Gods can nudge for convenient accidents  Vanyel is going to NOT THINK ABOUT THIS right now. 

"I think the considerations are in favor of trying it," he says quietly. "And, I mean, I did tell Iomedae I would - didn't promise, but - we want her on our side." 

They really do. 

If they can trust her. 

Vanyel...isn't sure it matters whether or not it's a good idea to trust her. They don't have a choice. She can demonstrably do whatever she decides to do, and if Leareth can't stop her then certainly Valdemar doesn't stand a chance. 

"I'm guessing I'm going to need to handle the Gate again," he says wearily. 

"I'm sorry. I think so. Jisa's exhausted, and she's already helping Brightstar with pastwatching, we're running out of time on that window. I, I just - I really don't want to put anything else on him, after..." He trails off. 

He should be there for his children. It hurts, somehow almost more sharply and cleanly than the rest, that he can't because things won't stop happening. 

He can raise a Gate to the message-drop location that he and Leareth agreed on, months ago. Which might turn out to be redundant as soon as he goes to sleep, this is new information if anything is, but - 

- but so was Savil (pain, grief, anger), and the dream didn't come for that. Hasn't come for months, come to think of it. He...should probably at some point try to consider possible reasons why. 

Later. He's too tired for anything more than Gating and then collapsing into bed. 

None of them are thinking. 

Stef can half-sense the pattern of the mistake they're making, and yet he can't step out of it either, any more than he can fly. He is, as usual, hovering and making himself forgettable as he sings away the King's pain, which takes quite a lot of effort these days and leaves little room for thought, and Vanyel's exhausted grief is sucking at him through the lifebond, and - they're making a mistake, it has the quality of itchy frustration that comes with listening to a ballad where the main characters are walking into their doom, looking only straight ahead and not sideways... 

He needs to talk to Van about the afterlives, he didn't miss that flinch, but it feels impossible right now. There's too much weight over both of them. 

Van is tense and miserable enough to hurt himself badly if he tries to Gate right now. Stef will walk with him and the letter to a Work Room, and sing safety and relaxation and nothingcanhurt until the Gate is up and then down and the letter is on the other side. At which point Stef, too, is almost too tired to walk in a straight line. 

They can go to bed. It's not even that late, and tomorrow won't even be any better, but maybe things will just stop happening at least long enough to rest, long enough for Van to find the strength to keep going. 

Night falls early, in the north. It's been dark for candlemarks, and Leareth's initial scry of the message-drop site, in response to the Gate-signature triggering his wards, doesn't show anything except darkness. 

He dispatches one of his Adepts to Gate there immediately. It might be a trap - if anything could prompt Vanyel to use their previously-negotiated neutral channel of communications for an attack, it would be the death of his aunt - but he cannot, at this point, afford to turn down any overtures. And it would be more characteristic of Vanyel to start with a furious message demanding an explanation. He's not going in person, of course, but with reasonable precautions, he places low odds on even a hostile move being irreparably damaging.

Within three minutes he has confirmation that it is, indeed, a letter. Several copies of it, in fact, in separate envelopes and padded boxes around the lonely forest clearing, obviously intended to offer as much redundancy as possible while not actually requiring the chronically personnel-strapped Heralds to raise multiple Gates. 

Ten minutes after that, a clean copy of the letter - he did ask his people to confirm that the letters were all the same one - is on his desk. 

This letter was written with Vanyel's assistance, but I, Iomedae, Knight-Commander of the Knights of Ozem, am the primary author. 

Not, apparently, a letter from Vanyel. Though written and delivered with his assistance, if its claims are to be believed. One line in and he's already so painfully confused. 

I arrived in K'Treva Vale shortly before the explosion, and I think it may have been a response to me, though I don't know how or why.

- what? 

Leareth goes very still, and then reaches out in Mindspeech. :Nayoki. I will have more for you soon, but - there are claims there was an explosion in k'Treva Vale. You have full authorization to use any resources that would help to verify this.: 

Leareth wants her to do WHAT. 

