Leareth picks a spot from a map, on the northwestern edge of the barrier, where neither side should be particularly inhabited. He scries ahead.  Confirms that there’s nothing much to be seen except dense boreal forest on both sides of a wall that shimmers like a translucent soap-bubble to ordinary sight and blazes almost too bright to look at in mage-sight.

He sets his Gate fifty paces back, more on engrained habit than because he expects an ambush.

The forest is very quiet. Vkandis does not immediately smite them when they step across. 

And Leareth walks forward, without hesitating, the internal screaming quieted to a whimper. 

He’s also reaching for a particular mindset — not one of prayer or supplication, but still rather different from his usual way of operating. He’s put in place some basic contingencies - a team of his best mages stained on fast unscaffolded Gates are watching the site through scrying - but, here and now, he’s not focused at all on trying to protect himself. He’s not carrying a weapon. Obviously that barely matters, when he can’t actually decline to bring his mage-gift, but if he could intentionally set down the ability to cast offensive magic twenty paces back and approach the barrier without it, he would, and that’s the intention hr’s holding. 

(He wonders, in a brief flicker, if this is what it might have felt like to Ma’ar if he had known that the terrifying-but-worth-it path to end the war was to pull back his army and offer Urtho his unconditional surrender.)

Leareth stops a step back from the barrier, letting it fill his mage-sight, and - holds out his hand, not quite touching it - 

Wryly: I know we have disagreed on many things. But I believe we have either a common enemy, now, or - a shared ally.

I am here to ask if You know which.

(And does Karal have anything to add?)

Is it really that simple, to speak with a god?  Of course Leareth would think so.  And maybe right now it will be.  Karal's own mind is closer to the remembered prayers of the past - only the ones he could still truthfully mean now, but there are some.  Acknowledgment, respect, asking for guidance in a dilemma.  But if Leareth wants to have this conversation himself, then Karal will keep his thoughts quiet in the background, until Leareth asks otherwise.

You haven't known Leareth as anything but an enemy.  I don't know if You understand him - I don't know if You tried, or if You can.  But I think You can see me well enough, and I hope You will believe me when I say he is a man worth speaking with.  He keeps his mind as open as he knows how, not just his thoughts but everything he is, clear to see - his earlier life in Karse following the god's precepts, his current one, how he came to be here.  He is Leareth's, and so Leareth is the kind of man who someone like him could swear his life to.  Leareth means well in coming here, and is telling the truth, and from everything Karal knows about them both, the possibility of an alliance is genuine and valuable, if things are bad enough to warrant it.

…And there’s suddenly a Presence, vast and bright and alien. Reaching out, with - not gentleness exactly, but a surprising amount of precision - for, apparently, Karal specifically.

(Vkandis doesn’t actually have enough remit over Leareth to communicate very easily, including to figure out what the particularly irritating soul is doing here. Vkandis is really quite frustrated about - well, a lot of elements, but particularly the fact that He agreed not to make the new powerful entity use its resources to prevent Him from killing any mortals, since its resources are adequate to do that but it be wasteful for all parties.)

The touch of the Presence against Karal’s mind isn’t actually in words, and it hurts, but somehow it’s closer to words than one might expect, and it hurts less than it seems like it ought to.

WHY ARE YOU HERE? Or maybe not quite that; it’s as though a cluster of questions are superimposed, like an optical illusion. Karal will pick up a sense that the blazing Presence is confused - treading carefully despite being frustrated about this - not threatened but maybe affronted in some way that might be aimed at Leareth and might be aimed at Sing, or maybe both…

It feels right that it hurts, and nothing in Karal's mind backs away from the pain, or from the overwhelming strangeness of the contact.  He is not the Sunlord's any more, but after all of his old life he can't help but be glad to just once feel Him directly.  The body isn't his, and right now he's not sure he could feel it if it was, but there is a bow in his mental posture - he isn't Leareth, to speak to the gods like equals, even if he no longer follows Them.

