Nod. "It's - really something - when our prayers are heard. Not something I ever expected to happen to me, but - Iomedae's not like most people, is she." 

She bows her head. "Is she - what happened - is she going to be all right?" 

"Yes."

Because if she isn't going to be all right, then Ma'ar will figure something out, no matter how hard it is. It's a lot easier to be confident in his ability to solve impossible problems while he's wearing the headband, but - it's magic, not politics. He was always good at solving impossible problems with magic. 

(He hasn't had a lot of time to think about next steps, the diplomacy is kind of all-encompassing, but he's already mused a little on his research with other planes. He's already done several impossible things. If there's any way to reach Iomedae's world through the other planes - and there must be, she got here somehow - then he thinks he and Urtho together can do it. Urtho's smarter than him, too, not by a huge margin but definitely smarter. Urtho with the headband and an interesting research project in front of him will be unstoppable.) 

He switches to Mindspeech, because he doesn't at all trust the discretion of the teenage girl watching them. :Eventually: he admits. :She was badly hurt, in a way her healing does not help with.:

:Oh no: Marlana keeps her expression controlled, though. :I - does she want visitors?: 

:...She does not remember recent events very well. She has been asking for her friends from home, not any of us. ...I think she knows how to endure this, and she would rather you work toward the peace.: 

Nod. 

"Do I understand right that you're considering working with the temple of Bestet, in some capacity?" 

Nod. 

"Our people have little trust in gods. And it seems many of them are - indeed not worthy of our trust - but not all. From what I know of your order's work, you are people who share goals I care about, and - separately, after what She did, I do not expect your Goddess to send you with divine orders to kill anyone important to me. ...It might be a better idea to work with the temple order of the Nameless God for the compulsions, they are - more pacifist, and more widely trusted - but we need allies." 

"Of course." A brief smile. "Schools for girls? We can do schools for girls. I know Predain is a suspicious place, and you're not even wrong to be, but - might go over better than most things, showing up and offering to teach farmers' daughters to defend themselves." 

...It's interesting what the headband does. He has a much better read on the woman than he would have expected to be able to pick up in a couple of minutes of conversation. 

Can they trust her? 

...Yes. He's not absolutely confident in that, but this also isn't a case where a huge amount of harm is done by asking, there's a secret but it's loosely held. 

He switches to Mindspeech again. 

:Iomedae needs allies. I am afraid she is still in danger. Her god is far away: Pause. :...They fought. The Star-Eyed and Aroden. Iomedae had been meeting with the shamans, and - I am not sure what the Star-Eyed tried to do but it nearly tore her mind apart. Aroden must have fought back. Iomedae thinks that He intended to kill the goddess, but - did not have a chance to finish. He sent Iomedae back with the power to heal me, I - would have died, otherwise - perhaps He could not do that and also kill a goddess at the same time: 

:That does sound like a lot for even a god to handle. Especially from another world. ...So what are you planning?: 

Ma'ar meets her eyes, steadily.

:To finish this peace treaty. To - help her to recover in any way I can, we have a Mindhealer with her now but there must be other things we could try. And then I want to work with Urtho on finding a way to travel to and from her world. So that she can haver her allies and friends with her, and so that Aroden can reach us more easily: 

A brief huff of laughter between pinched lips. :You don't think small, do you. Honestly, I'm not sure what a simple goddess of war can do. Except fight other gods, maybe. And Iomedae is a woman in danger. Bestet doesn't like that: 

Nod. :Could you pray to her? I am not sure that She would hear me, if I tried, and Iomedae is– I am not going to ask her to attempt it: 

:Of course. - Oh, and I had another idea. I heard of a priestess with the temple of the Nameless God. She's a Mindhealer, and it's - there are at least rumors that she is sometimes a vessel for miracles. If you and Iomedae are willing to trust their temple and their god, then...that might be worth trying: 

:Oh. 

- I - 

...I need to think about it. But. Thank you: 

What are they taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalking about. Shayeen is BORED and CURIOUS and she was supposed to be getting practice at diplomacy here. 

They have some less secret matters to discuss out loud! Who in Predain needs to be on board with it before they can open any temple-schools under the church of Bestet. What kinds of worries they're likely to have, and how to assuage them. If Marlana is willing, they should definitely have Predain sent some visitors to see her own school. 

They're not going to be able to do it right away but it's a start. 

(Ma'ar was at no point visibly tense, or anything other than confident and in control, but he's noticeably happier, now.) 

And does he still want to speak to a representative of the Nameless God, after this? 

.....It's already evening and Ma'ar is actually getting pretty tired, even with the headband. But he doesn't think he's tired enough to be impaired. Yes. 

He wants to float the idea of a small order of priests within their temple, authorized to use compulsions only when it saves lives and gives criminals a chance to redeem themselves. (He's been reading up on their teachings.) If this is something they would be open to at all, here are so many notes on his ideas for implementing it. 

(Ma'ar has discovered that Iomedae's headband makes it ridiculously fast and easy, even enjoyable, to write up formal proposals for various things. It's not that he generally finds writing hard, but this particular subject matter is generally less appealing.) 

High Priestess Thaliss thinks that this is, of course, a decision to be made carefully, discussed with the temple's leadership and then, probably, voted on by anyone involved in the temple in any capacity who wants to have a say. She's in agreement with Ma'ar that six months is a reasonable if optimistic timeline for that. They'll want to pray for guidance, though the Nameless God is unlikely to provide it if things will otherwise go basically fine. 

If they agree to it, the priest-enforcers should be trained in - a lot of things, not just compulsions. You could maybe get it down to a year, if you were taking candidates who were already apprentices, but it's going to be a very different kind of responsibility than being a village priest or the matron of a school or the leader of a monastery, and require correspondingly different skills. 

...They should have Iomedae's input. It was Iomedae's idea, and it sounds like her world has many more, and better, institutions of that type. And she is herself a religious leader. 

How...is Iomedae doing? Pretty much all Thaliss knows is that there was another assassination attempt and she's currently staying out of Predain and is not going to be involved in the peace talks. 

Ma'ar likes this woman. He's not sure he would have without the headband, he might have been - too caught up in questioning her motives and second-guessing his read on her, rather than, at least given that he already had Iomedae's positive assessment, basically just confident in his judgement of her character. 

She's very, very, very Good, as they would call it in Iomedae's world. She's very - careful - not exactly along the lines Iomedae is careful, he wouldn't choose her to run a war effort or, honestly, a peace effort like this one. But she's careful about all of the ways that people can hurt each other, she's so aware of the balance of different considerations - there are clearly a lot of bright lines she won't cross, and it used to drive him wild when Urtho was like that, but - some part of him feels like she's earned it. 

(Part of it is that he doesn't think she would be indignant, or offended, if he started defending Predain's blood-magic policies to her. She would be sad, for the people dead and the people bearing that on their conscience, but she doesn't see the world in black and white. She wouldn't take that and decide that no one in Predain is the kind of person you can trust to show up at peace talks and negotiate in good faith.) 

She wants things to be better than they are now, and she's not going to be an idiot about it. There are a lot of side questions, and he's pretty sure there are a hundred arguments they could have over particulars, but at the core of it those are the only two things that matter. 

...at least, this is what his shoulder Iomedae thinks. Ma'ar without a headband would be so suspicious, and - there is, actually, a corner of Ma'ar right now which is terrified. 

Iomedae wouldn't be afraid. Iomedae is never afraid, and - that doesn't make her careless, like Ma'ar might have worried a lack of fear would, if anything it makes her more careful than he's ever managed to be. Because she's not flinching, not fighting desperately for safety and control, not - fundamentally assuming in some dark corner of her mind that no one can be trusted and anyone might try to kill her. She can just...look at a situation, and make an assessment, and do the math, and then commit to her decision. Including when that means trusting an ally who really hasn't proved themselves in completely watertight ways. 

(She trusts Ma'ar. She thinks he's the best person to be doing this. He - has some kind of feeling about that - but she gave him the headband and she was right, he's doing this, and it's partly because she entrusted it to him...) 

He thinks he likes Iomedae's way better, and he is at least moderately confident that it's what they need for the peace. 

That's an assessment of the people, not of their god. He knows rather little of the Nameless God of Eternal Flame. But it has to mean something, that Their temple is like this. And one of the things it does mean is that he really doubts there is any possible circumstance under which High Priestess Thaliss would drop a superweapon on Iomedae's head. Even if her god sent a divine vision that the world was in danger otherwise. He really doesn't see her crossing that line. 

He switches to Mindspeech. :I want this to stay secret, for her safety, but. She is - very unwell. I am afraid for her: 

:Oh. 

...is there anything we can do - what happened...?: 

Ma'ar explains, yet again, the little they know or can infer of what happened. 

:That's awful. I'm so sorry: Does Ma'ar want a hug? 

....not the response he expected at all but Ma'ar would not turn down a hug.