He can do it, but it's very effortful and he's not sure how long he can sustain it for. The Void ate his reserves whole and the Gate out probably swallowed a big gulp of his life-force too, since he lost consciousness before he could take it down. 

Fortunately Leareth is still allowed to move, so he reaches for Carissa's arm; it'll take less energy if they're touching. 

Some Golarion spells are also touch-range so she doesn't misinterpret that. 

I could probably kill you but you'd have to convince me it's in my interests, she says once they're touching. 

Leareth....has no idea what he's supposed to think about that. It would, in fact, probably be better than remaining a prisoner of the Star-Eyed Goddess? 

...He can't actually answer, though, not without speaking out loud. He tries to gesture with his eyes at the Healing-trainee, distracted reading a book but still right there. 

You can Mindspeak me if you want.

He....can try, anyway. Projective Mindspeech takes more energy than just Thoughtsensing, and Carissa doesn't have the Gift. 

:They asked - about my immortality: Ow ow ow ow OW his HEAD. :Could...maybe...destroy it: 

Her hand tightens reflexively around his. I hate them.

Leareth isn't actually sure how Vanyel would feel about the Tayledras doing that. Whether he'd interfere. 

...He's pretty sure the Tayledras just wouldn't tell him, though, if they were going to do it. 

He's so scared. 

:Maybe - not yet. But. Cannot check. Magic blocked: 

Do you want me to just read your mind, I have Detect Thoughts. 

Is there a way I can check?

:Would - be easier. Very tired: 

Leareth isn't at all sure whether Carissa could check. Most Velgarth mages wouldn't have the slightest idea how to even start. Also it would involve trusting her rather more than he's necessarily comfortable with. Just because the Star-Eyed wants to permanently destroy him a lot more than Asmodeus does, doesn't mean it would be good if Asmodeus found out how to destroy him too - or grab him to Hell instead. Leareth still isn't sure if he thinks that is worse or better - if he could manage to remain consistently useless in Hell, he wouldn't be actively making the world worse by existing, and at least he would still, sort of, exist... 

He's so so so scared. It's interfering less with his thinking now than before, he's able to nudge it aside, but it's there. 

She casts Detect Thoughts and catches the tail end of it. 

You're really underrating Hell, she thinks at him tiredly. Not the point right now, though. 

What percentage of the Star-Eyed's followers get an afterlife.

It sort of depends what you mean by 'afterlife.' Leareth is pretty sure that the Kal'enedral - or Swordsworn - would usually have the option to keep serving the Goddess as leshy'ae Kal'enedral. Spirit warriors for Her. Swordsworn are a Shin'a'in tradition; it's the only allowed way for Her followers to swear blood-feud against outsiders who harm the Clans. He thinks the idea is to prevent inter-clan warfare, because becoming Swordsworn is a permanent, unbreakable commitment to putting Her interests, and the Shin'a'in people as a whole, first. It changes people even in life; namely, it supposedly renders them completely asexual and uninterested in close relationships with fellow humans. 

He's never directly interacted with one of Her spirit warriors, for the obvious reason, but although they seem to have some memories of their lives, he's - not sure how humanlike they are. Then again, maybe devils aren't especially humanlike either. 

Shamans also seem to have the option of staying in the spirit world, but he thinks the only way to be a shaman is to be directly selected for it by the Goddess.

Leareth isn't sure if it's possible to become Kal'enedral without a specific blood feud one wants to pursue. He's also not sure if the Tayledras have some different, equivalent tradition. 

She can maybe think of something she wants to blood feud about? She wracks her brains for a bit; the only thing she is landing on is "Good" which is a bad option.

Do you know what kind of mind control they're using on us and how to undo it.

Mindhealing set-commands, he's pretty sure. Mage-compulsions feel different - and would be a lot more convenient for their captors, actually, set-commands are a very blunt tool for this. But the advantage of Mindhealing is that it works by a different route than mage-work. They think it involves actual changes to the structure of the brain.

It can be undone by any Mindhealer but the Gift is absurdly rare. Leareth does have a Mindhealer working for him, though. His second-in-command, Nayoki. She looks like this (Leareth holds the image in his thoughts.) And the Valdemarans know she exists and is a powerful mage, but he managed to avoid being asked a direct question that would force him to confess to her other Gift. Though of course he's not sure if they'll come back and question him more once he's doing better and can stay more lucid for it. 

(He wasn't even trying to make sense when they questioned him, and they must have had an intensely frustrating time piecing it together. He is trying now; it's very obvious in his thoughts how much this is costing him, but by using every coping mechanism he knows to push through pain and weakness, he can string together thoughts coherently enough.) 

But presumably she can't easily waltz into Valdemar and rescue him, and that wouldn't help Carissa anyway. 

So probably we want to mind-control Melody and force her to undo it.

Maybe. Though it's going to be hard; Mindhealers tend to shield shockingly well, and if the Heralds are being at all sensible they'll have put talismans on her too. 

...He does wonder if Melody is uneasy about the current situation. She's looked unhappy pretty much every time he's seen her. He doesn't think she likes the Star-Eyed Goddess very much. 

Yeah she's very willing to relax Carissa's restrictions whenever Carissa snarks at her (because Good is stupid) but she doesn't expect this to extend to actually letting Leareth use magic, and they're probably going to need that, to get out of here. Are Valdemar's few other Mindhealers a softer target.

There aren't many and Leareth thinks the others are out on circuit, not in Haven. 

...no, wait, there was that report from his agent on the Palace staff. Melody has a student, apparently. She must be eight or nine years old now, she's the King's bastard daughter, and she's relentlessly extroverted and talks to all the servants all the time, which is why Leareth's agent was aware of her existence and those facts about her. Whether she has the faintest idea how to remove set-commands is another story, but - probably an eight-year-old is an easier target even if she is a pretty important eight-year-old. She's not in the line of succession, which means she wouldn't be as thoroughly guarded as one might otherwise suspect. 

If Carissa attempts to mind-control the King's bastard daughter and is caught, will Valdemar execute her. She does not really care about any other punishments but she cares a great deal about that, right now.

Leareth isn't sure. He doubts it, because she's a pretty important prisoner right now? They might want to keep her set-commanded against using magic indefinitely - which would be expensive, set-commands wear off in a few days and need a lot of checking and maintenance and have excessive side effects, it's not a good way to keep someone imprisoned. 

He - isn't in fact sure, though. It might depend how many other stressors had recently hit the King and thus how badly he took it. 

That is not surprising at all.

She's terrified. She like Leareth is trying to ignore this because it won't help. 

If I get you out somehow, she thinks, I want your word that I won't just be your prisoner. That you'll let me go home. 

Leareth considers this. It's an important question. One he should spend more than five seconds thinking about. 

He doesn't like it, of course, but only part of that is for strategic reasons. Partly he just...hates that the world is this way, where Carissa feels so trapped between a handful of horrible options. Fundamentally, Carissa's life is Carissa's to live as she wants to, and he can't promise her any better; his plan was always a gamble. If she prefers the known quantity of Hell, that's...up to her. 

The strategic reasons are ones he needs to address. What would go wrong. One: Carissa knows a lot about Valdemar. But she's pretty sure Cheliax won't want a war. Two: Carissa knows a lot about the gods, now. Is that even a problem. If Asmodeus wants to fight Them, then Leareth has no complaints; if Asmodeus wants to ally with Them, well, at least They could probably communicate more effectively, all being gods.

Three: Carissa knows too much about him, his organization, and his plans. 

...So does the damned Star-Eyed Goddess, now. 

He needs to get out of Valdemar. Come to think of it, it would be a better idea to get out of Velgarth entirely, if there's any way to wrangle that. 

Asmodeus is Lawful; Cheliax is a Lawful country... 

If Carissa were to make an agreement with him, Leareth thinks, and give her word, then would her superiors abide by it? 

The agreement he would want is that she bring him with her to her world - to a neutral location not owned by any one god, not to Cheliax or to Hell - and that he be allowed to move freely there. He would at that point consider negotiations with Cheliax, if they wanted help fighting god-factions in Velgarth, but he wants that only as a negotiation between equals, not with him as the prisoner being threatened. 

Her superiors are not categorically bound to promises that she makes, and 'she was under a lot of mind control and in enemy custody' is one of the cases where they would worry least about the precedent set by not being bound by a promise that she made; you do not necessarily want your random soldiers in enemy custody to be able to make promises binding on their superiors. 

She could still try to bring him to Absalom, though, she could promise just as herself to try that. She doubts anyone would be able to stop them, if they were both healthy, and had their magic.

(This is arguably treason but that would be caring about two things, and Carissa, who thought she was already quite narrow, has grown even narrower: the only thing she cares about is that she goes to Hell, and Absalom is a fine place from which to figure out who to sell her soul to.)

(Leareth notes that quiet thought-aside for later reflection. He's not sure what it implies but it does seem to imply something.) 

...Arguably it's not a good idea for him to risk falling into the hands of Asmodeus. But Leareth would, at this point, consider a lot of otherwise-disprefered options, if they got him out of the hands of the Star-Eyed Goddess. 

He's not sure this is entirely rational. For one, it seems that right now he's under the joint custody of the Tayledras and the Heralds, and Vanyel - has some sympathies for Leareth's goals. 

- which almost makes it worse, in a way. He's putting Vanyel in an awful position, here... 

Mostly, though, Leareth doesn't think he can make a more rational decision here. Not really. He's terrified and helpless, and with a Heartstone right there he's almost sure his people can't get in to rescue him. It'll be even worse if and when the Tayledras haul him off to a more-secure Vale... 

So. If Carissa gives her word that she'll drop Leareth off in Absalom, healthy and not under mind-control, Leareth will offer whatever help he can to get them that far. 

...He also wants a promise that she won't take him to Hell. If for some reason that's the only possible destination, he would rather be left behind, to do what he can with his remaining bad options. 

Sure. Shouldn't come up; it's harder to get to Hell than to Absalom. She has daydreamed about going straight to Dis on the assumption that actual devils when she's actually physically in Hell can figure out how to retain custody of her soul but it's a harder plan to achieve and Absalom really should be good enough, as long as she sells her soul right away. 

(She doesn't get what Leareth likes about Vanyel. Vanyel sucks. This is not the time so she tries to stuff that thought away.)

(Leareth is also fine with leaving that one alone. Vanyel is surprisingly open-minded but he's also very Good; it's taken Leareth over a decade to coax him through even just the basics of how Leareth himself thinks and plans. And Leareth himself is, apparently, still too 'Good' for Carissa to feel totally comfortable working with. Or something.) 

He should sleep, probably, if his main goal here is recovering physically. The idea of sleeping here makes him feel panicky, though. He's incidentally pretty irritated with Carissa for nearly getting both of them killed, what was she thinking.