"Wishnap Marit in his sleep - which will be hard, he's been moving his sleep hours around again and obviously hasn't told a soul what his schedule is - convince him we're acting in Aroden's interests but have to do it without Aroden knowing, ideally without telling him everything because he's going to be back on Golarion and observable - and send him back half an hour later and hope nobody noticed."

"That's better than my plan of 'Do nothing and pray it works out, but with the praying cut for information security reasons.' "

"I think I can convince him. The other parts seem sketchier - 

- actually, no. Urtho can scry him, we can time it right."

"That'll do it. Hm. Assuming Urtho sleeps a normal human amount at normal human times we should probably ask him to check as soon as he's up, and then hourly? And I'll...prepare another two wishes today. And five tomorrow."

"I'd also like to go back to Golarion to pick up some things - books, mostly, but I've also got a map of Dis which should be up to date like every other map of Dis - for planning purposes."

"Should be fine. I tried not to think about it while I was there, but that may have been excessively cautious."

"We should be fine as long as we don't make too many decisions there, but yes I'm not planning to think about what I'm doing, just grab every book on Hell that I own and maybe buy some more that I don't - probably buy out a couple booksellers' entire collections on the planes, which doesn't involve evaluating how useful the contents will be until I'm back here."

"If I were a god, I don't think anyone could have the thought 'I'm going to destroy a plane of Hell' anywhere on Golarion without my noticing like they cried out my name in desperate prayer. ...probably I should figure out how to avoid having that capability, actually. I think buying the books is a worthwhile risk, and I think kidnapping Marit is too if Urtho can confirm for us that he's alone. I want to go back to my rooms, actually," to be there when Ma'ar wakes in Urtho's Tower for the first time in a very long time, "but I can come get you when they're ready to Gate us?"

"Of course." And she can return to her own rooms to prepare two more wishes.

Then when Ma'ar wakes Iomedae will be looking out at the beautiful view and thinking about the destruction of Hell. 

"Good morning."

He opens his eyes, yawns and stretches and - 

- oh, right, he's here. He doesn't tense up, Iomedae is there and so it's all right, but he does go very still for a moment. 

"Good morning," he says. "I - are there things I should have context on, with - your world, Alfirin - before we go back to work?" 

- yeah.

"I'm sorry. I think I had - a bit of a blind spot there, after a fashion.

Alfirin is the most powerful living wizard in Golarion. She has been essential to the Crusade, and I've worked alongside her since I was in my twenties. I think very highly of her.

We - were lovers, briefly, thirty years ago. I think both of us would have said, asked a month ago, that we learned from that and grew from that and are not still particularly affected by that, but actually I think we would have been wrong.

She's very like you, see."

"Oh. That...makes sense." And sounds - complicated. He vaguely wishes for the headband. "...Like me in what sort of ways? Presumably in wanting to be allied with you, but - also in being ruthless and the sort of person who would use blood-magic for infrastructure projects?" The sort of person who would become immortal because one lifetime isn't enough, but he isn't going to speak of that in Urtho's Tower. 

"The sort of person who - a lot of the disagreements we'd have would be her saying 'we'll lose fewer soldiers if we do this incredibly Evil thing' and me saying 'I think we'd be shredding something complicated and immeasurable and maybe even more important and I'll pay a hundred lives for the immeasurable thing, though not five hundred."

"...I think I usually end up just agreeing with you on those? When you - convince me that the complicated immeasurable thing is possible and that it - exists in your world as something of value -" 

"Well, I often also convince her! Though not always. And - I was worse at explaining when I was younger."

"...That makes sense. I suppose that - having known her for decades - would give you a great deal of practice." 

He leans on her shoulder. "It - sounds like we would get along. If she were comfortable with me. I did not incredibly get the impression that she is comfortable with me." 

"She's not easily impressed but you'll get there, I have total confidence." She too is not going to even Mindspeak about the thing Ma'ar did that would impress Alfirin the most - that Alfirin may in fact want to copy, and Iomedae has a sick twisted feeling in her stomach about that but it's much much better than lichdom. "She wants an interworld Gate back this morning so she can pick up some books and notes for us, and then if you want to watch a Wish we're kidnapping a colleague whenever he sleeps."

(Ma'ar is thinking, behind the privacy of his shields, that Alfirin is older than him and he figured out his immortality by the time he was thirty, she'll definitely have done it already if she was going to at all.) 

"Kidnapping - is that a good idea? It sounds like it might draw attention. And - not make a good first impression, for him."  

"We think we can do it without drawing attention. He will definitely be furious at me but - once satisfied that I am free and in my right mind, he will obey me, even though the thing I'm asking of him is very unfair and difficult."

He trusts Iomedae's judgement. He kind of doesn't have a choice, when it's about her world, he has so little context. "All right. I can do an interworld Gate for her, though - all else being equal I would prefer to wait for Urtho's Adepts and do it in concert, it is tiring." 

"Should be fine, I don't think this is urgent." Does he want a hug? And maybe a massage about all this tiring magic he's been doing?

He's going to Mindspeak one of the hertasi he was introduced to, first, to convey a message to Urtho and work on assembling Adepts for a Gate, but after that he would absolutely not turn down a hug and a massage! 

It'll be about half an hour to get a reasonable cohort of Adepts ready. Ma'ar should probably also eat breakfast before doing more magic, he didn't really eat dinner yesterday, but he seems inclined to forget. 

Iomedae will remind him, and will summon Alfirin only once he's eaten something. 

"Good morning. I have the additional wishes prepared but not the diamonds to cast them."

Iomedae has diamonds! She can give Alfirin two of them. "Urtho's not up yet, so I think you should proceed with your shopping trip and we'll catch Marit whenever he next sleeps."

"Very well. I assume it'll just be myself and Ma'ar?" More people would be a security risk.