:You should come back with me, once we find a way. I think you'll like many of the people in the crusade command. I've been - trying to build a whole organization of people like me, people I can trust, people I can weep with, people who'd notice if I was being an idiot...:

He looks torn. :I - would like to. I am not sure it is a good idea to leave Predain while we are still rebuilding, but I suppose I could afford a visit for a week or two: 

:It does seem like a lot of how Predain is run is...genuinely a big improvement over the way things were before but not in a state that'll stay that way without your active intervention.:

...Nod. :I built an entirely new legal system and all these processes for reporting violations of it, and then hardly anyone uses them to report things except for me! I think it will be better when people are - more used to it, when more of our citizens grew up in Predain as it is now. And - I was wondering if it would help if we could start a church of Aroden there - I do want the temples of Bestet to operate there, and probably also the temple of the Nameless God, but I think my people will be - more easily convinced that a god cares about them if that god gives them magical healing powers: 

:And clean water! The value is really very straightforward. I want to set up a church of Aroden in Predain and in Tantara, but I don't know how established it'll have to be for Aroden to start granting miracles. I'll work on it while Urtho works on the Gate, I guess, because it's good groundwork even if it's not usable until we have interworld contact.:

:That seems very worthwhile. He would also need people to be - aligned with Him, right? Which I think is more feasible for people in Predain than it would be for most other gods, His goals are going to appeal to people, but it might still take time for them to get used to and fully understand His teachings enough to work with Him: 

:And it'll take me time to learn how to translate the principles into a form that's compelling to people in Predain. There's not a lot of rush, though.:

:I suppose not: It's a strange feeling. He...thinks it's a good one. 

:I don't know how costly to expect interworld transit to be once it can be done at all, but if it were inexpensive I would want to see you often.:

Ma'ar is - weirdly confused, he doesn't really know how to interpret that or respond to it. 

:I appreciate that. I - think I will continue finding your advice valuable for a long time. ...I would not want to take too much time away from your work, it sounds like you were very busy in Golarion: 

:A bit. But, if you want to be someone who could at any moment march on Hell with some superweapons if presented with the opportunity, that means you can't be running at that pace all the time, and so I make time for myself to be human. ...at least for the five to ten years before I plan to ascend.:

He looks thoughtful. :I suppose that makes sense. I think I - might have made fewer of the mistakes that led up to the war, if I had made time for - normal human things: He makes a bit of a face. :I think I have never been good at that: 

He kind of wants to ask her more about the whole 'becoming a god' thing but that seems like it might be a bigger conversation than he's really feeling up to right now. 

:It's very hard. There's so much going wrong, right, and once you make yourself aware of it it's hard not to take each minute spent in peace or happiness or comfort as - theft, from the people who have never been offered it, who will never be offered it unless you get it to them. Maybe one can justify precisely the amount of time off each day necessary to be in peak mental and physical condition the next day, but certainly not - happiness, wonder, love -

- and yet, as you have observed, as a predictable regularity humans who are trying to be angels are just worse at making the world better than humans who are trying to be whole and happy humans.:

:Honestly, trying to be a whole and happy human sounds, in some ways, harder than winning a war. I have no idea how to solve it by being good at tactics. But it - has obvious upsides even apart from probably making fewer stupid mistakes:

Also he’s still very tired. :…I would like to stay here, I think, if you do not mind, but I maybe want to take a nap or something:

:Of course.:

Ma’ar shifts himself into a more horizontal position on the sofa-furniture. If Iomedae doesn’t seem to mind, he’s definitely going to use her shoulder as a pillow. She can presumably do the no-fear effect as long as he’s just in the same room, but it still feels safer, somehow, to be in direct physical contact.

Kariasha is watching them from across the room, though discreetly.

She makes eye contact with Iomedae. :Do you need anything?:

:Could you maybe get him a blanket?:

She can do that. She’s watching him with some concern, but doesn’t seem inclined to ask questions unless Iomedae says something first.

:Is the headband helping with the problems you were still having?: she asks once she’s gotten Ma’ar cosily tucked in, which she manages to do without directly touching him at all. She doesn’t think he would appreciate it.

:It is.: She doesn't get negative side effects from vastly boosting herself, all the realizations there are to have have been had and it's just fine-tuning remaining. :I'm annoyed at the missing memories, and I want to do some sparring - with no one alive in Velgarth, probably - and see if my reflexes are normal, but I think I feel confident I'm myself, and making decisions for my normal reasons, and about as good at doing that as usual, adjusting for how far out of context I am.:

Nod. :I would be curious to look and see the difference it makes, but - I am not sure there is any real justification for how it would help you, just my curiosity — I was also intensely curious what it would have looked like when he took it off, but I was not going to look without asking and I think interacting at all would have been unpleasant for him.:

:Go ahead! It could be useful for some other patient, and I was just explaining to Ma'ar that it's actually all right just to have life be fulfilling and good, sometimes.:

She looks. What are the kinds of changes that stand out? 

In substantial part it seems like what the headband does for her is make her mind more compact, its priorities closer to each other and more interconnected, like there is some underlying thing she's trying to approximate and when all the pieces are pulled in tightly together she can traverse the ground to get to it much faster. Her mind is also more - alive? More vibrant? And in the place where there's damage, it's regrowing a little faster.

That’s fascinating. She isn’t sure she’s ever seen a mind that was reaching so hard for coherency and clarity. It’s beautiful. 

She can describe some of it to Iomedae if she wants, though Sight is always hard to convey in words. Many people don’t really like to hear the nitty-gritty details of how their heads look like to her, but Iomedae strikes her as someone who considers nearly all information useful.