"...I guess if someone wanted to hunt a giant sea turtle they'd need to be grey, sure...? We don't really have... monsters."

He boggles a lot, at that.

"I am not sure I have ever been in a country at peace, in the way you understand it," he says after a long moment.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope it's to your liking - as I mentioned we are actually at war right now but it's very localized and I wouldn't expect any of it to affect you."

He actually missed that! He's used to people being much more grim and fixated on such affairs, and the previous mention was more like an idle hypothetical. He would not have accepted a second dinner invitation from someone in Nerosyan who had been so relaxed about the Worldwound. But if wars aren't draining monster-hunting capacity from the homelands, and if the aristocrats are not themselves fighters, it's not actually clear there's much at stake for them.

"Could you explain that conflict to me, or would it be more appropriate for a grey to? Who made the decision to start this war, and who might make the decision to end it?"

"Oh, I can give an overview. We're fighting with Voa. Tapa and Voa are the two largest countries in the world but the fighting is over a specific historically Voan province; Voa exports a lot of food, allowed the supply to become contaminated, and won't hang the blue responsible, so Tapa's seeking a border province called Imde with a lot of quality farmland, as redress and so we can have independent food security. We expect to win; Voa's slowing us down but not committing the force it would need to do anything but buy the residents time to evacuate into the rest of Voa, though we're committed to accepting any who stay as Tapai citizens once the dust settles."

He nods. Honor violations of that sort seem like an obvious reason to go to war. "A province that makes the difference between food security and insecurity for one of the largest countries in the world must be a fertile province indeed. What fraction of the known world do Tapa and Voa hold? How many other countries are there?"

"Ashuao, pick a map -"

Ashuao pulls up a political map on her pocket everything. "Tapa's this one here, and we also control as protectorates this, that, and these here. Voa's here. Imde is this portion."

As the duke of a very densely populated region, he doesn't put too much stock into the size of countries on a map, but he still gives it a close inspection. "I see. And the fighting is constrained to Imde, or is along the whole border?"

"Imde and the immediately adjacent stretches. Everything else has heightened security but no battles."

"And the war will end... when Imde is fully held? When Voa sues for peace? How long has it been going on for?"

"It began just a couple of months ago and we think they'll probably surrender the province midsummer if not sooner. We're not in a bad enough food situation to need to rush it at the risk of escalating or taking more casualties."

He does not see any immediate avenues to help. He is trained in military tactics, of course, but with very different weapons and doubts his doctrines would transfer well. If it were a duel of champions, then perhaps his magic would swing things, but this sounds like a rather different affair. He does have questions about the underlying incentives and forces at play, but so far their description seems like mere background, and he would need to talk to the negotiators or generals in charge to learn more.

"Could you point out Shapto, on the map?" he asks.

"Sure -" Ashuao zooms in on the big lake. Shapto's on the southern shore of said lake.

"Thank you."

He will lean back, and look out the window of the car for a bit, collecting his thoughts, with a subtle point.

I mislike having picked a side without hearing out the other, but it seems challenging to do anything else as a guest.

They seemed shocked by even your mild description of the difference between Heaven and Hell, she responds. I doubt we are accidentally casting our lot with the Kuthites.

Besides, it sounds like they might not even let us near the war. He glances at the blues and greens; are they waiting patiently, or eager to ask him more questions?

They're watching them curiously. Hepka leans over to murmur something to Muim.

I am torn, he admits, between preparing to stay and preparing to return. It would be a simpler decision, if his son were younger, if Cheliax were still Infernal, if they were clearly in some archmage's puzzlebox instead of a truly foreign realm.

She is silent for long seconds. It is much clearer to her that their children still need them, that they cannot cast aside the past. But also--she feels the pull of peace, and the discussion of destinations has weighed on her. She does not pursue Heaven, the way Felip does; she believes that the nobility must make tough choices for the good of the realm, in a way Pharasma fails to understand or correct for. The thought of being outside of Pharasma's judgment is liberating in a way she did not expect it to be.

But also she does not have to answer the question now; she just needs to settle his mind.

I have always known you to be a man who can do both.

He returns his full attention to the car. "Where did you say we were going, and when do you expect us to arrive?"

"We're headed for a house in a suburb of Shapto - I expect it to be more comfortable and private than the seat of government and anyone you want to talk to can meet you there. Looks like..." He glances over to the GPS display the driver has on the dashboard. "Another ten minutes."

He nods. "And how will we discover who it is we would like to talk to? Until we have a better understanding of the landscape, I imagine we will want to accept many invitations, or have a social secretary of some sort."

"So, the first big decision is whether to make your presence on Amenta known at all or not. We can hush up the zoo appearance and nobody who reads submissions to the form the zoo staff used is going to blab without authorization. If you want a quiet life talking to greens about your language and culture and magic and society, that's the way to go.

"If you are publicized you will instantly be the biggest news in history - I do not exaggerate - to thirteen billion people and every single one of them will want your attention. Many of those people will handle this desire by accepting that they're not going to get it, but that's many as a percentage of thirteen billion. We can manage almost everything else for you and narrow it down to whatever invitations and meetings and messages you'd like to accept. We are not inerrantly flawless at this, though; you'd be running a bit of a risk."