"I don't think they're going to believe me about my own name at this point but I am going to try to explain what, from my perspective, actually happened, all the same. If nothing else - if they did, actually, find themselves under assault from Tar-Baphon, I'd like it to look like a live possibility that I'm not as bad as that, and worth contacting. In five hours I can have the volunteers and a letter. Do you need me to pretend you're not voluntarily working with us, to protect allies or family back home -"

"...I was not planning to hide it, no, I - would really rather not begin this by lying to the Emperor, when I never have before. I mean to write to him as well. Meant to yesterday but I was - still very confused - " He shakes his head slightly. "I doubt anyone will believe anything I say, either, but it might at least make the Emperor think. Once I figure out what I should even write. It - he does not know many of the secrets about my life," lives, "that both of you do, and it is hard to explain why I am willing to trust Aroden without...that." 

"That makes sense. I'm sorry. I think you should write that letter, then, probably, and - while you're making the trip anyway, I don't suppose the two of you could pick up more diamonds? I keep - expecting another shoe to drop.

I have decided I don't care about further Foresight fog, except insofar as I should plan more conservatively when Aroden's out of commission and except insofar as we should abide the 'no novel Wishes' policy. If that's not what Aroden meant by intervening, it's at least a predictable thing I'd decide from what He told you."

"We will get more diamonds unless something goes much more catastrophically wrong than seems at all likely. Hopefully the gods there will not make that too difficult."

Nod. "I am wondering if Aroden will find my actions less noisy, now - it is very hard to interpret what He was thinking but it seemed as though I was noisy seen from the outside and only via Foresight, and that He was not confused, anymore, when He saw the - how I make decisions. ...Anyway, if there is Healing magic that would work on exhaustion, including magical exhaustion, I can cross into Velgarth with Alfirin and spend the intervening time on the other side of the continent buying diamonds. I assume you have gold to buy it with? ...I do also, to be clear, but it is distributed in a number of inconvenient locations and would double the number of same-world Gates." 

"I can get you gold, and some potions of Lesser Restoration."

"Thank you. I should be able to shop for you more usefully, now that I actually know the size cutoff that is relevant for the most powerful magic. ...It might take several candlemarks and I am not sure Alfirin wishes to hold a prisoner in my records cache for that long." 

"The time required for the actual kidnapping could be as little as, say, ten seconds. But it'll probably be an hour, that's more resource-efficient. I think it makes more sense to do the diamond-shopping together either before or after, it would be mildly inconvenient if something happened to kill you and that could mean your gods will try for it. And I'll want to bring some of our smaller diamonds, which could help in some situations where something goes wrong."

"How about you do the diamond-shopping before so they have some time to read the note that informs them that they should plan as if I'm conducting conduct operations in the rest of the Empire now."

"I have no objection. I'm going to go back and see what more I can do on the wards in the next couple of hours, and meet you here in, say, four and a half hours? I actually want to do a quick experiment before we depart, with your search-spells."

"Knight-Commander, you're welcome to join us then, if you want to observe and are not busy, since it was your suggestion."

Alfirin's being slightly formal, she's slightly on edge, why's Alfirin slightly on edge -

- the experiment is whether Altarrin can scry a Mind Blank, and in the course of conducting that experiment Alfirin will be without a Mind Blank, which is something she has been so careful not to do in front of people for - a long time, at least ten years -

"I'll be there," she says, "unless it takes longer than I expect to find volunteer envoys."

She isn't particularly expecting to gain anything from this, regardless of the result, besides, she supposes, knowing for herself. Iomedae doesn't really care how Pharasma would Judge Alfirin, if She ever got Her hands on her, and if she's nominally Neutral -

Iomedae could tell the others, but... Alfirin almost hopes she won't. Lacking an Evil aura would not make Karlenius' mistrust of her any less justified, nor any less wrong. (Marit won't trust her regardless. Marit is not the trusting type.) It seems like it would be perverse, in a way, to win Karlenius' trust with a detect evil spell at the same time that she -

She didn't lose Iomedae's trust. But Iomedae knows her better, now, and likes her worse. It would be wrong, now, for her to use Iomedae to make Karlenius know her worse and like her better.