He's not sure if words mean anything to the god, but it feels... respectful, and clarifying, to compose sentences and use them as a scaffold on which to hold the meaning and context clear in his mind.

To ask if the strange new intelligence is lying to us.  If it is, if it's some great evil only pretending to mean well for everyone, You might know, where we can't.  And You might help, if there was something we could do against it together but not separately.  The respect and hope in his mind's voice are true - Leareth meant it, when he said they could be allies, genuinely serving their shared goals against an enemy they both agree is worse.  But first they would need to know whether it is such an enemy, and that is what they came to ask, of a god who sees more than they can.

(For the first time since he woke up in Karal’s body, Leareth finds himself unable to read Karal’s thoughts. There’s a blazing wall in his mind, as though the two of them are somehow on different sides of the Ifteli barrier. He’s barely aware of his surroundings through the painful brightness and heat of it.

He stays on his feet, barely. He doesn’t panic-Gate out, even though he’s having to stomp on the reflex to do so. They’re not actually on fire and it seems like…maybe…the plan they came for here is working?

It was worth risking death to find out the truth. It’s worth bearing whatever this is. Which doesn’t make it any easier, but Leareth does have centuries of practice at enduring things that hurt.)

Vkandis - seems to pause, pull back a little, there’s a distant sense of huge alien thoughts being - shuffled, broken down into pieces Karal can engage with -

Vkandis doesn’t know if the new entity is lying to them! That isn’t the level on which Vkandis perceives the world. Vkandis barely has an understanding of what mortals being lied to or lying to each other is.

The new entity isn’t an ally. It cares about baffling things and is being incredibly disruptive in pursuing them. But Vkandis is disinclined to ally with the other one (it’s clear from context that He means Leareth) for - well, multiple reasons, the other one is frustrating and just because the new entity is also very irritating, and not leaving the gods with much of a choice about tolerating it, does not leave Vkandis inclined to embrace more of that. 

…But, also, it’s not an enemy. And it’s - being more helpful than it could be. It’s trying to mitigate the Foresight noise by providing other kinds of visibility, and it’s trying very hard to make itself legible and explain the why rather than make arbitrary demands. It has managed to convey that it wants to definitely avoid [a wall of DARKNESS and CHAOS and threads of Foresight brutally torn apart].

(From context it seems fairly clear that this is a godmemory of the Cataclysm.)

That’s - worth a lot.

Vkandis tried to negotiate with it to have it stop the other one from doing more things, since it keeps stopping Them from doing things it doesn’t like and it seemed like maybe it wouldn’t like the things that the other one does either? It didn’t seem able to understand yet, though; it’s very strange, and it does seem to be trying very hard to understand everything Vkandis and the other gods are trying to convey, but it’s - still learning.

But maybe (- there’s the sense of a new and not entirely comfortable motion here -) they could approach it as a trade? And the other one could consider not doing any more things in return for Vkandis providing all of this information? 

Karal apologizes for phrasing his questions in baffling ways.  He knows nothing about how gods think, but he will try to learn.

It is very good to know that the new entity is not an enemy, and wants to avoid a new disaster.  Karal appreciates being told of it.  Might Vkandis tell him what sorts of baffling things the new entity cares about or dislikes?

Then Vkandis mentions a trade, and Karal tries to look away from the blazing Presence and see Leareth's thoughts - which he hadn't even realized he lost track of, but it's so incredibly hard to pay attention to anything but the god...  Without his oath he doesn't think he would have managed to tear his thoughts away and try to look in the metaphorical other direction.

And in the metaphorical other direction there's nothing but a wall of fire.

He cannot sense Leareth at all - he's felt that before, he knows Leareth can hide from him, but surely he wouldn't do that now-- what's happening-- is Leareth still alive, is his first panicked thought, could the Sunlord had killed him while Karal wasn't even looking--

- No, that makes no sense with the trade proposal, unless Someone else did it, and that would be too much of a strange coincidence.  And they brought other people with them, surely someone would have managed something--

He can't see out of his eyes or feel his body either, now that he thinks to try it.  So either the Sunlord doesn't want him talking to Leareth, or this is simply how talking to gods works - and either way he should stop this and go back to the extremely important thing they had come here to do, which would have been worth doing even if Leareth did die for it.

There's a moment of sharp fear at needing to navigate this on his own.  But Leareth would tell him he can and should - Leareth thinks everyone should form their own judgments and make their own decisions, even negotiating with the gods.  And this is not that complicated, in the end - interacting with a human mind at all seems difficult enough for Vkandis that Karal doesn't think anything complicated could be managed between them.

He could propose a back-and-forth where he's released to talk to Leareth and then comes back here, but he doesn't really expect the god to have the patience or comprehension for such small mortal problems.  He hopes his moment of fear and distraction wasn't in itself enough to disrupt the conversation, and focuses back on the Presence.  (It makes that, at least, very easy.)

He cannot offer a trade exactly, without knowing more about what things the other one should stop doing.  But what they're doing already is nearly a trade - it's an interaction that predictably leaves both sides better off if both sides try for that, and they are trying.  They came to Vkandis because they thought it would benefit Him as well as them if He answered their questions.  What He already told them made the other one less likely to do most things; additional answers will make it less likely still.  (Karal is telling the truth about the probabilities and their expected shifts, as far as he can see them.)  Is that good enough?  Karal is, again, not good at talking to gods, but he will try to learn if he is taught.

More shuffling, rewriting godconcepts into terms legible to Karal…

Vkandis doesn’t follow why His answering questions will in itself make the other one less likely to do things - normally He would check in Foresight but, as He already said, Foresight mostly isn’t working right now (frustration!) He can answer more questions, though. One of the baffling things the entity cares about is answering mortal questions - even when it’s not aiming at anything, just in general.

The entity apparently objects to the ENTIRE SYSTEM for managing mortal souls? It communicated early on that it wants incarnated mortals to stay that way, which presumably the mortals have noticed from their angle already? 

(Relatedly, the other one is definitely still alive. The new entity intervenes to stop anyone, other mortals or gods, from killing mortals.)

It was able to explain that mortals prefer not to die, which is coherent enough. But it also objects to all the souls that aren’t incarnated right now, and to reincarnating souls in general even though changing that is going to be difficult and expensive and Vkandis tried to explain why doing it this way is practical. Though it is at least trying to offer to take on most of the difficulty and resource-cost. Vkandis and the other gods are still unclear on the argument for why this matters, since mortal souls that aren’t incarnated don’t prefer things one way or another, and it seems more messy rather than less to try to make currently-living mortals remember earlier incarnations.

It also wants mortals to have more leeway to do things that make Foresight noisy, but that part by itself isn’t confusing, it doesn’t use Foresight and apparently the world it comes from doesn’t have Foresight. It has some other way of knowing what’s going to happen. It does seem willing to share, which is more helpful than it needed to be? 

Karal is deeply grateful for all this information.  And for knowing the other one is still alive - he didn't ask, because it's a smaller matter than the other things, but he cares very much.  (It would be difficult to miss the relief in his emotions, for all that he's trying to focus on the questions he came here to ask.)

Mortals prefer not to die, yes.  They also prefer many other mortals not to die, because they care about them, the way Karal cares about the other one (this fact continues to be very obvious in the entire structure of his mind, but of course the thing going on with him and the other one is very different from how most humans work); and if they do die, the mortals who are still alive go on caring, and would prefer to have their people back (there is a fainter memory attached here too, a death and still-fresh grief and the barely-there hope that it might be undone).  If Karal had ever been alive before, he thinks he would prefer to remember it.  Most of the new entity's priorities make sense to him.  Are his explanations helpful at all?

The reason why Vkandis answering his questions makes the other one less likely to do things is because the other one objects to most of the same things as the new entity, and was doing things for that reason, and now that he knows someone more powerful is settling most of his concerns he will not need to do things about them.  It was predictable in advance that this was the likely outcome, but this way reached it faster; and additionally the other one would have needed to do things just to find out all the information that Vkandis generously told them, and now he will not have to.

Does Vkandis have any questions Karal might answer for Him, or other specific things He wants him or the other one to do or stop doing?  Karal is grateful for this conversation, and would like to do something in return, if he reasonably can.  (Although he is starting to get the feeling that he should not talk for much longer.  This might be a tiring thing for mortals, and he thinks he has all the answers he needed.)

…Maybe the other one could talk to the new entity’s mortal-facing mouthpieces before doing any more things? And the new entity can make sure it won’t cause anything terrible to happen, and also make sure Vkandis and the other gods can still see what’s going on? The new entity seems to be willing to spend a lot of resources in both of those directions.

Other than that, no. 

(Vkandis is not exactly feeling grateful - maybe gratitude isn’t a godemotion - but there’s something like satisfaction.)

And Karal is abruptly back in his - their - body. Where Leareth is still standing in front of the barrier, putting most of his concentration into holding perfectly still, not managing to entirely suppress the panic but at least keeping it internal. 

It's a very good thing that Leareth is doing all the work of holding still, because if Karal was in control of their body right now he'd simply collapse.  His control of his mind doesn't feel much better - it's, well, it's like spending... however long that was, he has no idea... mentally staring at the sun, and now being unable to see anything else properly.  On top of some other problems he couldn't properly describe even if his thoughts were doing what he wanted.

But he can feel Leareth's presence again, and he got the answers he hoped for, and all of the space his mind still has for thoughts is filled with shining exhausted relief. 

The wall comes down and it actually takes Leareth a moment to orient enough to the situation that he thinks to reach for Karal’s thoughts -

- oh -

That’s - good news, then, he wants to know more but not here and now -

Karal seems maybe not entirely okay, but that’s not very surprising if Vkandis spoke with him directly, and Leareth can figure out if anything needs doing from somewhere else.

He has a Gate-threshold up within a fraction of a second, and even manages to think ahead enough to put the other end in his main secure research base and not, say, a random remote records cache where no one would be able to find him.

And then they’re through, and…maybe he needs to sit down before doing anything else, actually, his pulse is racing fast enough that his chest hurts. 

He does try to reach out to Karal, though. Do you need anything right now? 

He clings a little, mentally, wanting Leareth's thoughts reaching toward him even if there's nothing specific he wants them for.

No, just... rest, I think?...  His thoughts are fuzzy enough that it's clear he doesn't really have much of an idea - and how could he, anyway? 

Are you all right?  What-- happened--?  Formless worry, an oddly distant memory of when he looked for Leareth and couldn't see him...

Vkandis did not try to harm me. Leareth opens the memory to Karal, standing in front of the barrier, a sudden wall blocking off half his mind — well, blocking off Karal, but at this point that does kind of feel like not having access to half of his thoughts. It was stressful and unpleasant but nothing bad happened to him.

I think it is normal for speaking to gods to be exhausting and impairing. You can rest now. Though Leareth is going to poke a bit at Karal’s recent memories, trying not to be too obtrusive about it but he does want to check what Vkandis actually said -

— oh. That’s - actually even more reassuring than if Vkandis had jumped straight to glowing praise of the artificial intelligence. It makes sense for the gods of Velgarth to be initially annoyed and suspicious about an entity with goals that match Leareth’s and the power to impose its values unilaterally on the world. 

- a spike of aaaaaah at the part where Vkandis asked Sing to make Leareth stop “doing things”; Leareth had barely started to get on top of the physical panic-reaction, and it suddenly feels hard to breathe again. Maybe it’s easier not to try to wrestle that down, and just let it run its course…

…he’s suddenly exhausted, differently from Karal’s exhaustion but not really less. 

