Melody nods, seriously. :Yes. He takes his promises very seriously: 

<I do not have any insight into the question of what can safely be communicated to everyone else in Valdemar but I think we have enough information to feel justified in moving forwards, for our part, and of course you are welcome to communicate that or anything else about our part in this.>

Mardic nods. :I'll think of what to tell people. Probably they won't press, everyone's already having a weird enough week and I don't think they're enthusiastic to make it weirder. Are you sending a note to Leareth now to tell him your decision?: 

<I am inclined to.> He doesn't feel ready, he feels terrified and off-balance and his mind is working slower than it should be, but he has all the information he could reasonably have collected on this and his internal state is at some point irrelevant. <We had been drafting terms for him, before the interruption of events in Highjorune.>

Nod. It's hard to tell what Mardic's feelings are on it, even to the other human present. :I'll go tell Donni and Sandra, I guess. Should at least mean less worry he'll steal your tech: 

:If you're finished with me: Melody says, :I should go back to Haven: 

<The shuttle can be ready as soon as you would like. Thank you for your time.>

:You're welcome: Her mind already seems to be elsewhere. :I can explain our reasoning to the King when I get back. I don't think he'll take issue with it: 

Sandra and Donni react pretty calmly to Mardic's toneless announcement that they're going to offer Leareth terms. Mostly they seem too stunned to offer much opinion, and relieved both that a decision is made and that it wasn't their call. 

Is one of them able to copy out the terms? He has tried writing some things himself now that he's seen how it's done but his handwriting is horrendously shaky (it looks like a five-year-olds') and that will just be embarrassing.

Yes, of course. Sandra is acknowledged to have the best handwriting. 

Then he will dig up the proposals Savil was writing out when all of this started, including which ones are most important and which ones can be negotiated further. <I am also willing to invite him here to continue our conversation about this, at this point, if he agrees to the first points about not using mind-affecting magic on us.>

This clearly makes the Heralds nervous, but there are nods. At this point they have a lot of reason to believe he'll hold to the agreement; just in case, maybe only two out of three of them should be around, and the other one can come back once Leareth has left and check everyone for compulsions? 

That seems reasonable to him. 

This letter, like the previous ones, can be deposited by bird. ...and they can send one more tiny electronic bug along with whoever picks it up, too, just to be careful.

The letter is picked up within minutes. They get to skim a bit more gossip, speculating on its contents, before Leareth's voice is heard, and he opens it. 

The orders he gives seem to indicate that he's handing off tasks and checking the progress of some background work, though it's hard to pin down what from the fragmentary exchanges.

Shortly later, a reply arrives. Leareth expects they can come to an agreement on terms, and is willing to take up their offer to come to the ship in person and discuss further. Unless told otherwise, he'll plan to come to the same dropoff point in another candlemark. 

Which Heralds want to remain and which wants to leave in the shuttle to come check them for compulsions later.

Mardic and Donni prefer to stay together, so maybe Sandra can go in the shuttle? 

Sure, Sandra is happy to do this. 

The Andalites demorph and flock on the grass, talking among themselves. When it's about time they send someone out to escort Leareth.

Leareth appears at the appointed time. He's alone. 

<Hello.> Talik says, when he arrives. He is thinking that humans seem sure enough on their feet, even if it does take them a couple of years of practice, and it's probably convenient to only have two legs in dense underbrush (like this ground right here was before repeated journeys to the message-drop trod it down to something tolerable).

He tells Matirin that Leareth's here, even though Matirin will almost certainly know from the video feed, and then starts off through the woods at a human sort of pace. He is not especially inclined to make conversation; the one question he wants to ask someone at some point is whether animals have thoughts that can be Thoughtsensed and this is probably a question not most appropriately posed to the prospective ally here for high stakes negotiations.

The answer is 'yes but it requires a special Gift'; obviously answering it would reveal that he's reading Talik's thoughts, so Leareth doesn't, though he muses on opportunities to involve an Animal Mindspeaker at some point. He's unbothered by the silence; he mostly watches Talik's body mechanics with curiosity. 

Andalites move much like horses or Companions, with the extra arms holding their energy weapon and the extra eyes angled to maintain a 360-degree view of their environment at all times. The tail is very dextrous and never catches on anything; occasionally he uses it to slash a bush out of their way, in which case it moves so fast the human eye can't track it, and comes to a rest only on the other side of the former shrub. (It does not drift across his thoughts that this might be threatening, or for that matter showing off; Andalites do not consider it a strategic secret that they have tails and space wars almost never involve melee anyway because that would be stupid.)

They get to the ship; the airlock opens for them, and then closes behind them, and then confirms that it recognizes Talik and doesn't recognize Leareth and no one is in morph. Someone inside authorizes them to enter. They do that.

There are more Andalites, stalk eyes swiveling to see him. 

Leareth is fascinated by everything in the ship, much of which shows up as faint mage-sight traces, and he's so curious how they detect morphs - he can effortlessly do it, of course, by checking if someone shows up like a summoned spirit to his Othersenses, but they must be using some other, technological method. 

He bows slightly to Matirin. "War-Prince Matirin-Ashal-Nelinfir. Thank you for inviting me here, and being willing to speak." 

:Ooh, so this is the man Van's been talking to in his dreams for ten years: Donni sends privately to Mardic. :Figure Van finds him hot? I do: