Shavri can indeed confirm that Seldan isn't (imminently) dying. He got a Remove Disease yesterday and he barely has a fever. Shavri admittedly has low standards here.

Blai has a Remove Sickness on him right now and is super awake. He should have the gingery broth again. 

WHAT IF IT'S POISON, he DID NOT PREPARE DETECT POISON so it COULD BE

Shavri does not particularly care how stressed out about it Blai is as long as he drinks it. 

---

About two candlemarks after dawn (in Velgarth at the latitude and longitude of Haven, that is), a Gate goes up.

Brightstar has to cast this one freestanding, they don't have a full-size permanent Gate-terminus anymore. Leareth's mages have portable ones that can be erected for in-world Gates but unless they spend a day setting up there won't be a power supply and that's kind of the important part for this. 

Brightstar can cast it, though. Once. And hold it for a few seconds. Joshel should be fast. The other end is rather randomly placed in the general vicinity of Sothis, Brightstar did not get good enough scry-imagery to target off, he only looked enough to confirm that this city sure does seem to have a gigantic magic-blocking dome-ish structure in it and they've been told this is uniquely identifying. 

It's up go go go go Brightstar really cannot - 

A glowing, freestanding, wavering arch-shape marked out in blue light appears from nowhere on the outskirts of Sothis.

A cleric of Abadar wearing Heralds' Whites and a white horse who reads strongly Lawful Good (and incidentally has a locked and secured box of twenty diamonds big enough for Raise Dead and five diamonds that are as much bigger than that as they could find in her saddlebags) tumble through a moment before it crumples in on itself. 

...Okay he's here. Shit. This is kind of terrifying. Uh. 

Is around...around. Are they reacting to the Gate or his sudden appearance. 

Yes, a fucking GATE in the middle of the STREET is attracting attention! Everybody is staring at him to see what the incredibly powerful mounted adventurer is going to do next, from the guy selling wraps out of a little cart to the woman walking her six children down the road to Grandma's house! Some people uncertainly try bowing at him!

Awwww little kids. Joshel likes kids. He gives them a wave and a smile. 

(It seems to be summer here and it's hot. Joshel takes ten seconds to strip out of his winter coat and stuff it into top of the saddlebag not loaded with a box of diamonds.) 

Guy selling wraps out of a cart seems like the best bet for knowing his way around the city. :Excuse me: Joshel sends. :Could you please give me directions to the nearest church of Abadar. It's very urgent.: 

Guy selling wraps points, very wide-eyed. "Turn left there, it's covered in gold, can't miss it."

:Thank you.: And Joshel swings himself back up into the saddle - they went through the Gate separately so it could be a bit smaller - and they head there at not quite a gallop. 

....Honestly Joshel's main association with temples covered in gold is Vkandis and that's not a pleasant association right now. He ignores the flinch, though, and dismounts and looks for someone to talk to. 

There are people in there! People lining up to see the tellers, people paying to talk to the counselor on duty, there's a great big lovingly-written sign on the wall with posted rates for services.

Joshel cannot speak the language or read the signs, and so the organization here is both soothing and mildly social-anxiety-inducing, in the sense where he’s absolutely sure he’s going to come off as an arrogant foreign bumpkin and step on a bunch of toes.

You know what’s worse than being an offensive boor, though? Doing several channels a day in a barn in Sumpost, seeing the injuries up close and knowing these are only the ones who were able to survive nearly a week without healing and make it to his location. Spending the rest of the time signing off on various aid logistics, spending down resources that Valdemar doesn’t actually, really, have to spare. Being dragged back and told that if he’s not back in eight candlemarks, somehow, then his friend Vanyel will die. 

He has Kimbry address whichever person seems, from outside appearances alone, like directing confused foreign bumpkins might be their job. (He’s a strong enough Mindspeaker to handle translation on his own, later, if they’re not set up to bring horses inside, but he’s saving his energy.)

:Excuse me: she sends. :I am Herald Joshel’s Companion. We’re here speaking on behalf of our kingdom and our allies, which are in another world. We have a very serious emergency and hope to pay the church of Abadar for various services, mostly healing. There’s an element of significant time pressure and our allies who are funding this venture have authorized us to spend up to the value of one Raise Dead diamond on expediting that process to less than eight candlemarks. Can you please show us where to go and who to talk to?:

...the counselor on duty raises his hand. The people in the line grouchily step aside.

"I'm Cicerone Essam."

Joshel offers the people he just jumped ahead of an apologetic smile and a little shrug.

Kimbry addresses the counselor on duty. :Thank you for making time to speak with us, Cicerone Essam. We can explain more about the situation but we weren't sure if there's a process or if you have standard questions you need to as first. - oh, Herald Joshel is a first-circle cleric of Abadar as of a few days ago, I forgot to say that. We don't have a church of Abadar on our planet yet so we know fairly little about what that means.: 

Essam goes slightly crosseyed taking this in but picks up his pen and a fresh sheet of paper. "Does this telepathy method put any confidential financial or spiritual information at risk?"

That takes a few seconds to parse. 

:I'm not reading anything in your mind other than the meaning of the words you're saying because we don't speak the language?: Kimbry says. :If that's what you mean.: Companions are pretty good at this. :Er, Joshel also has Mindspeech but is less practiced at only reading precisely that and not catching other bits, but we weren't sure if you're set up for horses inside or wherever else we end up being directed to go.: 

"We are not... set up... for horses, inside," agrees Essam. "Do you have Abadar's Truthtelling prepared today?"

Oh no is it a terrible faux pas to show up at a temple of Abadar without that specific spell, he’s never even heard of it, why didn’t Blai— it’s clearly insane to be mad at Blai over it.

:I’m sorry, we don’t and weren’t aware it existed: Kimbry sends. :We have the floating disk one and we have Guidance and Virtue and Stabilize:

"Only Abadarans get it; it's a cheap way for you to confirm you are one," says Essam. "It also works if I cast it on you, but it costs money - perhaps you want to open a line of credit with the diamond as collateral so you have some spending power in smaller denominations, may I see it?"

Oh that’s so efficient. :Yes, that would be very much appreciated.:

"May I examine it?"

Joshel is not even slightly worried about being mugged in a church of Abadar. The unobtrusive locked box tucked away in the saddlebags was in case it ended up being a long ride through a rough neighborhood. He will happily take the box out and unlock it and show Cicerone Essam a diamond and an incidental glance at all the other diamonds he packed.

Cicerone Essam's eyes get big. Though only a little bit. He's a professional. Delicately he takes out the one diamond. He examines it from all angles including with a lens and weighs it on a tiny scale. Eventually he writes up a line of credit for Joshel, reading it under his breath as he goes for the benefit of the telepath in case that's how that works. Then he scrivens off a local copy and signs and stamps both. "This will serve for immediate medium sized expenses. This church is not equipped to manage your large purchases. For that I recommend the Grand Bank of Lesser Aktun, a mile north by northeast from here right on the river Sphinx. .......and, on your way to the Grand Bank, you will pass the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye. It is... possible... that the high priestess of Nethys would be a better fit for your unusual needs. She... sometimes knows what's going to happen, somehow, sometimes has all the right spells prepared for complete blindside events - and you're irregular enough that I would consider it worth stopping off there."

What a lovely organized place.

:Can we pay you to do the truth spell here and - write up a letter of reference, or something, that we can take with us to avoid needing to do that over?: Kimbry asks. :And would it be possible to purchase a map of the city so we can easily find our way?: It also feels like a way  to get a bit of a sense of how much money the number on the paper actually is, here.   

…Joshel is also going to interject and ask about Nethys’ alignment and, er, traits as a god. He has gotten the impression that he should be very careful to check that kind of thing.

"At this scale," says Cicerone Essam, "my letter of reference will not be very useful. I'm still happy to cast the spell and write one, though you'll have to communicate in your own person for it to be reliable. But anyone you could present it to would be negligent if they coordinated any of your large purchases on that alone considering the possibility of forgery. I do not have maps expressly for sale but if you will tolerate a bit of markup I can sell you a book which contains one. Nethys is the true neutral mad god of magic."

….Joshel makes a bit of a face at the last thing but they might as well stop by the temple of the mad god. Surely an Abadaran wouldn’t have suggested it if they were untrustworthy to deal with.

If it’s not going to actually save time later then they’ll skip paying for the truth spell and letter of reference here. They will purchase a book at a markup for the map it contains, though. (Joshel had some memorable experiences as a new Herald of trying and failing to follow verbal directions and ending up embarrassingly lost, for some reason he always manages to misunderstand something the direction-giver thought was obvious. He much prefers having a map.)