"What does it mean to you, to serve a god? One could serve a god as they serve a King, in exchange for his good kingship. As they serve a husband or wife, unto death but with the knowledge that sometimes to love someone is to hold them back from their worst excesses. One could serve a god because there is trust, for as long as there's trust, or because there is love, for as long as there is love.

If Aroden asked me, once, to do something that my conscience cried out was a terrible mistake, and He could not tell me why, I would do it for Him. Once.

And the second time, it would be easier, and that is why I'd never do it twice, why I'd shatter all I've built on Aroden's foundation before I did it twice."

Whatever response he was expecting from her, apparently it wasn't that. He blinks at her and, after a moment, sags back down into the armchair where he was seated before. 

"I have - tried to pray for guidance, for Vkandis to counsel me on what I should do, and - I do not know. Only that I dreamed of - darkness, and fog, and a wall across the future. I cannot fathom what He sees. Maybe it is not something a mortal mind could hold. But - I am very afraid that He looks on the world and on you in it from a higher vantage point, and - sees something. Something bad." 

Vkandis might be lying. 

She doesn't say that; she said it about as directly as she can. "It's my desire to bring this peace, make it durable, and then go home. I have other wars to fight. But - I think I see how this one would have ended, if I hadn't arrived, and I cannot imagine it would have served  the people of Vkandis." 

The priest leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and supporting his chin on his fists, as though he's abruptly too exhausted to hold up his head. He closes his eyes. 

"That - is certainly what it looks like on the surface. Perhaps Vkandis or the other gods had a different plan to end it. Or - perhaps it was just good, and the danger is elsewhere, further in the future - maybe a less direct result of your presence, maybe - the result of contact with your world and its other gods? ...I am not sure. I believe Vkandis would have told me, if He could and if it would - make things better..." 

A long pause. 

"- I wish I knew more of your Aroden. It - I am not sure what question it is the answer to, but it feels important." 

"I'm happy to tell you about him. He was mortal, once, like you and I, but he discovered the secret to immortality, and spent many lifetimes exploring the universe. I've wondered occasionally if he ever came here. He wrote of some of his travels, but one got the sense it was a filtered set of them. He wanted us to grow up to build - civilizations. Places that were always growing and improving and discovering. Places in the stars, places made out of the stars, infinite worlds, our own Creation greater than the one that birthed us. He wanted no child to ever go hungry, no building to ever be cold in winter, no law to ever be unjust, and he thought of it as something we could build ourselves, in time. He would love Tantara, I think."

"That sounds beautiful. And - very ambitious -" He's frowning, hunting for the right words. "If you want to plant a lovely garden for your village, there are - fewer things that can go badly wrong, fewer things you can trample or break, if you misstep or are confused? Then if you want to make infinite cities among the stars. Gods are gods, of course, but - I am not sure I wouldn't be frightened, of a mortal who claimed to have that goal. I think mortals are not meant to be that - big. There is a point where it would frighten me even from a god, to try something so vast.”

"That seems very fair. I think that was - part of Ma'ar's mistake, being ambitious, not understanding the things he was trying to build and trying to build on. 

Golarion is filled with horrors. The question that I was obsessed with, as a child, was why the gods did nothing about them. I am not a god," yet, "but I have always been a - narrower shape, than Aroden. I have hoped to create space in which other people can build their dreams. And some of their dreams will probably be stupid, or dangerous, and I will trust the gods, in managing that danger, but my own aims have never stretched out beyond ending war and slavery and the torments to which people are made subject." Probably some other sort of being will be the right Lawful Good god, once that is done.

He nods. Fidgets with the hem of his robe. 

"The world is filled with horrors. It grieves me as well. As a - fellow mortal - I have nothing but the utmost respect for your mission, and - our world does need it." 

He bows his head. "...I wish you could reach your god. It does seem - dangerous, to have your god's power and not His advice. But since this may not be possible..." A slight shrug. "Be very careful. That is all I can ask." 

"Of course. I will consult with you and with your church whenever I can, if I'm doing something that might go wrong, and I'll keep praying for Aroden's guidance, which I still think He would offer me at great need."

(It would in fact be perfectly characteristic of Aroden, if it's incredibly expensive to contact her here and things were going to go along the trajectory they've gone so far, to ignore her entirely even if He can see and hear her just fine. She wouldn't be taking substantially different actions if she had assurance of His involvement.)

He nods. He doesn't look happy about it, but it also doesn't seem like his unhappiness is mostly with her. "I suppose that is all I can ask." 

"I'm very grateful for the advice. Please let me know if you hear any more."

"Of course." Sigh. "I wish I could - make you more promises, of friendship and safety with our church. Not knowing what the danger is that Vkandis fears, I - am not sure I can promise that. But I can at least give you my word that if - things change - I will speak to you first." 

