Nod. It seems unlikely to come up for me, anyway. But it probably changes how we think about time, thirty years is almost my entire life so far.

I've lived around two thousand, I think.

Yeah, that'd definitely change things. D'you think they're going to have trouble with the idea that I'm so temporary?

They probably would if they believed you. I can't afford to take a century to recover anyway, not with a war on.

Blink. Are you expecting them not to believe me because they'll be suspicious of me, or for some other reason?

Because you working for the Enemy makes more sense than you being from another world and conveniently stumbling upon and rescuing me.

Nod. Okay.

Assume for the moment I'm not; if they decide I am and want me to let them bring you there, what do you want me to do?

I can't go home, if you're the Enemy that'd be some kind of elaborate trick to get information from me or make it easier to impersonate me.

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.