(He really should. Stef, so far, likes Iomedae quite a lot and does not trust her even slightly.) 

"The healing has no side effects except removing exhaustion, sickness, injury, poisoning, organ damage, and so on, and regrowing amputated body parts. It doesn't permit me any power over those who are healed. My only intention in offering it was to demonstrate it, and make you less exhausted for what seems like a very high stakes conversation. I intend to work with you in good faith. I'm confused and suspicious about this entire situation, but - I'm not going to stand by and let ten million people die for a human sacrifice operation because I'm very confused."

Her Healing can do WHAT that's not how anything works! Stef isn't a Healer but he's still pretty sure he knows that isn't how anything works! 

...She's neat, though, he likes her. That was a good speech. He should try to memorize some quotes for future ballads. It doesn't permit me any power over those who are healed / My only intention in offering it was to demonstrate it. What rhythms with 'demonstrate'....?

Vanyel nods. "Thank you. ...I think you're right, this - is really high stakes." It's the most high-stakes decision he's ever had to deal with, possibly the most high-stakes decision in Valdemar's history, and he hates it but it's not like his feelings on things have ever mattered. 

"I should ration the healing, with how Aroden doesn't refresh it here, but - I suspect I can figure something out, in the long run, and a lot more people are going to die than my healing can save, if there was a way to avert this war and we don't see it."

...And there's a deep sense of - recognition, there, of feeling like she understands, she's - trying to balance the resources she has and the constraints she faces, even knowing as little as she does - and of course she could be showing that to him on purpose, as a method of persuasion, but it - feels like the sort of thing he's thought about Leareth, sometimes, that it would be so much harder to fake it than to actually, just, care, and do it for real...

- and he's already asked her the questions that really matter under Truth Spell, it's not like it's decision-relevant whether the thing she just said makes him feel seen and understood, whether or not that was deliberate and strategic on her part. 

"Yes. ...I'm sorry. That you - don't have access to all the magic you're used to." It's hard to even imagine, actually - what would he do, if he only had a limited number of levinbolts and shields he could cast, ever, or at least for the indefinite future...

"Well, with your government's permission, after the war is avoided or won, I'll see if I can get a church of Aroden set up here, and maybe then He'll be able to function normally." And she extends her hand to offer the Lay On Hands.

...You can totally kill people with Healing. (Vanyel has done it.) But if Iomedae wanted to kill him, then she could have done it ten minutes ago. 

Vanyel extends his hand. 

She just heals him. A powerful paladin's lay on hands can soothe quite a lot, though not all of the things that Vanyel in particular has going on right now.

He feels remarkably better - nothing is fundamentally different, but it feels like having slept enough and eaten enough for the last month except even moreso or at least more than he's ever experienced before. 

"- Thank you," he says, trying - harder than he realized he would need to - to say it calmly and with his usual level of composure. "I - we were talking about you wanting to write to Leareth? - I do have an arrangement with him on exchanging messages but I've never, er, used it before. And - I think I'd want to read over whatever you want to send to him, if you don't mind." 

"Absolutely. I know almost nothing about this situation and I understand there are many ways that a letter can make things worse, most obviously by alerting Leareth that I'm here and he should do something about that. But it is the custom of the religious order of which I am a member that we war only openly, having made fully clear our demands, our decisive reasoning, and by what avenue our enemies could pursue a peace, and so I'll write a letter. 

In my world men can become gods. I do not particularly desire to offer godhood to a man who seems disturbingly willing to murder millions of people in pursuit of it, and I don't know if it's possible to access my world at all. But - if you think he's sincerely doing this in the pursuit of godhood, and was at least for a while open to another way - we do have one."

Wow. ...Stef is not going to ask any of his dozens of questions right now because it's a bad time but 'in my world, men can become gods' is SUCH juicy ballad material. 

...Vanyel nods. 

"I think– ...I'm not sure how good a read I have on him, but - if I've understood him right at all - then I think he pretty badly wants a - better way. Definitely something better than conquering Valdemar, I - I have the sense our conversations all along have been him trying to - figure out if we can work together somehow instead of that. I - we haven't really talked about alternatives to the - ten million people -" because it would mean revealing secrets that Leareth could, in the world where Vanyel is misreading his intentions, use to conquer Valdemar and consolidate his power forever, "- but - in the scenario where I'm...guessing right about what he wants...he would ver badly want alternatives. I think. ....I'm sorry I can't give you better guesses." 

