That was a pile of fascinating new concepts that Vanyel would, under normal conditions, have so many followup questions about! 

...Right now he's mostly taking it as evidence that Iomedae is, in fact, from sufficiently far away that she probably doesn't know of Leareth, and isn't his agent, and - also might know a lot that would be of great value to Valdemar in fighting Leareth 

(if they're in the world where Leareth is their enemy, but Vanyel has several internal flinches away from thinking about that, right now, because Savil is dead and he doesn't understand how or why or whose fault it could be if it's not Leareth's doing and he's notthinkingaboutthat right now because if he starts he might cry for the next week -) 

Focus. 

:Right: he sends. :I - sorry - I wish you could've arrived at...at a better time. But - we're probably about to be at war. ...I should give you some context, I think, and - I guess ask if you're willing to help us.: 

:I would appreciate that context. May I cast a truth spell of my own?:

Interesting that she can cast a Truth Spell, presumably because it's a spell her god gave her? 

:That's fine.: 

(GRUMP Vanyel keeps forgetting that this entire conversation is happening in Mindspeech and Stef has no idea what's going on except for what he can pick up through the lifebond. Which...is mostly that Vanyel is tired - not news - and not alarmed, and maybe vaguely hopeful? So that's - well, it could be worse.) 

Well, actually, once she's cast her Truth Spell she's going to grow her angel wings back out and start speaking aloud. "The truth spell that I know only works on spoken words, if you don't mind speaking aloud?"

She just did WHAT. Wow. That's - gorgeous and fascinating and Stef has so many questions and he really hopes Vanyel will get those questions answered so he can write an epic ballad about this. ...Later, obviously. The time for writing epic ballads is after the existential threat to the kingdom is dealt with. Just. He's thinking ahead, right? 

Vanyel takes a deep breath. 

"Leareth is a powerful immortal mage who, er, I'm pretty sure he did something horrible to be immortal but that's not really the point. I - started having a Foresight dream about him almost twenty years ago, where I was fighting him off," dying, but he isn't going to say that out loud, "from conquering Valdemar. 

"...And, er, a few years after that, it turned out we were both in the Foresight dream and could have conversations. So we've - been doing that, for most of the last twenty years. He's– I mean, I guess he's what you'd expect of someone two thousand years old. Very - competent at things, very persuasive when he wants to be," though in hindsight it doesn't really feel like 'persuasion' was the only thing Leareth was aiming at, but Vanyel isn't going to say that out loud either. 

"- He said he wants to fix everything. He - he was eventually willing to tell me that the reason he wants our kingdom is to, to build an empire with a high enough population that he can. Um. Can sacrifice ten million people to build a god. A better god. He....doesn't approve of any of the local ones. Apparently.

"- we were in the middle of negotiating for - something better than that - but we haven't spoken in a few months, and, er. A lot of things just happened. That make me think that he's - given up on negotiations and decided to just invade." 

That was probably a terrible explanation but, in fairness, Vanyel is having a bad day. 

" - do you want some of the magical healing?" she asks quietly. "It helps with - exhaustion.

I am inclined to help you in your war. I would - want to write to this Leareth first."

Vanyel's Truth Spell is still active (it doesn't have a set duration, he has to decide to release it.) 

"Does your Healing have any side effects? Do you, er, intend the offer of Healing in good faith?" The second one feels like a spectacularly rude question but he really should ask. 

(He really should. Stef, so far, likes Iomedae quite a lot and does not trust her even slightly.) 

"The healing has no side effects except removing exhaustion, sickness, injury, poisoning, organ damage, and so on, and regrowing amputated body parts. It doesn't permit me any power over those who are healed. My only intention in offering it was to demonstrate it, and make you less exhausted for what seems like a very high stakes conversation. I intend to work with you in good faith. I'm confused and suspicious about this entire situation, but - I'm not going to stand by and let ten million people die for a human sacrifice operation because I'm very confused."

Her Healing can do WHAT that's not how anything works! Stef isn't a Healer but he's still pretty sure he knows that isn't how anything works! 

...She's neat, though, he likes her. That was a good speech. He should try to memorize some quotes for future ballads. It doesn't permit me any power over those who are healed / My only intention in offering it was to demonstrate it. What rhythms with 'demonstrate'....?

Vanyel nods. "Thank you. ...I think you're right, this - is really high stakes." It's the most high-stakes decision he's ever had to deal with, possibly the most high-stakes decision in Valdemar's history, and he hates it but it's not like his feelings on things have ever mattered. 

"I should ration the healing, with how Aroden doesn't refresh it here, but - I suspect I can figure something out, in the long run, and a lot more people are going to die than my healing can save, if there was a way to avert this war and we don't see it."

...And there's a deep sense of - recognition, there, of feeling like she understands, she's - trying to balance the resources she has and the constraints she faces, even knowing as little as she does - and of course she could be showing that to him on purpose, as a method of persuasion, but it - feels like the sort of thing he's thought about Leareth, sometimes, that it would be so much harder to fake it than to actually, just, care, and do it for real...

- and he's already asked her the questions that really matter under Truth Spell, it's not like it's decision-relevant whether the thing she just said makes him feel seen and understood, whether or not that was deliberate and strategic on her part. 

"Yes. ...I'm sorry. That you - don't have access to all the magic you're used to." It's hard to even imagine, actually - what would he do, if he only had a limited number of levinbolts and shields he could cast, ever, or at least for the indefinite future...

"Well, with your government's permission, after the war is avoided or won, I'll see if I can get a church of Aroden set up here, and maybe then He'll be able to function normally." And she extends her hand to offer the Lay On Hands.

...You can totally kill people with Healing. (Vanyel has done it.) But if Iomedae wanted to kill him, then she could have done it ten minutes ago. 

Vanyel extends his hand. 

She just heals him. A powerful paladin's lay on hands can soothe quite a lot, though not all of the things that Vanyel in particular has going on right now.

He feels remarkably better - nothing is fundamentally different, but it feels like having slept enough and eaten enough for the last month except even moreso or at least more than he's ever experienced before. 

"- Thank you," he says, trying - harder than he realized he would need to - to say it calmly and with his usual level of composure. "I - we were talking about you wanting to write to Leareth? - I do have an arrangement with him on exchanging messages but I've never, er, used it before. And - I think I'd want to read over whatever you want to send to him, if you don't mind." 

"Absolutely. I know almost nothing about this situation and I understand there are many ways that a letter can make things worse, most obviously by alerting Leareth that I'm here and he should do something about that. But it is the custom of the religious order of which I am a member that we war only openly, having made fully clear our demands, our decisive reasoning, and by what avenue our enemies could pursue a peace, and so I'll write a letter. 

In my world men can become gods. I do not particularly desire to offer godhood to a man who seems disturbingly willing to murder millions of people in pursuit of it, and I don't know if it's possible to access my world at all. But - if you think he's sincerely doing this in the pursuit of godhood, and was at least for a while open to another way - we do have one."

Wow. ...Stef is not going to ask any of his dozens of questions right now because it's a bad time but 'in my world, men can become gods' is SUCH juicy ballad material. 

...Vanyel nods. 

"I think– ...I'm not sure how good a read I have on him, but - if I've understood him right at all - then I think he pretty badly wants a - better way. Definitely something better than conquering Valdemar, I - I have the sense our conversations all along have been him trying to - figure out if we can work together somehow instead of that. I - we haven't really talked about alternatives to the - ten million people -" because it would mean revealing secrets that Leareth could, in the world where Vanyel is misreading his intentions, use to conquer Valdemar and consolidate his power forever, "- but - in the scenario where I'm...guessing right about what he wants...he would ver badly want alternatives. I think. ....I'm sorry I can't give you better guesses." 

" - well. We can tell him that I'm from another world; it'll be hard to hide anyway once he's seen me in battle. And we can tell him that if he wants to find another way, my world might suggest some possibilities, but he'll have to - what concrete demands does Valdemar have of him at this time? You fear an invasion, but his troops are all in his territory at this time?"

"....As far as we know? His territory is, er, north of the Ice Wall Mountains, it's - we really don't have good intelligence on his movements. He definitely hasn't invaded Valdemar yet." That, at least, they would have noticed. Almost certainly. 

"- I, uh, think our concrete demands are that we don't want him using our population for blood-sacrifice, but that's - I think he wasn't going to be ready to actually do that for a few decades anyway." 

...Vanyel takes another deep breath. "...And, uh, I'm - not, actually, sure that the recent - things that happened - were his doing. I don't have any other explanation but it - doesn't make a lot of sense, strategically, for him to have done it? ...And I wouldn't have said before now that I thought he could destroy k'Treva Vale. That's the - it's in the core territory of the Star-Eyed Goddess. I'm pretty sure he's claimed before that he couldn't operate without interference from Her in the Pelagirs." 

(Or in the Dhorisha Plains, and - there are real implications there, if Leareth had the ability to defy the Star-Eyed all along then surely Vanyel wouldn't have been the first person to, after two thousand years, show him a memory of Urtho's face...) 

"Well, I'm willing to notify him that I presently intend to defend Valdemar from an invasion, but if he's presently in his own territory I'm also not going to help you invade him - not because you wouldn't have good reason, under the described circumstances, but because I can't myself under these circumstances arrive at enough confidence in what's going on to be comfortable invading another country."