Also a knot of his staff are suddenly there around them. One of the Healers is checking to make sure Leareth isn’t injured, and someone has asked him a question at least twice that Leareth did not actually manage to process. 

Presumably they want to know what happened and what he and Karal learned. It’s got to be informative that he’s back and not even slightly on fire, but it doesn’t entirely narrow it down yet - the faces around him aren’t relieved, yet -

Leareth pulls his thoughts back into some semblance of focus. :Sing is - not an enemy, definitely. Almost certainly an ally. We can - it is going to be all right. We can stand down on preparations for the worst-case scenarios. - tell Nayoki that we can share all of our records with it, in case it helps it work faster…:

Actually Nayoki is going to Gate back to the base the moment she hears that Leareth and Karal are back from the Ifteli border. It sounds like at least one of them did just speak directly to a god, which is well-known to not be very good for people, and also Leareth doesn’t sound entirely okay and she’s worried. Someone ELSE can give a flying thing records, now that it’s no longer the same kind of high-stakes…

(Nayoki had already been more or less convinced, and vaguely wishing Leareth were less paranoid about running every possible check — not because she particularly anticipated he would get set on fire at the Ifteli border, just, she kind of has a grudge against Vkandis and resents asking Him for favors, and also did Leareth really need to subject himself to another thing that would be terrifying and awful for him…)

Gate. Mindhealing-Sight. 

- it sure looks like Karal was probably the one to speak to a god, she’s going to focus on him at least briefly. How does his mind look? 

It looks... scattered, like all the parts of it don't quite know how to interact with anything that isn't a god's blinding presence, including with each other.  And exhausted, like he poured so much effort into the conversation and isn't even aware of this, and thus is additionally confused about why everything is so hard all of a sudden.  But not like anyone (or Anyone) tried to do him deliberate damage or change anything about him.  Everything's just... a touch burnt at the edges, a little dried out, and the change in structure made it pull away from its usual shape a little, pull away from all the normal things a mind needs contact with.  But it all looks reversible with some time and rest.

(And... he's safe and can rest now, and everything - everything - will be fine.  He isn't really worried that things still hurt.)

Good. Nayoki sends Karal a brief push of wordless gratitude and reassurance, then turns her Sight on Leareth.

Leareth - is also exhausted, though differently. The aftershocks of enormous stress are still rippling through the structure of his mind, and he’s - doing a lot less to stabilize and dampen it than he usually would. The surfaces of his mind are - turned inward, the crust of his mind soft and almost soggy; he’s not trying to orient at all to his surroundings, except for a few instinctive vigilance-patterns that he probably couldn’t set down even if he were actively trying.

It makes for a strange contrast with the fact that, on an emotional level, he clearly doesn’t feel entirely safe. Whatever he’s feeling is a lot more complicated than that.

There’s…a deeper lack of stability than just his decision to relax into the stress-reaction comedown. It’s as though there was something deeper in his mind that could only bear weight while under tension, and it’s - not, anymore. 

His surface thoughts are unshielded at least to Nayoki, and almost as scattered as Karal’s. He’s deeply relieved, and happy on at least some level, but - not in a way that gives him an anchor to hold onto. 

He’s wordlessly glad that Nayoki is there, and that the maybe-dangerous mission he sent her on turned out not to be dangerous after all.

…Nayoki sits down beside Leareth. She reaches over and takes his hand - more because she wants that right now than because she expects Leareth to benefit, but not zero for that reason.

It’s been just under two candlemarks since the first report of a flying thing reached Leareth. Not nearly kind enough for anyone, Nayoki included, to adjust to everything being completely different. She kind of has no idea if weird complicated feelings are going to sneak up on her later? Not that she’s tempted to go looking for them, that sounds tedious and anyway Leareth is clearly having enough complicated mixed feelings to go around. 

:Nothing is an emergency now: she sends, when it doesn’t seem like Leareth is going to be first to say anything. :- Do you know what you need right now?: