He flinches back. "I - would not ask to invade your privacy in that way..." 

"People are dying."

...probably that was not the most diplomatic thing to say.

He winces. 

"- I am not actually a Thoughtsenser. Lady Cinnabar...?" 

"I've been reading his mind the entire time! He means everything he's said! You want me to read hers too?"

Urtho turns to Carissa, his eyes almost pleading. 

"What, Mhalir's?" She is slightly offended that they apparently have a no-mindreading policy for humans (well, for well-dressed young women with pretty faces, at least) and not for Yeerks - this is stupid and not the time. "Please read my mind if it will help you believe me about what Ma'ar said."

"Please do it," Urtho says to the woman. 

Lady Cinnabar's eyes go unfocused. 

- and then impassioned. "Urtho, she's telling the truth - Urtho. She thinks something really bad could happen if we don't stop the war now." 

"Did Mhalir not explain that part? It's - how it happened in other places and our god of knowledge thinks this place is similar -"

"I think that he - tried..." Urtho leans against the wall. "I do not want that to happen. I - did not think the war could be stopped. But I had already received word that Ma'ar's troops were withdrawing. And - a messenger, I thought it had to be a trick..."

"If you say that the war is over it'll be over, Predain will accept that."

Urtho's face clenches. 

He turns and looks at Lady Cinnabar. 

"...What? She's being entirely honest with you." 

"Is Ma'ar even going to believe me if I send a message back," Urtho says, not quite making eye contact with Carissa. 

" - I think he'll want to?"

"All right. I will– One moment. I need to go speak to some people." 

Urtho speedwalks away down the hallway. 

"...Sorry?" Lady Cinnabar shrugs at Carissa. "Can I, uh, get you anything..." 

It feels like there should be grownups, somewhere, who've thought everything through a hundred times and can only learn from her to the extent that she is carrying information they couldn't possibly have had, and - it doesn't feel like that, it feels like they're just normal people who somehow ended up running wars - not that Ma'ar's a normal person but -

She stands still. She's still not at all clear how she got away with Gating into a major military installation during a war. Maybe people are very busy. "Uh. No thank you, I think I'm fine."

Lady Cinnabar nods. "Uh, I guess you can sit in here." She opens a different door, which leads to a parlour-like area with a window and a sofa. 

- sure, okay, she can do that. Her heart is pounding and sitting down feels very strange, like part of her thinks she's running a race and needs to keep doing that.

Mhalir is attempting to do an inventory on his ability to think. <Carissa, can you - talk to me, or something, I am - trying to figure out if my mind is working better.> 

Yeah. Uh, what happened when you got here?

<...Well, I was unconscious so I am not sure. I woke up - something felt very wrong and I could not really communicate - that Healer spoke to us, figured out that we did not know the language but that their telepathy worked, but decided we were not medically stable enough for an interrogation yet. Then later I woke up again when Urtho was storming on and insisting on questioning us anyway, but I was still - not very coherent - and what happened is a bit foggy.> 

Okay. Has that ever happened to you before? Do you know why it happened?