The Alteri also bow, although they seem a little uncertain about this. They are happy to look at the art and the technology and the music, though. 

Haneo sort of bounces in place, because she doesn't have an escort and it's kind of hard to navigate without one. She tries to estimate how many people she can sense on board the ship. She's also trying to figure out what kind of creature the sheepdog-thing is.

The sheepdog doesn't seem to have any thoughts, just senses.

That is, until he says to her who did that to you? And growls.

Haneo startles and stops bouncing, but she manages not to do anything that she thinks anyone not explicitly paying attention to her would notice. It only takes her a second to calm down, though. She thinks she's getting pretty good at it.

Hi! I'm not supposed to wave at people, sorry. Who did which thing?

He does not communicate further in words. He sends what he means. He means - the mittens and the facemask and the injuries and the fear.

Oh, she thinks, because she was going to think of a name but there isn't a name associated with all of that. The Alteri, I guess. She solemnly considers that it's because she's friendly, like friendliness is a disease that nobody is quite sure how to cure her of.

He walks over to her and curls up around her, fluffily.

Haneo is a little worried about this and is really not sure what she's supposed to be doing in response to it, but she's pretty sure that petting dogs is friendlier than waving at them, so she just kind of stands. Probably she won't get in trouble for standing.

All but one of the Alteri stare at the giant sheepdog. (The last is very involved in discussing one of the Singers' art pieces.)

"Does he often do that," blinks one of them.

"No. Your grace, the Alteri have slaves, and they torture their slaves, and some of them are children, and we're not going to criticize them for that, that's how interspecies diplomacy works, it doesn't work if you criticize people for torturing their child slaves -"

Huan growls slightly.

"The Alteri don't even believe you are a god!"

Well, they should. he tells everyone within three hundred miles.

The Alteri on the ship shuffle awkwardly. A few of them are thinking that it's certainly not their business what anyone does to the psyons, they're just here to look at art and talk to a new race of aliens and find out more about the supposed cloaking device. One of them is trying not to be indignant about the fact that Liars are really more livestock than they are slaves, because the person who has a problem with it is a giant dog and this seems like an argument that is unlikely to go over well. One of them is considering whether this would be an opportune time to overthrow the government, and also whether the Singers have maybe gotten around to answering some of the hundred and twenty-six questions.

You're nice, thinks Haneo, and then buries her face in fluff, because she's pretty sure she's going to be in trouble no matter what now.

Two hundred and twenty-six miles below them, Sanae rolls out of bed.

We should probably not die this week, she thinks.

It does seem like a bad time, return the other psyons in the network.

Elves stand there awkwardly frozen. "I, uh, think," says one of them hesitantly, "awkward as this is, your Liars are one of the early attempts at creating Singer planets."

There is chirping.

"This seems unlikely, given that the Liars were created by the Alteri."

"...are you sure?"

The Alteri on the ship all ardently believe that the Liars were, in fact, created by the Alteri. Except the one who wants to overthrow the government, he's going over all the evidence he's heard for that and trying to figure out how you'd go about checking in on something that happened seventy thousand years ago.

"It's in all our histories. We have no reason to believe otherwise. Perhaps it could be more thoroughly investigated, if there's uncertainty on this front?"

" - I think there might be some."

"But, ah, we're not going to demand you agree with us, it's more relevant because, well, it seems that some of the Maiar might take issue with the treatment of the Liar children -"

"Did this come up the other contact -"

"I don't know but they didn't have a Maia they had Varda and she has ever heard of diplomacy - no offense, Huan -"

Huan is curled up licking his paws and glaring them down.

Haneo unburies her face and tries harder to pay attention to what the Elves are thinking, particularly anything about the other point of contact. This is going to be a mess no matter what she knows, and if she knows anything then at least the other psyons will know something, and maybe one of them will be able to keep things from blowing up at her in particular.

"It's not as though psyon 84673 is of any particular importance," blinks one of them, "but we can't exactly tell the government to change policy on Savaek Nas because some aliens found our practices unsettling."

Also this entire line of discussion is sort of ridiculous, but, well, aliens. This does seem pretty at odds with the idea that the Singers' creators find Alteri accomplishments in the realm of genetic engineering particularly admirable, though.

"I understand," says an Elf. "We wouldn't ask you to. We weren't expecting this to come up. It wasn't mentioned in transmissions from the other group. We can go back to what we were looking at - your grace, you're just going to sit there?"

Huan continues glaring.

The Elves are stressed. They needed Huan because it was important that the Alteri believe them about the Maiar - if the Alteri went and made contact with Melkor himself then he'd know they existed and the war would spread from Endorë - but of course Huan wasn't the most suited to it - 

- one of the Elves is thinking longingly that a Maia they knew back in Valinor would have been much better suited -

- another one is thinking that the Alteri really really suck, wow, he shouldn't be thinking that it's not diplomatic -

The Alteri affirm that they would like to keep looking at what they were looking at before, but they seem much less enthusiastic this time around. Except the one who wants to overthrow the government, he's suddenly very interested in the abilities of the Maiar.

Haneo pets Huan. I'm sorry. They're not all mean, they're just really bad at not being mean. I wish I didn't have to go back, but I probably do. Otherwise I'd get in trouble, and also the other psyons would miss me.

Huan snuggles her silently. Still doesn't seem to have any thoughts.

Singers are happy to explain about the abilities of the Maiar! They can take physical forms, but they aren't inherently physical beings; they control the space around them and can assemble that space into molecules or living organisms if they so please. They can travel, but not faster than light except by the normal mechanisms for that. They can talk instantaneously to all of the other Maiar, anywhere; that's why ships try to persuade one to come aboard. "The Maiar are very eccentric. They care passionately about many things that escape us, and are indifferent to many concerns of great importance to us. There are Maiar who spend all their eternities meticulously caring for one point in space. Huan is the only dog but 'being a dog' is not an unusually weird thing for a Maia to be. The range on the telepathy is around three hundred miles though they don't usually use all of it. The Valar are like them but greater; the area of space over which a Vala has total control encompasses whole planets."

He thinks this is probably not entirely true, but it is a really fascinating set of lies even if it isn't.

"So you have instantaneous communication over arbitrary distances, like the Defiler ansibles?" he asks.

"The Maiar do. It's not the same thing as our having them."

They helpfully share stories of Maiar they know. This one tracks the golden sun's orbit across the sky of Valinor as seen from a particular vantage point. Every day. She's done so for a million years, supposedly. Her name is Arien, there's video and artwork and poetry. 

This one is passionate about making sure that this specific pool of water has a prime number of water molecules in it. This one sings to these particular five trees. This one likes to flatten himself across eight square miles of land and listen to the tremors made by distant footfalls. He gets very upset if anyone steps on his land. This one is never seen except when she comes around to people with babies and paints the babies' fingernails a soft, glowing gold. She's done it a hundred and four times in all of history. 

Wow that is a weird set of claims to make. At least they can be pretty sure that if they're a trick then they're not a Defiler trick; the Defilers would come up with something plausible.

"There aren't Maiar who are generally cooperative? Uh, not that Huan isn't being cooperative, I am sure my superiors appreciate your willingness to deal with us at all."

"There's one who rules a kingdom in Endorë, the unsealed planet. There are some that help with errands or teach mathematics or make sure the tides are convenient for fishing or help crops grow. There aren't many who are - usable as a strategic resource - they just mostly don't think that way. Huan was the only one we could convince to come along to meet aliens who had a track record of safely interacting with people unfamiliar with him." That's mostly true but the last sentence abuses conversational implicature a little. 

This is all very cool. Still sounds pretty fake, like exactly the sort of nonsense Liars would come up with, but at least it's an interesting fake.

The Alteri settle back into discussing technology and culture and artwork. They are mostly content to ignore the fact that their psyon is cuddling with a giant dog, it's not like they really needed her to do anything except stand in place anyway.

Haneo listens in to all the conversations she can and mostly manages not to get them mixed up.

They can demonstrate lots of technology and culture and artwork. They have elaborate music and elaborate virtual reality games to show off the ecosystems of their planets. 

And they have lots of video of Endorë, where the rogue Vala began his annihilation campaign. Before and after pictures, sometimes video. 

This is concerning but also very easy to falsify. The Alteri promise to pass the information along to their superiors. Eventually they determine that they've been on board the ship long enough, and that they should probably return to their station to eat. They thank the Singers for their hospitality and prepare to leave.

Haneo hugs Huan and then reluctantly follows the others.