"I'm thinking of Marius and Siri. Down in Karse. They've picked up an awful lot of diplomatic experience over the last few years, right? Since in practice, what they're doing is speaking on behalf of Valdemar, while Karis puts Karse back together. ...And we could send General Lissa with them, as an escort. She's got a solid head on her shoulders." 

"Savil, you're brilliant. That's not a bad idea!" 

Back in the north, Leareth is up late working on Gate-research. He's so close to figuring out the routing. 

Eventually he has to admit that, even with the headband, his brain is worn out and he's no longer making much progress. 

He spends a little while thinking about whether or not he actually wants to see Carissa right now, and - decides that he does, actually. And Iomedae did advise it. So, instead of heading for the infirmary, he troops wearily over to her guest room. 

Is she in it, or somewhere else? 

In her room, playing with spellsilver. She's done her hair and is wearing the sparkly shirt again.

She breaks off the enchantment she's trying and smiles at him. 

:May I come in -?: 

Leareth stops. Blinks at her a couple of times. 

:Are you...all right?: 

You might be detecting Evil? I'm Evil. You can come in.

:...I do not think I am doing that, or that - that is why? I - just - my impression is that you do your hair like that when you feel...unsafe and insecure in your position here, and want to convey that you are - pretty and harmless...?:

Leareth is pretty sure that he's, again, doing SUCH a bad job of conveying the thing he means. 

Well, see, I think I made Nayoki mad, and she's very scary. I mostly had a good day, though, your people figured out how to get me spellsilver.

:...Oh. I - am sorry you were scared?: Leareth isn't sure what else to say. :I am glad to hear about the spellsilver. - Oh, by the way, I think I have made significant progress on using Velgarth Gates to reach Golarion. I might be ready to test it by sometime tomorrow: 

Wow, that's fast. How do they work?

She's doing the THING with her body language again that Leareth has no idea how to respond to. 

:- Well, it is going much faster because of the headband. I think it would have taken me weeks, otherwise, especially if I had not had the opportunity to observe a Plane Shift and have a dozen of my people take notes on it. Gates work by routing a search for a specified destination through the Void, where distances behave differently...: 

If Carissa seems interested, Leareth can keep talking about Gates for a while, though he's gradually drooping into a more and more flopped position on her bed. 

Carissa is happy to snuggle Leareth to sleep while he talks about Gates. She's very attentive to everything he says, and there's a patient careful loop of thought preventing her from thinking about whether he's telling the truth.

Leareth does not notice this loop. He notices something, and has noted it down for later consideration, but she was evasive when she asked, and he's not using Thoughtsensing right now - he pushed himself right to the edge of backlash, working on the Gate-research. 

He falls asleep with Carissa cuddled up beside him. 

This makes Carissa very happy. She spends a while meditating and practicing thinking, and then eventually goes to sleep too.

She wakes before him and Prestidigitates them and then fixes her hair again and goes back to work on the spellsilver.

Leareth sleeps so well, despite Carissa being right there and working beside him. He doesn't have any nightmares at all. Not even a little bit. 

When he wakes, he sits up and stretches and smiles at her. "Productive night?" 

Yep! I have figured out more efficient variants of half my spells by now. I love this headband. 

:I am very glad to hear that!: 

...Right, he completely forgot to inform her, yesterday, about the paladins visiting Valdemar.

Also, his head is back to normal now, and he can read Carissa's mind without risking backlash. Which is useful, because something is still niggling at him. 

Leareth extends Thoughtsensing before going on. :- I think I forgot to mention - Valdemar sent a message, wishing to open communications with Iomedae's people. I am going to be Gating some of the paladins over today at noon: 

She is, indeed, doing something weird, she's - bouncing his words off the surface of her mind rather than evaluating them, encapsulating everything as if it's a hypothetical - well, that seems promising, they can be Lawful Good at each other and hopefully hit it off splendidly. I suppose it'd be very rude if you tell them you're sending paladins of Iomedae and then send yourself, even though it would also be hilarious.

...Okay what is she DOING with her HEAD. Leareth is not alert enough yet to be prepared to address this in a way that won't turn into yet another miscommunication disaster. 

:It would be very funny! But, no, I have a great deal of other work to do, and - also I would prefer not to risk re-entering Valdemar, despite Iomedae's protection. I do hope that they get along; I think that Valdemar feels - in a vulnerable position, with Cheliax, and I worry they are tempted to sign a treaty just because they feel threatened by a possible war: 

Like a class assignment, reading about a diplomatic dilemma - and Cheliax will want an agreement, because they want to be able to operate peacefully in Valdemar - Asmodeus is presumably under the same constraints as Iomedae in terms of where He has visibility - maybe less because He's powerful, maybe more because He's set up His shrines in Iftel and Vkandis can interfere, there, whereas Iomedae's uncontested here. 

:Yes, exactly: 

Leareth slips his arm around Carissa's shoulders, because it seems like that might - help make it easier, for him to say things without scaring or upsetting her. 

:...Carissa, I am curious why you are suddenly treating everything I say as though it is a hypothetical scenario?: 

Hmmm? Oh, Nayoki pointed out that I was wasting lots of mental energy on gaming out whether everyone is lying to me and that's a waste of energy and I shouldn't, so I'm working on not. I don't think I have it down perfectly yet but I'm doing much better at it.

:- Hmm? I think you are certainly not trying to do the thing I do! Though - I suppose the thing you are doing instead might take less effort anyway. I can try to explain what I do at some point, if you want: 

- I assume you evaluate whether people are lying to you! ...I guess if you're always reading their minds you can skip that step.

:...I suppose I do evaluate that, but generally the priors are quite low and it is not an effortful evaluation! I...suppose it makes sense, for your initial priors to be different. Since you do not know us very well, yet, and also it seems as though everyone in Cheliax is lying constantly all of the time: