"- And then filled you in on what he found? Or what he claims to have found– is there any reason to think he was telling the truth?" 

"- Let me finish, please. And - I mean, no, I'm not assuming he's telling the truth. We'll have to cross-check it ourselves - I have some ideas for Katha, after..." 

Focus. Breathe. 

"Er, some really quick background on Leareth. It's going to sound really unbelievable, but - he offered proof, and even Taver was convinced." Forge ahead before he can lose his courage. "He's immortal. He's at least eight hundred years old. Obviously he's very skilled. ...And, yes, I know that means I've got to assume he's a perfect actor, that he could be lying about everything... I don't believe anything he says at face value. But. I...don't see why he would lie, about what he just told me." 

"He's immortal? Are you joking with us, boy–" Kilchas scowls. "Don't answer that. I can bloody tell you're being serious. Doesn't mean I have to like it." 

"Van. What did he tell you." 

"You remember the Web-alarm Savil and I responded to, yesterday? He was there, with his people, they'd noticed Ifteli troops crossing the barrier and Gated over into some secure shielded cache of his, so the Gate itself wasn't detectable. - Er, I know he in fact has those, one of the first items of proof he offered me was telling me the location of one down south. Anyway. He was there, and - the magic that actually set off the Web, the one we couldn't identify, was - because the invaders are from another world, on another plane. Coming in through some sort of interplanar rift that opened inside Iftel. Their magic supposedly works totally differently from ours. It's not necessarily more powerful, in general, but they can do - something a bit like Fetching themselves, instead of Gates." 

"Really? That sounds–" 

"Keiran, whether or not it sounds absurd, I - it'd explain a lot. I was in the Web when all those alarms were triggering. The Web didn't recognize any of the magical signatures. Neither did I." 

Vanyel nods. "That's what I was thinking. Also, there's actually a way we can check - those people Savil and I thought we saw? Were Ifteli soldiers, they don't dare cross the barrier again in case the area's still in enemy hands. They were going to try to reach Valdemar. They've got a lot of injured casualties to transport, and they're on foot, so I think it'd take them a while to find the nearest Guard post. But we could send out search parties. Rescue them, provide Healers and supplies - I'm sure they'd be grateful - and find out from them directly what they saw on the other side of that barrier." 

Katha is nodding along to this. "We can do that. Randi?" 

"- Sure, I think we'd better. And in a hurry. You can go start figuring something out now." 

(Katha rises and leaves the room, not quite at a run.) 

The King turns back to Vanyel. "...And? You're - I can tell there's an 'and', here." 

"Leareth was captured. By the invaders." 

"- What, really? I'd've thought someone who's literally immortal would be - pretty hard to catch." 

"I know. But he didn't have any context on the invaders' magic up until that point, right? And he...got really unlucky. Remember that earthquake we saw? He claims it collapsed his underground safe-house and he had to get out in a hurry, and then while he was distracted they - apparently the invaders have really powerful compulsions. They managed to get one on him that made him basically helpless, and then they just teleported him back across the border." 

"Huh. I mean, it still seems like he should've seen that coming?" 

"I wouldn't have! - Oh, and he did say something like - well, he claims Vkandis is the god responsible for Iftel's miraculous shield-barrier, and also he - got on Vkandis' bad side, at some point. And Vkandis has a lot of power there, with Iftel being His country, and He - intervened to make sure Leareth got caught."

"Or maybe he's not as clever as he thinks he is." 

"Maybe."

She has no idea, Vanyel is thinking. He knows Leareth. Knows how he thinks. What he's capable of. But...it's not that easy to convey the built-up impressions of a decade of conversations. 

"Anyway. They got him, tried to interrogate him - he claims that he stalled, and managed to get around the compulsions enough to do some sneaky Thoughtsensing, and... What he learned about Cheliax, the country that's leading this invasion, isn't pretty. If he's right - and telling the truth - then we're in a lot of trouble." 

There's a long silence. 

"- Well?" Randi says finally. "What did he say about them, Van?" 

"Right. Er, just to be clear, I don't know that he's telling the truth about all of this. I just don't see why he'd lie about it. He says that Cheliax is basically ruled by Asmodeus, a - god - of an afterlife they refer to as Hell..." 

And he goes through everything Leareth told him about Cheliax. 

For a long time after he finishes, no one speaks. 

It's Shavri's turn to look sick. She swallows. "That's - gods - if even half of that is true then we're in trouble." 

"I know. And - it'd be even worse if their leadership gets its hands on Leareth, right? Even if we assume he's - not nearly as clever as he thinks he is - he still has a awful lot of context on our world. On Valdemar. We know he's got spies all over. He knows how our magic works..." 

Vanyel swallows hard. 

"He - wasn't expecting a rescue. He didn't even ask me for that. But... I think just from a strategic perspective, it's really bad that they have him. And we should - probably do something about it." 

He's remembering the haggard look in Leareth's eyes, how obviously shaken the man was. A terrifying fact in itself. How Leareth visibly couldn't move of his own volition, even in the goddamned dream. 

Leareth claimed that his captors hadn't hurt him. Vanyel isn't buying that at all. 

...Of course, the fact that he cares about this - the fact that, as much as anything else, he's worried for his sort-of-friend's wellbeing - is its own entire nest of snakes, and one he doesn't especially want to clean out with the entire Senior Circle. Not right now. 

Hopefully they'll think that he's just stressed and upset about Valdemar's prospects. 

There is another, even longer silence. 

"It's an opportunity for us, too," Keiran muses finally. "I mean, you said he's under compulsions not to - basically not to do anything at all? If we did manage to get him out of there alive, he'd be helpless. We could learn whatever we liked from him, and...if he's telling the truth about Cheliax, then he'd still have to be grateful to us for saving him from something worse."

Vanyel bites his lip. He shouldn't object, even though Keiran's words make him want to scream. 

"...We should maybe think about Vkandis," he manages to say. "If He wanted Leareth taken captive, then - I don't know, maybe He doesn't want Leareth rescued." 

Keiran scowls. "I mean, I'm not surprised a man who goes around conquering countries manages to get on the gods' bad side. But - well, even if any of that is true, about Vkandis, then it's not like He'd want Iftel to be conquered. Getting Leareth out of there would be doing Him a favour."