"It was toned down. Elspeth had talked him into a ceasefire. But yes."

"Terms of the ceasefire don't extend here?"

"They extend to a couple kingdoms in Evil Arda. Extending them here would involve Evil Maitimo - or possibly Evil Thingol but he's even less likely to be cooperative - declaring potential victims to be his subjects, which I imagine would have political complications and we're not sure how thin the claim can be to work."

"The countries are still run by the evil versions of people? I think I was kind of imagining a coup."

"It's complicated. On a political, population level, it really isn't worse than the typical human population, they're just disturbing because we know what they're like when they're not evil. Although Thingols suck by default."

"Is my alt evil?"

"Probably? I'm not sure. She did get along with Elspeth, but Elspeth speaks lovingly of multiple serial killers."

"Guess I can imagine being a serial killer if magically evil and sufficiently pissed off."

"I honestly don't know if your alt is evil or not. Not everyone has been checked out individually. Most people there are and the only exception I remember hearing about is the Findekáno but maybe it's a family trait and your alt is also fine."

"How do you know he's not?"

"Nonevil Maitimo investigation. They're very good at people."

"Useful."

It's five days' travel to the border and a day's tedious waiting there - she amails home with updates - and then two more to the site of the disappearances.

Cam faithfully writes updates to the peal twice daily.

And has anybody here been corresponding with the disappearers, since they seem so polite about it? And yes, some people are uncertain about being disappeared and accordingly have not been disappeared yet. They are being invited to travel to a science fantasy plane and join a colony there. Some of them have heard from their friends and family members who have already disappeared. They are advised not to travel back and forth, because being in a science fantasy plane and doing any amount of science fantasy there may make staying in the prime material unsafe.

"...This isn't absolutely out of Sauron's repertoire," Cam tells Iris, "but it's - stylistically off."

"Can you describe what the difference is?"

"If it were Sauron I'd expect there to have been visits from people purporting to be friends and family members who went. Visual illusions aren't difficult for him and they're having conversations already so he'd be hypothetically doing a satisfactory job at impersonating their personalities and knowledge and so on. Science fantasy also seems like weird bait. It's bait that is uniquely appealing here as opposed to anywhere else; but it'd be easier to claim, say, post-scarcity paradise or political utopia, since Sauron probably knows many science facts but doesn't come from a world with a high tech level."

"So, talk with the people who are doing the disappearing?"

"Yeah, I think so."

All of the communication is disappearer-initiated, but Cam indicates that he might wish to be disappeared if he had more details - well, he might! - and after a few days a disappearer gets back to him on that.

Hello! This is Rúmil; I help manage immigration and construction on our new world. I imagine you have a lot of questions?

Lots. How sure are you that it would be dangerous for people to come back here for visits?

Not sure at all. There is one instance of someone returning from a science fantasy world after having done a lot of science; everything she'd developed with it broke, but she was very careful not to do any science in the prime material, or anything risky or objectionable at all, and she did not die. There were other considerations at play in that instance and we are not eager to repeat it, but while we strongly advise immigrants to remain here it is possible they could return without being killed if they were sufficiently cautious.

Other considerations?

The gods of the plane she'd arrived on promised to protect her when she went back. It is unclear whether they did that successfully.

Why'd she come back?

She was exiled from that science fantasy plane. That is a different one than this one which is currently accepting immigrants. This one has no gods and no one will send you back.

It's a little surprising that you've been whisking people away and none of them have changed their minds and gone home.