It helps. Scott knows what she wants from him- that's one thing that's nice about imprinting, is that you never really have to wonder what the other person wants from you, even if it makes everything else more complicated.

"Thanks. I feel like I should ask- is brainwashing a big concern for you guys? Your magic is really versatile compared to werewolves and vampires."

"Huh... It's something worth preparing and defending yourself against, but not exactly common. Government structures around learned the hard way that they have to counter it, but it's something that can be defended against. And in our kind of magic, defense tends to have an edge. Think of it like airplanes, the safest way to travel, but there are still rules about not having key governmental people flying in the same plane. Or over disputed airspace for that matter."

"How do the defenses work?"

"For mental magic? Most have a component akin to scrambling the magic's signal that is trying to infiltrate the target's mind. And - common to most wards - some are designed to make the mind harder to change. The fancier ones compare different mind states moment to moment, searching for inconsistencies and obvious changes."

"Do you have wards like that? It doesn't matter how fancy, you need some protection."

Fernanda slightly raises her eyebrows. "We can look it up with Henry? I was planning to reinforce our protections to prepare to go to your world."

"-yes, please. I know I seem- like I worry about you too much- but it's really important that you're safe."

Screamingly important, like now that there's an avenue by which she might be unsafe he needs to deal with it, immediately and violently if necessary.

She takes a moment to answer that. "We can go look it up, but I really want to stress that's not something likely to happen."

That isn't helpful but it seems like a mistake to say so. Can he hide how he's feeling from Fernanda? That seems like an important skill.

Scott has always been a very expressive person, partly because people appreciate that, but with Fernanda it keeps being unhelpful to have feelings at all, let alone show them-

"Okay. If you're sure. I'll feel better if we look it up, but I trust you."

"I just don't see it being worth the trouble of leaving Felicia and Katur behind right now. We could, but it's not worth the trouble."

"That makes sense."

Love love love paralyzing fear of loss urge to protect love.

"We could go looking for them now and then to Henry's if there isn't anything we need to do."

"Sure. Let's go."

Scott can probably find them fairly quickly, now that he's used to their scents.

That's indeed a good people tracking tool! Katur and Felicia are near each other, though the later is talking to an elderly woman and the former is looking at a display. Like he is not trying to intrude in the conversation.

...Scott will approach Katur, first. He's relatively quiet, not wanting to interrupt whatever Felicia is dealing with. It could be anyone, really, they're really keyed into local politics. He'll let her tell him, if she wants to.

"Hey," he says to Katur, somewhat more gruffly than he intended.

"Hey? Felicia is just talking about how we are going to leave for a while."

"That's thoughtful of her.

Sorry to drag you along for all this."

"Not your fault. Anyway, do you need anything?"

"I just need to get my mind off things. We're going to be dealing with a lot, soon, and it's really easy to worry about Fernanda. I know she can take care of herself, but- imprint."

Nod. "She is very capable, and there are a lot of people looking out for her well-being." Katur included goes unspoken.

Nod

"You're in her corner. I can trust you to want what's best for her?"

"Of course."

"Have you ever seen them do diplomacy before?"

"No personally? But they did attend a lot of social events with important people? I am sure they have met a few diplomats."