She squeezes him and nestles her head against his shoulders and thinks that they'll figure it out, somehow, maybe Mhalir has already talked Urtho out of being an idiot...maybe no more people will have to die, and they'll just be able to fix everything, with stuff from Earth, the most advanced human society, which has vaccines and birth control and genetically modified crops and crazy schemes to eradicate mosquitos and so on.

He thinks about how Mhalir is Urtho's prisoner. And - if he's really the same person/pattern/story, then of course he's going to try to talk to Urtho, to convince him of his side of things - his outside perspective... It's of course very brave of Mhalir, but he would be brave enough...

(He's so scared.)

(He wishes he could ever, ever not be scared. He doesn't really understand why Carissa wants that for him too, but - he can take that for the precious gift that it is, even though things being confusing is something that by itself usually makes him feel threatened.) 

He's just barely present enough to follow Carissa's train of thought about Earth, and - it's beautiful - it makes him think of what he felt, when he saw Urtho's Tower for the first time. 

(Urtho, who betrayed him, whose army killed so many of his people...) 

He hugs Carissa and he tries very very hard to think. 

"Do you," he starts, finally. Swallows. "Do you have a way of - contacting Urtho directly - I have not heard anything back from my messenger..." 

"In the morning. I burned all my spells for today - my kind of caster works differently...I guess I could scry him like I did with you."

He wants to ask how that spell even works, he tried to follow it with mage-sight and was utterly lost, but that's not the top priority right now, is it. 

"- I am worried tomorrow would be too late. What do you think." 

"Scrying doesn't have great odds, we got lucky with you, but I can try it. Tomorrow will definitely be - longer than we'd ideally wait."

And she pulls out her crystal ball and sits in Ma'ar's lap so he can see over her shoulder and attempts the scry.

Urtho is sitting at a desk. He looks drained and upset. He appears to be listening to someone who's given him a confused-sounding report of what's currently going on on the battlefield. 

"What do you want me to say."

He wants this to not be happening. 

"Can you. Tell him that you are communicating on behalf of Ma'ar and - I intend to withdraw my troops from the occupied territory of Tantara, because the possible cost of war is higher than I am willing to pay, and..." 

He rests his head on her shoulder, hugs her tightly enough that it hurts. 

"- should I surrender formally? I am not sure if that would help or make everything worse." 

"What is that - understood by local law to mean - do you have the authority, you're not the King -"

"Urtho would consider me to have that authority. Whether I in fact do... I would not offer an unconditional surrender, I could not get the King to agree to that afterward, but - agreeing to cease all hostilities and withdraw our troops to Predain's territory, I could make that pass." 

"Is it considered dishonorable, locally, to kill people once they surrendered -"

"I - would have thought, that Urtho would consider it so. But he has surprised me several times, recently." 

Shiver. "I guess it seems better to me but I don't know."

Ma'ar shivers as well. Hesitates, his breath ragged. 

"- Ask him what he would want of me. To de-escalate on his end." 

"Urtho," she says, and then - "damn it. I put you through that and the scry's a shoddy one, he can't hear me - I can try again but it'll probably just fail outright -" Her hand is shaking on the crystal ball. "...I can scry Mhalir. And do it through him."

Ma'ar puts his hand over hers. He's not even quite sure why, just - she shouldn't have to be scared on his behalf...

"All right," he hears himself say. 

She tries for Mhalir. If he's alive it shouldn't be hard...

Mhalir is alive. He's - not in his borrowed host right now? He's in a glass bowl of water. 

A woman with an odd haircut is sitting with her hand in said bowl, very still. 

-aaaaaah. "Well in that case I can't talk to him because he doesn't have ears to hear me with. ...what's she doing to him -"

Ma'ar stares intently over her shoulder. "I am not sure, I cannot use mage-sight through your scry. ....Do we have any way of reaching him." 

"No!" She's very upset about it. "Not until I can prepare more spells - ugh -" She should've just left the earpiece somewhere she could have found it and then none of this would be happening. She is terrified they're going to kill Mhalir while she watches even though it admittedly doesn't seem very likely. "I guess I could try scrying the woman but crystal balls run down over time and we're pushing this one pretty hard, it's also what I was using to talk to you earlier -"

Ma'ar is very still for thirty seconds. His chin is still tucked in the crook of her shoulder. 

"I can Gate there," he says finally. "On the assumption that it is in Urtho's Tower, I mean. I..." He's utterly terrified. "I am afraid Urtho might - kill me, if he saw me," and maybe one of his immortality setups would work but maybe not. "But - you could go through and rescue Mhalir, at least." 

"And convey what you said. About surrendering and withdrawing your troops."

He pulls back. Looks into her eyes. "You are willing to take that risk onto yourself?"