He catches it, though.

Wow.

Except I'm pretty sure he wasn't confused, beforehand, he didn't think we were playing a game, he knew he was hurting me and just didn't care until - until he decided to care -

Some of that seems like kind of a non sequitur but whatever. Well, he only had until the nuke was ready to try anything he was going to try to get you to come back willingly. What would you have done if he'd run out his time and then grudgingly let you go?

...gone?

And now you're going but only halfway...

Yeah.

Did you get him to swear not to do it to somebody else?

No.

...if he really swore to regret it I bet I could go back now and get him to swear not to do it to anyone else. The risk is that he'll have recovered himself enough to decide he doesn't want to let me go, but if he's stuck releasing me once the war's done anyway...

Elspeth really needs to stop modeling these people as Vampires Sorta Kinda because she was sort of assuming horrifying monogamy but he has a point.

Oh, he's not going to fall in love with anyone else but it'd probably be a lot worse if he's not in love.

I should go back.

Just long enough to get that concession, or -?

I don't really like abandoning someone writhing on the floor in agony, and he needs to at least be functional enough the country runs smoothly...

That would be an interesting form of extortion, perk me up or watch your country descend into chaos just as surely as if someone had stabbed me...

And entirely in character. But recognizing it doesn't make the country descending into chaos any more desirable as an outcome.

Maybe Findekáno could just run it, this was recommended to her albeit not necessarily by an expert.

Crossed my mind. If I want to try that I need to go back as quickly as possible, the only way I could pull it off would be by being assumed to be operating on Maitimo's behalf.

Elspeth is not a suitable repository for secrets.

I could try actually operating on Maitimo's behalf. 'Let me run the kingdom and I'll stay here with you...'

It's up to Findekáno, she supposes. Weaponized love was totally a factor when her mama took over the world. It works.

I am so used to only having the reactions to him which are constructive for coping with him that I'm not sure I can muster the ones that are actually appropriate. But I find it appealing to go back and behave normally and soothe him and ask for the kingdom.

Should she come back or not?

Up to you, I suppose. I should definitely like advisors who know what's going on but on the other hand you hate him.

She'll probably calm down on that if he stops being so intensely fucked up all the time. She hangs out with Addy, who is only not so intensely fucked up all the time anymore because of bribery and supervision.

You should tell him that, I expect he'd find it motivating. It really bothered him that you hated him.

Sure.

He's pretty good at running the country. I think even a very benevolent person would probably be worse to have in power, if they had just slightly less attention to detail for public health and famine and so forth.