Great. She knows that tone in his mindvoice, and it means there's no point in arguing back that they have no on-the-ground resources in the Pelagirs and how is she even supposed to do this. 

:Of course.: 

I think that I am from another world.

I think that the existence of, and possibility of contact with, my world may change the justification for your war.

That is not where Leareth had expected this to go! He wouldn't even have said he had formed any particular expectations, yet, but this is nonetheless a violent destabilizing blow to everything he thought he already understood about this situation. 

Another world - is that even possible - well, he already knew it was likely that other planets exist. The question is how a person would get between them, and the letter does not actually answer it, or - so far - specify whether it was deliberate or an accident. 

...It's also not at all the kind of thing he would have expected Vanyel, let alone any of the Heralds, to come up with as a fake story in order to distract or mislead Leareth. It's honestly not a bad choice, as a distraction, it's something that if it were true would change everything and so Leareth can't afford not to redirect substantial resources into checking it, but - that isn't how the Heralds think. Vanyel knows him well enough to predict his reactions, but it's - not his style - not in itself a knockdown argument, given that this being the truth is also implausible, and 'Vanyel invented this story' isn't an explanation complete enough to leave Leareth with fewer questions - 

Keep reading. Leareth is not expecting the rest of the letter to leave him with fewer questions either but it's still information. 

I think that it will be much costlier for you to go to war with Valdemar while I am inclined to defend them against conquest. I am so inclined. 

This is less confusing! In either of the two main deeply-implausible scenarios, actually.

It's the obvious thing for Vanyel to try to convince Leareth of, that invading Valdemar (which Vanyel probably assumes is about to happen, and Leareth is intensely frustrated about this) is costlier than Leareth had expected. 

And...it's not a surprising conclusion for an alien magic user from another world to come to, either, that Leareth is the one in the wrong. Powerful mages with armies moving to conquer kingdoms are usually the ones in the wrong, on outside view. Leareth is fully aware of that. 

My presence on a battlefield is usually decisive. 

...Also an obvious claim to make, in either case. Which doesn't make it much less startling. Even Vanyel can only debatably take on an entire army on an entire battlefield, if he's not intending to die for it. 

Vanyel has explained your grievances with the local gods and some, to me, seem legitimate.

What. 

...Maybe it shouldn't be as surprising as it is. If anything, it would be less surprising in the bizarre scenario where this is a ruse of Vanyel's design. Vanyel himself has some sympathy for Leareth's grievances, if not for his chosen response to them. 

And if it's really someone from another world... Well, it depends what 'Iomedae' is like as a person, doesn't it. But - it might be easier for a true outsider, someone seeing the world with fresh eyes, to look at the actions of the Velgarth gods and see their cost in human suffering. 

In the interests of honesty I must disclose that I am a selected follower of the god Aroden in my own world

Which is the first claim that very definitely doesn't read like a story designed to elicit Leareth's sympathy and curiosity, and convince him that 'Iomedae' is someone who he should highly prioritize trying to work with. Does that make it more likely that the story is, instead, just the truth? ...He's not sure. There are still too many moving pieces. 

part of an institution by which the gods select specific people who are then highly trusted and highly reliable, and given positions of authority accordingly. This system is like the heralds in some respects, but were Aroden to renounce me I would be only an ordinary amount of grieved by this, I can renounce Him if I cease to believe that serving Him is the best path for me to achieve the goals I believe I share with Him

Fascinating. And...back to feeling like a claim shaped to be convincing to Leareth personally, maybe? - Sort of, at least. The particular extent to which it's both oddly detailed and very underspecified doesn't feel like something Vanyel would have come up with. 

and I can fight the gods if it seems like a good idea (which it does, for some gods and some fights).

What. 

- why is that as shocking as it is? It doesn't not fit, with either scenario, and yet. It still leaves him off-balance, metaphorically dizzy with it. 

