: He sets the tablet down and scoops her into his arms. 

Doesn't say anything for a moment, but it's a very waiting sort of moment. 

:- Aroden wants to make me His cleric. So - we will have some protection, when we go, to the extent He can offer it. ...Apparently Iomedae considered you, but - She thought it would not help you, to - need to be the right shape for that - and, She and Aroden both thought that might be important...: 

:...I wouldn't have guessed that I'm - close enough She even could - the other one is but the other one's much more cooperative - huh. Are you going to take Him up on it?:

:I think it is - probably the smart thing to do? He is confident it will not give Asmodeus any avenue to learn of us, and it would mean that He can see us at greater distance - and provide healing even further away, if I save my spells carefully for the right time: 

Sigh. :I am not sure why it still feels - bad, in some way...: 

:...because it is making yourself subordinate to the will of a powerful entity which probably isn't deceiving you but totally could if it wanted to and which can only sort of care about human things at all?:

: - I trust that he is not deceiving me. He is the same pattern as I am - I saw enough of that - and I am a pattern that strongly dislikes deception. And, also, I do not see why he would need to, strategically:

A pause. 

:...The second part feels relevant. Aroden is the god of humans - well, He cares about all sentient beings, but still - and, yet, I...think that as much as He can see more and further, as a god, there is still something that is lost...: He shakes his head a little. :I asked your Aroden after, whether they had talked, and if so what about. He said, among other things that are not relevant here, that...the Aroden who is a god still misses his - their - wife, but - only a very small part of Him does... He is not human enough for that, not anymore: 

- nod. :And to be a god's is - to not be your own, entirely. 

You could ask Leareth how he decided to do it. He's not even a cleric of himself.:

:I did talk to him about it, a little. I - think it was simpler for him, because he and Abadar are less alike - Abadar only cares about a subset of what Leareth does, and so He is very straightforward, in a way.: A shrug. :And, I do not think he thinks of their relationship the way most clerics do with their god. He - seems to think of it just as a strategic alliance. One where the parties have some fondness for each other, but - I do not think he considers himself beholden to Abadar, especially: 

:And Abadar's fine with that?:

:I think they get along very well. He has done many helpful things for Abadar, after all - he modified his own past research on building a god in Velgarth, in order to help Abadar steal some sort of magical reservoir from a different Velgarth god, and then turn it into an aspect of Abadar that He could use to communicate better with mortals: 

:Huh.: This is - significant information about something, but she doesn't immediately specify.

Ma'ar is content to sit and snuggle her and pet her hair in silence for a little while; he seems deep in thought as well. 

:- What are you thinking about?: he asks, after a bit. 

:It hadn't occurred to me, that you could serve gods in a fashion like that, as a person. Not that Leareth is an ordinary person.:

:I mean. I am closer to an ordinary person than Leareth, at least on all outside metrics, and if I take Aroden up on this, it will be - like that. ...Less cleanly, I suppose, since I do think that he - mostly - shares my values, and the places where we diverge will be harder to pick out: 

He kisses her neck. :Though I think that neither of us is, really, an ordinary person. Or we would not be here, now, about to do this: 

:I was ninety ninth percentile for intelligence and ninety fifth for compliance but otherwise quite average. I have test scores to prove it.:

:- Well, maybe extraordinary things have happened to you since that, and - changed you correspondingly: 

:That does....seem quite possible.: She squeezes his hand. :You are - something other than that, though. Aroden and you and Mhalir were in different situations and you still - ended up decisive in them -:

:That seems right. It is hard to figure out what the difference is, just - as far back as I can remember, even when I was scared of almost everything, I - was still very determined to figure the world out. And then the first time I saw Urtho's Tower, and all the lights around it, and the stars behind it...:

:- all of us have that, even little Ma'ar. A - moment when we saw and understood, just a glimpse of what it would look like for the world to be better. And - all of us held onto and remembered it as something very precious. Even Leareth. He prays to Aroden by holding up exactly the same memory that I do - and it has been almost two thousand years, for him, dozens of different bodies, he loses most of his memories each time but he held onto that one...: 

:Wow.:

:I think we all grew up in situations where life was very hard, and scary, but - not scenarios that forced us to be small and meek. Not like Cheliax. I...am not sure what you would get, if one of us had been born as a baby in Cheliax under Asmodeus: Shiver. :I doubt I would like the result, one way or another: 

:I wasn't unhappy. I liked my life fine. I - don't think it'd have suited you, but.:

:...I think the scenario that scares me most, for a me, is - the one where I would not be unhappy about it: