He'll think she's a liar if she says instantly that she can do it. 

(But she can do it; she can do anything, if the alternative is death.)

"I'd need the headband, your majesty," she says, "it makes memory crisper. And I'd need - either to practice with concert-casting, or to pass it to someone else. But I could do it. In - two weeks, I think, maybe less."

"Altarrin, unfortunately, took the headband with him. And I don't think we can risk the artifacts, anyway, something made him defect against all sense and reason. ...There are drugs that help with alertness and clear thinking, we can get you that, and Healers can help as well. And of course the best research assistants. I do understand if you would need longer, without it." 

- she actually experiences some sinking grief, even on top of the terror, at the idea of never having the headband again. 

It's obvious why Altarrin defected; it's because they're goingtolose no don't think about that - 

"I think I could do it without the headband, your Majesty, in a month or two, with assistants."

He doesn't smile, still, but keeps meeting her eyes. "If our top researchers need headbands, to keep up with the other world, then we'll find a way to buy them, or we'll find a way to make them - I understand you thought you could, with more study, and we don't have the headband but we have detailed notes and the others as examples. ...But not the first priority. We need to find out where Altarrin is and what he's doing, for that we need the scry, and no one else has told me they could do it two months." 

His expression shifts, to one that gives the impression of sternness and simultaneously of putting in effort to keep his voice gentle. 

"What I need to know, Aritha, is that the Empire can trust you. It's a highly sensitive project - you'll report to me directly - and it's of course going to be run at a high level of security," which means compulsions done by Arbas, among other things, "but - I need to know that if the other world offers you whatever they just offered Altarrin, you won't disappear off in search of greener pastures. I need to know that the Empire - that I - can trust you. Can you give me your word, on that?" 

Bastran is very good, when he wants to be, at giving off the intense impression that he would Know If You Were Lying. (He's also decent at actually reading people and catching if they're lying, but he's practiced the vibe separately. They have a Thoughtsenser reading the girl anyway.) 

She is not remotely imagining that she could lie to him. 

She has never in her life contemplated - being someone who can make promises, rather than being someone whose obedience can be arranged. She spends a second just flailing in the intensity of - the Emperor's presence, the entire concept he seems to be asking for that she's never encountered in her life - she does this even though the answer is obvious -

"I swear, your Majesty, you can trust me. I won't - even if they cut my compulsions, I'll be loyal to you, I'll do this work for you."

He nods. ...And does smile, then, briefly, the smile of someone busy and distracted and bearing the weight of an Empire on his shoulders nonetheless taking a moment to show his appreciation for someone who can solve one of his problems. 

Only a half-second for appreciation, though, and then he's standing. "You heard me," he said to the guards. "- Do her compulsions let her leave this room? If not, fix it, please. I'd like to take her now to meet with my researchers and get settled - oh, she still hasn't eaten - they can talk over supper -" 

And Aritha will stand, trembling, and follow him, trying not to be loud in raggedly drawing air, alivealivealive.

Arbas will meet them at the research unit, because whether or not Bastran believes that her oath was made in earnest - he does - or that she's someone who will still mean it later when it's inconvenient - he mostly does - one still takes all the other precautions anyway. Arbas is the best in the Empire at this, probably in the world; he can make sure Aritha is incapable of betraying them, at least absent divine intervention, and also not have the compulsions get in the way of research-related creative thinking.

And, with Bastran's very very strict orders, he will mostly not even be creepy about it. Bastran makes sure to hover and give him a side-eye when he's pushing the limits too much. It's important for her future research productivity, that Aritha sees that he isn't going to tolerate men being...unpleasant...at her.

And then she can have dinner, and - he would tell her to get straight to work but she hasn't slept in two days. They'll start at dawn tomorrow. 

After they cast Sleep on him, Altarrin does in fact stay out for the next five candlemarks, waking only once it's already evening. He's still not functional, when he wakes up, but the headache is down to a level where it's mostly tolerable if he lies still in the dark and doesn't try to do anything including thinking. He's mostly lucid enough that he can string thoughts together, but it makes the pain worse and it feels like probably he shouldn't push it. He really doesn't feel like eating or drinking anything, but he knows he should, and if anyone tries to coax him to eat - including the construct-servants, who are probably not very helpful with this - he'll do his best to cooperate before falling asleep again, this time without the help of a spell. 

By the next morning, he's - mostly feeling fine? There's a lingering sense of unreality to everything, like he travelled too far outside of the ordinary world and left part of himself behind there, but his head is only very slightly fuzzy and he's not in pain. And his reserves are actually better than fine, after eighteen candlemarks of rest. 

If Iomedae is around, he could use her advice on whether this means he should hold off longer on doing intensive magic? He's never had this experience before and doesn't know whether to expect it to interact with susceptibility to backlash, but he feels like it's probably safe to scry Velgarth, and it's now been two days; he badly wants to know what's going on. 

(If Iomedae is not around, he'll look for someone and ask who knows the most about aftereffects of visions from gods and whether he should be fine to do normal activities now, if he still has these symptoms.) 

