- I thought we agreed in our earlier conversation that being attached to people is stupid? I think mutually sharing vulnerabilities is a thing to do to increase attachment, which is not what I was proposing, and seems like a much worse idea than just having sex!

:...It looked to me as though your entire goal here is for me to feel more attached to you so that you feel safe in the fact that I will try very hard to prevent you from dying? Also - hmm - I have not...fully propagated this update, but - I think that afterlives and resurrection magic existing in Golarion changes the cost-benefit analysis there?: 

Obviously it would be convenient for her if Leareth, against his interests, was attached to her, but she thinks she was mostly just going for 'she is more valuable to him' - maybe the two were getting kind of blurred in her head - I don't think getting attached to people is any wiser in Golarion than in Velgarth! I guess they're less likely to stop existing entirely - is that what you mean - but when people are attached they can get upset about things other than the other person ceasing to exist.

:- I mean, if one is very powerful then one has options for preventing upsetting things happening to one’s allies:

- shiver. 

I think I do want you to be attached to me but I don't really understand why you would want to be.

:- I am not sure that I want to be. Or that I...can be? I am out of practice at it. But - if you are in fact going for that because it would accomplish your goals, that is - helpful context for me to have, I think: 

Leareth feels like this is the wrong thing to say, somehow - and also that this entire conversation has ended up going in a very strange direction that he doesn't have much idea how to navigate. Probably he could be less awkward about it if he weren't so exhausted? 

I think you're being too good for your own good again and should let me finish the massage. 

:...Sure. That sounds good: 

Malduoni, this time, Plane Shifts directly to his library demiplane. It's the place he feels safest. 

That all went...better than he had anticipated? Though he really should have thought to have Leareth contact his people before they Teleported unexpectedly into his facility. Startling elite combat mages who work for someone like Leareth is a somewhat dangerous idea – not to Malduoni, he highly doubts any of them could even inconvenience him, but the paladins could have gotten hurt in the scuffle. 

He's worried about Leareth, and not sure exactly why, and even less sure what to do about it. 

- well, probably one of the best next actions to do about it is to speak with Iomedae again. Which is also important for a dozen other reasons. 

Malduoni closes his eyes, and prays. 

This time, the room doesn't change; instead, she gives the impression of walking in, from behind the bookshelf, sitting in the chair Leareth was sitting in. She reaches out and takes his hands in hers.

He takes a deep breath, and - leans into the parts of himself that are less human. Lets himself be Aroden, a little more. 'A little' is all that's left and he has...more feelings about that now than he has in a long time. Speaking with Iomedae is bringing back a lot of the old pain. 

"We have a great deal to talk about," he says softly. 

(She can presumably just read his memories about how the interaction with the paladins and Leareth's people went. Aroden would prefer she do that rather than asking him for an explanation, which for some reason feels like it would be very tiring to provide.) 

"Yes. I think they'll have things sorted in Velgarth in two days, but not sooner - I miss Foresight, it's so gloriously convenient - so we have some time to figure out what to point them at once it's sorted. I want Asmodeus out of Velgarth. The local gods aren't much better for people but they're much less strategic, they're less dangerous as adversaries when we're not directly encroaching on them, and they might be possible to talk around, I at least want to try it. 

I also want Asmodeus out of Cheliax, and that might be the best angle on getting him out of Velgarth; if there's a war at home they'll pull back, and if they lose a war at home they won't make it long in Iftel with a hostile god and no supplies. I know Leareth's capabilities, and he'll be willing to point them at this; translating that to myself is costly, and it'll actually work better, I think, just to show you his mind, as it was when he prayed to me."

He’s MISSED having truly aligned and competent allies, whose plans he trusts to work. 

“- All right, if you think that would be easiest.”

So she shows him Leareth. 

Gods don't see humans the way a human, even one equipped with all of the mindreading magic in the world, would see them. When they had Foresight, they saw them half through that - as a pattern of tendencies, of impulses, of things-they-can-be-cornered-into. Without prophecy humans are more distant and more alien, their actions and impulses more random, the shapes they contort themselves into harder to parse. But there's something very familiar about Leareth, which she can best convey by gesturing at Aroden himself - that bit, see, he's got that bit, and that weird thing over here, he has that too -

And the contents of Leareth's prayer - 

But Vanyel isn't just Good, because he's built on what Leareth taught him as well. He's fought in a war. He knows how to be ruthless. Knows when it's worth paying the cost of a thousand deaths now, to save ten thousand in the future.

