Well, this young queen or whatever she is clearly wants nothing to do with this and probably won't start any wars. Leareth sounds much more concerning on that front, but the queen's impression nonetheless seems positive, and she will let that color her own.

Also, this world has gods that people actually talk to. That wasn't the sort of gods she was concerned about, though.

Very well. I am sure you have things to attend to. I will go see Leareth. Use this if you need my help—if, for example, you are attacked. She hands her a black device whose screen displays a gold star on a red and blue background.

She takes off and flies north, landing in the middle of what she assumes must be Leareth's camp, near where she saw the observatory.

(Leareth has people in Haven, who Dara alerted as soon as Lady Treesa came to grab her, and they have communication-spell artifacts, and so Leareth's organization receives word of the woman from another world before she even departs from Haven.) 

Leareth's encampment in the north is mostly underground or shielded by illusion-spells or very unobtrusive, but the area near the observatory, which itself is nestled between two peaks of a range of icecapped mountains, has the densest concentration of aboveground structures - as well as a much larger total volume of underground rooms, dug into the mountain itself. 

It's very cold, even now in early summer. A cluster of people emerge from one of the buildings and look at her. 

Leareth isn't onsite, but as soon as he gets word of where the stranger landed, he prepares to head over. 

Hello, she thinks as loudly as she can, if that makes a difference. I am a visitor from another world with information on the attack that killed half your population. I would like to speak to Leareth, whom I believe is your leader?

The strongest Thoughtsenser on site is mindreading her in an attempt to get more information (from the shelter of a building, out of site) and so this comes across very clearly. 

One of the people, a woman in her fifties, steps forward. :Welcome. He's on his way from another site right now– oh, never mind, he's here, he's just coming up from the basement:

The Gate-threshold is underground; it's a lot easier to shield, that way. 

Leareth heads up, but pauses before leaving the underground section, reaching out to the Thoughtsenser reading the stranger for a report on anything she's thinking and not saying. 

She thinks someone who's planning to fight gods is probably a good ally to have at the moment but is a little leery about the whole "invading Valdemar" thing. This looks like, and based on the Valdemaran queen's description definitely is, a terrorist organization. Also, being the only immortal on a planet is rarely an indicator of being a good person.

She's fought with worse. She's fought for worse, though she didn't remember who she was while she was doing it.

About a minute later, a man and a woman people emerge from the building together, shrugging on warm cloaks against the wind. 

The woman is tall and very dark-skinned, but with a frizz of startlingly white hair, and crystal-blue eyes. She moves like someone trained in martial arts. 

She's also watching the man out of the corner of her eye, with something like concern. 

Judging by the way everyone's eyes turn towards him, the man is the one in charge. 

He gives off an impressively intense vibe of being - vigilant, careful, in control. Dangerous.

Aside from that, though, he looks incredibly tired, much moreso than the young maybe-queen-or-something of Valdemar did. His expression is completely neutral, revealing nothing, but his eyes aren't quite focusing, and he moves like someone who isn't, entirely, in the same physical space as everyone else around him.

:You wished to speak with me: he says, and his mindvoice conveys most of the same things except five times as much. He doesn't sound curious. He sounds like someone who's forgotten what curiosity means. 

Okay, he's very stressed out. That's, maybe, not the healthiest response to a completely out-of-context danger that's orders of magnitude more powerful than oneself, but it's one indicative of a potential superhero.

Yes. The current ruler of Valdemar recommended that I see you. She thought you might be willing to help me. I am fighting the one who did this to you.

His name is Thanos. He did it in order to...because he believed that life would destroy itself if its growth were left unchecked. He used a set of extremely powerful magical artifacts. We call them the Infinity Stones. The full set, if you possess the strength of will to wield them, grants one effective omnipotence. Any task you can conceive of can be done with the snap of your fingers. And Thanos' wish...was to wipe out half of all sentient beings in the universe. Not only this world—there are millions, with trillions of lives. You are not alone in this fight.

Starting from 'I am fighting the one who did this to you', he's suddenly intently and entirely focused on her. Which is a lot of - something - a degree of presence that most normal people would find utterly terrifying. 

He listens. Calculation flashes behind his eyes. Horror and anger, quickly controlled. His eyes narrow at 'effective omnipotence', then widen at 'trillions of lives'. 

And then on the last sentence, his breath puffs out slightly, his expression goes flat and empty, and he's suddenly - not there, whatever his eyes are seeing it isn't her. 

He's been trying for weeks to make sense of this, and what she's saying is critical and there should be hope in it, but instead - 

- for weeks he's been having nightmares of the Cataclysm. Scenes he doesn't, actually, remember, or that he never saw at all in life. A tower going up like a candle under a mage's fireball. 

A silver-haired man with the sharp curiosity gone from his blue eyes, alone in the last seconds of his life, choosing to burn his legacy and everything he ever built because in his eyes his pupil had betrayed him.

In his nightmares, it's all the same thing, somehow, the mysterious snuffing-out of millions of lives across an entire world, and Urtho is there and he doesn't need to say it, for Leareth - for Ma'ar - to know that it was his fault - 

Nayoki has spent weeks watching Leareth hold everything together around her, and then, at night, trying to help him eke out a few candlemarks of sleep in the least stupid ways she can think of, and she's scared, for everyone and everything and the future of humanity but mostly for him. 

He has a talisman against Thoughtsensing, of course, but not against her other Sight, and she flinches at the motion rippling through his mind. Reaches for his arm. 

:Leareth: 

He wishes Vanyel were here. 

Vanyel would be - better at this. Wouldn't be drowning in his own wounded pride, that he didn't see a danger coming from ANOTHER WORLD, one of millions - 

- trillions of lives and half of them gone and surely he should be able to feel that, he can do math, but he doesn't feel anything right now. 

:Leareth. Focus: 

Leareth drags himself back from a sky on fire. Tries to look at the woman. 

:Of course I will help you. ...What was he thinking, he could have done anything he wanted and the best plan he could think of was this...: 

No one has any idea what Thanos was thinking.

Okay. I am—occupied, trying to keep uncontacted worlds like yours from tearing themselves apart in the chaos. But there is a group of individuals with...various special abilities, gathered on another world, who are focused on fighting him directly. I can transport you and a small group of your people to them.

There is an enormous backlog of emotions trying to claw its way loose from somewhere emotions shouldn't even BE, and Leareth does not have time for that right now. 

:I understand. Our world is - doing well enough, I think, on that front. There is considerable chaos but, I think, mostly not in ways that you could mitigate by - sharing the information you just did with others. My organization can convey the news to other governments, if that simplifies your work, we are already in communication with...most of the governments that still exist:

A pause.

:I wish to coordinate with Valdemar on - whether any of their people will volunteer. How long may I take before it will delay or inconvenience you. ...Also, what is the maximum headcount you can transport: 

I have already spent too long here. However, you can contact me at any time and I will be here within hours. Just press the button on this. She hands him another pager.

I can transport three, maybe four, unaided. A much larger number, if you have or can build an airtight structure capable of holding them. I will need to fly them through space, and my own shields against the vacuum have a limited range.

Also, I realized I've forgotten to introduce myself. Captain Carol Danvers, United States Air Force (with all the mental connotations of what the US and its Air Force are and do), though most now call me Captain Marvel, after my mentor.

He accepts the pager from her. :Thank you. I - am honoured to meet you, Captain Marvel: 

It sounds like he means it, though the overtones behind the genuine gratitude are...complicated. 

:We will have more than four, I think. How much force does this airtight structure need to withstand?: 

Atmospheric pressure is approximately 100,000 Newtons per square meter, where a person under standard gravity weighs approximately 700 Newtons and a meter is—about this big. She uses her arms to illustrate. The pressure in space is zero, so the vessel will need to withstand that much pressure from the inside to remain habitable.

Nod. He seems to follow this without difficulty. :Does it also need to withstand strong acceleration or do you have a way of cancelling those forces: 

That should not be an issue. My flight uses a—method of motion which is not bound by the normal laws of physics. Otherwise my speed would be far too limited to travel easily between worlds.

:Fascinating. And very convenient for your mission, I imagine: 

Leareth bows his head briefly. :Thank you. You can go - we shall contact you once we are ready: 

Goodbye, Leareth. And good luck.

She flies off.