Iomedae is trying to think like a god.

She's already tried thinking like a mortal about everything she's seen since she came here - the conversation with Starwind, the destruction of the village, the miserable day in the forest, the conversation with Vanyel and his song-sorcerer to whom he is magically bonded. There's a lot to think about, but surprisingly little to productively think about. Either Vanyel is being basically truthful, or he isn't; most likely someone ordered the village destroyed in response to her, and either it was Leareth or it wasn't; either Leareth is as he presents himself, a humanitarian sort of Evil archmage, and will back down when presented with an alternative, or he isn't and won't.

(Would Alfirin, were she a thousand years into a plot to create ascension at unfathomable cost in a world that had only ancient alien gods, back down because Iomedae arrived from another world claiming there was another way? ....depends, a great deal, on what method she chose to endure a thousand years so she could do it. And on how much she was giving up by backing down. And on whether the cost still felt unfathomable, after that much time fathoming it.)

So thinking like a mortal grinds into 'this is very confusing', and Iomedae has decided to abandon it in favor of thinking like a god. To think of a god is to fragment questions down into floating tiny subquestions, and then assemble them back up from there. It's very meditative. She's fragmented the whole conversation with Vanyel, all the bits that could have been lies, asking for each of them what features they'd give the world around them, what further lies would be needed to maintain them -

- doing this makes it very clear that Vanyel is a very unusual person, as you might expect from a - 

- from a paladin of a god that prohibits challenging the gods. Because that's what this is, isn't it, taken at face value. A god that is maybe Good in some ways, but a god who you cannot survive renouncing and who isn't good enough and who will nearly renounce you for wondering if Leareth has a point. 

It is a kind of slavery, however gentle and however often genuinely Good. It is - something that can only ever nourish human potential up to the point where humans start writing screeds against the divine, as they do, as is their fundamental birthright and entitlement. Something that has to prune them, the way the fear of damnation prunes people but even worse, because at least you don't face damnation for saying that wresting creation from Pharasma would be worth paying almost anything short of what it would almost certainly in reality cost.

From a human perspective it felt like there were lots of possible explanations but when she thinks about it in fragments reassembled it - doesn't, actually. It feels like the area where the truth sits is already pinned down. 

It turns out that when she looks at the world like a god she's surprisingly sympathetic to the guy who wants to murder millions of people. 

...There are a lot of risks to be considered, if Leareth is about to raise a Gate to 'Iomedae''s current location. 

The main considerations are: 

- That someone will personally blast his Gate? He's - mostly not that worried about it; he's very very fast at Gates, and one of the few people who could probably survive a direct strike on a small and distant Gate-threshold. He could decrease the risk to himself by putting someone else on it, but overall that feels like it would trade off 'risk to Leareth' against 'probability that a message reaches 'Iomedae' at all', and - if she's really from another world, which he is taking significantly more seriously as a hypothesis now that he's seen what she's wearing with mage-sight - then that also makes the rest much less implausible, and so - it's worth that risk. 

- That it will look like escalation to the Heralds. This is a more serious consideration. But he did, already, decide to drop some letters over Haven directly. ...And, separately, is fairly sure now that no one is actually watching this situation closely enough to assume that he's trying to kidnap Iomedae, and react accordingly, before they learn of it via talking to Iomedae herself. 

There are a lot of other considerations but they're secondary, and Leareth is kind of in a hurry because the longer he waits, the longer the gods have to figure out countermeasures. 

- and so a tiny Gate goes up, directly above Iomedae's head - Leareth hadn't wanted to take the risk of dropping it nearby, she might not have mage-sight at all and certainly may not be actively looking around with it - and a letter falls through and then the Gate is down. 

If he's scrying, he can watch her startle with impossibly good reflexes, leap to her feet -

- pick it up -

- and sigh. Because she can't read this language. 

And Kilchas, ensconced in a Work Room - the shields on which he is keyed to, and can reach through to stay in a Mindspeech link with Sandra - is now midway through reading the letter. 

....What. 

:I don't trust him.: 

That is not even slightly surprising. 

:I'm sure Iomedae doesn't either! It's pretty self-evident! ....I think we should let her make her own assessment of it.: 

:You're going to get yourself killed if you raise a Gate over there.: Either by Leareth or just by, you know, the fact that he's not young and has some health issues - both of them do - and it's a long way. 

:Can't anyway, haven't ever been there. ....Reckon it's worth waking Van, though, he - he'd want to know.: 

Sandra kind of wishes she had a counterargument to that but she doesn't, actually. 

Herald-Mage Tamara doesn't really have an assigned circuit, right now, the Heraldic deployments have been a mess. She was investigating an (in hindsight minor and unimportant) issue with Changecreatures in the Deedun region. 

- and now she's getting a Web-alarm, which is informing her very loudly that there was a foreign-and-presumably-hostile Gate just raised in - vaguely that direction - 

She's not really sure what she's supposed to do about that! She isn't a powerful enough mage to Gate that distance even if she had a Gate-terminus there, which she doesn't. 

She - can have her Companion send a panicked message to Rolan....? 

And Vanyel is startled awake by a Mindtouch from Yfandes. 

:- I'm sorry, Chosen. Reply from Leareth. ...He apparently dropped it in a box on Haven. Kilchas has it.: 

He did what– ...you know what, fair enough, Vanyel did not think to ask anyone to keep an eye on the message-drop site, and it's outside the Web, there wouldn't have been any other warning about it. 

:Tell him I'll be right there.: 

:....I have a bad feeling about this, Chosen.: 

Vanyel has been having a bad feeling about all of this for days. He really isn't sure it's Leareth's fault. He mostly doesn't want to have to think about it. 

:- Honestly I think we should leave it up to Iomedae how to respond?: He's - you know what he's not going to put boots on. He's kind of in a hurry. 

Stef rolls over. "Van? mff'what...?" 

:Leareth sent a reply. ...Apparently he was in a hurry, he dropped it through a Gate over here, instead of waiting for us to get around to checking the message-drop location.: 

He's already out the door. 

It's got to be the middle of the night still. Why are they - 

- Stef will chase after him. 

:Dara. Wake up.: 

Hngghwhat okay great she's awake. It's probably urgent. There's a lot of that going around right now. 

:What is it?: 

And Vanyel flings himself off Yfandes' back and sprints into Kilchas' Work Room. 

:I guess you should tell me what's in the letter, but - honestly I think we should just make sure Iomedae has it. ...And, er, she doesn't natively speak our language. I - shouldn't - but if I Gate you there, do you mind -?: 

Vanyel wants him to do what. 

:This seems like a terrible idea!: 

But, see, he's incredibly curious. And...impressed, honestly, it sounds like this woman thinks she can fight Leareth. Maybe reasonably so, given that she survived - whatever even happened to k'Treva - 

:Van thinks she wants to help us, and - it's not like I'm ready to just believe any of what Leareth wrote, but she should see it...?: 

:- Van, I think there are other copies in Companions' Field. He dropped a few boxes, I just grabbed one of them.: