He'll hang out in the lounge and alternate between trying to derive the rules of the card game and watching Top Gun - there are sure a lot of weird cuts in this scry? - he'd make a chess set just in case but dawn might be any minute, they have no way to tell him when.

When dawn strikes he will go kneel in the corner holding his sword-and-sun for his prayers. Iomedae he really really hopes that this is not some case where the monstery looking guys were actually good and the humans were in the wrong but like it did appear that the battle was taking place on the humans' turf so that's suggestive, he hopes, he presumes that Her still being there for him this morning means he did not culpably fuck up a lot but he's going to try to get enough information to be more confident going forward and if he did fuck up a little bit and/or non-culpably he apologizes. Two Share Languages, some Comprehends, a Protection from Energy in case they'll be able to tell him what those projectiles were because he's not a hundred percent whether it's an electricity or fire situation, fill it out with some Oh Shit, he wants to drop the Spark for Stabilize, they seem to have light covered here so drop that for a Mending to patch up his buckler and shirt.

The card game is Texas hold 'em, being played for colorful chips. At one point a winner of a big hand puts a bunch of chips in a box and gets beers for the table.

People look at him curiously when he starts praying, but don't interrupt.

Oh good, he'd kind of like a full spell complement.

When it's been an hour he gets off his knees. Is there any discernible specific person who has been assigned him, such as perhaps the guard from outside his room but maybe not that specific guy if he's been awake a real long time?

The same trooper has been shadowing him the whole time so far.

...The same woman who seemed Vaguely In Charge back at the town that was attacked has shown up while he was praying, though. And she still seems Vaguely In Charge, looking away from a screened device and up at him contemplatively.

Okay, if his guard/guide has been up for at least fourteen hours and In Charge Lady is here he will go up to In Charge Lady and offer her his hand.

She says something to a couple other troopers, who nod and leave the room, and holds up one finger in a 'wait' motion to Blai. They're back thirty seconds later. She says something else. They nod.

Then, she'll take his hand.

"Share Language."

"We had expected something more like... Mutual Detect Thoughts, but this works. Hello, welcome to one of the Xenonauts bases. I'm sure you have many questions. I'm Mary Lee, a member of the operations coordination team."

"I'm Select Blai Artigas. I'm, uh, not sure what planet I'm on, to begin with."

"In the most commonly standardized language we call the planet Earth, 'Terra', or 'Gaia' sometimes. It is part of a star system that has nine planets, or eight depending on who you ask, none habitable to humans except this one. We have not been able to figure out where the aliens are coming from yet. We have some ideas and are investigating them, though. If you also arrived in the same phenomenon that they are using to invade, that's maybe a potential route to study some very important things... Or a way to get you back. Do you know anything about how you arrived? One moment."

She says some things in English before looking back at Blai. The two troopers relax incrementally.

*Italics denote loanwords

"I was attacked on the road by a monster of a kind unfamiliar to me that looked like a large snake with a mirror instead of a head and went through the mirror and found myself in the place where I arrived, otherwise apparently unharmed. I am unfortunately not powerful enough to cast any spell to contact people from my own planet, Golarion, though I may be noticed missing in a few weeks by one or more archmages."

"Hm... We can maybe show you the database of observed alien types later, in case any of them resemble it. It sounds like you are aware of, in principle, means to contact or travel to other planets, though?" 

She looks like someone who is deeply confused and not quite high enough Bluff to completely hide it from Chelish people.

"Yes. I am a third circle cleric. Sending is a fourth circle spell, and sends twenty-five words to anyone without a distance or planar limit. I think probably the most economical way to go between planets involves two Plane Shifts but that requires a tuning fork attuned to one's destination plane."

"Okay. Hmm... Okay. I am going to be less than fully honest on some topics at first, for purposes of military secrecy. This is a precaution against you reporting, being spied on, or potentially choosing to join the side of the aliens. I will generally inform you when information is being hidden because it is classified. However, I make no commitment to do so, or to refrain from lying... We consider the war against the alien invaders an existential threat and are taking it extremely seriously, but wanted to share this policy early so it does not cause later offense or confusion. Is this clear, do you have questions about this policy?"

"No, that makes sense. I'm not personally permitted to lie but I have twenty years of military experience and understand how information security works. If it's ever of critical importance that I believe some true thing you wish to tell me and I have reason to be skeptical there's magic for that."

"Good. While we would welcome your assistance, you haven't signed up or committed to anything, and that's important to us. The Xenonauts, the international and independent anti-alien organization, is an all-volunteer organization. We have agreements with the various nations of Earth to assist with alien activity in their territory, but are not formally under command of any particular nation. While the notion of 'spells' and 'spell circles' are unfamiliar to me, we believe that the aliens are invading using a phenomenon similar to Plane Shift. Essentially using a form of exotic energy to transport things between planes... Or rather, between 'dimensions', which I'm not sure are the same as planes. I'm unfamiliar with 'magic' as a classification for things that... Actually exist and are real, but the aliens have given us many unpleasant surprises in the form of things that were previously thought to be impossible, so it's a bit easier to believe this time. A major focus of the Xenonauts is reverse-engineering captured alien technology and attempting to recreate it for ourselves. Is that possible with magic?"

"...a lot of things are possible with magic and I'd hesitate to categorically rule it out. I cannot personally do that."

"Poor phrasing, sorry. Is it possible that the Xenonauts could gain the ability to use 'magic'?"

"I don't see why they couldn't, if they're people. They cannot get - hm - if they were able to get specifically the kind I have that would be vitally important information about the justness of the war, because my spells come from my goddess and being able to get spells from Her requires alignment with Her purposes. But there are other gods, and other forms of magic that do not rely on them."

Her not quite high enough Bluff shows again at the word 'goddess'.

"That's promising. I'm not going to jump straight into trying that, we should be reasonably sure we've covered broad topics before that. In particular, I'd like to give you credible information about the justness of the war."

"Trying that - ah - I don't think it is likely that my specific goddess will be able to empower more people here. Both because it seems like for whatever reason She is not already invested here, and because She is having an expensive year at the moment. But She has allies I would be willing to recommend."

"What conditions would this 'aligning with purposes' entail, in general?"

"- in general, gods empower people who will, with the amount of further direction available to them, advance that god's aims in the world. This usually means the Wisdom necessary to cast spells, a combination of intuitive philosophical agreement and well-integrated catechism, and general personal efficacy, although I do not have details on the exact tradeoffs different gods may make in these domains. Iomedae is the goddess of defeating evil and of a triage-oriented approach to doing that."

So, a divine Cold War?

"Do they limit their interventions out of concern for conserving resources, or perhaps preventing escalation of conflict beyond levels that can advance their goals?"

"With the understanding that imparting information, like that information, to mortals is itself expensive, and so I am likely to be wrong or incomplete on the actual underlying mechanics of it, yes, both concerns are operative; gods working at directly cross-purposes can be destructive in ways neither wants and they are thus bound by limited intervention budgets. Empowering a mortal is a standard and common behavior and other more detailed contact is rarer and should be presumed costlier."