Emril catches him and looks at him thoughtfully for a moment - there's so much, so much determination and plans and causal influence on the world - so much in the way of past atrocities - in such a little bit of slimy greyish slug-tissue. 

She waits for Leareth to cast the compulsions, and then lifts him to her ear. 

He slips in. Spreads out. <Hello.> 

Er, hello. It's not really Mindspeech when it's just in her own head. 

<We should do this now> And he reaches for her Thoughtsensing - she lets him, she could stop him if she wanted but doesn't, because she wants him to have that power. Because his having more power rather than less accomplishes her goals, which are Leareth's goals... 

Leareth is tense and unhappy and exhausted, and there's a deep tide of pain and grief that's tinging quite a lot of his thoughts but that he's mostly ignoring right now. 

He's thinking about Matirin. Coming to him, the night before, showing him the message from Mhalir. Asking for his advice on understanding what Mhalir was thinking. Asking what had convinced Leareth, before on Velgarth, to come and do talks with the Andalites. Talking about Mhalir's (in Leareth's mind very reasonable) fears. 

- if the invasion were farther along and most humans prisoners already and the Yeerks totalled more than five billion I would still want all unwilling hosts freed. But that's not - thinking that in the abstract humans are more important than Yeerks, it's thinking that it's very bad for the galaxy, if enslaving people is allowed as long as you're numerous enough -

- I said we were working on ways to get them all - sensory access to the universe -

I am paying much less, to end this war, than I had believed I was going to need to, but his voice sounds so tired.

Visser 3 absorbs it. For a while. 

:I see: he says eventually, in Emril's Mindspeech. :I think I have seen enough: 

And he leaves her head and waits until Leareth has taken off his compulsions and he's back with his usual host. <Sorry for the interruption> he tells her. 

He thinks. 

"All right. If you are going to be there, for it, I accept this offer." 

Nothing notable happens on the Andalites' surveillance, technological or magical. 

They get a Gate back to the Andalite ship after about an hour's time. Leareth steps through it looking fine, tense but relaxing a little as soon as the Gate is down.

:Done: he sends to Matirin. :Can we talk?: He nods to Emril and immediately heads for the conference rooms again. 

<Of course.> Thoughtsensers think they both look fine?

Thoughtsensers and Melody confirm they both look fine. 

Then he will join Leareth in a conference room.

Leareth sits down, heavily, and lets himself droop. :He agreed to it. I said we would give him a time: 

<Thank you.> He sounds slightly concerned about Leareth. <I can propose one later today.>

:- I know it is pushing it late but I would prefer first thing tomorrow morning if you want me to be there? That went - fine, but it was very draining: 

<I can imagine! Of course. I'll tell someone to send that now.>

Leareth nods, a flicker of gratitude in his eyes. :- I read his mind during it. Since I had my Gifts intact. I can tell you a little of what he is thinking, more clearly than just guesses: 

Matirin feels suddenly very fond of Leareth. <That would be very useful.>

:He is repeatedly surprised by you, I think. His understanding of how Andalites think is - very flavoured by some events I think happened earlier in the war. The - a bioweapon was used on the Hork-Bajir homeworld? And - there were multiple betrayals, or so he saw them. He burned a great deal of his political capital among the Yeerks in order to try to open communications channels, which were then used to target attacks... He did, absolutely, expect the Andalites would kill all of the Yeerks on Earth and on other planets, even if they do not plan to obliterate your homeworld, only blockade it: 

<I mean, it could have gone like that. When you were captured our plan was to try to destroy every Kandrona source, starve them out.

The Andalite command on the Hork-Bajir world did use a bioweapon. When the war was lost. So that Yeerks wouldn't have millions of shock troops with which to conquer the rest of the galaxy. They were arrested and convicted for it, but -> his tail sweeps unhappily. <It would not have been worth it if our prediction about the Yeerks had been that once they won the war they would transition to voluntary hosts, but no one believed that. I still am not really sure I believe that.>

:I believe that Mhalir planned that. He wishes it could have been that way from the start - that was what he advocated, before the fight with Seerow, though it seems there was - debate, there, among the other Yeerks, and I understand why Seerow was spooked. Mhalir is not the ultimate leader - some factions are much more in favour of voluntary hosts, or rather against the short-term use of involuntary hosts, but some of the other Yeerk leadership cares less. I...think he probably could have done it, I have done harder things. He understands it would have been a very awkward and messy transition given the start, and would not have undone the harm to all the involuntary hosts during the war, but...: 

He trails off. Shakes his head. 