Iomedae is building her city; she's interruptible, but she's not really going to be much around. If she seems to be rebuilding her city with a ferocity that might suggest she has NOT processed her feelings about Alfirin murdering a lot of innocent people yet, well, no one's going to wonder too much at it; she's Iomedae. She burns with righteous conviction at all times. 

He...really wants to talk to her, actually, about multiple things. But it's understandable that the logistical aftermath even of a successful battle - maybe especially after such a successful battle - is urgent and time-consuming. And he's not really supposed to leave the mansion, and probably still not allowed to leave camp. He'll settle for finding literally anyone who's around and who he knows is in Iomedae's inner circle and cleared to know things, and see if they have an opinion on whether very exhausting magic will be bad for him at this point. He wants intelligence on Velgarth. ...Once he has it, he probably wants to talk to Iomedae. And maybe Alfirin, assuming she's not even more busy? 

Karlenius is around! He thinks using magic should be fine, so long as Altarrin isn't pushing himself to a point that feels terrible, though he doesn't work with many sorcerers so he's less sure than he would be if Altarrin were a wizard or a paladin.

Alfirin is reconfiguring the wards on Urgir but Iomedae will be able to assess if she's interruptible from that, probably.

That makes sense. 

...Also Altarrin has learned his lesson from the last time he did a potentially-dangerous thing alone and without even warning everyone. He would be very grateful if someone could sit nearby while he's scrying, in case casting it hits him unexpectedly hard. 

...It seems to be fine, actually, and he was right that it's more efficient in this direction, he can get a scry on the unshielded court ballroom and it doesn't even leave him out of breath. 

The ballroom is not actually informative, he just wanted to start with something on the easier side to calibrate and make sure it wasn't going to knock him flat. He wants to try for Bastran, next, and for Aritha. They're very likely both behind shields - Aritha especially, if the Office of Inquiry has her at a secure offsite location - and he's coming at the scry from a different 'angle' and needs to partly rederive-and-improvise his techniques for evading shields he designed. It's going to take longer, and hopefully not exhaust him too badly. 

Bastran: in a meeting with the Minister of State! Unhappy about it! Altarrin will not be able to get much of a sense of what they're meeting about unless he's willing to watch for the next ten minutes. 

He's not. Bastran is alive, and at the palace, and carrying on his usual routine, as usual at least to the extent that he's still going to meetings. Also stressed and miserable, but that wasn't a 'the Empire is collapsing' face. 

(If anything, Bastran would cope better if the Empire were collapsing. He's...good in emergencies. It's not good for him, in the long run, but in the short run he focuses better. That face was Bastran instead dealing with business as usual except more and worse.) 

Aritha? 

With magical researchers! Embarking on an important magical research project! She's very happy! Bastran is gay and did not let Arbas sexually harass her very much and she is alive and if she succeeds at this project she won't be executed! That's what happiness is!

He tells Karnelius that he has urgent news for Iomedae. And...does want to talk to Alfirin, too, whenever that can be arranged, he might need her help. 

Then Iomedae will notify Alfirin that Altarrin has urgent news for them, and they can both be at the mansion promptly. 

(They would ideally have relocated the gravely-wounded and important-prisoner-ally to within the walls, except that extradimensional spaces won't work within the walls until Alfirin figures out how to take away the exception granted to Tar-Baphon's servants and grant one to herself.)

The first part is done already; Not terribly surprisingly it was a single exception for "undead" in full generality and easy enough to close off once discovered. Adding an exception for some, but not all, living beings will take longer.

Altarrin hurries to meet them as they arrive. There are dark circles under his eyes, and he's moving in a very slightly dazed way as though not quite taking in his surroundings, but he seems otherwise fully recovered from the ordeal of a vision from Aroden. 

(His manner is quite noticeably different from the last time Alfirin saw him. Iomedae isn't doing the fearlessness effect, but he doesn't look afraid. He's not relaxed, he's tense and focused and worried about something - a lot of somethings - but none of that worry is about his safety here, or about being prevented from acting freely.) 

"The Emperor must have leaned harder on the investigators than I expected. Aritha - the mage-researcher who has seen me scry your world - is free, and working with the research team on his personal staff. She is working on rederiving it. Without the headband I - am not sure how long - but they are supporting her very heavily, I recognized some faces and they have our most elite mage-researchers as her assistants. It is probably still months but - I cannot easily judge progress, from this remove - it might be a week or less." 

"As long as it's definitely longer than five hours this won't be a serious problem." and to Iomedae, "With your permission, of course."

Iomedae makes a face. "I need to send them a note first, and - I want to send the volunteers, too, if Aroden says He can retrieve them, even if He says it'd be expensive."

Altarrin nods. "I agree. I would still be shocked if it were less than three days, she cannot have started very long ago. I think warning them - I assume not about Aritha, specifically, but that there are other actors in your world not under the command of the Knights of Ozem will not make very much difference, in whether they see you as having broken your word, but it might make some. And I have not yet heard Alfirin's actual plan, but I doubt any amount of preparation would help the Empire block it." Glance at Alfirin. "- I can Gate you to a secure location in the right world, if that helps, it is minimal risk to myself and just exhausting." 

"Yes, I was assuming you would provide interplanetary transit. Otherwise it's probably a matter of months on this end, too." She wasn't in very much doubt that he'd do it voluntarily.