She is hurrying over. :I am not hurt. Leareth believes the earthquake was caused by the gods. It injured him pretty seriously. He Gated me briefly to one of his facilities and gave me a lot of protective magic items and let me read his mind while he repeated the claims he wasn't responsible for K'Treva Vale's destruction or Savil's death. And he warned me there is a Heartstone in Haven and it could be destroyed like the one in K'Treva Vale, especially if the gods thought they could kill me that way, though hopefully by now they don't think that.:

UM. 

:He - what - he's claiming the gods caused the explosion in k'Treva? But - that's - they're the Star-Eyed's people -: 

:He thought -

He...hadn't, actually, thought the Star-Eyed Goddess would do that. Those were Her people, sworn to Her in a millennia-old pact, who had spent their entire lives working at great risk to themselves to cleanse the Pelagirs on Her orders. He...suspects it would have required more setup than a few minutes' worth, and that it wasn't just aimed at killing Iomedae, who surely the Star-Eyed could barely see. He doesn't know what the original goal would have been. He's uneasy about it. 

I believe him that it wasn't him. If he wanted to destroy me, he's now had the opportunity.:

:We'll that's horrifying.: And it seems absurd, but...he doesn't, actually, think that Iomedae is lying, even without a Truth Spell to confirm. It's hard to lie in Mindspeech, and - it never made that much sense as an explanation, that Leareth had somehow blown up k'Treva on five minutes' notice to kill a woman he knew nothing about. Surely he would have kidnapped her, if he were hostile, just as a way to learn more... And it's not like there's anyone else he can think of who could have done it, which leaves only the dark looming absurdity that he can feel Rohan flinching away from in the back of his mind. 

:Gods. - Is Leareth all right, you said he was injured?: 

:I used the same healing magic on him that I used on you. He's fine now, though I am alert to the possibility I'm being induced to spend that resource down. I cannot get it back, here.

I don't think Leareth wants a war. He said my world changes everything, which it does, and that he'd stop his current plans just to see if it gives him alternatives, even if I weren't offering one directly in the form of Aroden being the kind of god he may want. So my current priority is to make sure Valdemar isn't forced into starting a war, and to investigate the safety of Haven while going nowhere near Haven. I also asked him to look out for my enemies, in case they followed me here.:

It's probably not the most important question to be asking right now - and it's a big question, and maybe an impossible one to answer - but Kilchas is already trying to keep track of enough urgent items that he needs to check once he's in range for a Truth Spell. 

He hadn't expected Leareth to let Iomedae read his mind. He wishes he could read Leareth's mind. Whether or not Vanyel is going to have to end up trying to kill the man, it seems like there's got to be a lot in there. 

:I don't understand Leareth: he sends. :How - how someone could want the things he claims to want, and - still have done all the things he's done. I mean, he made a cursed artifact that summoned hundreds of abyssal demons to go after all of a target's relatives, once. I don't - does he make any more sense to you?: 

:He actually - reminds me of someone I do know, from my own world. Or - a way she could be, if she didn't have a way to be something better.:

:Don't you always have a way to do something better? The Heralds don't summon demons, or use compulsions.: 

:If what was done to that village was done by its own god, then - I don't see how the Heralds can be sure their god is not, actually, willing to destroy them or misuse them, and I don't see how anyone in Haven is safe.:

Well that's upsetting. ...Not like the rest of this wasn't already upsetting. Just. 

(You can't fight the gods. Right? It would be like - deciding to fight the weather - no that's the wrong metaphor, weather-magic exists - but it's fighting something you can't win against...

- and however impossible and absurd it sounds, Leareth has pretty clearly set himself toward that goal. And Iomedae - seems sympathetic about it.) 

Kilchas still doesn't know what to say, so - he's just going to wait at the doorway of the town hall until Iomedae reaches him. 

:The thing my friend would say would be that - that there's something fundamentally and terribly wrong there, something ...like a world that kills everyone at age ten because it is threatened by what they'd become if they grew up. A world using people as things, and carefully limiting them as people so they don't become less useful things.:

And she reaches him. 

...He's going to cast a first-stage Truth Spell, looking very tense the entire time. 

:Can you, er, repeat all of the things you told me on the way here? And say what you're planning to do next?: 

:My Law spell suggests Leareth is a person who does not betray his sworn word. Leareth asked for and received my permission to Gate me out from the earthquake to a research facility. There, I read his mind, which was consistent with what he has been saying, that he didn't kill Savil or destroy K'Treva Vale and that he believes the Star-Eyed Goddess did it. I'm planning to try to communicate this to people to prevent a war, and determine if Haven is in danger, without going near it, because I'm worried that there'll be another explosion. Leareth expected I would face assassination attempts if the gods saw any way to succeed.:

:Did he, er, say why he thought the gods would be so bent on killing you? Even if They're - if They don't mind killing people - it still sounds like They would have to go to some effort for it, and - just, why?: 

:A very good question. Even at home, though, the gods send an assassin for those prophecied to grow up to threaten them.:

:I mean, I can see why They would go after Leareth, then, but - are you inclined to threaten the gods here?: 

:I don't want to fight with anybody. I do want to introduce Aroden here, and I dislike that you don't have afterlives, and I have some suspicion towards the entity that blew up K'Treva Vale and bet I and it will end up at war.:

That...sounds like a terrifyingly bad idea for Valdemar to be anywhere near, honestly. Kilchas does not say this. 

:So - what do you think makes sense to do next, if you don't want to return to Haven? Have Vanyel come here? Hold a Mindspeech conversation at a distance? ...It's starting to sound like you really ought to speak with the King, but I'm not sure how to make that safe, he doesn't have much Mindspeech range.: And is slowly dying. Rather less slowly, at this point. 

:I can stay somewhere far from civilians and host visitors, but you'd have to decide if it's worth risking Vanyel or the King.:

:I think you'd better talk to Vanyel. But he can have a conversation with you from fifty miles away, and probably should. ...I'll pass word down the relay, that you're - back, and safe. Do you need anything else right now?: 

:I do not. Thank you, and I hope everyone's safe.:

And then to Leareth through the Telepathic Bond, I've conveyed what I intended to. I don't mean to convey to you what they're doing in response, though I am sure you can check for yourself, without their permission, so long as they conceive of themselves as potentially at war. I can answer other questions of yours now, though, if you have thought of any.