It's war; plans change. They have wands for them.

She knows the instant she sees Alfirin that they do not have a second archmage. She..... would have expected to be at least a little bit surprised, but finds she in fact isn't. 

She waits until the two of them are alone before explaining more.

"She tried to overthrow the Asmodeans on her own. It didn't work. She might be back but - not in time to help us."

The best possible news that doesn't involve a second archmage, really. This time she does feel surprise, and isn't sure quite what's up with that. 

It is probably a bad idea to ask why Alfirin wouldn't work with her church. It is definitely a bad idea to ask what form of coming back takes a long time.  

"Understood. Did she leave us anything useful I should know about?"

"Cheliax' spymistress. I probably cannot ask her to do anything for us - I don't think I could convince her of my identity - but I have a written report. We should be circumspect about where we got it. Some minor artifacts but - I'm not sure, yet, whether it's a good idea to take them."

"- impressive. All right. We have enough, regardless. We went back and forth endlessly - and should now get your thoughts, I suppose - on whether to try to bring a large force over or not, and if not whether to use Cyprian's or go for the very shiny high-magic limited infantry approach -

- Arnisant's current favorite plan, not, he says, just because it would be very funny, is for me to study wizardry while you and Morgethai stabilize an interworld transit."

"...Because he thinks we can do it without you and it will be more valuable to have you as a wizard for the next world we find...? That doesn't sound quite right, why, besides it being very funny, does Arnisant think it's a good plan?"

"Well, we were lamenting how if we had Arazni we could put every civilian in every major Chelish city to sleep."

"...And we're guessing you're sufficiently divine to cast Arazni's sleep if you can cast sleep and not just the intermediate version I can manage?"

"We haven't asked Aroden yet but if I am then it is possible I can best lend myself to the conquest of Cheliax as a first circle wizard.

- another option is to ask for a Miracle to make you a little bit more of a god, which has going for it that yours will be wildly harder to resist."

"Assuming that is a valid miracle and we have someone willing to grant it." It's not her favorite plan; among other things it might get her on Achaekek's kill-list.

"I think it'll be temporary if it can be done at all, and I think it'll have to be Aroden, but I tentatively predict Aroden could do it temporarily." She can't quite read the reluctance. "You'd rather I try to master wizardry myself?"

She sighs. "I don't think so. It'd probably involve delaying, and I don't know how much delay it adds. It usually takes years to get to first-circle spells but - It could be less because you're semidivine. It could be more because you're a fourth-circle paladin already. You'd probably have to stop wearing armor."

"I'd probably have to not wear armor for two moments over each city. ....I guess conceivably also while I was learning." She makes a face. "Anyway, if we're not relying on absurd abuses of first-circle spells, we can take the cities with our men, or with Cyprian's, or with forces off the Worldwound if we've done something about the Worldwound, or with Miracles, probably of Sarenrae. Unless the spymaster knows enough that we could do a decapitation strike overnight and have most of the cities and soldiers surrender without a fight, in which case we still need one of the other plans in reserve."

"While you're learning, yes. I figured you'd be fine without for the casting but wouldn't love giving it up for a year of lessons."

"I think we do have enough information for a decapitation strike. For our backup plan - we should at least ask Aroden whether he can do the miracle. And I should go back through with Korva to meet Morgethai and the...baby dragon... and make the call on whether or not to nonconsensually borrow my future possessions."

Nod. "How'd you find My Church?"

"Well, I mostly spoke to Cansellarion. I liked him, he was very - careful, dedicated, thoughtful." the way most paladins aren't, she doesn't say, "Trusted me more than I expected, I think he was just deferring to you there. Don't tell anyone, but my future self liked him too. As for the rest of your church - Has there been a second gold dragon on campaign with us and nobody told me?"

"A second gold dragon? ...Heleer? We know he's up to something."

"Parnoneryx is the name your church has. It's not Heleer, I looked at him under a true seeing once, when I had it cast for other reasons, because I was curious about the beard. He did not have a mind blank up and was not a dragon."

"Huh. Then I have no idea. Do we in fact need a gold dragon for any other reason than Cansellarion asked and we both like him and want to give him the army he deserves?"

"No, we don't, but I heard about the dragon that - may have replaced me, in the histories - and was curious whether he actually exists. Cansellarion didn't have any of his former possessions handy for a discern location. And you asked what I thought of your church more generally."

"At some point I'm going to go to Heaven and track down whoever replaced you with a gold dragon and scold - I guess probably I have already done that. I will add a note to the holy books that Alfirin should under no circumstances be replaced with a gold dragon. - though I read their version of the holy books, and I...don't actually recall them having replaced you with anything specific - I'd think it would have stood out to me -

- Parmoneryx, no, maybe it does sound vaguely familiar -"

She pulls it out and flips through it, murmuring to herself. 

" - ah. Here. Parmoneryx, in a battle three years from now. But that's the only mention. ...not sure that one's on the holy book editors. Maybe if he went on to many other great deeds the legends got sort of conflated?"

"Huh. Maybe he's real, then. Cansellarion didn't interrupt our conversation to check, but he seemed to think Parnoneryx should be with the Crusade by now - Probably as you say it's getting him and Mengkare mixed up, or other legends of him getting attributed to the wrong dates."

"I guess if he's going to be around in a few years he's probably around now and we should see if we can contact him and ask him to help us fight what is hopefully an overnight war in Cheliax."

"Personally, I'd rather get the dragons from the other timeline when possible since in the other time they will be older. Of course, there's no reason that if we get future Parnoneryx we can't also get present Parnoneryx. We've only got the name - I guess we could try sending him out of the blue - "

"...worth a shot? He might also be helpful in finding his future self, that's got to count as some kind of familiarity for a scry."