He thanks her again. The hertasi mutter something about how he clearly needs to rest, and usher him out of the room. 

Need stirs grumpily at Iomedae's side. :Poor man deserves a better god: 

:Yep. I tried to tell him so but it's not an easy thing to hear.: Next meeting?

The high priestess of the Nameless God can meet with her now. 

Iomedae is honored to meet with her.

Thaliss looks intensely relieved to see Iomedae alive and intact. She seems less frazzled and upset than the priest of Vkandis, but she does not look like someone who has enjoyed the last day. 

"- I have so many questions," she says, the moment they're in the same room. "The weapon went off - we heard it, even from here - and then you were...in Predain, for the last day? How did that come about?" 

"I was injured in the explosion. Ma'ar had been scrying the explosion site and Gated me out - I should probably have made arrangements for that beforehand, but I was very unsure what to expect the situation to be after the weapon went off, what I'd be asking people to do if I asked them to get me. It was in fact fairly dangerous, he was badly burned during the operation to extract me. He brought me to some Healers in Predain, and wrote to Urtho asking for Tantara to send help as well." She smiles thinly. "I'm fine now."

"I can see that, and I am very glad of it! ...I am confused. About the last day. We have received no guidance from the Eternal Flame - not that I was particularly expecting it - and I am not sure the church of Vkandis has any idea what is happening either. ...It seems like a good sign. That Ma'ar chose to help you – unasked, it sounds like, and - at substantial risk to himself. I am curious to hear more of him, if you - have further thoughts now." 

"I would expect your god and your faith to find a lot of common ground with him, actually. I am - not always myself inclined to see the world primarily through the lens of the potential for redemption of its most dangerous actors, but I think it's just the right lens to see Ma'ar. Many of the terrible things that he's done, I think he did out of the desire to save his people, and with - more than the usual amount of mindfulness that it is always a tragedy to take a life. He Gated in to tell his men to surrender, the night of the assault on the fifth division, and he did that expecting I'd kill him - but be occupied, I suppose, from killing them. I see how he won the loyalty of the people of Predain; he genuinely cares for them, and they for him. 

I am very afraid of the final results of many of the policies he adopted. I think Tantara would be worse, if blood-magic and widespread compulsions were accepted here. I think he agrees, but he didn't know how to build Tantara, and was - very impatient - he wrote Urtho all these letters, about how many fewer children were dying under his rule. 

I am glad he is the other party to these peace talks."

She nods, seriously. 

"It troubles me that - I feel the people of Predain already considered themselves to have been ill-treated, or at least neglected and ignored, by the gods. I am not sure it will be of much reassurance that the church of Vkandis disavows the actions of its mages. There is a great deal of aid that our temple order could offer, I think, if they wanted it, but helping people who did not ask for it and do not want it is...fraught." 

"I think that the people of Predain don't trust the motives of people who are doing apparently-friendly things. It'll go better, I suspect, to feed them this winter as war reparations than as an act of generosity because we don't want their children to starve. But I do expect you could set up an operation to feed them, so long as you said it was war reparations, and once they know you maybe they're less suspicious if the operation does not cease."

She looks down. "It is really not the worst tragedy here, I suppose, but - it does feel like a tragedy, whatever history is behind that suspicion. I will speak with Urtho about our temple helping Tantara with war reparations, we are - good at that. ...And I would like to meet Ma'ar, but we should not rush him, he has more reason than most to doubt the gods' goodwill." 

She hesitates. 

"...I am reluctant to ask too much of you, when you are here mostly without the support of your own god, but I believe our world benefits greatly from you. If there is anything our church can do, to help you in - anything you want to do - I would like to know." 

"I may want to found a religious order in Tantara. That is a matter in which I would be relying greatly on your advice, and it's entirely possible it ought to be an order that serves your god rather than mine. It seems a tragedy, to me, that Tantara has no power to hold mages accused of serious crimes, and so is left with only the options of killing them or leaving them to flee. It's a decision I have faced several times since I arrived here, and been unhappy to have no better options. It strikes me as a context in which, despite the problems, Predain's use of compulsions seems sensible to me - but it would have to be done by people sworn not to use their power for anything else, and separate from any political power structure that might overlook their doing so or try to use them for it. This would be a project of many years, and I'd want to talk to many people, but it's - something I am thinking about and would appreciate your churches's counsel on."

...Nod. 

"I - I need to think on it. It would be a change, and a frightening one, but - it is certainly a tragedy when anyone dies." 

She frowns. "...Predain uses compulsions in other ways as well, no? As a sort of oath of service. Are you planning to put a stop to that, or convince Ma'ar to end the practice himself?"