Nod. All right. Hopefully it won't come to that; I expect it'll hurt them very badly if it does.

My brothers are very capable people. I think they'll be fine.

Okay.

They want the same things as me and have more information. I trust them.

All right. I mean, I know I'm not, that's the information I have to work from, I just don't want to find myself in the middle of a situation like that and not knowing what I should do. If I was I don't think your answer to that question would matter.

You might pretend to respect my wishes if I'm needed to cooperate in this scenario for some reason.

Shrug. I suppose.

I'm kind of thinking that there's not much point to talking about whether I am or not - I'm not going to try to convince you, that'd obviously be pointless at best.

Does it bother you when I assert that you probably are?

Mostly just that there doesn't seem to be a good way to respond to it. It's not an unreasonable thing for you to worry about.

I'm not expecting a response from you. Just explaining the constraints on me going home.

All right.

If they do decide I'm safe, does that change anything I'd need to know about?

They'll want to learn magic as soon as possible.

Yeah, I caught that. We should probably spend some time coming up with a plan between now and then. Anything else?

They're going to be thinking how to use it to kill people, will that bother you?

...maybe. Depends on the situation. If it's genuinely needed, though, no. Also, humanely.

They will also prefer to do it humanely, yes.

They might want to spy on Angband.

I don't have a problem with them doing that - assuming it turns out to be safe but it sounds like they'd check - but I probably shouldn't personally help beyond casting the spells.

You think it'll upset you more than them?

Not exactly? But I expect it'd make it harder for me to be around you and I'm assuming I'd still be the only one you were okay with doing that, and in general the things I'm good at I get worse at when I'm more traumatized - it wouldn't be a very good use of me.

You don't need to watch.

Nod.

More spells?

Yes, please.

Three more. Only the thumb left.

I wonder if I shouldn't have more than just the portal to show them, if you think they're going to be that interested in my magic - I do think they're going to be pretty distracted, but I don't mind being over-prepared.

Can you do portals on two skins, that people can take with them to use as long-distance communication?

Not the way you're thinking of. Except for the one kind of targeting where it picks a new random spot each time the spell activates, I can't make spells with targets that move or change.