Iomedae is asleep and doesn't mind anything.

Ma'ar kind of wants to sleep here, especially if he's about to haul her off to the temple of a god he only probably trusts, but probably this is the sort of thing where Iomedae will be confused about whether or not it's a bad idea given that she's very impaired and they shouldn't have a romantic relationship. Ma'ar hasn't been in a lot of romantic relationships but he can still tell that sleeping beside someone (when it's not for reasons like 'they're both badly injured and he might need to unexpectedly Gate them out) is at least adjacent.

Normally he would be way less self-aware about this, probably, but the headband is making it hard not to notice things and now he's confused. Does he have romantic feelings? Kind of a lot of the things he wants are Iomedae-related but even with the headband-self-awareness he has no idea if he wants to kiss her...actually this is possibly a case where the headband-self-awareness is doing the opposite of help. 

Either way, this can definitely wait for later. Ideally when Iomedae is functional. 

He goes to bed, in his own bed. 

He wakes up well before dawn, his heart rate faster than he would prefer. He lies awake for a little while, thinking. 

What's the actual range of possible outcomes, if he takes Iomedae to the sanctuary and asks Kariasha to heal her mind, with or without a divine miracle that she doesn't command?

The median case here is probably that Kariasha is a lovely person and tries very hard and they don't get a divine miracle, if only because miracles are presumably costly and they're very likely to be able to solve this eventually without one. The best case is that they do, and Iomedae is fine, and maybe Aroden has a god-ally in Velgarth and that makes it much cheaper for Him to finish murdering the Star-Eyed Goddess. 

The worst case is – what, that the Nameless God is also going to turn around and try to destroy Iomedae? It...feels really unlikely, on a gut level that Ma'ar can't fully unpick but he's been trusting his gut a lot, lately, and at least with the headband it hasn't let him down. But if it happens, then what? 

...Then Aroden will have to intervene again (and probably will be annoyed about it) and Iomedae will be - left much worse off than she is now, for sure, but it seems very unlikely that Aroden would give up on her, when He didn't the first time. And Urtho and Ma'ar will go research Gates, trading the headband back and forth, until they find a way back to Iomedae's world, and they'll bring whatever is left of her back to Aroden's church and the powerful magic of her god will fix her. 

It's possible that the Nameless God could intervene to stop them, or that another god could. But it's not obviously more likely, either that They'll try at all or that They'll succeed, if he takes Iomedae to the temple. He won't be making himself especially vulnerable; it's a place in the material plane where the Nameless God is a little bit more present, but it's not literally the spirit world where They live. 

- tragically this implies he shouldn't be around when Iomedae is being healed, but that was sort of already implied by the fact that he scheduled the competing commitment of peace talks with Urtho. 

Ma'ar sighs, and gets up and writes down every consideration he can think of, because whether it turns out to be the right or the wrong decision, someday he still wants to ask eventually-healed-Iomedae whether he was missing anything. 

It's still not quite dawn - but probably past dawn further south, where the holy site is - he heads to Iomedae's room. 

She's awake and talking with her Healers about their small children. People like talking about their small children and it doesn't strain her head to think about them.

Iomedae is wonderful and Ma'ar appreciates her so much. Is that a romantic feeling still not a question he needs to answer right this moment. 

:I think we should go to the Mindhealer at the holy site of the Nameless God. I spoke to her and - liked her - not going to try to explain why when you are impaired. I think the case where it goes catastrophically wrong is very unlikely, probably still recoverable even if Aroden is annoyed with us, and - corresponds to worlds where we are likely to have problems even if we do not take you there: 

Quite probably hypothetical comparisons like that are too complicated for Iomedae right now but he can't read her mind, and - the operative thing is that she's decided to trust him, it just also seems to sometimes be reassuring if he makes it clear that he's tracking a lot of considerations. 

She nods. :I should pray to Aroden first, in case it's cheaper for Him to look ahead and see a problem and tell us not to do it, but if He has no objection we'll go.:

And she closes her eyes and makes her intent clear in her mind.

:I did also confirm that Marlana prayed to Bestet and has not been warned off, and - oh, I should alert Need and tell her where you are, in case she gets a pull that you need rescuing: 

He'll do that with Mindspeech - he tells her to get the location from Thaliss rather than say it over an insecure comms spell - and wait with her while she prays, and then raise a Gate - to a few minutes' walk outside the sanctuary, which it turns out is a lovely peaceful temperature rainforest. He waits ten seconds in case this is what shows up to Aroden or Bestet in Foresight as a problem. And then resists the urge to pick her up and carry her through, because Iomedae can actually walk fine right now. He offers his hand in case the Gate-crossing is disorienting for her. 

(It kind of is, not in a direct magically-damaging sense but just because it's a sudden and unusual change in her surroundings at a time when she isn't processing things very fast.) 

Sure, she'll take his hand. 

They need to walk through the forest for a few minutes. Ma'ar scried ahead, though, and picked a spot where there's a path. 

And then they emerge onto the holy site of the Nameless God of Eternal Flame. 

It's incredibly beautiful. It's - not very Aroden-flavored, not very Axis-flavored, it's far more the sort of place you might find in Elysium. There's a path under a waterfall leading to a natural cave.

(The path is paved with flat, even stones, and there's a permanent mage-barrier to keep the mist from spraying it and getting it wet, so it's not slippery. The cave has a rough, unaltered ceiling of hanging crystallized-dripping-water rock formations, but the floor is smoothly finished. It has permanent mage-lights.) 

Kariasha is waiting at the mouth of the cave to meet them. She nods to Ma'ar. Smiles at Iomedae. Doesn't say anything immediately. 

Iomedae is enjoying the beauty of this place.

There's a reason why, in Kariasha's opinion, it's good for people to be here when they need time to heal. "You can come in as well," she says to Ma'ar, and gestures for both of them to follow her inside. 

There are some other people inside, and a quiet murmur of conversation. An elderly woman in priestess' robes is teaching a lesson to some children between ages seven and eleven; some older children in what are probably apprentice robes are mopping the floor. A couple of young men are making breakfast. 

At the very back of the room is a fire. It's not in a fireplace; it seems to be coming directly out of a crack in the stone, and looks like a natural formation. (It's mostly natural. You still don't usually get leaks from underground reservoirs of flammable gas that are, one, safe, and two, last for decades, unless you're applying some magic to the problem.) 

There are several pieces of furniture somewhere between sofas and beds, with furs draped over them. 

:You can sit: Kariasha says to Iomedae, in Mindspeech since she doesn't speak the language. 

...she'll sit. She can't feel nervous but she can feel - a lot of uncertainty over how good the next thing to happen is going to be..

Ma'ar is very capable of feeling nervous! 

...He's not actually going to be late for his meeting-time with Urtho for another candlemark. And - there's an argument he should leave, minimize the risk to himself and thus make it more likely that if this does go wrong he can still work with Urtho to get a Gate to Iomedae's world and call on Aroden's aid. But there's also an argument that if he stays, and something does start to go wrong, he has a chance of getting Iomedae out of here. And then there's the third thing, which isn't actually an argument and is just that he doesn't want to leave her. 

Kariasha smiles at him. :You can stay for a while if Iomedae wishes it: she includes Iomedae in the Mindspeech as well, :- and if you are not distracting. I need to put my mind in the right state to let the Nameless God in, or else I have a bad time about it afterward, though presumably not as bad a time as you did: 

Does Iomedae seem comfortable with Ma'ar staying for a while? 

She already decided to trust him about being here at all! Of course he can stay! 

:You can make yourself comfortable: Kariasha tells Iomedae. :In a position where you can see the fire, please, I am going to be rude and ask you to stay awake and stare at it for a while and try not to think of anything else. It helps me see better: 

Ma'ar is trying very hard not to be visibly tense because it won't help and it might upset Iomedae. 

She waits until Iomedae is comfortably positioned and following her instructions. 

:May I look?: 

She experiences a rare and delightful kind of slight brief confusion, confusion because someone was being Lawful-or-Good-they're-both-only-elements-of-the-true-thing-anyway in a way she has not actually contemplated herself as a direction to stretch in, checking in the context of an entire interaction where they're supposed to Mindheal her if it's all right for them to start.

In this case she didn't contemplate this direction of the-true-thing because she doesn't have invasive mindscape-reading powers, but still. 

:Yes of course.:

She looks for a long time without saying anything. Makes a couple of very thoughtful noises. 

:Someone: she sends eventually, :was very rude. Are you in much pain?: 

:Only a little. It's been getting better. We're pretty sure it was the Star-Eyed goddess. I don't remember what she was trying to do.:

:It looks like some stubborn dogs got into a game of tug-of-war over your mind: Kariasha's judgement is that Iomedae is not going to be squeamish about hearing her problem described, and Ma'ar might be but he can cope. :And one of them was being more rude than the other. Was the politer one the god you serve, do you think?: