"He's been preparing for this for a long time. I don't know details but there are various organizations he's built up over the years and they're all contributing now."

He fidgets with the cover of his book. "I - got kidnapped, originally. Back when I was ten. I'm not sure if it was technically from Valdemar or if my ma and da lived on the other side of the Border, but - that general area, up north." 

"...ah-huh. 'Originally' meaning -"

Shrug. "Well, I mean, I'm not sure I even want to go back. The whole thing was pretty awful, at the time, but...just, pretty much the thing that happens to you if you're a mage-gifted kid in or near Valdemar, is you get Chosen, right? Which is the last thing I want – no offence, kid," he glances Vanyel's way, "but - Companions are god-serving creatures, the whole setup is that way, and I'm not much a fan of gods these days." 

"You know what, that's fair. Do you, like, write to your family or anything? My parents haven't got a clue where I am and I wish I had a way to fix that."

"I was able to send them a few letters." Another shrug. "I mean, I had to completely lie, we're not supposed to leak anything about operations here and Leareth's courier agents vet everything. So they think I ran away to join a merchant caravan down south. Probably think I hate them – which, I mean, they weren't the best parents but they treated me fine. Better than the bandits that nabbed me, for sure, though in the grand scheme of things I didn't have that bad a time." 

"That's very... philosophical of you."

"I spend my time researching how to build a god better aligned with human values," a brief conspiratorial smile, "Leareth said I could speak of that to you, he must think pretty highly of you. Anyway, figure that trains a certain outlook on life. I guess it's different for a lot of the kids who were in my position – some of them had the bad luck of being snatched by the sort of sketchy bandit groups that Leareth tries to weed out but they get in there sometimes. Reckon some of them might still have compulsions on them, too." 

"Still have -"

"I had one on me for a few years. First just to not run away, then," he seems both embarrassed and slightly smug, "I've might've sort of sneakily broken some mage-protections in one of the other facilities out here. I was thirteen or so. So I had a compulsion not to touch the security spells for a while, but also the mage in charge started talking to me, because I was clearly smart and, er, proactive, and...then somehow fifteen years later, here I am." 

Leareth is, around that moment, heading toward the food tables to fill a plate for himself. 

Bella looks at him thoughtfully.

He doesn't notice at first because he's looking the other way, but eventually he turns around with his plate. "Oh, Bella. Productive day, I hope?" 

"Yes."

"...Is something bothering you?" 

"When I was twelve," she says, "I was taken on a field trip to a history museum and they had an exhibit of various jars. Glass ones, mostly, and you could see through those a little, and inside each one was a little moving dark shape, because a jar like that is how you trap somebody's soul. It's illegal in the modern day in lots of places, of course, and the exhibit used to be a lot larger before someone won a petition to have most of the jars smashed and the souls released, but many of the jars are trapped or cursed, and can't be safely tampered with.

"Did you know the Elves credit me with the invention of glass? That's nonsense, of course, my homeworld's had glass for a very long time. Some of those jars were thousands of years old. I just brought the idea to Arda and muddled through enough of an explanation that they could reproduce it. But as a consequence I know all of the Elves who work glass, and they'd be terrifically flattered, if I asked them for a jar. And I don't think the museum docents would notice, if I put one more little glass jar in among all the rest. Behind some tall ones. Similar enough in style, if very pretty because the Elves love pretty things. They'd assume it was cursed like the rest of the jars. They'd leave it alone."

Leareth blinks; it is actually noticeable in his face that he's surprised. It's somewhat hard to tell what the other emotions in there are, but there's definitely something.

:Bella: he sends, finally, and the overtones show it more cleanly. There's a touch of fear there. And - respect, on some level he is impressed. :I am aware you are threatening me. It would be helpful to know if this is about some specific action or lack thereof, which I may have the option to change, rather than about the...entirety of who I am as a person, which would also be valid but is not something I can do as much about: 

I really fucking hate mind control. I don't know if the project that yielded you this researcher is over with and no longer a going concern and there's nothing else like it in the pipeline or not but I want to know.

:All active operations of that sort are paused because all of my operations are on hold. I suppose there are still a number of people in various branches of my forces with some kind of compulsion in place – in the past I have found it to be one of the most reliable ways of preventing the gods from sneaking things up on me – but it is not a difficult question, whether to trade that additional protection in for slightly more of your goodwill: 

Are they straightforward to decompel and, if necessary for security reasons, send away somewhere nothing delicate is going on, or do you require help with that?

:Straightforward, yes, but also rather a lot of work, particularly the redeployments, and thus not instantaneous: He considers it intently for a moment. :...If you prefer it be done faster, I would accept help: 

I would prefer it be done faster.

Nod. :Then I suppose we will have to talk logistics: 

Quite a number of people around the cafeteria are staring at them now. Vanyel is one of them, twisted around in his chair. :Bella, um, what is going on?: He looks pretty nervous about the possibilities. 

Uh, I slightly lost my temper and now I am making plans to assist Leareth in cutting it out with the mind controlling people faster.