Aktun doesn't have a sun; the sky glows uniformly. It's lavender. Some people look up at them, startled; "go on again", he says, and Fazil moves them again. They're in the desert. 

Mahdi teleports them to Sothis.

She's not gonna do things, right now, really. She doesn't know which things are dangerous to do. She'll just - follow Hagan wherever he's going until he tells her not to do that. And also glance at Fazil and Mahdi and try to determine how concerned about all of this they are.

Fazil looks very concerned. Mahdi looks bored which is how Mahdi always looks in combat. 

In the center of Sothis is the black beetle carcass that towers over the whole city. 

He hates it. He's pretty sure the helmet did something besides change where Pharasma will put him, he doesn't have a perfect sense of what, but it didn't change that he hates this place. It may have changed his willingness to do it anyway.  

Some guards come out to see what they're up to. Their eyes widen. They stand there gaping at him for a second, because they are idiots. He waits for them to resolve that themselves and kneel. 

"Who's in charge here, and why haven't they tried to get my brother back."

       " - Prince Telcar."

"That is not an answer to the question I posed you."

     The man was going to stammer something else stupid but he manages to stop himself. "Your majesty. The church has been - running thing collectively, pending guidance about - I think Abadar was looking for you, your majesty."

"Well, he found me. Take us in."

Probably temporary. Probably temporary. Probably temporary.

She follows Hagan. Prince Telcar. Whoever. She looks around, trying to look calm and collected and sane and not miserable or terrified or extremely confused.

The palace is the same, except it has no children, and the girls aren't dressed up. 

These senior church officials are all utterly delighted to see him. He hates them. They assure him that they have tried everything to get his brother back. They're probably lying. There's no murder that is beyond every conceivable form of resurrection. They tried two Wishes to get Khemet and two more to get Merenre - got the bodies back, couldn't raise them - but they haven't tried everyone else, and maybe if you were an assassin with a lot of resources you'd take special precautions for those in particular. 

Abadar thinks they can't be retrieved but Abadar can't see the Deep Plane either. 

He tells them to try harder. He sends them away. 

"Go - make sure they're doing that," he tells Fazil. He obviously wasn't talking to Mahdi but Mahdi pretends he thinks he was being addressed and slinks off with Fazil. He doesn't actually need him. 

He turns to Verita and his wife. 

"We need to stay here while I sort this out," he says. "It's an awful place, I know, but it's safe."

"Okay!" She's probably being a little too bright about agreeing but she's not really an expert on hitting the exactly ideal amount of bright on short notice like this. "Hope they get your pharaoh guy back."

She does not remotely believe that the palace is safe given that Hagan is in it and clearly and obviously not himself, but saying this seems very likely to do more harm than good. And probably make the situation more dangerous than it already is.

She nods.

"You," he snaps at the hallway. A servant comes in. "Get them rooms. My wife should - I suppose - until we get the pharaoh back -"

The servant nods. Leaves.

He paces.

She wants to ask how the sentence ends, but she's really worried about what the answer will be. And about whether she'll be able to ask about it in a way that doesn't betray more of what she's feeling than she wants to give away.

She's not safe here. She's not sure Hagan has realized that she knows this. He might be less likely to do anything - unsafe - if he goes on not knowing. She wishes she had a better sense of what the helm was doing to him. If she could talk to Verita alone she'd probably tell her to poke him about something innocuous, but she can't, so she can't gain information on that front.

She wants to pace. She doesn't. She stands where she is and crosses her arms and digs her fingernails into her sleeve as inconspicuously as she can.

He doesn't know what to do with himself.

He knows what he would've done before the helmet. He would've asked Verita if she could go explore the palace and then held onto Korva and cried. He hasn't yet exhausted Korva's patience for his being weak and emotional and useless, but he's exhausted his own patience with it; it wouldn't be comforting. 

Telling Verita to go explore might still work but then he's alone with Korva with no sense of what he does want from her, what someone who didn't suck would want. Or accept. 

He thinks about it for a couple of minutes. Figures it out. They wouldn't want anything. They'd comfort her. 

"Well," he says to Verita, "do you want to go explore? You shouldn't leave the palace but it's pretty big."

She looks at Korva.

"Up to you."

"I wanna - hear how things are going, and stuff?"

"I don't know when we'll hear more about that."

"Right, so if I wanna hear when it happens I gotta wait around and see."

"I suppose."

She looks at Korva again. Korva is honestly not giving her a lot to go on, here.

"I guess I could look around if you think it'll be a while. Just for a bit."

"I think it'll be a while."

"Alright then. I'll try not to get lost and stuff."

And she runs off to attempt to memorize the passages and rooms in this part of the palace as quickly as possible.

He walks over to Korva and hugs her, sort of stiffly, but at least with two hands for the first time in a while. 

Aaaaaaaaaaa, what does he want, what is she supposed to be doing -

She leans in just a little. This is kind of upsetting but it's safer, it's less hostile, it buys time.

"Hopefully they'll figure something out. To get your brother back."

Shrug. "That would be good for Osirion."

"And for you. I guess probably for Osirion too."

"I'll be fine. But I know we didn't plan to - live in this place, have these obligations, and hopefully it'll be sorted out and we won't."