" - well. We can tell him that I'm from another world; it'll be hard to hide anyway once he's seen me in battle. And we can tell him that if he wants to find another way, my world might suggest some possibilities, but he'll have to - what concrete demands does Valdemar have of him at this time? You fear an invasion, but his troops are all in his territory at this time?"

"....As far as we know? His territory is, er, north of the Ice Wall Mountains, it's - we really don't have good intelligence on his movements. He definitely hasn't invaded Valdemar yet." That, at least, they would have noticed. Almost certainly. 

"- I, uh, think our concrete demands are that we don't want him using our population for blood-sacrifice, but that's - I think he wasn't going to be ready to actually do that for a few decades anyway." 

...Vanyel takes another deep breath. "...And, uh, I'm - not, actually, sure that the recent - things that happened - were his doing. I don't have any other explanation but it - doesn't make a lot of sense, strategically, for him to have done it? ...And I wouldn't have said before now that I thought he could destroy k'Treva Vale. That's the - it's in the core territory of the Star-Eyed Goddess. I'm pretty sure he's claimed before that he couldn't operate without interference from Her in the Pelagirs." 

(Or in the Dhorisha Plains, and - there are real implications there, if Leareth had the ability to defy the Star-Eyed all along then surely Vanyel wouldn't have been the first person to, after two thousand years, show him a memory of Urtho's face...) 

"Well, I'm willing to notify him that I presently intend to defend Valdemar from an invasion, but if he's presently in his own territory I'm also not going to help you invade him - not because you wouldn't have good reason, under the described circumstances, but because I can't myself under these circumstances arrive at enough confidence in what's going on to be comfortable invading another country."

"- Valdemar doesn't invade other countries. ...Er, I mean, if we were ever going to break that precedent it would be for this, but I don't think we realistically can, we have no idea where his people are and - I don't think it's meaningfully even a country he has up north, more a - secret underground mercenary organization?" Vanyel ducks his head. "Anyway. I don't think it costs Valdemar anything that you wouldn't in theory be willing to help us invade his territory?" 

"If he doesn't have an army how is he planning to conquer Valdemar?"

"We're pretty sure he has an army! We have some information about it, even - I don't really know how he has an army north of the Ice Wall Mountains, I don't think you can grow food there without magic - I don't know. He seems confident he has the people and resources to conquer us if he decides that's the best plan and I'm - inclined to think he's not being an idiot about that." 

- vast array of demiplanes, probably. Great. She's - very not thrilled about this person gaining access to Golarion, though it doesn't sound like his own world can handle him any better. 

"Understood. I - do you have paladins here, the other people I spoke with weren't familiar with the word."

"I don't recognize it either. Can you, er, describe some things about what makes someone a paladin and what paladins do?" 

"Paladins make oaths of service to our order that include commitments to behave - honorably, to protect the innocent, to give our wealth where it's needed most. The specific commitments vary by order, but all paladins are honorable and good - the gods renounce any who behave otherwise, and don't select in the first place anyone who is likely to. Paladins are empowered by the gods to be very good at fighting, especially at fighting Evil."

...Vanyel tries to keep his (pointless, stupid) flinch internal, but it's probably still going to be noticeable to Iomedae. 

"That - almost sounds like Heralds? Er, the people who are chosen by Companions, in Valdemar." For some reason Vanyel is failing to bring up that he's one. Yfandes would have something to say about this if she were here instead of safely 300 miles away, probably. "....Except the 'empowered by the gods' part, we - our gods don't work as directly as yours, I think. But the - commitment to behave honorably and protect the innocent - there's a standard oath, I can tell you the exact wording if that's useful...?" 

"Very much so."

"It's...." 

This is weirdly terrible and Vanyel - should probably think about that feeling, at some point, though having to reflect on his feelings about anything ALSO sounds terrible and he's actually just not going to look at all the reasons why, right now, because he'll look like an idiot if he starts crying in the middle of this incredibly high stakes conversation. 

" 'I pledge to you this day my sword. I pledge you my heart, that we may build and preserve our land and people together. I vow to obey our Laws and seek the Truth in every thought and deed, to heal the wrongs and bring aid to those who suffer, and by the strength of my hand to restore and keep the peace. The deeds of those who lived before, the legends of our past, have shown me the way, and my Companion has opened a door in my heart. It is upon love that we build this foundation, and for love that I will serve Valdemar as long as there is breath in me. This is our sacred trust. My path stands clear before me, and where you lead, I cannot be afraid. Upon my soul I vow this to you, that the light that is our people may never fade.' "