Link with portal powers shows up
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"Hello, you two. I wanted to talk about portals into Har if now is a good time."

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Liane spins around, grin fading to a more neutral smile. "Might as well close 'em, little me. Clean up after yourself, yeah?"

Lisara rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah." The portals close.

"You don't want wild portals into Har because the imperial government would freak the hell out."

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"They really would. They're already not happy about Milliways, I think."

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"Not freaking a government out is kind of a stupid reason to avoid doing something if it's harmless."

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"Think of it like - opening a brand new window into someone's house. They don't know how your portals work. They don't know who or what might come through, and they want to be able to control it, to feel secure."

Lisara seems confused.

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"Uh, they don't so much do privacy in the Firsyd. Putting a ladder up next to the palisade wall might make more sense as an analogy? It'll make them feel unsafe and vulnerable. They might try to burn the ladder, they might try to hunt down whoever put it there and imprison 'em..."

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"...Well, you're the me who knows that place. And you're older. But still, then we oughta explain how portals work and maybe work out a place to put one under wards or something!"

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"That might work. What kind of wards were you thinking?"

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"Whatever wards they want so they feel safe having a portal and not like it's a ladder over a palisade?"

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"So that's going to be awkward because the kinds of things it's easy to specify to a spell aren't the same as the kinds of things they'd care about. They'd care about people obeying Hari law and not starting a war and it might, maybe be possible for a knowledge mage to check current intent, but I don't think anyone knows how to do that now so it'd take some research, and it wouldn't work on anyone who was under an illusion, and I'm pretty sure it's actually impossible to check whether someone is going to forget a law or do something impulsive. It might be more doable to restrict what kinds of people and things can come through the portals, or how many at a time, or something, but I'm not sure how to guarantee safety that way."

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She frowns. "So... They're paranoid and just want to be left alone? Then leave 'em alone."

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"I don't think that's a permanent solution. Milliways exists and likes at least three people who live there. You have portal powers, and it seems likely that other things can cross between worlds and they'll run into one of those sooner or later. And both they and other worlds could benefit from trade - and travel to and from hasn't been disastrous in the few times Milliways showed itself so far."

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Lisara throws up her hands. "So, what? You're all terrified of what they'll think, what they'll do. Why don't you just go talk to 'em? They're not devils and you can have wards against the, uh-"

"Command magic," Liane supplies.

"Yeah, that."

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"I bet if I'm not mistaken I can have a representative here in a couple minutes if someone holds the door for me. If we decide talking to them is the way to go."

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"If the imperial government gets a Milliways door, that opens up all sorts of worrisome possibilities since anyone or anything can come through Milliways. We have a little city in that world, I don't know how much Liane told you but we're trying to - be a good example of a moral society since the current government's laws encourage slavery and so on - but anyway, I wouldn't worry so much if they had control of one of your portals to some unoccupied place and could interact with whoever else through that. They wouldn't like that you could technically close it and open it somewhere else whenever you wanted, but then not doing that will make them trust you a bit more."

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Lisara groans and puts her head in her palms. "Politics. What do you think, other me?"

"...Something could go wrong, but something could always go wrong. Probably worth it if Kat and Valanda come up with a good plan."

"Fine. Come up with a good plan and I'll talk to them and put a portal, if you want. Ward me up a whole bunch first, though."

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"Sure, I can do whatever wards seem sensible once we have a plan. Do you two want to be part of talking about it or just leave me and Katherine to it?"

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"Let's stay and listen, Lis. We'll already know it when it's go time."

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"So, Valanda, what is the objective, exactly? What does it look like if we come up with a magically brilliant plan and get everything we want out of this?"

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"I think... I want precedent for peaceful diplomatic relations between the empire and some other independent polity. It's never happened and I think a peace that depends on being able to crush or absorb all opposition is weaker than a peace that depends on being able to crush or absorb or make peace with it. But making that happen at all would be really fraught. The other things I want are... for any people who feel like it was a mistake to move to New Dover, or like it was the best choice they had but they'd rather have better choices, to leave for somewhere better, at a time of their own choosing, before anything bad happens because of their presence. And for Lisara's people to be okay, maybe by bringing peace to her world, maybe by sending a couple mages to enchant things for them, maybe by teaching them new technology. And I definitely don't want to have to worry that someday Lisara will make portals into Har without warning me, without asking for any advice about where to put them, and we'll go to war over it and the imperial government will think I should have prevented it or warned them and then I might be in trouble and... it would be bad. But even if I talk Lisara out of making portals, someone might make some someday, and then I'm back to wanting precedent."

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"Some of these goals might be separable If we convince Liane and Lisara that random portals into Har are a bad idea, that makes the rest of it easier - Lisara's people are going to be far better off than before because of Milliways and technology no matter what we do. But a lot ties into - an example of peaceful diplomatic relations. So I suppose the question now is, how do we make diplomatic relations peaceful? Make it very hard for either side to attack each other? I might not have an easy answer for that one."

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"I like the idea of warding the portals but I don't think there are spells that do what we want. According to the history I learned, when the empire has let people live it's been because they were too powerful to exterminate, so Lisara's world might not be a good choice, if we get to choose, but on the other hand they probably won't scare the imperial government as much since they're not much of a threat yet..."

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"My own country doesn't have much of a history of long-term peace, or I might have better suggestions..."

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Sigh. "Yeah. Other worlds have a lot more wars. Or maybe just worlds we've seen, maybe Bar has books from somewhere..."

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"Books about how a warlike society eventually achieved peace? Quite possibly. Probably, even. But the circumstances won't be exactly the same even if we can take some insights."

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