And Alfirin can show him the original augury, somewhat more powerful and not in any way relying on a god that can think (She never bothered to see if she could stabilize commune - What use would it be, when every answer must inevitably be 'Uncertain'?), and the two of them can sleep for a couple hours and study prophecy and write down a bit more about braindead-god creation. They don't, in the end, think they need to record all the details - They are both very smart, and only need to record enough that either could rederive the rest in time.

After about a day, they return to the Material, because Alfirin's secret demiplane is not actually the most pleasant of places to spend all one's time, and it moves at normal speed so it only costs them a couple hours to spend a couple hours with the Crusade.

The Crusade is doing well! They're making progress on the logistics for the previously discussed plan. Iomedae, they're told when they arrive, is out front fighting things, not that any things really worth Iomedae fighting them are about.

Alfirin's actually going to pop off to Diobel for a bit to pick up her fox and some books, assuming Élie can handle himself around a bunch of paladins. They've got a telepathic bond in case he has any urgent questions about Aroden's faith.

He can handle himself around a bunch of paladins! (The harder part will be not thinking about the death or Aroden or the destruction of prophecy outside of the secure demiplane, but he's pretty sure he can manage that too). 

While he's here, he wants to share some of his improved future spells with their arcane casters. Are any of those about? 

Yes, absolutely, and all of them would be delighted. 

(Aside from Alfirin, the Crusade intermittently has an eighth circle wizard, consistently has four seventh circle wizards, and has a full dozen at sixth circle and forty at fifth. Also Marit, who is a fifth circle swordmage, will show.)

Improved magic missile! Faster fly! Chain lightning with more chains! Wall of force is a circle lower now! And, of course, they can all have fabricate. 

It takes a lot to displace Iomedae as the person most worshipped on the Shining Crusade but this might do it!

They do know he's only personally responsible for one of those things? 

Fabricate is incredible. The price of textiles is going to fall, like, twentyfold or something.

Yeah!! ...Though if they're going to roll this out beyond the crusade anytime soon they should be deliberate about the process since they'll definitely immiserate some weavers! 

Yes, the church'll be on that. In collaboration with the church of Abadar, there's some kind of theory of how any economic improvement that adds value to the world can be distributed so as to make no one lose by it, which the Abadarans care about in the abstract and the Arodenites because otherwise you get anti-progress factions. How'd they do it in Elie's time? 

Oh, he just started distributing the spell widely as soon as they'd reconquered Infernal Cheliax, since a lot of their economy was based on imports from Hell and they urgently needed to fill the gap, and anyway that's his natural inclination, and now the Abadarans are trying to figure out how to mitigate the damage. ...It's still obviously worth it but not how he'd do things if he were starting from a blank slate. 

Mentioning infernal Cheliax rather kills the mood. 

It's not going to happen this time. 

They know. But still. 

(A lot of these people are from Cheliax. It's where the Crusade started, it's where Iomedae's from, it's the part of Taldor where people who are ambitious to do something new instead of seizing something old go.)

(He knows his history. He's made a point of reading about what the empire was like before the civil war, everything he wasn't allowed to learn in school. It's not the same. He can't help it: it makes him feel a little hollow and a little sick to hear them speak of Cheliax as a place where people have hope).

Well, he doesn't have to talk about his past, which isn't going to be their future. Does anyone have further questions about magical theory? 

They can get back on that track, sure, with slightly less uncomplicated enthusiasm. They're wizards.

Well, few things in life are uncomplicated. He'll answer as best he can. 

There is no finite number of days in which a hundred wizards will be satisfied with all they've learned from an archmage from the future, but eventually Marit starts sending some of them back out before Tar-Baphon notices all the crusade's wizards are busy with something mysterious.

If it's helpful, he could do this regularly at rotating – or, depending on their communications infrastructure, even randomized – intervals. (He's not really sure what level of paranoia they're working with here but it won't be the highest he's seen). 

They randomize sleep for everyone who'd be worth the attempted Wish-nap, but not assignments otherwise; it's useful for people to know who they're expected to work with in advance to deal with other kinds of enemy action like Dominates. Marit has all kinds of ideas to step up paranoia but, in fact, it's pretty rare Tar-Baphon lands a Dominate and does more damage with it than 'that person Teleports to him to be enslaved'; the paladins all have good sense motive and a lot of the sentries enchantment sight.

Then eventually he will want to wrap things up here and talk to Marit about when to schedule his next crash course in advanced future magic. 

Marit proposes four days from now, sunrise, when there'll be religious services people can inconspicuously skip (but usually don't, if Iomedae's leading them), and their absence won't be interesting. 

Works for him! Also, he's gotta ask – 

"So, have you really spent your whole adult life working with paladins?"

"- yes, actually, I joined the crusade when I was sixteen. Why do you ask?"