:...Also it may be relevant that he did not initiate the takeover of Earth. It was a different Visser, Visser One, and he was sent to take over due to - mistakes made, I assume. So he had less of a free hand here than I had realized: 

He nods. 

<Was Alloran a choice.>

:- Yes. It was - he considers it one of the worst tradeoffs he chose to make. Alloran was involved in setting off the bioweapon, which Mhalir considered a clear demonstration that he thought it legitimate to commit great atrocities in the name of long-term goals. Mhalir had just lost a great deal of goodwill among the Yeerks due to - pushing very hard to de-escalate and open talks, and betting wrong, there were calls to remove him from leadership. And talk amongst the others of how Andalites ought to be wiped from the universe, and Mhalir was scared of what would happen if all moderating influences were lost. Taking Alloran let him appear credibly anti-Andalite, so the Yeerk Council believed he had learned and would not again make the same mistakes. Also at the time Alloran was by far the most intelligent and capable host, though the gap with humans is smaller and Mhalir seems to consider it, on net, preferable to have his current host, who is less numerically quick but does not hate him, he was regularly bouncing ideas off and asking for her perspective: 

Sigh. :He tried to talk to Alloran, for a long time. To find common ground. Very unsurprisingly, 'when already enslaved' was a bad time to ask Alloran to change his mind about Yeerks. I - think that Mhalir tried to understand this and not update too heavily on other Andalites from Alloran's example, but he - lacks some perspectives I have gained, of just how much people can show very different facets of themselves depending on their incentives, and so I think this made him distrust the Andalites even more: 

Matirin does not expect he'd have done any better, in the power of a Yeerk. There's a time for thinking about the intrinsic personhood of everyone in the galaxy and it's not while they're torturing you personally. <The current host is cooperative?>

:Yes, I think he asked for that. I am a little confused by her motives here - she seems mainly curiosity-driven, she likes knowing secrets and particularly gets along with him because he knows all of them and he gives her puzzles to help him solve. He left her head to go into Emril and she stayed in the room and was not restrained or anything: 

<...that's very bizarre but I guess means I don't need to feel guilty about leaving someone enslaved so we can keep negotiating with him.> His tail sweeps the room unhappily. <Thank you for doing this. I ...still feel confused...but if we keep taking steps of this size towards making sense to each other maybe eventually we'll get there.>

:I do not feel confused. I feel very, very sad: Leareth looks down, hands pressed together over his knees. 

:He made mistakes. Not just gambles that went badly, mistakes in expectation. He should not have updated as hard as he did, as soon, that Andalites were fundamentally incapable of keeping their promises and wanted Yeerks eradicated from the universe, and the only way to ever negotiate with them was to win by force first. It - is understandable how much he was terrified of the latter given that Alloran spent twenty years screaming it in his head, but - it is also so, so deeply understandable that Alloran felt that way, you know?:

Sigh. :It is easy to say what I would have done. I would not have updated on Andalites in general from Alloran, a traumatized slave. I would have known that sometimes people backed into a corner, terrified for the future of the galaxy, will burn the commons in the pursuit of saving it, not because they are monsters but exactly because they wish to save it. I would have known that sometimes it takes ten, twenty, a hundred attempts of being the first to lay down your weapons and ask to talk, before it works. ...I think the path of this war was almost predetermined from the moment Seerow shot first, and it would have taken more courage than anyone has ever had, and millennia of wisdom he had no way to acquire, for Mhalir to steer that path elsewhere. But, I wish...: Leareth shakes his head, helplessly. :I am not sure. I wish, instead of Mhalir and Seerow, it had been you and me: