It takes a while (it usually does) but it can be found, holding the nothlit-rabbit's mind to its body.

Leareth feeds more power into the spell; as he does so, it plays out into a new tether. How does it look, relative to the normally morphed rabbits he examined before? 

The tether looks like the healthy morph-tether, before it destabilizes.

Attaching the new magically-fuelled tether is the hard part. (And once it's attached he'll need to feed it power continuously, probably a lot of power, so he may not be able to hold it long and will probably end up killing this poor rabbit before getting a forced-demorph to work.) 

He goes very slowly and carefully, setting it up so that if he fumbles it, it'll destabilize on the spell side first. He can just re-cast that, whereas if he destabilizes the normalspace pocket he'll have to trap an additional rabbit in morph before he can try again. 

It attaches. It wants a LOT of power, it's not stable relative to the morphed form and it's trying to stabilize itself.

He can hold this for, like, three minutes before draining himself unconscious, so he has that long to try things before losing it. 

He knows what the demorph process looks like, and his spell is meant to also imitate the trigger-to-demorph that would normally be a signal deliberately sent by the morphed person. (Rabbits cannot successfully demorph on their own.) What happens if he spends a minute staring at the intersection between the pocket and tether, and then tries that? 

The signals that move along the tether look like the ones that normally trigger a demorph. But the z-space pocket no longer contains all the material or all the instructions for a demorph, so it reaches for something that isn't there.

Material is easy to fix; he doesn't have a spare pocket to merge on right now, but doing that with magic will take a day at most (and a lot of power). Instructions for the process itself are part of the design, which he has documentation on, but will take him another week to replicate via artifact; it might actually be easier to sacrifice a second rabbit to get its intact morph setup, if he can manage the transfer smoothly enough once the fragile tether link is done magically, which he's unsure of. 

He holds it right up until the point that his concentration is starting to waver from sheer exhaustion, staring as hard as he can at the exact points where the tether is reaching for something and failing to find it. Then he lets it go. Sorry, rabbit. 

When he lets go of it the tether runs out of energy and swings loose and breaks the morph setup. Back in the physical world the rabbit slumps over. It is not dead but it won't independently eat or drink anymore.

Leareth's electrical mage-energy generator keeps humming.

He frowns at it while he rests enough to feel capable of standing up. Tying spells directly to an energy source is one of the hardest problems in magical research. You can do it with a Heartstone but that's because Heartstones are intelligent. He doesn't know a way to do it on his own, short of "create the first stage of a tiny god", which...is technically possible to fuel with electricity rather than dead people, he supposes, but would still be months of work to set up for, and nearly match the electrical power consumption of the entire USA for the duration of the casting. (The energy-conversion is not perfectly efficient.) 

Eventually he gets up and looks for Cayaldwin, to update him on the artifact progress and maybe bounce ideas off him for the next steps, if he's not too busy. 

Cayaldwin is working (he almost always is) but interruptible (he usually is for Leareth's research updates).

Leareth describes his success (tether replicated and he could trigger a demorph from it), the blockers (lack of matter and the rest of the demorph instructions; he hopes at least the template for the rabbit's original body is intact in their somewhere), and the annoyingly high power drain. He muses on how if he had a Heartstone, or a baby god, he could leave it hooked to the generator while he focused entirely on studying it, but he has neither of those things and can't stabilize energy-flow without a somewhat clever process in the middle. 

<Computers might be able to do that, though I don't know how you'd hook them up to it. How clever does the process need to be - what's an example of something it needs to be able to do ->

:With nodes you need to manage turbulence and smooth out the energy flow; this is less true for the generator, but still some. Also holding the other end steady? It is hard to describe because I do it very instinctively, you could maybe morph Gifts and watch me channel some energy: 

<How do you manage turbulence, what action do you take in response to it.>

Leareth thinks. :Narrow or widen mage-channels, I think - they have some flex to them, like muscles, which you can learn to control very finely with practice: 

<So if you just had a sensor, that detected whether the flow of energy was below a certain threshold or above that threshold, and changed the channels one percent in response, and then checked again, would that be smart enough?>

:If the check and response was very fast, possibly? It might be prone to oscillations, many mages have trouble with this, but I am sure there is a way to set it up that would actually be better than a human mage, since computers have much faster reaction times: 

<Does mage energy flow have physical correlates that computers already know how to measure - have you checked whether it shows up as having a magnetic field, for example ->

:Only for specific spells, like the way Gates show up to hyperspace jump sensors - I nearly always just use mage-sight for my work. I could run some tests on this, though, probably it does show up somehow: 

<That'd make it easier but I suppose you could probably also just build a magic sensor. The rest of that, though, doesn't require a very smart computer at all, and should be straightforward to teach one to do.>

:That would be very valuable! I can do some tests now and then build a magic sensor if nothing preexisting works: It sounds like this might not even be a huge time investment and is worth just switching to. 

Swish swish. <Let me know if you need more advice on the computer part. It's very very easy, you just tell the computer what to do and it does that, but it's easy to spend lots of time trying to find an error if you don't know what the space of possible errors is.>

:I will do that! Thank you: 

And he goes off to channel magic at various kinds of sensor, and see if it has a detectable magnetic field or various other detectable properties (that also vary continuously with the power he's channeling and can be measured to high precision.) 

Most of the Andalite sensors don't detect anything, but it seems that channeling magic makes a very sensitive gravity sensor pick something up, and once it has been calibrated it can measure this to high precision.

All right! Now he needs to make a magical artifact that approximates mage-channels, which he knows how to do in a static way and doesn't take long, and then figure out how to link it to a computer at all so that the computer can control it, which is more complicated but can be done with magical sensors on that side, and then - tell a computer what to do. Great. How does he do that. 

<Do you want simple written instructions - like "check the flow every thousandth of a second; if the flow is below X, increase the channel width; if the flow is above Y, decrease the channel width" -- or do you want to channel energy from the generator a lot and tell it to take the action it predicts you'd take.>

:I might end up trying the second, but I am curious if I can get it to work with the first and then be able to see exactly what it is doing - I assume the method where it predicts my actions both takes a lot more computer and is opaque once trained: 

<Yes, it does. What signal do you want the computer to send to your artifact, to tell it to increase or decrease channel width.>

:The magic on the artifact itself can detect an electrical signal, though I have not yet set what signal means what. I suppose a short or a long pulse, to mean increase or decrease, would work fine?: 

<So then you tell the computer:

Every 1/1000th of a second while this program is running, 

If the measurement from the flow sensor is greater than X, send a short pulse
If the measurement from the flow sensor is less than Y, send a long pulse

And that'll do it. Of course this is not very robust, because if your flow sensor stops working and gives you garbage it'll just keep telling the channels to get wider and wider, will that make anything explode?>

:...Possibly, or at least break my artifact. Can I set a maximum and minimum width, and - tell it to break the connection entirely if it would otherwise send a signal to deviate outside of those bounds more than, hmm, ten times in a row, that is still only a hundredth of a second...: 

<Yes. You would say that like this:

The maximum connection width is A.

The minimum connection width is B.

Keep track of the current connection width.

Keep track of the number of signals to deviate outside of bounds.

Every 1/1000th of a second while the program is running and there is no signal to abort,

If the measurement from the flow sensor is greater than X, send a short pulse, and note that the current connection width is one unit smaller
If the measurement from the flow sensor is less than Y, send a long pulse, and note that the current connection width is one unit larger

If the current connection width is more than the maximum width

       and we sent a long pulse, note that the number of signals that deviates outside of bounds is one larger.

       and we sent a short pulse, set the number of signals that deviates outside of bounds to zero.

If the current connection width is less than the minimum width:

     and we sent a short pulse, note that the number of signals that deviates outside of bounds is one larger.

     and we sent a long pulse, set the number of signals that deviates outside of bounds to zero.

If the number of signals that have deviated outside of bounds is ten or more, then there is now a signal to abort.

Obviously this is a really ugly set of computer instructions but it should make it really obvious what every step is doing.>

:It does seem inelegant but it is very clear: 

Leareth tells the computer that, and then goes into the blank he left with the artifact between the electricity-sensing component and the channel itself. The 'units' of width are kind of made up but he makes it so the maximum is a hundred units and the minimum is one, although realistically it shouldn't ever have to get that narrow. 

And then he painstakingly sets it in place so the mage-energies released from the generator go into the artificial channel, and he watches what the computer does. 

The computer faithfully tells the channels how to move every thousandth of a second.

Great. Nothing exploding so far. 

How smooth is the energy output at the other end of the channel? 

It seems to be working fine. Maybe a bit choppier than an experienced mage but the generator produces a pretty smooth energy flow in the first place anyway.

Mages can vary their channels on a lot more dimensions than just the width of the entire thing, and also do some anticipation of upcoming turbulence, which is really necessary for nodes but less so here. Leareth thinks it'll do fine for his current purposes; if he ever needs a version that can give variable output to very fine precision, for more fiddly spells, he might try the computer-learning-to-predict-him method. 

He puts away his work for the day and morphs Andalite to see if anyone wants to tail-spar with him. 

Some people will tail-spar with him!! All of the Andalites have really warmed up to him immensely now that he sometimes morphs Andalite and runs around with them. And while they still all have thousands of hours of tail-sparring practice on him they assure him that he is taking to it exceptionally well, a real natural.

Leareth doubts he's a natural, he thinks it's mostly conscientiousness and knowing how to make practice in general count for as much as possible. He enjoys the praise, though, and as usual finds it exhilarating even though he almost always loses, and is relaxed afterward and finds it much easier to sleep. 

The next day he makes another rabbit morph and then traps it in its morphed form, and then stares at the morph design specs, and goes to ask Cayaldwin how feasible he thinks it would be to sacrifice a rabbit and dismantle its morph normalspace pocket to get the missing components. ...Maybe not even a rabbit, he doesn't think he needs it to actually morph, just to have the morph setup at all - is there a size or intelligence limit on animals that can technically be given morph abilities, could he do it with a worm or something? He feels a lot less bad about making his permanent solution here involve killing worms than killing rabbits, although killing a rabbit for each nothlit rescue would probably still be worth it. 

<I think you could give an ant or a worm morph. I don't know that anyone has tried it but I think you could.>

:I want to try that, then. I would be much more comfortable with it taking ten tries to be able to take the setup apart if I am only killing worms. Do we need authorization from someone else to do it?: He had been asking Matirin about the rabbits, but Matirin isn't here. 

<Technically we should ask Nerefir but I know where the box is.>

:- I will just send him a message, I think, it is not an unreasonable request and it will not take long, I can ask for standing approval to give worms morph for the nothlit research, or at least to do ten now:

Maybe Cayaldwin thinks it'll be fine and is right, but there's no reason to do it secretly, and...he doesn't exactly trust Cayaldwin to give a reasonable answer on what the risks is. He digs out the Earth cellular phone he uses for messages to do so. (Andalites have better handheld computing devices, obviously, but Matirin was still slightly hewing by their laws about this and not just handing Leareth one for his personal ownership and use, and also the standard Andalite interfaces require brain chips, which he doesn't have.) 

Nerefir's assistant writes back a few minutes later that an Andalite working with Leareth's research team on the nothlit problem and authorized already with the morph codes can use them for worms as needed.

Great, he expected it to be about that simple. He needs to go catch some worms (they're really easy to find if you have Healing-Sight and access to a big field), and then can he meet Cayaldwin again to give his pile of worms morph? 

Cayaldwin can do that!

Perfect!

Leareth carefully sticks his morph-capable worms in a box with some air-holes in the lid, he doesn't want to lose track of them. Does Cayaldwin want to come along while he hops into the Void and tries to dismantle one of their pockets to get the bit he needs to repurpose? It's probably going to go messily wrong the first several times but it'll be interesting, and maybe informative about morph stability more generally. 

Yes, there's a lot of applicability from this to the general problem of extending the morph limit and the ultimate goal, which is for every single person in the universe to be a shapeshifter whose actual mind and body are safely on another plane and hooked up to some kind of store of backups that can be employed whenever anything happens to one of them. (It's what his father would have been able to achieve.)

Awww. Leareth appreciates Cayaldwin a lot, really.

He tugs them over to the Void - it's a lot easier for Cayaldwin if he's morphed Gifts of his own for it - and then stares at worm #1's morph pocket at the end of its tether, not currently doing anything but still with all the relevant parts set up in case, somehow, this worm ever acquires the intelligence it would need to actually acquire some other animal and morph it. He tries to match it up to the diagrams in the documentation, match up which part is specifically the demorphing instructions. 

The instructions are a really tiny fraction of the mechanism; writing instructions, even really really long ones, doesn't take up much space compared to the rest of what's going on here.

He also needs matter to actually be reassembled, which he might as well try to get from the same place if it's possible to salvage both, but he'll try for just the instructions from this worm. The whole setup is fairly 'translucent' to mage-sight, he can observe all the parts folded up inside; what happens if he forms a tight mage-barrier-like shield around just the instructions part, at first permitting the links to other components to route through the shield, then, once it's sturdy enough to hold up against the Void at least briefly, severing all those links and sealing just the instructions and some trailing ends inside his shield? 

This breaks this worm's morph setup, unsurprisingly. Bits that he's not holding onto crumble.

All right he's going to very carefully hold onto this while he finds his nothlit rabbit, it's somewhere around here. He stashed its cage right next to the worms in normal space, but the Void behaves oddly and so he has to go a ways to find it. 

...It's really hard to tell where it would go, because the rabbit's former morph pocket is so mangled. He knows approximately where the unhooked connections need to go, though, one needs to talk to his spell once that's re-cast from the computer-controlled artificial channel, another needs to route to the template of the rabbit's original body, this one needs access to matter...

For now he can sort of glom it on and try to merge it into the same pocket as the rest, while still keeping the shield around it intact so it doesn't get smushed or something. 

The pocket resists things being added to it, but eventually he can kind of smush it in.

No wonder; the pocket is less a mage-barrier and more a literal planar boundary, or microcosm of one, and he's trying to physically ram something through it. He wonders if it would go better to use something like a Gate technique across it - which will risk sucking everything inside out into the Void, but if he's very careful he can avoid that... 

All right, instructions in. Leareth withdraws his mind from the Void and back to the material plane for a moment, to check that he hasn't just scrambled the rabbit's brain or something; is it still showing normal rabbit behaviour? 

It seems so far unaffected.

Leareth rests briefly and then heads back to the Void and tries to find the part in the mangled existing stuff in there that corresponds to the usual link between the body-template and the morph-instructions. 

It's super mangled!

Does Cayaldwin have any advice? He's more familiar with morph design. 

He can figure out five things of which it must be one?

That's a start! Probably guessing the wrong one results in something getting very screwed up, but they'll see what happens once he gets replacement matter and attaches the spell and then tries to trigger a demorph.

...Leareth really hopes the mangling happens similarly between different cases, because he can't afford to use guesswork on the Andalite nothlit. 

<Can Foresight be used for things like this?>

:- Maybe short-range? If it were trained specifically on many past cases of doing this: Leareth has it as part of his composite-morph, but it doesn't seem to do much while he's on Earth. One time he got a five-seconds-ahead very brief vision before one of his mages spilled coffee on themselves, which was mostly just disorienting. 

<Huh, it needs training data?>

:Short-range Foresight is usually not under conscious control and only provides warnings of personal danger, and not reliably even. The only scholarship I know of on training the Gift to be more deliberately usable, did involve repeating the same scenario hundreds of times. I am not sure why. Maybe the underlying Foresight mechanism always sees everything, but Gifted humans cannot perceive all possible futures all the time without going mad, and so the Gift only lets through what is expected to be salient?: 

<That is interesting.> Tail-swish. <I wonder if I could alter the failsafe mechanism to make it fail more cleanly and retrievably.>

:That could definitely make this less fraught, although it will not help the existing nothlits. Anyway, I will go take apart another worm's setup to get the reservoir of matter, and this time I am going to try a weird Gate to add it to the pocket instead of just shoving it: 

<Good luck.>

Getting the matter is more straightforward than the instructions, it's less fragile, he just needs to sever a couple of connections-to-other-components in reattachable ways. He carefully transports it over, and holds it steady while very cautiously attempting his Void-to-pocket Gate - or, well, matter-to-pocket, there's really nothing to anchor a Gate on other than the blob of stuff he's hauling around inside a bubble of mage-energies. 

This seems to go slightly better than trying to shove it in.

And now he needs to cast the spell, powered from the generator this time, and appropriately connect up the pieces of it that go looking for the available matter and for the demorph template. 

He's going to be really surprised if this works on the first attempt, but - what happens if he attempts to trigger a demorph? (It'll need lots more power, which the generator and computer-control setup should be able to accommodate.) 

It tries to do - something - and then destabilizes and stops, with a big energy backlash.

Well. Not unexpected. Anything left or does he need to start over with another rabbit? 

There is not much left and it's bleeding off into the Void.

Sigh. He'll take a break, morph Andalite and do some tail-sparring, and then morph Yeerk so he can make another of his morph-capable rabbits morph and get stuck that way. This is a lot of morphing, but the rabbit will be ready for his next set of experiments tomorrow. 

This unsurprisingly results in weird and different failures rather than success, but he gets more skillful at dismantling worm morph setups and Gate-merging them into the mangled ones and connecting the spell without mangling things any more. He also does it while in his composite morph that has all the Gifts, to see if he can get anything out of his short-range Foresight. He doesn't think so, but maybe he just needs to teach himself how to pay attention to the right things with it. 

The day after that, Mhalir is available to talk to Cayaldwin again about morph research, if Cayaldwin wants. 

Cayaldwin does want that. It's so tragic how Mhalir was born a Yeerk; he'd have been a really good Andalite.

After his usual check-in meeting with Leareth, Mhalir can give Amanda the rest of the day and that night off, and head off in Leareth's head to talk to Cayaldwin. He really enjoyed their last session working on it together. 

Leareth follows better this time, enough to add a few comments of his own. He has to remind Mhalir at some point that lunch is a concept, and also that dinner is a concept, and also bedtime. 

Cayaldwin has made some progress and can get Mhalir quickly caught up on it and then ask him a bunch of questions about the new problems that this created. There's a lot of complicated visualization here and some of it is just in his head not the models but he'll try to convey it.

Bedtime is a stupid concept. Maybe Leareth could just hand Mhalir off to Cayaldwin and they could continue working?

...Really? Leareth is fine with that personally but he's very surprised, unless Cayaldwin just means he'll put Mhalir in a fishbowl and morph so he can Thoughtsense him, but Mhalir has less cognition available that way. 

<You defanged him, right, he can't do anything except see what I'm thinking and comment.>

:Yes. And use my Mindspeech if in my body, but I can modify that: 

:I think I would be able to grasp your visualizations better if I can actually just see them: Mhalir adds. With a lot of experience talking to both of them, he's just barely distinguishable from Leareth, some subtle Mindspeech-overtones difference. 

<Yeerks who can't control people aren't - it's an entirely different thing. If we'd met a species that did that I bet we'd never have gotten worked up about them at all. And you go to bed every night.>

:It is not my fault humans need sleep. You know, I thought Andalites needed sleep too: 

Mhalir extracts himself from Leareth's ear. 

Leareth removes the compulsion-loophole that lets Mhalir specifically use his Mindspeech; now he definitely won't be able to control anything of Cayaldwin's, just see his thoughts and comment on them. 

He holds him out. :Take good care of him: he says, half-teasingly. 

He reaches for him. <You know, I would not have predicted from first principles that you could get intelligence out of - that -> he says, and holds Mhalir up to his ear. 

:It really does not look like much. Then again, neither do our brains if removed from our skulls: 

Wriggle wriggle into his ear and Mhalir spreads out and he's there, seeing all of Cayaldwin's brain and orienting to it without actually being able to take control of anything. It's a little more stressful than with Leareth, he trusts Leareth a lot, but - worth dealing with the stress, he decided. 

Cayaldwin's mind is mostly formed around a loss so enormous that he has not even started processing it, does not believe it ought to be processed, would consider it ridiculous if anyone suggested that it would be better if his mind contained less of the loss and more of anything else. Almost every important memory from when he first learned speech is of his father: his father's questions, his father's puzzles, his father's impatience, his father's delight and joy and hunger, as Cayaldwin proved able to keep up, the way four older brothers had not been able to keep up, the way no one else in all of the world could keep up. Cayaldwin's father understood the world and hungered to understand the pieces of it he didn't, and his ambition was breathtaking and his scope was limitless and it seems like an error, an enormous unfathomable error, for him to have been made of atoms the same as everyone else in the universe, for him to have stop existing when they were destroyed the same as everyone else in the universe, it is an error that undermines the universe's entire claim to be a place worth living in, and Cayaldwin would have stopped, but then no one alive would understand, not even the broken partial fragments that fit in Cayaldwin's mind (because he's not as clever, he's not as important, he's not as valuable, he could keep up but he isn't actually good enough) -

- Cayaldwin is the only person who can do the things his father would have done, and it would be a betrayal, to stop doing them, so he works until he collapses exhausted and he morphs to fix the various things that go wrong with your body as you do this and he eats only because Andalites do not need to take separate actions, to do that, and when Matirin Fetched him off a ship that was about to explode he was angry, because -

- but it is better to keep as much of Firayar in the world as it will consent to hold, even though that's so so much less than there ought to be -

<Here's the thing I was trying to explain>, he says, thinking of planar maths.

...Wow. 

Mhalir absorbs it, slowly, while focusing mostly on the planar maths because that's what they're here to do, it's what Cayaldwin wants to be using his mind for, and it - seems to help, it doesn't ease the loss but he feels most-alive and least-broken when he's - doing what he sees as carrying on his father's legacy, keeping as much of him in the world as it will consent to hold - and it's always seemed like an unfathomable error to Mhalir for anyone to be made of atoms and cease existing when they're destroyed, it's why he wanted immortality in the first place... 

<I wanted to give it to everyone> he says at one point, hours later, in the middle of the night. <If I won the war. ...The Yeerks did not win the war, but - maybe this is close enough to winning, if it means we can solve this together, and - someday nobody will need to die for stupid reasons, ever again... Leareth said that was what you hoped for. Someday.> 

Mhalir presumably isn't imagining he could possibly have won a world with Andalites in it, he thinks without much heat. One of his father's research interests had been whether it was possible to escape to other planes, exist in some unhijackable form there, because the obvious alternative was annihilation. Or, well, there were discussions on discussion forums at home about whether, if things went badly enough, to try the thing Leareth called building a god. If they got it wrong it would probably transform the galaxy into worthless soup expanding outwards at the speed of light-in-every-plane, which it has been mathematically demonstrated is the speed of light to the twelfth, and people disagreed on whether this was worse than Yeerks, who did worse than turning the galaxy into worthless soup but did it slower than that.

Cayaldwin's plan now is to fix all the things that are broken about morph and probably add more failsafes against things happening to the storage mechanism in the Void, because if there are trillions of those they might start colliding with each other or something, and then everybody can exist in perfect safety and operate whatever construct body they like. It will be too late. The universe will never again have anything really beautiful and valuable in it. But it is what his father would have done.

Mhalir feels a surge of affection for Cayaldwin. And pain, and - something that holds regret but isn't quite shaped like guilt... So many losses they can never recoup. Some part of him has felt like it was too late ever since Seerow died. He knew the cost of war, of deaths in silently exploding ships miles away in space. He chose that over and over again. It doesn't make it hurt any less. 

<I wish I could have met him> he says, wistfully. <Your father. I wish - we could all have worked together on this - with Seerow, with Leareth... It is too late for so many things and - we could have built this decades ago> if he had been less stupid, some part of him screams, but even Leareth thinks the war was almost impossible for him to have resolved on his own, from the inside, even an adult Leareth transplanted into Mhalir's body probably couldn't have done it. <But what are we going to do except keep going and build it now.> 

And he changes the topic back to math. 

Math is much more interesting.

Math is very interesting and Cayaldwin is very smart and...also should probably sleep someday, ever, but Mhalir will keep going until he notices signs of Cayaldwin slowing down or getting foggier. 

Cayaldwin technically needs as much sleep as Leareth does but his focus on math seems to be the last thing to go, somehow, as he gets tireder.

Well, it's clearly about as natural as - walking, or breathing, for him. Being in a tired brain doesn't make Mhalir stupider exactly, he can push a host through quite a long time without sleep, but it's definitely noticeable. Possibly more subjectively noticeable to him than to Cayaldwin, who seems totally oblivious to his growing exhaustion. 

<...I did not follow that> he says eventually, apologetic. <Your brain is getting tired and it makes it harder for me. We might make faster progress overall if you get some sleep now and we keep going after?>

He's slightly exaggerating here but not by much. Also he's really curious what sort of math dreams Cayaldwin has. Sleep is important to mental acuity for a reason. 

Cayaldwin suspects he is being manipulated into sleeping but he's not really up for arguing about it. He trots over to the Andalite herd where they are mostly already asleep. <I have Mhalir> he tells Talik so no one morphs Thoughtsenser and notices and panics. 

Talik narrows his eyes at him, morphs Thoughtsenser, tail-shrugs, morphs back. 

And Cayaldwin slips in among a dozen other Andalite bodies. It's like - putting on something that fits perfectly. It feels safe and cozy and abundant and warm and he has to remind himself reflexively that the universe has lost everything in it that matters.

He goes to sleep.

...For a moment he remembers Cayaldwin's thought-snippet earlier and feels - longing, and sadness that he wasn't born an Andalite. It passes quickly. The herd-belonging is just an evolved feeling, he reminds himself. The way Yeerks talking to other Yeerks in the pool feels like comfort and belonging and safety, it's not - fundamental, not necessarily reflective of reality. He's not like most Andalites any more than he's like most Yeerks. 

( - nowhere is home - ) 

Yeerks don't have to sleep when their hosts are asleep - Yeerks don't really sleep in the same way at all, though they have something vaguely like it. He can't do much right now, but he can stay mostly lucid. Watch Cayaldwin's sleeping mind eventually drift into dreams.

He feels such deep affection for Cayaldwin and his beautiful, shattered mind, full of curiosity and desire-to-understand and desire-to-master, and he wants to fix everything for him but he can't. 

In the morning Cayaldwin wakes up and for a second he is at peace and content and then he remembers that his father is dead and patiently whacks away all the feelings of peace and contentment, which are lies. He does the morning ritual, but spends it mostly trying to deliberately ignore the feelings of togetherness and contentment it brings. 

Then he wants to do more math. <Are you awake?>

It's so awful. And Mhalir can't blame him, because he, too, has the deep-set urge to remind himself over and over that the world isn't okay. He can sense it in Leareth too. Leareth isn't, well, constantly miserable the way Cayaldwin seems to be, and he works at a sustainable pace and often enjoys the process, but he's never, ever contented or satisfied, and neither is Mhalir. And so he doesn't feel any urge at all to nudge Cayaldwin to accept that comfort when he can find it, even though he wishes, desperately, that Cayaldwin were happier.  

<Yes. I was thinking about...> and Mhalir launches into describing a maybe-insight he had when he was half-lucidly watching Cayaldwin dream. 

Math is true even when it hurts. It's very good of it. 

Leareth is awake a little while later and morphs Andalite to gallop around the field a bit and then joins them. <Cayaldwin, do you want to give my alt back or is this arrangement working fine for you> 

<I think it's easier to talk to him this way. I can give him back if you want to follow along, though.>

<It makes sense that it is easier to communicate concepts that way, and I am not contributing that much, honestly. Also I need to do a Gate to contact Matirin today, it has been a week. Mhalir, when do you need the Yeerk pool?> 

<Not until tomorrow night, although if I am going to spend all of today here I should inform my staff> he tells Cayaldwin in his head; he doesn't have access to Cayaldwin's thoughtspeak to actually communicate that onward to Leareth. <Cayaldwin, can you send some messages for me?>

He passes this on to Leareth. <I can send some messages for you if you're quick.>

<It will be very quick.> He dictates a couple of short messages for Cayaldwin, rescheduling a meeting from this afternoon to tomorrow morning and a message for Amanda saying she should expect the rest of today off too and not to worry about him, he's fine and being well taken care of. <She is protective of me> he explains to Cayaldwin. 

He would've found this very confusing a few months ago but now it makes a strange sort of sense. It's - tragic, that Mhalir is what he is, even if the things he chose to do about it were mostly incredibly evil. There would've been something lost if no one had ever picked his people up out of their pools, even if the most important thing in the universe was lost because they did.

He sends the messages for him.

And then they can talk about MATH for the next however many hours, and aside from the pit of grief in Cayaldwin's mind, everything is perfect and wonderful and in a sense it's everything he's always wanted, this, understanding the world piece by piece to master it with someone else. Mhalir doesn't have as much of the loneliness and desire-for-company as most Yeerks but he is nonetheless a Yeerk and it's glorious, being so close in someone's mind that he sees every path of thought, every interesting insight, and can chase them and they're more than twice as smart together as either of them would be alone.

Leareth catches up on messages for a while, and then asks around if another Andalite, not Cayaldwin, can take him out to orbit around Saturn again so he can reopen the Gate to the homeworld and see if Matirin needs anything. It'll be a long trip for a very short Gate, just sending the robot through again to transmit its message to Matirin and then wait for a response and carry the response back. If Matirin says it's a good time for Leareth to join him, Leareth will do that tomorrow. 

Matirin replies promptly enough that if Leareth would like to come through to the Andalite homeworld they'd be delighted to meet him.

He sends the robot back to transmit a message saying he'll plan on arriving sometime in the morning (Earth time) tomorrow, and then brings the robot back through and takes down his Gate.

He spends the long ride back to Earth taking a short nap, reading morph design specs, and practicing morphing various kinds of insect. When they make it back to the base, he looks for Cayaldwin. 

He is, as usual, working.

:Do you still have Mhalir?: Leareth asks. :I need to bring him back at some point tonight: 

It's very unreasonable how Mhalir has a politics job when like Cayaldwin himself he ought to actually spend all his time doing interesting research. <I did not set him down in the grass> he says. <You can have him back when convenient.>

<I want to finish our current thread and then I should go> Mhalir suggests. He also thinks it's kind of unreasonable he needs to spend so much time on politics right now, especially given that from his own perspective he's not that good at it? And he had to work hard for the skill he does have. Doing interesting research always came a lot more naturally...

...he misses Seerow. 

:Works fine for me: Leareth doesn't want to get too dug into his own morph research while he's on-call to transport Mhalir back, so he morphs Andalite and looks for a sparring partner instead. 

Cayaldwin watches with one eye. Leareth's not very good at lots of things that come naturally to Andalites, even after practicing very diligently, but he's very good at meaning to use a weapon, which is what Andalite cadets often struggle with, and he notices his mistakes and pays attention to what caused them.

They finish up what they're working on.

Leareth demorphs and heads over when he's done his sparring match (he loses but it's pretty close.) :I can Gate Mhalir back now. Productive research session?: 

Mhalir thinks so but he can't talk right now, at least not outside Cayaldwin's head. 

<It was great!>

<I hope we can work on this again soon.> Mhalir wriggles free of Cayaldwin's ear. 

Leareth holds out a hand for him. 

Yeerk! They're still pretty gross.

Leareth is mostly thinking about morph-components and not paying attention to the grossness at all as he holds Mhalir up to his ear, it's not a long trip or anything but Leareth didn't bring a glass of water to stick him in, and besides he's slippery and it would be awkward to drop him. 

:You get along well with Cayaldwin, I noticed: 

<He is very clever> And sad and in pain constantly. Mhalir says nothing about this to Leareth; it seems private. 

And Leareth Gates him back to where Amanda is hopefully waiting, and knocks on the door. 

Amanda is in the shower but comes out reasonably promptly, wearing a towel. "Oh good, I was worried you'd misplaced him or something."

"He made a friend. They were up most of the night doing math. I went to bed but Mhalir apparently thinks math is better than sleep." 

Mhalir extracts himself and can be handed back to Amanda once Leareth has removed all the compulsions on him. 

She holds him up to her head. "An Andalite friend? I thought they all hated him because of the thing where he, uh, enslaved one."

"I thought so too, I was very surprised, but - it seems that shared interest in staying up all night talking about math overrode it in this one case." Leareth thinks this is kind of adorable. Also that Cayaldwin should probably get more sleep, but, well. 

<He thinks it is tragic that I was not born an Andalite> Mhalir says as soon as he's in Amanda's head and can communicate again. <It was quite sweet. I think most of them still hate me, but...if I aid with some research breakthroughs, perhaps that will help.> 

Well if she had to pick a kind of alien to be she thinks she'd be a Yeerk, since you can sample all the other kinds. ...though the Andalites can do that too with the shapeshifting. 

I guess Andalites have a pretty good deal, she thinks.

(She hooked up with a guy. He had heard about the bodysnatcher invasion and figured that it was why his favorite band broke up. It felt very odd, being a normal person again.)

<I am glad you enjoyed your day off. I will probably do it again next week.> He's now just about at the point of having told Cayaldwin all the details of his past setup that he actually remembers, but Cayaldwin seems to enjoy just bouncing around ideas and find it valuable. He has a lot of politics to catch up on now, though. 

Leareth does one more unsuccessful but informative attempt at demorphing a nothlit rabbit, and then goes to bed, and gets up early to request a ship out to Saturn. He also sends a message to Nerefir confirming that he's doing so at Matirin's request and will be away for an unknown length of time, leaving Nayoki in charge of his people here. 

Is anyone else coming with him for this? 

Matirin also requested a couple of Nerefir's people, including Finleran.

Then Leareth will collect them either from the base or Nerefir's ship as applicable, and ask a different Andalite to fly them out, since they don't have a ton of ships to spare and he doesn't think it makes sense for it to wait in Saturn's orbit an unknown length of time. He'll take his Gate-crossing message robot with him and can have it transmit a pickup request through a tiny Gate once he has more information on when they'll be done. 

Leareth nods to Finleran and then decides to see how many morphs he can do back to back before he's tired. It's mostly a different kind of tiring from mage-work, so it won't affect the Gate much, and the flight is long enough that he'll have time to rest after. 

He can do eight full morphs and demorphs, which is a lot more than an Andalite can do; they're impressed. Someone has looked into this and theorized that it's basically the same kind of tiredness as distance running, which humans are weirdly good at. (Andalites are much faster in a sprint but cannot run more than a mile in one go.)

Leareth is pleased to be naturally good at something that impresses Andalites; he knows he's not naturally good at a lot of the elements of tail-sparring, he's not graceful. Though he's disproportionately good at winning, or at least taking longer and longer to lose every day, given his lack of grace.

After the eighth (he's very pleased at the increase in his stamina from when he first got morph), he stays human and sits cross-legged, musing about differences in physiology that would be upstream of the endurance thing. He's kind of amazed Andalites can't run more than a mile in one go; he can run five miles or so, if he paces himself reasonably, and he's not much of an athlete.

And humans are one of the few animals on their planet that can do that, and Andalites don't think there are any on theirs. (Their planet has fewer than a hundred species, though.)

Wow, Leareth hadn't known that and it's fascinating. He's also still very confused about the Andalite homeworld's ecology, and asks questions about that until they reach the Gate-point. 

They started out with the usual messy patchwork of millions of species that show up wherever evolution happens, but many of them went extinct when they made the planet more habitable for Andalites, either directly because Andalites eradicated them (disease carrying ticks and bugs, various creatures that are bad for the health of grasslands), or directly because their life cycle involved a fairly horrifying degree of animal suffering, or indirectly because they only lived in enormous equatorial saltwater marshes or something else Andalites did not particularly value, or because they were part of an ecosystem with something that did.

Andalites today disagree on whether this was a good choice by Andalites hundreds of years ago, but what with the war no one has gone ahead with reintroducing any of the species (they do have genomes and enough information to do so whenever they feel like it). 

Huh. Leareth has also been unsure what to do about species on Velgarth with lifecycles that involve horrifying suffering - once he gets to the point of that being the highest-priority problem, if that ever happens - and that's...a solution of sorts...but he has to admit not one he had considered. 

Velgarth is interesting because it has, in addition to its messy patchwork of millions of species, a number of created species from before the Mage Wars, and also all the weird species variants resulting from the Pelagirs waste magic. He can talk about this subject and which ones might be interesting to morph for a while. 

When they reach Saturn's orbit, he spends a couple of minutes properly centring and grounding, fills his reserves from the mage-energy generator packed onto the ship for this purpose, consults the planar modeling program to refresh himself on the routing, and does a full-size Gate to the surface of the Andalite homeworld. He informed everyone beforehand to be ready to cross very efficiently, and that he might need help getting himself across, because it's incredibly tiring to hold a Gate across this distance. He has to make the threshold on each end nearly three times as powerful as usual, in order to hold up against the force of pinching that much distance together.

They are ready to hurry across once it's up.

Leareth can make it across on his own feet without leaning on anyone, but it takes a lot of effort and willpower, and he sits down on the ground as soon as he's on the other side. Taking the Gate down lets him recoup some energy, enough that his vision stops wavering, but he's still very tired. 

...He doesn't actually have any idea where they are, right now, compared to where Matirin is and where they're supposed to be next. Maybe one of the Andalites can figure it out while he sits here and rests? 

They're not in the place where the last Gate came through, so it takes them a while; they find the nearest herd of Andalites and those call the ones expected to welcome them, and a shuttle lands about ten minutes later.

By that point Leareth is sufficiently recovered from his Gate to be on his feet when the shuttle arrives, and greet them courteously (in Mindspeech). 

They are pleased to meet him. They have a city on this continent, and intend to meet there, if it's convenient for him. 

Yes, of course, that works fine. 

So the shuttle zips off to the city. It's purpleish and blueish and greyish grassland the whole way there, with occasional herds of Andalites visible grazing; the city itself is a startling contrast, with gleaming chrome buildings stretching a quarter mile into the sky. The shuttle lands on the grassy roof of one of them. 

<Hey> Matirin says by thoughtspeech from the crowd waiting around the shuttle.

:Hey. This is a very impressive city: It...matches his aesthetic, somehow, in a way that nothing in Velgarth does. :How are you?: 

<Doing tolerably! I have told a few important people about the circumstances under which we gave you morph and they're living with it but not delightedly so probably don't show off your prowess with it. If you want to be you-with-more-Gifts all the time that's fine, we don't have a way to notice that.>

:Interesting - there is not a way to detect that someone is in morph at all? It is very obvious to Othersenses. I wonder if I could use that to develop a technological sensor. Anyway, I will be discreet: 

He's not currently in morph-with-extra-Gifts because really mage-gift and Thoughtsensing are enough for most purposes, and also Gates are exhausting. 

:Anyway, what is the plan now?: 

<Meet people, discuss plans to end the war with them. Did you have a more complicated agenda in mind?>

:...I mean, I would like to set up circumstances where the Andalites will decide Velgarth is a fellow advanced civilization and thus an exception to the laws against sharing your tech. Plotting via political agendas is not my best skill, though: 

<Don't act overawed about the electricity but otherwise I do not think it will be that complicated. I said that on your planet some people have a genetic aptitude that lets them view and directly interact with other planes, and that because of this aptitude your technological development involved interplanar technologies much earlier than standard. I said you've discovered some planes we hadn't, and developed technologies including precognition and surface-to-surface hyperspace jumping. I said that when we crash landed on one of your worlds, Velgarth, your sensors detected people in morph not because they'd been designed for that but because there are other kinds of constructs-from-other-planes in your world which they look similar to, which would have been very unfortunate if not for the fact that you'd learned of the war and very graciously offered to share your technology with us so that it could be won.>

:That makes sense: He is not, in fact, particularly awed by the electricity anymore. It wouldn't even be hard to develop on Velgarth, if not for the stupid gods. :...One of my worlds? Did you imply I had more than one?: 

<I said I'd considered it discourteous to ask anything of such great interest to the Yeerks and such limited strategic relevance to us. And that I didn't read you as concerningly expansionist.>

:I see: Leareth's expression doesn't change but his mindvoice radiates amusement. :I think Valdemar might previously have objected on 'not concerningly expansionist' but, well, those plans have been obviated: 

He has a vague background urge to hug Matirin - or morph Andalite and do some more Andalite-appropriate gesture - but he does neither of those things, and just follows him. 

Matirin has a long list of people lined up to meet with him. Many of them are scientists who want to hear all about the planes that Velgarth researchers know about and their own researchers don't, Matirin mentioned that Leareth would be reluctant to share all of the details of, for example, the hyperspace jumping, until a tech-sharing agreement of some kind had been formalized but maybe they could talk about planes just a little??

Some others are politicians who want to condemn the Yeerks emphatically and collect congratulations for the long decades the Andalites tried alone to slow the Yeerks in enslaving the galaxy.

It's hard to share details on Gates anyway without getting all of the researchers morphs-with-Gifts and several days worth of lessons in magical theory; Leareth is happy to talk about the other planes a little, and how the various Velgarth Gifts are understood to work, and what kinds of infrastructure and spell-techniques have been built on top of them. 

Leareth treads carefully with the politicians, because he's - pretty unwilling to agree verbally with them that the Yeerks, as a species, deserve condemnation, but he listens and nods and agrees that it was an awful situation where they had no good choices, and that it must have taken a great deal of skill and courage to hold off the Yeerk expansion as much as they did. 

Also there are biologists who'd like to learn about the genetically engineered intelligent creatures in Leareth's civilization (Andalites know how to do that, but have not done it, it's illegal by Seerow's Kindness these days) and then morph scientists who want to understand the morph-with-Gifts alteration, which they understand was undertaken by a Velgarth and Andalite research team.

Leareth can tell the biologists facts he knows off the top of his head about gryphons and hertasi and tyrill, and also the less-intelligent engineered species like basilisks. He says (truthfully, in his opinion) that Cayaldwin should get more than half of the credit for morphing-with-Gifts being possible at all, though Leareth helped via his extensive study in how to directly view other planes with mage-sight. Composite morphs with Gifts, and specifically the Andalite composite morph, were mostly figured out once he himself had been given morph capability for medical reasons. 

Right, about that. They're very glad the perfidious Yeerks weren't able to succeed in undermining the alliance by murdering him, of course, but they're very protective of morph what with the extraordinary effort that went into developing it and the advantages it offers in the still-ongoing war, and they hope that in the cooperative spirit in which morph was offered, Leareth will consider a tech-sharing agreement with the Andalites. 

(Matirin is so pleased with himself.)

Leareth absolutely understands the extraordinary effort that went into developing the morph capability! He can talk for a bit about his current research project of using magic to get nothlits back their original body, which has involved a great deal of him being awed by morph as a technology (but also is a useful demonstration of how valuable his knowledge is to them.) He would definitely be interested in considering a tech-sharing agreement with the Andalites, though the exact terms of it he would need to consider in more depth. 

Of course. 

Eventually he is ushered away from the open air space with all the little bobbing robots capturing video of everything, and down to some grass-carpeted conference rooms (they do not have chairs, but instead have elevated grass berms of some kind at about bench-height), where they want to talk about the plan to end the war. Will the tactics used on Earth work everywhere else? How long will it take? Matirin had thought that, given the abilities of Velgarth people to render Yeerks powerless, Leareth would want most of the not-especially-culpable Yeerks after the war was over, being much better possessed than the Andalites for options about what to do with them. This sounds good to the Andalites, except one who interjects that obviously it'd be conditional on what Leareth plans to do with them, and whose thoughts betray that she is very worried they'll do concerning genetic engineering experiments on them.

Leareth does not go into detail on what the tactics successfully used on Earth were; he says that some of them should work elsewhere just fine and some were pretty context-specific. They have detailed, if somewhat out-of-date, intel on most of the other Yeerk worlds, due to the surrendered and now-cooperative Yeerks on Earth. Using Gating or surface-hyperspace-jumps to arrive unseen should work on other worlds, and Velgarth's mindreading and mind-control capabilities will be very useful, especially as long as the other Yeerk worlds have no idea they exist. His current ideas for this mainly involve copious use of those abilities, plus maybe some cooperative Yeerks, cooperation potentially enforced via Velgarth mind-control, going in with misinformation. 

He has a preference that the less culpable Yeerks not end up dead, since they didn't choose to be born as Yeerks and can, in fact, be rendered harmless via Velgarth magic. He thinks most Yeerks would have no problem at all with the kinds of compulsions that let their hosts override them or block them from specific actions - they do value having hosts at all, but mainly for the company and the sensory experiences, being in control all the time doesn't seem to be necessary - and given that, he wants to figure out a way they can integrate peacefully with the rest of the galaxy. Earth may be a good place to start since it seems like humans may on average get along unusually well with Yeerks. Leareth is happy to take responsibility for the captured Yeerks not personally guilty of war crimes, and find a place for them that doesn't involve any kind of enslavement. He hopes that Andalites and Yeerks will eventually be on better terms, but he understands that after decades of a war as brutal as this one, this is likely to take a very long time. 

The Andalites (this is clear from their thoughts, though they mostly just make polite noncommital noises in thoughtspeech) are so delighted about a plan where the Yeerks who didn't personally do any war crimes are far away and supervised by someone else. That sounds great.

How convenient. 

They want to come up with a schedule for Leareth's stay so they know who to have where when, can they set up some times for discussing the war and some times for working out the tech-sharing agreement and some time for sightseeing, if he'd like that?

That's an excellent idea and Leareth is happy to discuss scheduling next. 

:...Matirin, did you already inform them what humans require in terms of food and sleeping accommodations?: he checks. 

<I didl The fabricators turned out some artificial skin and blankets that seemed satisfactory to me and food has been acquired with considerably more difficulty than that and I have aspired to underschedule rather than overschedule you in case we need some time to secretly conspire.>

:Excellent: A surge of warmth in his mindvoice. 

Leareth works out a schedule for the next while, and asks about food once he's noticeably hungry, and then pleads tiredness at a point when he definitely could keep going but has kind of had enough of being very careful while talking to aliens. He asks Matirin for directions to his sleeping accommodations. Not that he's tired enough to sleep quite yet, but sightseeing can wait until a day that he didn't start with a ridiculously long-range interworld Gate. 

They have set aside a top-floor apartment with an absurdly high ceiling and views from all four directions. It has - furniture, as obviously invented by people without material scarcity but also without much of a concept of humans. There is a bedframe three feet off the ground and made of some extremely intricate geometrically-patterned plastic that doesn't look remotely thick enough to support the weight of the mattress atop it, which is much taller than any Earth mattress to the overall effect the bed is sort of hard to get up onto. There are twelve neatly folded blankets in different textures. There are vases with flowers, both native ones and scrupulous replicas of Earth ones, on most flat surfaces, including some of the floor. There are six chairs, each of them in different materials and styles, placed in various corners of the enormous room. The floor is grass, but with a very nice rug over it.

Leareth stands at the entrance to his room and chuckles for a while. 

:It is very thoughtful: he says eventually, heading over to touch all the blankets and check which texture he likes most. 

<I showed them some Earth television but the materials science is hard to infer just from that! They wanted to put in an entirely decorative kitchen since all the houses on Earth television have it but I said that if they were going to be bringing meals then there was not any need.>

Some of the blankets are extraordinarily soft and fluffy and some are like Andalite fur and some are like Earth blankets and some are a little beyond description.

:Thank you: It's all very adorable, Leareth thinks, selecting a furry blanket and then attempting to boost himself up onto the bed and checking its comfortableness. 

The mattress is not actively lumpy or pokey though it's obviously a mattress made by people not 100% clear on what mattress desiderata are; it's unusually firm and it conveys movement across the whole surface much more than you want a bed to do that.

Well, he's pretty sure he can manage to sleep on it, which is the important part. 

:I think that was a reasonably good start: he says to Matirin. :Though I definitely find this kind of work more tiring than talking to Cayaldwin about morph research all day:

<I appreciate you doing it anyway. It's much easier to sell the things we want as concessions to you. As I said, I don't think this will be very difficult. Our people are mostly decent and reasonable people who really want the war to be over and who - endorse wanting good things for the Yeerks even if they're mostly terrified of them and believe them to be inevitably inclined to enslave people at the first opening.>

:I can understand that. And they did all seem like decent people, trying hard to do the reasonable things. I liked them. Especially the researchers, talking to them is enjoyable in itself: 

Matirin - misses his father, suddenly. He doesn't usually do that and lately when he does it comes with more complicated emotions than it used to. He tail-nods. <I should let you rest.>

Leareth nods. :I will see you tomorrow: 

He heads out.

Leareth rolls around a bit on his weird bed, then collects one of the absurdly fluffy blankets as well and cocoons himself and settles in. He puts some wards on the room before attempting sleep. 

He feels a very, very long way from known territory, but - mostly safe. Also very tired, and sleep comes easily enough. 

In the morning he obtains food, which is adequate, and follows his schedule. 

The scheduled week of activities proceeds mostly as planned and is not very hard to manage, when you have the advantage of being able to read everybody's thoughts. 

Andalites (well, Andalite top politicians and scientists who Matirin set up to meet with Leareth) are - more careful than humans to have consensus when they speak, disinclined to admit any errors but accordingly in a hurry not to make any, and overwhelmingly overridingly glad that the war will be over. Almost every single one of them has lost a brother or a father or a son to it, and they hate the Yeerks, and they're so very tired.

Leareth wonders if they realize he's reading most of their thoughts much of the time. They know Thoughtsensing is a Velgarth capability, one of the key advantages that led to their victory on Earth, but it's less clear that they've put the consequences together. They don't seem either very self-conscious or to be trying to hide things in their own minds. 

It's not hard to be very, very sympathetic to them about the war and its cost. Leareth understands that cost. (It's one he's chosen to pay, willingly, more than once, and would have chosen again if not for a third option appearing, but nonetheless.) It's also not hard to be very impressive, even when he's avoiding visible morphing. 

:I miss Andalite eyesight: he complains to Matirin at one point. He's apparently used to it enough that he feels itchy in open spaces; he copes by morphing himself-with-Farsight and using that, but his human brain doesn't have the sensory cortex for it so it's more disorienting. :And tail-sparring. I look forward to being back on Earth again when I can morph Andalite as often as I wish: 

Matirin feels very warmly about Leareth in Andalite form, and it leaks through. <I am terribly sorry. It's one of the more awkward features of the whole situation and - they don't want to say I was wrong to do it, but they also surely don't want to say I was right, so better not to talk about it. You can insist that the tech-sharing agreement include morph for some of your researchers so that they can assist with improving it, and after that it'll be no problem if you want to morph around them - might be diplomatically helpful, even. We Andalites derive a great deal of satisfaction from having the best body plan we've seen anywhere in the galaxy.>

:It is a very good body plan! The only advantages of the human form, so far as I can tell, are fitting into smaller spaces, being able to climb things, and the endurance for repeated morphing. And it is very true that if I could give more of my researchers morph, we could make faster progress on various elements of this, especially Cayaldwin's work on the multiple tethers and the time limit: He's brought it up already but can do so more emphatically. 

<Mouths! You forgot mouths! Humans can experience pleasures unimagined by Andalites. But most of those benefits can be accessed just by morphing them, so I think we still come out ahead.>

:Well, except that I can morph four times as often as most Andalites: Leareth's tone is teasing. 

He slumps his tail to the floor in mock-defeat. <You win. Humans who can morph Andalite all the time have the best body plan. But they do morph Andalite all the time.>

:- Fair, I do spend at least half my time on Earth in Andalite morph: Sigh. :I am going to get out of practice with tail-sparring, I was finally starting to be tolerable at it: 

<We could spar now, if you'd like. They don't have cameras in your rooms, it's considered very rude.>

:Sure. I would like that: Leareth tries to decide if he would consider cameras in his rooms rude. Probably not? He might try to locate and disable them but it feels like it could be a sensible choice on their part. Though he does appreciate how non-adversarial they're being about the whole thing. 

He morphs. He's been playing around with morph control lately, seeing if he can make the transformation happen in a given order, and it's very hard but he manages to get the tail first and keep his human face nearly through the end. 

Matirin is entertained. <Some people have an innate gift for morph control, and they do professional dance with it. It's on your schedule somewhere, I think.> 

And then he steps closer to spar.

Leareth moves in as well. 

As usual, he's not especially graceful, but he's focused and in control and thinking several moves ahead and he moves with intent, trying-to-win.

Vanyel asked him once if he spars so much because it's fun, and - Leareth wasn't sure if 'fun' was the right word, exactly, but in a way he's the most relaxed and present and in-the-moment as he ever is. He expects to lose, because Matirin has thousands of hours of practice at this, but he's going to make him work for it and enjoy the process. 

Matirin really dislikes sparring on this rug-on-top-of-grass, the footing is terrible, but it's probably healthy to practice fighting under all kinds of bizarre footing conditions. Some people spar in zero gravity.

Leareth's getting better at sparring and it's - shocking how much he appreciates that, how much closer he feels to Leareth when Leareth's in an Andalite form and alive in this specifically Andalite kind of motion - he feels like he's known him for years, somehow...

He does win. It takes him a while. He leaves his tail-blade at Leareth's throat for a half-second longer than normal, looking at him, appreciating him, and then he remembers himself and his tail is back behind him, coiled a little sheepishly. <You've kept practicing.>

Leareth holds very still while Matirin's tail-blade is at his throat, and then his body language is pleased, proud. <I have. I like doing this.> Human bodies are good at many things but they're not nearly so - inherently designed to fight, without tools or weapons or magic. 

<You fight like yourself. -  most people do, but it's more notable when their self is very distinctive.>

<Am I distinctive?> He hasn't really thought of it that way before. <I keep suspecting my fighting style is ugly, to Andalites who have had their bodies their entire lives, but - I make do. I suppose that is rather characteristic of my life overall.> 

<Tail-fighting can only be ugly, or wrong, insofar as it loses. It's - we almost never do it seriously but it's not a game, still, it's measured against something real. I think you are often measured against something real, and it shows, even if you have not had very many lessons on technique and even if some things that are habit for us aren't, for you. ...have you won any sparring matches.>

<A couple? Mostly by luck, still, at this stage. I think I will win more in a few months.> 

<Oh, I'm sure so. I just wondered whether anyone had the good sense to teach you how to win safely. I am glad they did.>

<I asked. Before I moved to sparring without the tail-cover. It seemed important.> Leareth keeps feeling like this conversation is half about literal sparring and, maybe, half about something else, and he doesn't know what to make of it. 

<Again?>

<Certainly.> And he takes a moment to make sure he has his footing solid on the stupid rug - though he doesn't really mind it, he thinks it throws Matirin off more than it does him, so it's to his benefit. 

They spar. He tries to win. 

He seems distracted. Not very distracted, but he doesn't have to be very distracted when they're also on this extremely squishy rug, and when Leareth can read his mind (he hasn't been wearing the amulet, here; he doesn't want to draw attention to the fact Leareth is mindreading everybody else.)

Leareth has in general not been mindreading Matirin except to help navigate interactions with other Andalites, he's got a lot to keep track of and it didn't feel like there was much point in checking a known ally's reasoning. He will, however, totally mindread him in order to pick up on his intentions a fraction of a second in advance and win against him at tail-sparring.

He catches Matirin just barely off-guard enough, and wins, and does not chop off his head in the process or something. He holds his tail-blade to Matirin's throat and turns all four eyes on him, because he knows there's nothing dangerous behind him now, and he feels exhilarated and delighted and - okay it's not traditional to stand here gloating for that long, even if it's very satisfying. He lowers his tail. 

<That was very good.> Proud, and - something more than that, maybe. 

Leareth isn't sure what the something-more-than-that is, but he's visibly so pleased; as usual his body language is far more expressive in Andalite form, in addition to just being more legible to Andalites in general. <Thank you> 

<Best of three?>

<Of course.> Leareth takes a moment to set aside the gloating and re-focus. Probably Matirin's distraction won't last, whatever that was about, but he'll take advantage of whatever he can. 

He is less distracted and more determined, this time, and also getting a better read on Leareth, though the mindreading is still a substantial advantage. It takes him a while to catch Leareth off guard. This time he does not hold his blade at Leareth's throat for even a slight fraction longer than usual.

Leareth is - obscurely disappointed about that, and has no idea why, but he doesn't poke at it much. <Well, you win. Thank you, that was very satisfying.> 

<You are very welcome.> He tosses his head, a little. <I enjoyed myself a great deal. And - it's good to see you again.>

<It is very good to see you again. ...Are you going to return to Earth also when I finish the agenda here? I suppose I am not sure where it most makes sense to stage the planning for the rest of the war.> 

<I do not know either. Probably I should be wherever the politics will need the most finessing.> Which feels vaguely sad, but he is a professional and is going to do his job, here, he can spar with Leareth and with Finleran and with whoever else he pleases once this is over.

<That makes sense.> Tail-shrug. <Sooner or later this will all be over and done with.> Leareth starts demorphing. 

<So I have been telling people, though I am not sure I believe it.> Tail-shake.

Leareth switches to Mindspeech as he loses Andalite thoughtspeak. :It may - probably will - prove to be complicated and messy. But, I would like there to stop being a stupid war in this galaxy, and I have copious resources and am very stubborn: 

Elsewhere, Alloran gets to the point where he can run around the field comfortably. 

<I think you should tell me stories>, he tells the foals in the evening. <Can you tell me about Valdemar?>

There are some solemn looks back and forth and one of the foals steps forward to volunteer themselves. :Valdemar was founded when Baron Valdemar ran away from a bad, bad empire with an evil emperor, alllll the way east. So far east it's by the sea. And he took his people and kept running until he'd gone as far as you could go: 

Gesture with her muzzle. :West was all Pelagirs then, people couldn't live there yet, it was full of dangerous monsters. Now the Pelagirs don't start until two hundred miles west of here. Anyway he founded a city and he called it Haven and it was a nice place. And he got very old, and then he was worried that when he was dead and his son was dead, maybe someday there would be a bad evil ruler, like in the empire he ran away from. So he prayed to ALL the gods to make that not happen! And then the Companions came: Prance prance. She looks very proud about it. 

<How did the Companions come? Were they born from ordinary horses, or by magic?>

:The first ones came out of the Grove! By magic!: More eager muzzle pointing, this time from all the foals. :That's why they were called Groveborn. Taver is Groveborn and that's why he's special and the leader. But after there were already some Companions, they had more babies the way horses do: 

<And all the gods did this? How many gods are there?>

Glances back and forth. :Ooooh, I don't know. Lots and lots, I think? But some of them are from far away and hardly anyone goes to temples for them here, like Anathei. Anathei of the something, I don't remember what He's of. People in Valdemar worship Kernos and Astera and Vkandis: 

<What are they like?>

There are looks back and forth, small hooves scuffing the grass. :I don't know? They're very big and far away? Vkandis is the sun god and he does fire-related miracles and sends prophecies sometimes, I think: 

<Which one is your favorite?>

:Ummm. Kernos, probably. Most of the Heralds worship Kernos. He's supposed to be the god of good luck in battle, only I don't know what that really means: 

:There were legends about miracles where He possessed His warrior monks and made them good at fighting! But that's supposed to have happened before Valdemar was even founded: 

<That sounds like a useful sort of thing to be an expert in. I can see why the Heralds would prefer it. Are the gods - allied with each other, do they have non-overlapping areas of responsibility?>

The foals are shuffling their feet a bit now. :Umm, I think some of Them have areas They're responsible for? Like Vkandis in Karse and the Star-Eyed Goddess in the Pelagirs. I don't know if they're allied with each other: 

<But Kernos does all good luck in battle, both sides of battles? Does he prefer that there be battle, so that people can have good luck in it?>

Scuff scuff. :...I don't know? That doesn't seem right. Maybe it's just good luck for the side that's the good guys: 

<That makes sense. The Andalite god chooses the peoples that fight for their freedom and the freedom of others over the ones that enslave and destroy.>

:Really? Oooh, and do they do miracles about it?:

<I don't know. I think maybe Matirin's ship coming here was a miracle.>

They shuffle. They seem kind of uneasy. 

:What - for?: one foals says eventually. :This isn't that god's territory, it's different gods here: 

<So that we would have the resources to defeat the Yeerks. Our god does not have territory in exactly the same way, and insofar as he does it is probably all of the galaxy. And he need only have adjusted the place they left from, anyway.>

Worried looks. :Are the Yeerks going to come looking here now? Because Valdemar helped you fight them?: 

<No, don't worry. They took lots of precautions to make sure the Yeerks could not follow us, and the Yeerks have been defeated and forced to stop.>

They nod, seriously, but still seem uncomfortable. Not obviously about the idea of the Yeerks finding Velgarth, though, just...in general. They look at him silently.

Perhaps it's rude to talk about religion here, or something. He changes the subject.

Asks Taver later. <Is it discourteous to ask questions about gods?>

:Hmm: He gives Alloran a piercing look. :What sort of questions?: 

<I was trying to get a sense of what their goals are and what it means that they all created Valdemar.>

:It is not known to be fact that They all participated in creating us. Merely that King Valdemar prayed to every god whose name he knew: Another hard look. :Why did you wish to know this: 

<It seems important to understanding this world, to understand its most powerful actors and what they are doing.>

:I see. I do not think it is rude to ask, necessarily, but also we do not have any special insight into the answer. The god or gods who made us is not very communicative with us now: 

<That makes sense. I was not expecting you to consult them, I just imagine that much of what I want to know is common knowledge. Maybe it is not.>

Taver is still giving him a silent, piercing look. 

<Have there always been the same gods? Does history record gods who do not seem to be active now?>

Long pause. :I think there are gods in history who have not been spoken of in many centuries. The Twain were a pair of gods and goddesses who I have only heard of being mentioned in very ancient texts. We believe perhaps some gods were destroyed in the Cataclysm, and others substantially moved Their territories afterward: 

<Huh. I have heard that Karse is under the control of Vkandis. Was Valdemar invaded on His orders?>

:I do not know the answer to that question: Taver, too, seems uneasy now, shifting his weight and staring hard at Alloran. 

<Is there anyone who would?>

:Perhaps Queen Karis, or her Suncat, but I am not sure either of them would answer. The gods do not always wish that Their motives be known: 

<Well, I'd imagine not, if they're starting wars!>

Taver's large blue eyes narrow, his expression hard to read. 

<Is there a way to communicate with them directly?>

:I think it depends if They wish to be communicated with. For Their priests, yes, sometimes. Some gods have avatars to speak for them, but often those will only answer for the god's people. The Shadow-Lover speaks to dying souls, here, but only to the dying: 

<I see. Thank you.>

:You are welcome: 

Taver is still watching him intently. 

Well, if he has a question he can ask it. Alloran feels like he's starting to put together a picture of the interplanar creatures for Matirin.

Taver does not ask, then or later. He does visibly watch Alloran more than before, and seems a little stiffer with him, but he doesn't raise any actual complaint. 

(He talks to the other Companions what Alloran has been asking them about, but since he tells them not to say this to Alloran, Alloran has no way of knowing.) 

Alloran is pretty sure there is absolutely a taboo about discussing the gods, though it's interesting that Taver wouldn't admit to it. Maybe talking about them gives them power? It seems worth asking Leareth about, anyway. 

Leareth spends a week-and-some on the Andalite homeworld, working through his agenda, being shown various sights and trying not to look like someone who's never seen a technologically advanced city before, meeting researchers and politicians, checking in with Matirin. They don't manage to find time for sparring again, which he's vaguely wistful about. 

He offers to train Andalites who've achieved the new composite morph with Gifts (developed significantly by him personally)  on how to Gate, and various other advanced magical techniques, in exchange for morph for ten of his researchers. Generously, he can count himself as one of the ten. Also, if they're interested, after the war he would be willing to put time into developing a version of the permanent Gate technique that can handle the interworld routing. This is a much larger endeavour - considerable original research, plus months of work from dozens of skilled mages - and so he would want to trade it for something of corresponding value. 

The Andalites approve the ten people with morph, including Leareth. Matirin said something to the effect that Velgarth never really bothered with satellites or starships, what with having developed direct planar travel; satellites are otherwise useful, though, for internet and for mining operations best conducted in space, and the Andalites could build them some in exchange for the permanent Gate?

Leareth will consider it; he expects he would consider satellites a very appropriate trade, here, but it's not urgent to make a final decision since he can't reassign mage-time to the Gate until they've won the war anyway. 

(He's pretty concerned about what the gods of Velgarth would do about this, but on the other hand, the Andalites were able to fly their ship around without interference; maybe the gods just aren't powerful enough to interfere on that scale, and satellites dropped directly in orbit would evade Their influence entirely? And if They do interfere, well, that's also informative, and might get him some more support from the Andalites in fighting Them directly.)

Once he's finished his many, many meetings on the war and on how Velgarth's magic can be combined productively with Andalite tech, and the initial tech-sharing agreement is made official, he prepares to Gate back to Earth. Well, to Saturn's orbit; he'll send the robot through to transmit a nice loud signal requesting that the same ship return and wait for them, and the next day he ought to be able to Gate directly inside it, though of course he should use the robot again to check there's a ship there and not just vacuum. 

Are any Andalites coming back with him? 

There are a bunch of Andalites interested in going to Velgarth or Earth for business or tech-sharing purposes; Matirin and Nerefir's delegation are also going to come back.

Leareth informs them that they'll need to be fast, going through; it'll be much easier once a permanent Gate is invented and built, but for now he needs to personally provide all the energy for this one and it's very tiring to hold for long.

He gets the routing more efficient for the tiny preliminary message-Gate, though, and it's not too exhausting. By the next morning he's fully rested and ready. 

A robot confirms that there is a ship in the right place.

Then they can all hurry across the Gate into the ship.

It takes longer than the last time, more people have to cross, and Leareth makes it across unaided after the last Andalite crosses and then, more drained than he'd realized, slumps to the floor. This is fine. He can dismantle his Gate while sitting there and then...stay there...presumably someone else will fly the ship back...

They sent the Dome ship to pick them up, rather than try to crowd large numbers into a shuttle; it can indeed head off to Earth without intervention from Leareth. Matirin hurries off to talk with Nerefir.

Leareth spends a while recovering, and then Mindspeaks Matirin. :Should I join you to check in with Nerefir about anything, or do you have that covered?: 

<Should be all set. I can be over in ten minutes to help you start introducing our Andalite researchers to people.>

:That sounds good, thank you:

He comes over about ten minutes later. There are Andalite biologists and sociologists who want to do research on Earth, and Andalite business owners who want to explore the possibility of trade with Earth (there is not a tech-sharing agreement with Earth, but this doesn't rule out everything that might be of interest), and Andalite politicians who want to meet Earth ones. They have been warned that Earth is not a very developed civilization and that its food is very addictive. 

Leareth is delighted to meet them, and can share his impressions of Earth and Earth's politics and trade. He of course doesn't represent an Earth government but he's been spending a lot of time in discussions with Earth people.

He would also be happy to arrange for some Velgarth magical species to be transported over, so the biologists can study them too; Velgarth can be quite dangerous to operate in for people without magic and training in it, he says, and it's also costly to transport people back and forth constantly, but he would also at some point be open to hosting the Andalite researchers at one of his secure facilities there. 

The Dome ship stays in orbit but can shuttle them on down to Earth.

Leareth accepts a shuttle ride, less tiring than a Gate. He needs to check in with Mhalir first thing and discuss plans for the rest of the war, and then pick which of his researchers get morph - he picks Nayoki, of course, and a range of other people with advanced skill in various Gifts, and then he approaches Vanyel and asks if he'd be interested in officially joining the research team. 

"....And get morph? Ummm. Sure. I guess." 

"I think it would be very valuable for you. Particularly since you seem to have a high rate of getting injured." 

Vanyel just looks at him. 

"Also you are a very talented mage and I would like you as one of my researchers, though I understand you will sometimes have competing commitments to Valdemar." 

"No, I'm in. Just - surprised, I guess." 

"I care about you, and do not want you to get yourself killed doing something heroic in this war." 

Oh no now Vanyel is blushing. "Gods, you sound like my Companion." 

"Anyway. Would you like to meet with some Andalite researchers? They are visiting from the homeworld." He switches to Mindspeech. :We are avoiding giving them too thorough a tour of Velgarth, because Matirin - may have implied a somewhat higher technological level for the planet overall than is actually the case. Anyway, I have a tech-sharing agreement with them now and we will probably get satellites and Internet in Velgarth once the war is over and I can build them a permanent Gate in exchange. In the meantime, I am sure they would like to meet with you as well, just, be cautious what you say about Valdemar's tech level: 

Vanyel bobs his head. "Er, yes, of course." 

Leareth has a very large number of other commitments to schedule around, but can set up office hours where the Andalite visitors can meet with him and/or Vanyel and discuss whatever matters are of interest to them. 

<Hi! I'm Eskillimi, and my sister is Ismea, and we head up Filament, a lighting technology company,> says one of the Andalites. <Though it's very vertically integrated so we also have our fingers in mineral extraction and shipping and so on. It's nice to meet you.>

"I see. Welcome to Earth. I am curious how your lightning technology differs from the lighting humans on Earth already use?" Leareth leans back in his chair, folding his hands across his knees. "In Velgarth we tend to use mage-lights for artificial lightning, but there might also be interest in importing your products, since not all our polities have high rates of mage-gift for maintaining our infrastructure." 

<Earth's lightbulbs would break in Z-space, if they tried it,> Ismea says. <Even Andalite bulbs did that sometimes till my innovation a few decades back. Ours are also more efficient, brighter on the high end, programmable so they come on at specific times or in various colors or dim in response to ambient lighting conditions, and more durable. I wouldn't know how mage-lights compare on any of those axes.>

"Mage-lights look like this." He demonstrates one. It's a round tiny globe, bright white; they can poke it without feeling any heat or resistance. "Well, a temporary one. Permanent ones require an artifact, and a power source. This one takes..." And he gives the approximate conversion of the mage-energies to electricity. His current light, in Earth units for electrical power, is about 10 watts, though it would cost more than that if he wanted to fuel it on an ongoing basis from his electricity-to-mage-energies generator, since the conversion is only about 50% efficiency. Permanent mage-lights are about a third more efficient per brightness, and can be almost arbitrarily bright if they have an adequate power source, but also take dozens of hours of skilled mage-time to produce. 

<Our lightbulbs are mass produced. Without the conversion factor mage-lights might be competitively efficient in power but with the opportunity cost of specialized mage labor factored in I think you'll want electric ones.>

"Yes, I agree." He drops his demo mage-light. "I am curious, why would Earth lightbulbs break in z-space and what was your innovation that prevents this for Andalite lightbulbs?" 

<I'm not actually allowed to answer that in detail. Loosely, jumps have small relativistic effects on the atoms in transit and the noble gases used in lightbulbs can under those conditions react where they're not supposed to be able to and I fixed that.>

Leareth nods. "What are your mining techniques like, especially in terms of environmental destructiveness? Once I am confident that it is safe for foreigners without Gifts to operate in Velgarth, there are a number of countries that might be interested in giving you mining rights on some of their territory, if they were paid appropriately; our different tech tree means that I expect many elements of value to Andalite technology have barely been mined at all. Mage-work requires physical materials and sometimes precious stones, but the most standard focus material is quartz, which is not rare." 

<We mostly mine with robots this days anything that can't readily be gotten in open pit shape, it's claustrophobic and unpleasant underground for Andalites. Usually all the grass on top, if there is any, is rolled up and sold off as carpet, some people like it naturally harvested. If it's trees or a swamp or something they do not tend to survive the process. Water contamination can be an issue but filtration technology improves all the time.>

The idea of grass being sold as 'naturally harvested carpet' is honestly adorable and Leareth can't help smiling about it. "I see. Hmm, you mentioned you also do your own shipping; what methods do you use for that? I am curious if you would be interested in some sort of trade in exchange for Gates, either the temporary or permanent kind." 

<Can you do them horizontal, have stuff fall through them? How big can they get? How long can they stay up? Loading and unloading is a bottleneck, especially for anything that goes between planets, if they go point to point then they could be huge.>

"They can be any orientation! I have used Gates horizontally before, although this is better for non-fragile items since they usually come out the other end with some momentum - in the Eastern Empire, a polity in Velgarth, they minimize this by having two different frames for 'departure' and 'arrival' Gates for goods, where the departure Gate is a frame flush with the ground, and the arrival Gate is slightly more than the height of a standard crate or pallet above the ground, so they have only that distance to fall. They always go point to point, I generally would do them from the surface of planets, although there are some routing constraints for very long distances due to the planar mapping - that is why we needed to fly back from Saturn's orbit, it is the only location in this solar system where I can successfully power an interworld Gate to your homeworld alone, and as you saw it was not huge and I could not hold it for long. Size, distance, and duration all increase the power cost, although distance no longer affects the ongoing cost once the Gate is up. Concert-Gates with multiple mages can be made larger or held for longer, but that is a more advanced skill and thus rarer. Permanent Gates have their own power source and so can be much more flexible on this, since they are not bottlenecked on what a single mage can hold; I have already offered to trade one to the Andalite government, and would also be open to selling permanent Gate-termini between selected locations to your company, though they are quite costly to make and thus a major investment." 

<How costly - does anyone have currency conversion guesstimated yet ->

"Only very roughly. I tentatively agreed I would build a Gate between Earth and your homeworld in exchange for a full set of orbital satellites in Velgarth, whatever monetary value that comes to, but that Gate will be an unusually difficult one due to the complicated routing and power requirements; if you wanted one from your homeworld to a more nearby star system, it would not take as much of my time to design it and would be simpler and faster to build; I could give a more exact estimate once I figured out the temporary-Gate routing, we have a computer program to do that now, but it could easily be a quarter to a tenth as much." 

<I'd appreciate the exact estimate. How many is a 'full set'?>

Leareth gets out his notes to double-check that; apparently it's two dozen, with this set of capabilities. If they give him destinations, he can run his planar modelling program on them and get tentative routings. (He took a lot of measurements from the various planes that Andalites hadn't explored before while they were on their homeworld, so he has more data now.) 

<That'd definitely be worth setting a few up. Maybe not immediately, right now all the manufacture is set up near the mines and the finished products go all over the place, not just a few key destinations, but I can keep an eye on operations and think about where the outlay would pay for itself.>

"Of course." Leareth seems very pleased. "Do you have other questions for right now?" 

<What do you have in mind for the role of us visiting tech types?>

"I am not sure what Earth most has in mind, although I think their governments and large businesses would be interested in discussing trade. I am particularly intrigued by studying how magic and your technology can be combined effectively; we have already discovered some such applications, for example, the mage-energy generator for converting electricity." He's never going to have to implement policies that use blood-magic EVER AGAIN, it's great.

"And some applications for computers; tying spells directly to an energy source without a mage either casting from a node or intermittently powering an artifact was a very hard problem before, that required either the cooperation of the Velgarth gods or - approximately creating a very small and specialized demigod-like entity with some basic intelligence, but this in itself is a major production and was about half the time and energy cost of building a permanent Gate. However, a very simple Andalite computer program can control energy-flow adequately for most of my research, and it seems likely a more sophisticated one could handle nodes directly - they are reservoirs of free magical energy found in Velgarth, but are more challenging than the generator. Anyway, this is only what I found in less than a month of mainly working on morph research and occasionally deciding to build some infrastructure to make it easier. I am certain there are other applications here." 

<Hopefully the terms of the tech sharing situation'll loosen up enough that we can really let loose on the trade end.>

"I hope so too. I will also have much more time to dedicate to this when the war is over." 

<I wish you all the luck in the world with that. Though you probably already have a big heap of it, there are rumors of friendly Yeerks.>

"I am not sure to what extent that luck will continue to hold on other Yeerk worlds, but - yes, on Earth many if not most of them have been very cooperative, and it has made everything since their surrender much, much easier and less messy. A substantial faction of them actively prefer the state of affairs where all hosts are voluntary - it seems not uncommon for humans to be willing Yeerk hosts and find it actively valuable, especially when Velgarth magic can enforce Yeerks allowing their hosts control when they wish." 

<Actively valuable! How about that.>

"In a way it makes someone twice as capable, right, if the Yeerk is working toward the same goals. The communication bandwidth is amazing. One of the Andalite researchers here actually asked me to give him the Yeerk researcher I had brought over because I wanted to go to bed and he did not want to stop talking about math, and then he decided that arrangement was just preferable because of the ease of communicating concepts." 

<Amazing. How'd that go over?>

"I imagine some people were discomfited. No one said anything to me, though, and as far as I can tell it did not result in any drama." 

<How about that.>

<Do Yeerks mostly want to do... math? When they aren't fighting a war?>

"I get the impression that was mostly this specific Yeerk. They have a wide range of interests, though, and I think most would prefer peacetime so they can focus on their interests." He tries to think of the Yeerks and hosts he's spoken to. "They like sharing experiences. Watching television with their human hosts and arguing about who should fall in love with whom, for example. They like company in general, I think. And they seem to find it satisfying to help solve humans' minor life problems for them; one Yeerk helped her host get on speaking terms with her son again, which she had not been able to do alone for a long time." 

<Huh.>

<Seems rather... serendipitous that anyone managed to find a Yeerk they liked under the circumstances. Though I'm not sure what better circumstances would look like, putting the Yeerks one at a time in a particularly tolerant person and prospectives talking to them that way I guess?>

"Yes, I know, it was surprising; I think it was not most hosts by any means, but - a surprising number. I suppose many in the last five years were recruited semi-voluntarily, although the operational security makes the consent part questionable. Anyway, they were talking about using personality metrics to try to match hosts and Yeerks, and then yes, initial conversations and then trial periods if they got along promisingly well." 

<Huh. How many Yeerks are there doing that right now, are we going to run into - paired - engineers, while we're talking about lightbulbs?>

"There are a fairly small number in hosts right now, I think, probably you will not run into any this week by coincidence. The Andalites wanted all of the humans who had been Yeerked until their surrender, even the voluntary hosts, to have some time to reconsider it, which is reasonable of them. And we are still working out the protocols for the new voluntary host program. There is a website for people to sign up, and considerable interest, but the details of how we should screen people and other precautions are complicated and we want to take our time building a sensible system here." 

<A website! Wow. That's so - that's really something after such a long war - well, it's not over yet, I guess ->

"It is not over yet. I am concerned the other planets will be much worse, and messier to handle. The Yeerk invasion on Earth was secret right up until the Yeerks surrendered to us - until days afterward, in fact, we requested the Yeerk-controlled governments be freed so they could discuss things with us before making any announcements to the public. But, in any case, for most humans the first they heard of this was after the surrender, when we could announce upfront that the Yeerks would no longer be permitted involuntary hosts. And the existing faction of Yeerks in favour of voluntary hosts made things easier; they had already been thinking about how they could handle it if they were ever able to advertise, for example." 

<I didn't even know there was a faction like that.>

"Neither did I until afterward. I am unsure it exists on the other worlds, which is one reason things may be harder there." 

<Anything else we should cover this meeting?> inquires Ismea.

Leareth considers it for a moment. "No, not that I can think of. We can schedule more time later if you think of anything, though I do expect to be off-planet some amount; you are welcome to talk to Nayoki, if I am not available, or whichever of my staff I leave in charge." 

<Which one is Nayoki?>

"She is quite recognizable." Leareth pushes a memory of her to them via Mindspeech. 

<We don't have practice telling you apart but if she's the only one in that color it should help. Thanks!> And off they trot.

Leareth smiles to himself, catches up on some notes about their conversation, and then goes back to his work. He does another iteration of tests on the forced-demorphing setup, murdering another rabbit and troubleshooting the cause this time. He thinks it's getting closer but it's still very finicky to work with. He practices tail-sparring whenever he needs a break. 

:Cayaldwin?: he sends, a couple of days later. :I am going to meet Mhalir to talk about war plans this morning - do you want him afterward for morph research?: 

<Sure, I'll have him, if you do the magic the same way.>

:Certainly, I can do that:

He Gates over and talks to Mhalir for a while about war plans. Most of it isn't that sensitive, and he can do it while Mhalir is with Amanda. Some of the more secret elements, he's planning to cover on the trip back to the Andalite base. 

<...All right, I will go with Leareth again now> Mhalir tells Amanda eventually. <I will be back by tomorrow night. Enjoy your break> 

Have fun. Don't let the Andalites murder you.

Mhalir is pretty sure the Andalites don't intend to murder him even a little bit. Probably plenty of them want to, but - well, he's providing a lot of help to Cayaldwin on the morph research, and extensive planning with Leareth on taking the rest of the Yeerk worlds, and also he's the one holding together the various coalitions of Yeerks on Earth and holding off a literal rebellion from the less Andalite-friendly ones. He's not very worried about murder. 

Leareth casts all of the usual compulsions and then holds Mhalir to his ear. He bids Amanda a good afternoon and Gates out. 

:- I was thinking: he tells Mhalir as he walks through the base looking for Cayaldwin. :We are fairly sure the Yeerk high command has no way of knowing what happened on Earth. We have an excellent opportunity to send you in, in someone who can composite-morph Alloran-with-Gifts, and you could buy a significant length of time by giving them fake updates while that person took advantage of the opportunity to mind-control literally everyone important. I think this would only be safe once, it would be too likely afterward that a message could have gotten out without our knowledge, but for this... I think it is worth risking: 

<Hmm. Who would you want to send...?>

Sigh. :Matirin is probably not going to be happy about risking both of us at once, but - it should almost certainly be me. I have the best morph control of any of my people, and also by far the most skill with mage-work, particularly with compulsions. None of the Andalites have much practice with Gifts at all: 

Mhalir is silent for ten seconds or so, thinking. 

<That is a solid argument for sending you> he admits. <And - the two of us do work very well together, I think. I will consider it> 

And Leareth catches up with Cayaldwin. :I have Mhalir under all the usual precautions. Would you like me to hand him over now?: 

He holds out his hand for him. He has put on a glove. 

Mhalir isn't offended about this. He kind of agrees that Yeerks in their own bodies are gross. 

...Gods, he missed Cayaldwin's brain. Well, not the gaping pit of grief, but all the rest. 

<It has been some time since we caught up. Have you been making progress?> His thoughts to Cayaldwin are faintly affectionate. 

<Yes, I have.> He doesn't feel affectionate, exactly, but it is good that Mhalir knows about his father, it's better than a world where Cayaldwin is the only person who could understand, and it is exhilarating being productive.

It is exhilarating. Cayaldwin is so brilliant and focused and curious and trying so, so hard to build something - and he wishes he could have been in Cayaldwin's father's head, just once would have been enough, and he never will, he's never, ever going to know more than the echoed memory of him. Somehow that lost opportunity, and reminding himself to multiply it by however many thousands of lives lost, makes the cost of the war sink in so much deeper than it did before. 

Mhalir doesn't voice any of those thoughts. What would be the point. Instead he can get caught up on everything Cayaldwin has been working on in his absence, bounce back his own reactions and thoughts and insights, and they can do MATH nonstop until late that night, at which point he again nudges Cayaldwin, points out that they're slowing down and will get more traction in the morning if he sleeps. 

Sure, fine. 

He heads off to the herd of Andalites, which is bigger now, and steers away from his not-half-cousins who his father HATED and so who he will diligently hate on his father's behalf, and finds a spot and slips in and feels safe and almost content, even though actually everything good in the world is DEAD.

Mhalir basks in all of the experiences, even the hate - it's not a pleasant emotion and it's not one he can approve of but Yeerks are kind of wired to find almost all emotions and conscious experiences fascinating.

<You are a good thing in the world> he finds himself thinking at some point - he doesn't actually mean to think it to Cayaldwin but Cayaldwin is nearly asleep and Mhalir just spent all day communicating every single thought, constantly, it's slipping into habit now. <You and Leareth... We lost - something unimaginable - cannot ever repair it - but still...> 

Cayaldwin is not a good thing in the world. He is the shadow of a good thing, mistakable for the real thing only by people who have not seen it.

He eventually sleeps.

Mhalir drifts through Cayaldwin's dreams, vaguely sad and confused and tired. Wanting to fix the unfixable, which is the story of his life, really. Him and Leareth both. He misses Seerow. Which is kind of a stupid way to feel but still. 

In the morning he doesn't say anything about his comments the night before, and after the Andalites' morning ritual he dives straight back into math. 

Math comes perilously close to being a thing that is still good about the universe, though he manages to not actually feel at peace except when incredibly distracted.

It's frustrating that this is the closest he can come to helping, but Mhalir can probably manage to keep Cayaldwin incredibly distracted for most of the day. 

When he's up, Leareth looks for Matirin. 

In the field talking with people. He tail-waves at Leareth. <Good morning.>

Leareth is in Andalite morph after his morning running-around, and tail-waves back. <Good morning. I have been considering a potential plan for the war, which I ought probably run by you.> 

<I do like it when people tell me about those.> He trots over.

Leareth recounts his plan of obtaining an Alloran morph with Gifts, and going in undercover with Mhalir to mind-control everyone while Mhalir covers for them with a fake report. 

<I think there is a solid justification for it being the two of us specifically> he says at the end. <I can impersonate Mhalir well enough, apparently, if no one is suspicious, but it takes all of my attention, I cannot do that and cast hundreds of compulsions at extended range at the same time. And - I am the only one skilled enough with compulsions to pull this off, I think.> 

<How do you think we should proceed if you are discovered somehow and both die.>

<You will not lose me permanently. I will reincarnate in Velgarth - I may or may not retain precise enough memories of the interworld Gate, but I would certainly remember to go north or to Valdemar to send a message. You - might not lose him, either. He has a computer backup of his entire brain, which he cannot run but which he thought Andalites might have enough advanced computing to manage. There is also his morph-tether setup, which...I suspect we can set up again for the duration of this mission at least, since I am morph capable and will be in morph for the risky parts. It is not dissimilar from mine and would have involved 'demorphing' from the body of another Yeerk, thus in practice killing them; he previously had it set up so the tether would link to a related-to-him baby Yeerk in his Pool ship. It is possible I could help him arrange a non-murderous method instead.> 

<That seems an acceptable risk> he concedes.

<It would certainly be awkward, and costly, to lose both of us even temporarily. I would return looking like someone else - also I really do not want to murder anyone again, but I do not think this should wait until Cayaldwin figures out how to do multiple morph tethers for others as well.>

Sigh. <I would leave contingency orders for my people, with Nayoki in charge. It - might be better not to make our deaths public, in that scenario, and instead claim we are busy conquering other worlds elsewhere. I intend to be very, very careful, though, and I am hard to kill.>