It seems like most of the fun of being a boy is that you can take random drugs from people you just met and expect they're actually what is advertised. She giggles. "Oooh, I like that."

"Best perk of this job. You can have another if you like." She holds out the pipe again. "Oh, and maybe that breakfast you wanted." 

"Ready to pick you up whenever it is a good moment to step away," Mhalir says in Carissa's earpiece. He's borrowed one of the other hosts, an Earth-human woman; she's fine, mostly she daydreams while he does things with her body. 

"Thank you. Is there an outhouse?"

The girl bobs her head. "It's out back, we share it with the tailor's shop." 

So she heads out back. "Okay, ready for a pickup," she says softly when she's out of earshot.

The shuttle descends, cloaked, just outside the village, providing instructions to her. 

She goes invisible and jogs on over.

Mhalir, with relief, exits his borrowed host's ear. The woman offers him to Carissa. 

Carissa is slightly intoxicated with the pleasantly sharp thing and very pleased with herself. I guess objectively we still shouldn't be sure, but - it fits, right - Ma'ar studying under Urtho, who then betrayed him because he was scared that he was conquering places and doing something that's very taboo in Tantara...

<Yes. I was thinking exactly the same thing. But - Urtho is still alive, here - in our war, Seerow died in the first engagement...> 

He's feeling a surprisingly strong pang of - is that envy? 

If someone had shown up during your war claiming to be you how would you have reacted.

<...I would have been very suspicious, I think. Probably I would want to go in their head and see for myself, if I could arrange to do that safely.> 

And he won't have that option. Though he has the magic mind control.

<And some people here have permanent Detect Thoughts, though I am not sure if he is one of them. ...Anyway, it seems unwise to startle him, given that he is under threat and is probably feeling very paranoid.> 

I definitely have enough to go off for a Sending. I - guess we should think through what happens if - we contact this Ma'ar and we're - wrong and he's not a you, or he's very like you but not in a way that'd make him safe to work with - I don't know if that's possible or if it'd be too unlike you -

<I am tempted to say that would be too unlike me, but - it would not be implausible for a me to react with hostility if he believed we were much more powerful than him and he was unsure of our intentions. And - he will badly want to be in control of the situation, which he might attempt to get by kidnapping us. I would prefer to avoid that.> 

Yeah. 

So what are our options. We could just - surrender to the Predain forces somewhere, explain, hope they take us to him, hope he's not hostile then because he's in control but - if we were wrong about anything we're pretty screwed, at that point, because of the mind-control...

We could do a Sending and go hang out very far away where he can't do anything other than respond. 

We could gather more information - are your people getting anywhere on infesting a mage voluntarily, if we know how the mind control works I'd be less nervous about doing the first plan...

<...I think the first plan should be a last resort, if it seems that the situation is worsening or escalating further. I would prefer to wait until we know more, but it seems my people are having a difficult time in the Haighlei Empire; they have extremely strict controls on their mages, all of them are taken away from their families in early childhood and raised as part of an elite priesthood of some kind, this makes it hard to determine who they can try recruiting without leaking the secret to the entire rest of the priesthood.> 

Huh. We could try some other place? Back in Seej, or, I don't know, are there civilizations on the other side of the planet?

<I was thinking of sending them to try the opposite coast, on the east side, it is very far away and it does not appear that Teleport is widely available here, so probably there is not much communication between that region and Tantara or Predain.> 

That sounds good. Do we have good enough information on both sides to guess if the war's about to escalate and we need to intervene more - I bet they can't detect electronics, we can't...

<I have the ship monitoring the planet closely for any change on the magic sensors, which might give us some warning; I can have the ship fly in a lower orbit at regular intervals to get closer sensor coverage on Predain and Tantara specifically. And, no, I do not think they can detect electronics. I am thinking about where we can place some concealing recording devices; we probably want it to be at a military location, but a less important one, so it is not as risky to infiltrate.> 

Nod. I could Dimension Door invisibly in from the ship, drop something, and Dimension Door right back out, but we'd want to check first that they don't have trap-spells that'd stop me leaving...I could go in as a bird, I think the locals can't do that so their defenses probably aren't meant for it...

<I would definitely be concerned about trap-spells. Going in as a bird seems safer, and we could try to arrange it so that you would not need to land - maybe you could drop it, disguised as a pebble or some other innocuous object. Or we could send a drone, but I am not sure we can convincingly disguise one as a local bird.>