"That sounds fine." ......he has at some point in the last while become accustomed to being near-constantly kind of lounging on Seldan and now Seldan is not a horse and it's weird but he will simply ignore that. "I'll... the rote prayers are all too complicated. One line from them or something. Inheritor, empty Hell. I can probably hold that."

Yeah it's weird for Seldan too. 

"Inheritor, empty Hell." He can repeat it to himself twenty times in his head. "I should be able to help. I was - I'm definitely incredibly stupid but I think not actively delirious in a way where I don't know where I am." 

After a pause, "- I would ask if there's anything I might be able to do to - make it better for you - but you're just going to tell me that doesn't matter." 

"If I'm losing my grip on Who I work for marginal improvements in my condition might matter but I can't actually think of anything."

Sigh. 

It's not going to be that much longer, one way or another. There aren't enough Remove Diseases to go around and Van and Stef are the ones in genuine danger of not surviving until noon. Either Brightstar will get a Gate before Blai dies of having all the diseases at once and Seldan follows him, or he won't.

That doesn't feel helpful to say out loud, though of course it's right there in his thoughts for Blai to look at. Along with the fact that Seldan does, actually care about his Herald's feelings and has not liked watching him suffering. But also the fact that Seldan's feelings are immaterial to the situation. He's not going to die of being upset about it. 

He'll make sure they do painblocking for Blai, he decides. That's not nothing. 

"Ready to go back?" 

Inheritor, empty Hell. "Yes."

Seldan nods to the Shadow-Lover, mutters a somewhat grudging "Thank you", and then mentally scoops Blai and takes him back. 

...oof. 

:Shavri you need to painblock for Blai and don't let his pulse get too fast from the stimulant: he sends at her before he can forget. 

He's here. 

Inheritor, empty Hell. :How long until dawn?: 

:Our timekeeping won't be as precise as Blai's sense for it. At least ten minutes, less than twenty.: She hadn't wanted to cut that too close, in case it hadn't worked and she needed to, she has no idea, summon a Bard in here to make up songs about Iomedae on the spot. 

Inheritor, empty Hell. Wow those are going to stop sounding like real words soon. Somewhere between ten and twenty minutes to hang on. He's here. 

Blai should be nice and fully awake by dawn. Shavri cannot speak to the other psychological effects - she liked it, the crystal-clear knife edge, but Blai might not - but he won't be falling asleep by accident anytime soon. 

Inheritor, empty Hell.

Sometime in the relevant fifteen minutes Blai is no longer too tired to be anxious.

His mind is when in full working order scattershot and this is worse, but the volume of thoughts he is having at all is back up, and he is successfully engaging the procedures he knows for dividing them into garbage and legitimate and definite, even if there's more uncertainty in that than usual. Iomedeae, here is the situation, he's one of count them one two three four count them again in case you missed somebody one two three four count them again in case you forgot how to count one two three four - four patients - taking Mysterious Progressive Damage while someone, what was his name, he had a name, if Blai can't produce forename surname rank and division he is going to - garbage. That guy who looks like this is trying to find Golarion. Which is the one with Rovagug in it, what if he lands in the middle, he was definitely assuming the entire time he was talking about where not to land that the scope was implicitly limited to the surface but he really should have specified because there are drow and kobolds under there and also fucking ROVAGUG THE DESTROYER. What if the Shadow-Lover's god is Rovagug the Destroyer in disgu- garbage. Are they trying for Sothis? ABADAR USES A DIFFERENT SYMBOL IN SOTHIS, NOT A KEY, HE FORGOT TO TELL THEM ABOUT THAT PART AND NOW HE CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THE ALTERNATIVE SYMBOL IS. Sorry this is so scattershot, Iomedae. Inheritor, empty Hell. Maybe She's already on that. Maybe She did it this week while he was having his extraplanetary adventures and he's going to be COMPLETELY behind on current events and USELESS as a delegate and as a prospective church member and they WON'T LET HIM JOIN THE CHURCH because WHAT kind of Iomedaean doesn't know that She emptied hell last Toilday - that's also garbage -

....Wow that's actually so incredibly reassuring. Seldan continues to be right here and he loves his Herald very much. He did not receive a stimulant and so is still very drowsy and resorting to the occasional aside like dredging up Brightstar's name. He still can't remember why he was so mad at Brightstar but it clearly doesn't matter at this point. 

Also, Blai should keep the same orisons and request four Remove Sicknesses and four Lesser Restorations and two Remove Diseases. 

WHAT IF SHAVRI IS ACTUALLY A SUCCUBUS they don't even have those on this planet WHAT IF THOUGH, WHAT WOULD HE BE SUPPOSED TO DO THEN, IOMEDAE. He could be totally wildly wrong about what they have on this planet, possibly, in which case he'd want... uh... well he is definitely obviously dying of something, what would he want in... okay the listed spell list sounds okay probably but he's. Refilling Prayer. Just in case of... something... which requires... hey he must have cast the last one, was that stupid or was he supposed to do that... well it won't have done anyone harm presumably... unless he was too delirious to tell friend from foe in which case it could have fouled up something important and he hopes they all made their saves??... Iomedae he's pretty fucked up and unless he has totally forgotten what the listed spells do (which is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE) they sound good to have right now please and thank You and sorry (he's not sure what he's sorry for but just in case, he's probably done something wrong and She hasn't renounced him over it, that's really good since he needs all these spells now - OR DOES HE -)

(This should probably not be entertaining and it's mostly not funny at all but - okay, fine, it's a tiny bit funny.) 

Shavri will remain oblivious to any Blai musings on her hypothetical succubus nature, because she's trusting Seldan to keep him on task and it's taking literally all of her attention and skill to prevent Van and Stef - mostly Stef, yet again - from fucking dying before the candlemark is up. 

(She does remember to task Gemma with painblocking and keeping Blai's heart rate at something reasonable, Gemma is perfectly qualified to do that.) 

Blai's going to crash hard at some point, it's really not a good idea to give people in his condition powerful stimulants. She had better use his channels first today, actually, on the grounds that Vanyel is about to get a Remove Disease that should hold him for at least half a day, and Blai is in bad enough shape that she might not be able to wake him once the drug starts wearing off. 

Once the candlemark is up Shavri will, with very clear instructions, walk Blai through casting all of his spells immediately. Nothing clever, today, just one Lesser Restoration and one Remove Sickness each - the Lesser Restorations don't work very well, but they work a little - and then the Remove Diseases on Vanyel and Stef. Then a channel. Then he can....rest. Maybe not sleep yet. She'll need his second channel in about three– no that's wrong. In about ninety minutes. After that they don't need anything more from him. 

They did it!!! Best Herald!!!! 

What if Seldan is just saying thinking that because he's been ENCHANTED and actually Blai is forgetting something REALLY IMPORTANT and is therefore the WORST herald - yes okay he will cast spells people should probably not have diseases UNLESS THEY'RE URGATHOA CULTISTS AND WANTED TO KEEP THEM?? no he doesn't care what Urgathoa cultists want actually

Wow Seldan is still learning new facts about Golarion that sound like they were constructed for a horrible thought experiment. He could write a treatise on whether it's - whether something Urgathoa cultists something diseases - it's not coming together.

Seldan will try very hard to stay awake to keep Blai company as long as Blai is Very Awake but it's not going to be all that successful. 

Everyone's alive. No one is crashing right this second. They have seven channels left and nothing else. It's a candlemark after dawn. 

:Jisa. Update.: 

:- Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to send a runner and I forgot. We think we found Sothis, about twenty minutes ago. Brightstar really needs to rest for a bit but we're getting Joshel off the border back to Haven and Brightstar can do the Gate in a candlemark. It's going to be a one-way Gate. No one else understands the Gate-routing so it has to be Brightstar, if we're going to do it in a hurry, and he's really tired already. The math people mindread him while he was scrying and took some notes and they think they can reconstruct it with the full calculations in...eight candlemarks, they said, assuming Brightstar drains himself unconscious getting Joshel in and they can't consult him. We're going to send him with a lot of diamonds, Leareth's organization is providing everything they've procured so far, and he'll try to buy a trip back sooner with Golarion magic but we don't actually know almost anything about how expensive that would be.: 

Eight candlemarks is going to be cutting it really close for...actually mostly for Blai, probably, he's running a really high fever at this point and if he passes out after the stimulant wears off she won't be able to get fluids into him very effectively. But she thinks they can make it. 

:Understood. Do hurry, please.: 

:Have you slept?: 

:Jisa, I'm your mother, not the other way round, and I happen to know you haven't slept either. ...I'll take a long holiday when this is over.: 

But it's not over yet. She settles in to wait. 

WHAT IF SELDAN IS LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS BECAUSE HE'S DYING. SELDAN DON'T DO THAT. BLAI REALLY DOESN'T WANT YOU TO DO THAT.

....mwhaa? no he's not dying. really. he's just not wired on stimulants. blai was just as sleepy two candlemarks ago. the healers will say something if seldan is dying. right shavri?