:Oh. Huh. Maybe we can... I'll see what we can do. How long does he have before he'll, uh, starve:

When do you need the pool, she thinks at Mhalir.

Gah why are they asking him. He has no idea how long it's been. 

<About - forty-eight hours - a little over that - when we were captured...> 

She spends a moment trying to figure out how closely 'hours' correspond in any way to what she knows as candlemarks. :Er, okay, I think we have - a day, approximately?: Pause. :Can he come out of there. It'll be way easier to tell what's wrong with him specifically if he's not so tangled up with you: 

Mhalir's feeling about this prospect is SCAREDSCAREDSCARED. 

"You promise to not squish him or anything?"

:Gods! Why would I squish him - he's my patient, you heard Urtho, I'm supposed to keep him alive and make sure he gets better: 

"A lot of people really hate Yeerks for no reason."

:Well, I don't! I swear I won't hurt him - and I won't take him out of the room, you can watch me: 

Maggie figures this is Mhalir's decision.

Mhalir is terrified and also not thinking very well, but it seems like getting properly healed will improve the thinking aspect, in expectation, and it's not like it meaningly increases how helpless he is here, Urtho could already have done whatever he wanted to then. 

He exits Maggie's head. 

They leave a microphone and communicator and instructions in the cache they leave Ma'ar. And they wait.

Just a little over an hour after the initial scry-conversation, the cache of items is collected. Not by Ma'ar; a group of other soldiers, visible on the sensors and video footage, Gate in, orient to the scene - without saying anything out loud that the microphone can pick up on - and then grab the package and Gate out. The other hyperspace signature isn't apparent anywhere; the mage-recruit thinks it's probably somewhere thoroughly shielded, Ma'ar isn't stupid. 

Less than ten minutes later, and before anything comes in on the communicator, Mhalir's second-in-command interrupts Carissa. "We, uh, I think we have a problem." 

"Hmm?"

"Ma'ar said he'd hold off on ordering his troops to take the Gate, right? But - uh, we're not sure from the surveillance what happened, exactly, it looks like maybe it was on Urtho's side - some of his soldiers suddenly retreated, and some of the mages on that side started attacking their own side - and then Ma'ar's troops responded by advancing, could've been their standing orders if they saw an opening... I don't really know, is what I'm saying, but - uh - it's looking pretty messy out there." 

" - damn it. Okay. Do we have - any way to intervene - I guess we could blow things up from space but that seems like it might just make everything worse -"

"Uh, no, I really don't think that would help! Do you, er, have any way of locating Ma'ar or talking to him again...?" 

"I can try to scry him again but the crystal ball gets worse over time. He has the communications devices, if he decides to use them."

"I...am worried that he is very busy right now. And might not even feel he has time to look at our proof, let alone talk to us." 

"Yes, it seems likely. I can try him again."

She does that, with the crystal ball.

It works.

Ma'ar is in a tent. Pacing again.

"Anything yet?" he snaps to a nearby person. 

"No, sir. Conn Levas is - either dead or he's blocking my comms spell. Sir." 

"Goddamnit." Ma'ar clenches a fist, slams it through the air. "...We cannot stop this. Can we." 

"Sir, I mean, I can try for his subordinates... My suspicion is that he is on Shaiknam's side, though. And - if we tell individual units to stand down, they will only be slaughtered." 

Ma'ar stops pacing. Stands on the spot for a long moment; it's really not more than five seconds but it seems to stretch on forever. 

"...Give the formal order to our troops," he says finally. "Their objective is to take the Gate-terminus. Intact if possible."