There's a new possible world here, where they could be allies, and Leareth wants that very badly. 

- and maybe what Good means, here, over and above the litany of never give up never walk away not until everything is fixed and everyone is all right. It means - not just being Lawful, possible to form alliances with, because Asmodeus has that. There's...something else. 

Leareth doesn't quite have it any more clearly than that, but - it's something Vanyel would want to have. And maybe that's the difference, between a Leareth and an Iomedae, maybe that's what he needs to hold in mind, alongside a tower and a starry sky and a vow he made millennia ago, to cross the gulf of alignment distance between them - 

Leareth has no idea if this is how praying is supposed to work, but he's doing it very very hard, holding all of that up and trying to - reach, to call out, I think this is very important and you would want to know it - and if it is true then I want to help us win - 

.......Why does it hurt, seeing that. Aroden is finding his own mind very confusing, this past day. 

"I hope that someday I can meet this Vanyel," he says, quietly. "He sounds - extraordinary." 

A pause. 

"...Like you, perhaps. In some ways. And...very different in others." 

"I learned from you. He learned from Leareth. And there's a - strange similarity, between you and Leareth."

She pauses, but only for a moment for Aroden to catch up. "Anyway. His forces' capabilities -" These she grabbed out of Leareth's mind almost as soon as he asked; it's the kind of thing she can see most clearly.

Good. They can talk practicalities for a while. Aroden has lots of ideas for how he could incorporate Leareth's people and resources into the plan. He appreciates being able to run his thoughts by someone with a god's intelligence and judgement. 

(- he misses having that so much -) 

"...I - notice that I am worried about Leareth," he finds himself saying, a long time later. "Do you think he will be ready and able to lead his force in this, if we move very soon?" 

"I don't know. He was kidnapped by Cheliax, then by Valdemar and the Tayledras, then by you; his mental state is fragile; his primary companion is the Chelish girl who -" A sigh of deep grief. "Should be mine, but I can barely see her. It'd be better for him to wait a month. I prefer not to. I'll - look, in Velgarth, and see how long we'll need."

“- who should be yours? Fascinating. I - did have the impression that she was clever and…highly goal-oriented? Which I suppose Leareth would appreciate. But…”

(But what? Aroden somehow has no idea how he’s wanted that sentence to end.)

“She reads Neutral Evil now,” he says instead. “I suppose that she lost Law when she - decided to betray her oath and walk away from Cheliax. She had an impressively savvy plan for that, by the way - I suppose you must know already - I think Leareth wanted to keep her with his organization but would not have managed it at all gracefully on his own.”

And he’s suddenly very tired, again, in some deep metaphysical sense that has nothing to do with his physical body. And he should at least know why that’s what his emotions are doing right now, but he doesn’t, actually…

"You need to tell my people to arrange her a resurrection," she reminds him. "I think Leareth will be recovered in a few days, and able to start mobilizing his people - which will take some time anyway - before that. I want to see if it's possible to coordinate with Vkandis at least as far as 'if you hold on for eight days more I'll drive them out then'."

“I wish you the best of luck with that! …And, yes, I need to tell your people of that.”

Aroden isn’t used to being someone who just forgets tasks, but there was a lot going on. 

There's a feeling sort of like being patted on the arm, and then she draws away; it's been much longer than humans should really talk to gods.

…And he has a bit of a headache, which is a predictable result of his choices - and worthwhile - but is nonetheless inconvenient and irritating. 

Another issue with being currently a human is that god-conversations are a bit hard to hold onto in memory, despite all that he’s thrown at intelligence-boosting. 

He takes some notes. 

…And then folds away the parts of himself that are least-human and most-Aroden, and Plane Shifts back to his hallway demiplane and walks out into his office. 

He sits down. Lets his head fall into his hands.