And Iomedae takes a deep breath. "Apparently Cheliax is planning to try to kidnap me with a Wish during the broadcast tomorrow. Probably just as - Freedom - because I was mean to them on the radio, they probably don't know any of the rest, but -"

Alfirin throws her arms around Iomedae. "They can do that? No, it's not - it's not fair."

Iomedae bursts into tears. "It's not fair. It's really scary. I didn't know magic could - without even knowing where you are, or who you are - I wasn't even sure wishes were a real thing -"

"Is Lastwall going to - can they stop it? They're going to stop it, right?"

"They seemed to think they could probably stop it. …but also they thought that if we did have time to make an explosive vest it'd be a good idea."

"No no no no - I mean - I can do it, probably. I just -"

"I know. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't - I don't think I'm sorry I said the things I said but I should've - known first what might happen - they can raise me right away, if I do die -"

"Okay. We can get you back. If anything goes wrong which it probably won't. We'll get you back. We will."

"I love you," Iomedae says, which is not a thing they've said to each other before but comes out of her mouth ahead of all the things she meant to say.

"I love you. I'm really scared. I can't - I can't lose you. I don't know what I'd do."

"You're not going to lose me. Lastwall can protect me, and worst case, I'll explode on them and Lastwall will raise me. And absolute worst case the goddess Iomedae will probably intervene, because She can't afford to have Cheliax capture me either. It's going to fail, and it's going to make Cheliax look stupid and weak, and it's going to make them actually weaker since they can't use the Wish to do anything else. …but I'm scared too. Because - because I didn't know this was possible at all, and -"

"And there could be another dozen things like it, that we don't know about yet and won't until -"

"Yeah. I don't know how they found out this time. But they're probably not perfect at it. I can wear an explosive vest all the time, though it makes stupid workplace accidents a lot likelier and stupider. …they're also going to try to protect you tomorrow, just in case, though we don't think Cheliax knows it might want to target you."

"...Okay." The prospect of being kidnapped herself is not that much scarier on top of the prospect of Iomedae being taken. "So… two explosive vests? Or are there more?"

"There are other targets. I don't know how many, or if - gods. The explosive vests show our hand to Cheliax to some degree. I'm not sure if that's worth it for all of the targets. I guess that's Cansellarion's decision. Let's figure out how many we can make tonight and then he can figure out how to allocate them."

"I mean. I don't have C4. They're going to be some stupid jerry-rigged sack of gunpowder and greek fire…no wearing one all the time. Can do three or four maybe." Except that she'd have to let go of Iomedae to do those and that feels terrifying right now.

Hughughug. "I don't know if that gives Cheliax ideas or not. Probably not to an important degree. Glad it's not my decision. I wish I was the kind of paladin who isn't scared, it's really distracting being this scared - I'm going to need to do something so I don't sound scared on the show tomorrow -"

"Might be a spell for that. While Lastwall's putting spells on you anyways."

Iomedae goes to find Cansellarion in the extremely early morning to tell him there are four vests, and ask if there's a spell for not sounding scared on the radio. Also she'd like to know if it'll feel like anything, when it happens, and if it's all right for her to react on radio or if she's supposed to pretend she didn't notice. 

"Anyone who could resist a wish transporting them would notice… I don't know if you'd notice if it just didn't work because you were in the Dome in Sothis… I will ask Morgethai that when she gets here to cast some of the spells. If they think we're broadcasting from the Dome then maybe they won't guess that we knew, so if Morgethai thinks you wouldn't notice then you should try not to react."

She nods. Doesn't reiterate the question about not sounding scared because he's probably very busy, though the sounding-scared is noticeable every time she opens her mouth. "That was all."

"It's going to be okay. We have quite a few protections to put on you, and if they don't work we'll get you back… Some of them will help with the fear, too."

"I don't want - you should only get me back if it's worth it. You probably should because it'll be very bad if Cheliax knows the things I know, but - the important thing is winning the war."

"I know. We're going to get you back because that will help us win the war - well. We're going to try quite hard."

Iomedae nods. And then leaves, because he's really probably quite busy and she has a broadcast to prepare, even if her heart isn't entirely in it.