The grievances about the conduct of the gods that were explained to me do not seem to be to be applicable to Aroden.

 

Aroden was a human once, and he represents that ascension did not change what he strived for, or his commitment to dealing rightly by others. 

What.

Aroden ascended without killing other people, by a mechanism called the Starstone that remains in our world and still functions. Others have used it to ascend after Him. 

It's still too much to absorb. It's overwhelming and huge and Leareth is not really used to feeling overwhelmed, anymore. He knows he needs to be processing this, fitting it together and narrowing down his notes of confusion, and he - can't, yet - his mind is running into a wall, there's too much to hold onto at once. 

He does know that it's possible to ascend a human mind to godhood, and possible to do so while keeping the core values intact. Vanyel knows this as well. Vanyel has a very very good sense - to the extent he's willing to take any of what Leareth's ever said to him at face value, at least - of just how desperately Leareth wants another way. 

Aroden cannot operate in this world at this time. 

- it seems more likely than not that if this were a ruse, they would have been claiming that this 'Aroden' could operate here? ...He's not sure. That consideration is also starting to feel too hard to keep track of, there are too many pieces, a truly absurd amount of complex new information crammed into a single sheet of paper, and he doesn't know what it means, his thoughts bounce away from drawing any clear inferences and back into the growing pit of confusion

I will likely take steps to change that. You could ask me not to do that, if it seems to you that it might have greatly negative effects. 

...Huh. 

That's - another note that feels more surprising than it maybe should. Leareth doesn't know what to make of it. 

In my world, the dead are sorted according to their character and then go to the Outer Planes, where they can live forever. Many of the Outer Planes including Aroden's are paradises. (Some are not. We are working on fixing that.) I am grieved to learn that this is not so in your world, and would be willing to work with you on finding a way to fix that, though not through conquest and mass human sacrifice. Introducing Aroden on this world might do it.

....Leareth has emotions about this. 

It's - he doesn't have the time or the spare mental capacity to dig into it, but he can't afford not to either, it's intensely distracting. 

The closest he can compare it to is the way he felt when Vanyel spoke to him, after a year of silence while he traveled on his fact-finding mission. I’m sorry about how it ended. You made mistakes, but you were trying your best, and I don’t think his death was really your fault. I know you cared about him. Words he had never expected to hear from anyone, and Vanyel showing him a memory of a memory of Urtho's face. A precious gift form his past, unasked. 

He's confused, too, but there's barely any space for the confusion, tangled up behind - awe, and pain, and agonizing hope he hadn't imagined was possible. 

- and he can't just sit here stunned, he's somehow only halfway through the letter and who knows what else is still waiting to hit him over the head. 

I have no desire for war. It is among the most tragic of human endeavors. I have been at war for nearly all my life and am very good at it. I am immune to compulsions. I am immune to fear. I have other forms of protection against magical attack which I do not expect at this time it's a good idea to specify. I do not know of a good basis for comparison across worlds, but in my own world the only powers that could survive in my presence on the battlefield for six seconds are halfway to being gods.

It's a paragraph that reads oddly, somehow. Or - it's not the first time he's noticed the oddness, but something about this is making it click, leaving him with the powerful sense that he's missing cultural context. That this letter is written, carefully, according to long-held and carefully shaped conventions that are entirely outside his experience. 

I survived the K'Treva Vale explosion and believe that I would survive a Final Strike for the same reason. If you wish to test this I request that you notify me in advance so I can go somewhere where your attempt will not cause civilian casualties. I will take no precautions against assassination on receiving such notice that I wasn't taking already, except for avoiding civilians.

Maybe he's imagining it. But...it feels very far outside of Vanyel's skillset and level of political situation, to - what - draw up a mental model of a different world's diplomacy with enough believably alien details in it to hint at? 

He doesn't know what to think. 

- aside from, well, 'Iomedae' survived what? 

The communications in this message are intended as part of a peace negotiation. Were we negotiating by the norms of the world I am from, that would have the following implications: I will, to the best of my abilities, not position myself to make inferences about your capabilities from the timing and process for the exchange of letters, and not use the contents against the aims of the peace process. I will not harm your agents in the course of their operations related to these negotiations. 

...And this part makes for strange reading, because it feels like something that - in another time and place, in a version of his life that had gone rather differently - is something that Leareth himself might write. An echo of recognition, even familiarity, reflected across an alien mirror...

If you provide information or resources conditional on my agreement to terms I do not agree to, I will send them back. I will not lie. I will attest to the contents of this letter under truth magic, as relevant; I will swear not only that this communication is true to the best of my knowledge, but that the best of my knowledge is very good; that when I make claims in contexts like this one I am usually correct.

If anything about the letter can be taken at face value, then - then 'Iomedae' of the 'Knights of Ozem' is someone Leareth can work with. And - if the most shocking claims are true, then figuring out how to work with Iomedae might be the most important thing imaginable. 

If you were to, for example, take this peace communication as a prompt to attempt to kidnap me, before knowledge of me would otherwise have reached you, this would be, in the terms familiar in my world, indicative that this kind of mutually cooperative and Lawful interaction will not work. I mostly expect that, regardless of your intent, this negotiation will not proceed along the terms familiar for Lawful negotiation in my own world, because we are alien to each other, and nearly certain to face much mutual incomprehension. But I am trying to make this negotiation possible for you and advantageous for you, and will do so past the first several points where it seems to me you are not doing the same. 

Well. That's exactly the kind of thing you say, if you know Leareth well, to convince him not to even try the obvious path, which is tracking down and containing Iomedae long enough to learn more. 

Which, you know, he's not sure he can do. Because either all of this is fake - in which case 'Iomedae' doesnt' exist, and this baffling ruse is presumably part of an incomprehensible multilayered godplot that may have been in motion for decades - or else it's real, and so are Iomedae's claimed capabilities, including categorical immunity to mind control and the ability to survive a Final Strike. 

What now. 

...Leareth is not, in fact, taking any of this at face value yet. But it almost doesn't matter for his initial response. There are godplots afoot and he doesn't understand their end goal, and - 

- and he hadn't intended to move this winter, not when he and Vanyel were so close. The cost of delaying is greater each year but it was a decision he had already made. The fact that the gods are trying to force his hand, now, means that They must have seen, in the tangled web of futures, that there was a chance he might succeed. 

He has absolutely no interest in being steered into mutual destruction.

And, well, provisionally responding to this in the way he would if he were seriously considering that it's true also isn't a terrible way to learn more, in the scenario where it's not. 

He has a letter to write, then, and it's going to call for a lot of care and attention. (Just like the letter he just received.) 

In the meantime, does Nayoki have any updates for him? He'll summarize the rest of the letter to her in a moment, but - it's complicated. 

...Not really. (He did just hand her an impossible task less than twenty minutes ago.) 

Their spies in Haven have limited visibility into the Heralds' work at all, and certainly into their secret operations. Approximately all they know for sure is that there were several unscheduled Gates, not using the permanent Gate-terminus, and a number of Heralds seem to have been pulled off their usual duties. 

In addition to the Gate that triggered the initial alarm at the message-drop site, their sole mage-gifted spy on the ground in northern Valdemar also detected several unexpected Gates. From a great enough distance that they didn't get an exact tracing of the location, but given the severe Herald-Mage shortage, it's almost certainly related. They'll try to narrow it down with scry-coverage but there's really quite a lot of northern Valdemaran forest. 

They're trying to get scry-coverage of the Pelagirs, but there's sort of a lot of Pelagirs to cover, and they don't have reliable intelligence on the current location of k'Treva Vale. Vales move, and even Valdemar doesn't have an up to date map, since all travel to-and-from is by direct Gate. 

Can he please tell her what's going on.