She gives a quick bow and departs. She really would like to get that exception into the wards.

There’s subtext there, Altarrin thinks, and it’s new. He doesn’t let visible curiosity or concern leak, just nods briskly to Alfirin. “Four and a half hours, then.”

And turning back to Iomedae. “I would speak with the volunteers, once you have some. They - should know what they are going into.” 

And there are good parts about the Empire, if - buried deeply and warped from their original form - he wants them to hear it from someone who knows what the Empire was meant to be, not just what it is now. He’s not sure why it feels so important to him but it does.

She nods. "I'd appreciate that. You are welcome to go wherever you'd like in Urgir, by the way. We have a protective Hymn of Peace up over the whole city, which makes it extraordinarily difficult to attack anybody or destroy anything, but isn't noticeable if you don't try that. And it's protected against dimensional transit of all kinds, but that's also not noticeable unless you try."

He raises an eyebrow. “Am I not already prevented from trying both with Alfirin’s magic?” They haven’t said anything about reassessing it, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable of them to leave it in place -

- he remembers that brief pause, when he offered the Gate, and Alfirin saying she assumes he would provide interdimensional transit. She thought he would offer willingly, and in nearly all circumstances he thinks he would, but…she wasn’t counting on that.

"Alfirin and I have longstanding stylistic differences around - whether it's better to tell you 'you have the run of the city, though it's safest and most convenient for us if you stay home' or not, if we anticipate you'll probably sensibly not wander the city full of Tar-Baphon's spies without a good reason. She has an inclination against - pretending to hand off power she hasn't - and I have an inclination towards making the exercise of power non-default.

But in fact if you try to walk into Urgir you will be able to do so." She shrugs. "You can also request more books, if you'd like those."

'Walking into Urgir' wasn't in fact either of the things he was asking about, which is maybe enough of an answer, and it doesn't matter anyway; he's not intending to Gate out without her, and he's definitely not planning to attack anyone. Alfirin's - style, if Iomedae wants to call it that - makes sense to him, and he's not bothered, though overall he is glad to know. 

"I read Aroden's holy books - the one of teachings and the one of his history. Are there other books you would recommend? I ought to write to Bastran, first, but - I would like to know more about this world." 

"I can get you some generic histories, I guess."

Nod. "I would appreciate it. I think it is - not urgent in the sense that it is likely to change my decisions or priorities - speaking to Aroden did resolve most of my...remaining doubts. It did not really leave me less confused about the - parallels in our history," or what it even MEANS, that Aroden recognized him, "but Aroden did not seem - concerned about it." 

"It must be important, for Aroden to have - found it worth trying to convey - but it might just be important in the straightforward sense that we can get lots more done if we know we can trust each other. I'll get you some history books, and some books about magic and geopolitics in our world, and then I'll get you some emissaries so you can brief them on what to expect, presuming Aroden confirms He'll retrieve their souls for me."

"Thank you." 

Altarrin...sort of wishes they could speak further. But he doesn't having any pressing questions lined up, his remaining confusion is still too nebulous to put into words, and there's a lot for both of them to do. He can go start on a draft letter to Bastran, while Iomedae asks for volunteers. 

Iomedae will Commune with Aroden to confirm he will retrieve his chosen clerics or paladins who die in Velgarth, and then select some of the weak paladins -- not powerful enough for spellcasting, but powerful enough for the anti-fear effect, because people who are capable of fear end up far more traumatized by interrogations and by torture -- to explain the mission to.

There's another world, called Velgarth. She spent some time there. She is at war with an empire in Velgarth, and recently the person she was negotiating with defected to the cause of the Crusade. He did this of his own free will, but from the perspective of the empire, obviously, it looks like a trick she pulled, or at minimum something she tried to orchestrate. They don't have the concept of paladins there; they'd see no reason why she wouldn't have done that. And now they're of course suspicious and probably terrified, and she is afraid that in their terror they might contact Tar-Baphon for help (or just scry him while trying to see what's going on; scrying the camp during the attack on Urgir would've done it) and invite Golarion's own war to their world. 

She doesn't like the Empire, as they can presumably infer from the fact she went to war with it, but she does not want its rulers to be terrified and desperate, since terrified and desperate rulers make bad choices, and she does not want communication channels so poisoned that the war will be impossible to deescalate, and she does not want them all enslaved by Tar Baphon. And she is genuinely grieved that from their perspective it looks a lot like she betrayed negotiations. She is, in fact, willing to pay quite a lot to prevent the appearance of that, quite apart from preventing the actual thing; it is really valuable to her that in Golarion people can not only expect that she won't betray negotiations but also that things which look a whole lot like 'her betraying negotiations' will be really rare and not countenanced by her. 

She expects the actual mission to be miserable. They'll surrender, be interrogated, and probably be killed. (She'll probably retrieve them subsequently, unless anyone is in fact in a hurry to go to Heaven and would rather stay there.)

She collects ratings until she gets two sixes and sends them to Altarrin. A twenty year old woman from an archery unit, new to being a chosen paladin, and a fifty-five year old man who retired from adventuring a decade ago and works in Pereza's department on logistics and who says she can spare the diamond Raising him, his arthritis is starting to get to him anyway and he's looking forward to being renewed and young in Heaven.

He's been working on his letter to Bastran, but will set it aside to brief the paladins. 

He's sure Iomedae has told them plenty about the Empire's current failings. Those failings are real, and very bad, and it's a system that traps even the best of its people on paths where they have no leeway to...choose better options than the default...but the best of its people do, often, genuinely believe in the Empire, and would want it to be better if they saw a way. He thinks it's important they have the context on why. 

There was a Cataclysm in his world - a little like the one that happened at the beginning of Aroden's history, but more recent, only seven hundred years ago. The Empire was founded in the rubble and ashes, by a group of dedicated founders who wanted - a lot of the same things Aroden's church wants, he thinks, to build a civilization where no one would starve, where its people could invest in education and invention and discovery. And the Empire isn't not that. It's still the only place in Velgarth that retains much of the advanced magic known before the Mage Wars, like permanent Gates for transport. Its citizens are proud of their home, and Altarrin doesn't think they're wrong to be. 

The Empire is also incredibly paranoid and controlling of its people, and intensely distrustful of gods. This is a pattern that causes immense suffering, and it - traps people, it's a lot of why the Empire cannot, as an institution, easily turn away from war now, with Oris or with Aroden's church. But he thinks it's important that they understand why - that it's because the gods of Velgarth have never, once, intervened to support the cause of a flourishing civilization, or to give the Empire more options rather than fewer. It's...a path that goes nowhere good, to ban religion in an entire Empire and execute for treason anyone they catch worshipping a god...but it's a measure that was only taken after it had been observed that where there were priests and temples, people died and projects failed. 

He doesn't know why it's like that. But if Aroden had been one of the gods on hand, when the First Emperor took the throne, Altarrin thinks the Empire would have seen the shared ground between them. It was meant to be a place that would be aligned with Aroden. It isn't, and maybe it's too late, but - that's the vision they believed in, once, and many of the Empire's leaders still believe that nowhere else in the world is on a better track. 

(He doesn't tell them about his immortality; he's still going back and forth agonizing over whether to tell Bastran, but he doesn't want it dragged out of these people's heads by whichever expendable Thoughtsenser and interrogation team are sent to deal with them, and honestly he doesn't want it spread around Heaven either. His argument feels less coherent and compelling without that, but hopefully they're following anyway.) 

Iomedae didn't, in fact, say much about her reasons for being at war with the Empire, though they expected she had good ones. They listen attentively. 

"All right," the man, Tiaves, says when Altarrin's finished. "I'm sorry you were forced to flee. It's never easy. I wouldn't worry too much. Iomedae's got a good head on her shoulders, she'll get it sorted sooner or later."

She sleeps starting around the midday bell, because for the last bloody weeks of fighting those midday hours have been the ones where she was least likely to be urgently needed. She waits upon waking, an extra twenty minutes that is usually not part of her 'morning' routine, for yesterday's mind blank to expire, and then sends for Altarrin.