"Okay. We are on a starship. They travel through the void between stars, but there is a lot of distance in the void between stars, and they have to Gate to cut the distance. There are lots and lots of worlds and they have lots of kinds of people on them. Some of them - you notice how some minds are doubled up in a body -"

"I notice, yes." Ma'ar is holding himself rigidly tense. 

"They're called Yeerks. They're very small, and they can sit in your mind and control your body. They found my world about two years ago. They were in the middle of a horrible war that - neither side wanted, but neither side could see any way out of. My world had gods. Good gods. They helped. The war's over." She should explain the stories thing but it seems suddenly impossible to explain at all. She misses Mhalir. "There's a god who can see -- all the worlds -- and he told us that the same story as the Yeerk war repeated in other times, other places. It happened on my world, and it ended with the whole continent destroyed and millions and millions of people dead. And we built a sensor - to find that story repeating itself - and it pinged on this world."

Ma'ar has no idea what to do with that! It's too much to absorb, too fast, after a day already made entirely of that feeling. He feels almost literally dizzy. Like the world no longer holds together under him. 

"I - you think you have evidence that - millions of people could die, in this war - that the...continent, could be destroyed?"

"Yes! I don't know how or anything but - that's the thing we're scared of." She stops being an earth elemental and becomes a human woman in her twenties.

"What are you - what were you planning to do, before - this..." His expression clears a little. "Urtho has - one of your people. Right." 

"More than one. I assume they'll try to talk him down but probably it'll be hard, at this point - what happened down there, it looks like some of Urtho's people started fighting on your side - sorry, you don't need to answer that -"

"I had an - agent, in Urtho's army leadership, one of the generals. I did not give him any orders but - I think he chose to interpret our previously-agreed policy to mean that now was a good time for him to turn on Urtho." 

"Figures. Damn it. In - the last version of the story I encountered - Seerow was dead, his side was waging the war without him - Mhalir will want to save Urtho if we possibly can -

- I should back up - do you - are there things you want to see from us, at this point, before I try to give the long version of the story -"

"....I do not want Urtho to die! That would be - I never wanted to be at war with him..." He closes his eyes, rubs his temples with both hands. "I am not sure. It does not seem that we have much time right now." 

"The war with the Yeerks and the Andalites went like - the Yeerks lived on their planet and didn't have agriculture or magic or writing or anything, and an Andalite, Seerow, saw them, and thought it was tragic, how they could never see the stars, and he mentored them and taught them and built them starships and generators that could produce the light of their sun off their planet so they could go to other worlds, and then he - got scared of them - he thought they were going to conquer and enslave other peoples - and some of them were thinking about it, but - he attacked them, took them by surprise, and they fought back, and he died, and then the whole war dragged on for another four decades with both sides convinced the other would be satisfied with nothing but their utter destruction, and thinking they'd done as much as they reasonably could, to end it - but they'd barely done anything - Mhalir thinks, now, that he was making a mistake -"

"Oh." 

Ma'ar holds himself very still, barely breathing. 

"...I - sent many messages to him, asking to open talks...do you think I did not - try hard enough - and there might still be a way to stop this -"

"I think so! I don't - have the slightest idea what it is, but - what if you showed up at his tower would he immediately kill you or would he talk. What if you unilaterally announced a ceasefire, or retreated to your own borders, or - what does he even object to, is it just the blood-magic, could you tell him you'll stop that -"

"If I put a stop to all use of blood-magic in Predain, then more people will die. Urtho does not understand this." 

"More than millions of them?"

"No. Not millions of them." He turns away from her, hunched, bowing his head. "I - would do almost anything to prevent that. I - you think if I order a ceasefire and for my troops to back off, he will back off with his own...?" 

"I don't know. I don't know him. It seems more likely to do that than conquering more of his country."

"I suppose...if that is the worst-case scenario we are looking at, the death of millions of people..." 

He's still, for another endless moment. 

"All right. I am going to give the order - one moment..." He is presumably doing this with magic. 

Awwwww she's very proud of him and she loves him and she wishes she could give him a hug and it would just freak him out more.

She wants Mhalir back. 

She waits for him to seem less distracted and hopes he didn't read her mind about that, that'd be awkward, she hasn't explained that part yet.

Ma'ar is way too distracted to be reading her mind, though he does instinctively for a brief moment once he's done sending the order; she still isn't plotting to kill him, good, that's all he wants to know.

He hopes his troops will listen. They're going to think he's lost his mind. 

He's so scared. He feels like the world stopped making sense a day ago and now he's almost taking actions at random, none of his prepared contingency plans are right for 'aliens from another world showed up and Urtho kidnapped one and they want to end the war'. And that's ignoring the really confusing part, even. 

"What should I... Should I ask for your - this Mhalir - should I send a message to Urtho and ask for a prisoner exchange, I have prisoners who I could return to him..." 

" - yeah, maybe. We need him back tomorrow at the latest because Yeerks starve, away from a pool..."

"Oh. That is - unfortunate." He scowls. "I am not sure what he would do if I went myself, he might - panic, and react hastily in some way... I will send a messenger. One moment, I need to contact my people." 

He goes quiet again. 

She waits. Mhalir was - probably pretty much exactly this distressed, last time, she just didn't care because she didn't care about him yet...

Mhalir is a prisoner now, and probably scared about - not her problem right now -

Ma'ar finishes passing the communication-spell message on, receives acknowledgement. He's more hopeful that this order will actually play out as intended; sending messengers to Urtho isn't a new thing for him, it's not a reason for his people to think he's gone insane or been captured and compulsioned or something. 

He's scared and miserable and exhausted, but he's chosen his path, drawn his hand and now he just needs to play it. 

He takes a slow breath, and rolls his neck in a very forced way, loosening some of the tension in his body without unwinding any of the tightness showing in his eyes. 

"I...suppose we wait and see what Urtho does, now." His voice is flat and weary. 

"I have more to explain when you're ready."