"We may ask them about that! It could probably be done with our magic, too, but no one has designed a spell for it since we hadn't encountered Mindspeech before.

Have you made any copies of that attuned focus for Velgarth," he asks Fazil.

"No, your majesty. Do you want it back?"

"Yes."

He sets it on the ground. "Nefreti may have made her own, she has artifacts from Velgarth to work off and of course the ability to Gate there when she wishes."

"Thank you. We'll talk with her. We hope you can communicate to Valdemar the reasons for the delay."

"Of course, your majesty."

When the pharaoh has headed out he leans somewhat miserably against Yfandes. "Well. What a mess. I guess... probably we just explain the whole thing to Valdemar and hope they believe you or Van or both of you?"

Yfandes hesitates for a moment and then nuzzles his shoulder. (It's sort of Not Done for Companions to be physically affectionate with anyone but their Herald, but also, who exactly is around to care?) 

:I guess so. Should wait until Van's awake, so it can be recognizably him Mindspeaking: Mental sigh. :I'm really sorry: 

:I don't mind the being set on fire! Hazard of the job! But I did not realize we were risking a goddiplomatic incident! Our gods do a better job telegraphing what will make them mad, usually!:

He will sit and meditate and intermittently try to read something until Van is awake.

Vanyel wakes up feeling - honestly pretty fine, actually? Maybe that's part of what Restoration does differently from Velgarth Healing, leaving him still tired but mostly over the backlash, and sleeping helps with the tired. 

He is not, however, looking forward to the upcoming communications with Haven, so he lies in bed with his eyes closed for another ten minutes before finally getting up and going to join Yfandes and Fazil. 

"All right - we learn anything?"

:We talked to the pharaoh and he told us no more Plane Shifting to Velgarth - which I approve of - and took away Fazil's thingy that was attuned to it: Yfandes turns to look at Fazil in case he wants to add more. 

"I think Abadar is pretty mad. Dunno whether at us or at Vkandis. Or both." Sigh. "Anyway his majesty also said he has ninth circle spells now and can Gate us to Velgarth in the morning, and we can Plane Shift back, so it should work fine to go to Valdemar. ...I know the situation is fraught enough already but it would be nice if it got communicated at some point that that represents a fairly extraordinary and costly expenditure of resources, by our god and our country, to get you home tomorrow."

"That makes sense. I can just tell Savil that when I talk to her. Which - I guess I should get on with doing." Sigh. "Maybe I'm being unreasonable, expecting this to be incredibly awkward, and it'll be fine." 

"If it's awkward now hopefully it'll be fine once they can verify it with truth magic."

“Hopefully.” Can he use the same crystal ball as before to contact Savil?

He can!

Perfect. 

He takes a few deep breaths, considers what to say, and then tries to scry Savil.

It works.

All right. Deep breaths. He can do this. 

:Savil? It's me. Van: 

:Vanyel!: The overtones are of joy and relief and suspicion and worry, a tangled muddy mix of them. :Did you get our message? We sent it back with the lantern spirit thing: 

:Yes, of course: 

This time the suspicion is a little louder. :What did it say? Sorry, just - we have to check, you understand, right?: 

:I understand. You asked for me to come back right away, and you asked about Leareth, and about sending a diplomatic team. I, um - we tried, I swear, a few candlemarks ago. But the spell they have for traveling between planes - it's god-magic, I was coming with a cleric here, they're a bit like priests if priests reliably got to do miracles every day - anyway, it's not very accurate and we landed in Iftel and had, um. A problem: 

:Iftel?: Bemusement, and a pause, like she too is having to dredge her memory to recall literally any facts about Iftel. :But they're allied with us: 

:You would have thought! I think Vkandis got alarmed by the fact that Fazil's magic got us in past the shield-wall. We had an increasingly hostile interaction with some gryphons and then it suddenly escalated to being set on fire: 

:Ack! Are you serious: