<No, but when Alloran was my host, I could just morph off injuries he sustained, and also he was harder to injure. I think it was specifically being in her head when she had a serious head injury that harmed me as well, and possibly staying there when she was in unstable condition was unhealthy for me as well, but I did not feel especially safe leaving since we were prisoners.> 

Nod. Then I guess you don't have much information with which to answer my question about whether Urtho is wildly out of his depth or faking it.

<Faking...being wildly out of his depth? I cannot see why he would fake that and I - my read is that he is not. ...Seerow was wildly out of his depth, I suspect.> 

It just seems really weird and unlikely to...be wildly out of your depth, as a person with the power Urtho has? He's more out of his depth than I would be and I'm 24 if you count the time when I was dead and have had three interactions with Kings in my life and would be pleased for that to be all of them.

<...I mean, he has been mainly a teacher and researcher, right? His power is because he is very good at magic, and teaching it, not because he is very good at commanding armies. I imagine that...hmm...Cayaldwin is very brilliant, as an example, but I would not want to put him in charge of a military campaign.> 

...I guess. And you can get very good at magic in this world without fighting... probably that's the difference. There is no one powerful in my world who hasn't been in a lot of deadly fights.

<Yes, I think that is right. Also, Tantara seems - unlike Cheliax, and I expect Urtho in particular has been treated with deference generally, that people have wanted to earn his favour because he is brilliant at research? I do not think he has experienced a world where he frequently needs to work around hostile actors, so he is - unpracticed at it.> 

It's a bad thing to be unpracticed at!

<It is certainly not ideal right now! I suppose I can only hope that Ma'ar understands this fact about Urtho and is taking it into account.> 

He hesitates. <Are you - all right? You must have been scared - I am sorry I was stupid and got myself captured, and was not there...> 

I think I'm too busy to be scared right now. I'm - glad you're alive. I wish -

- I hope there are some places that aren't at war, somewhere.

<I am very tired of war> Mhalir agrees, emphatically. 

He falls silent. There's a restless urgency that keeps surging up in him, but it doesn't really have a place to go, right now, he feels like surely there has to be some action he should be taking right now to - get back in control - but he doesn't know what, and he's also so exhausted, in a way that isn't really physical.

For months at a time, before this, existing didn't hurt, and now it does, again, and - it's fine, he can bear it, he did before for decades and that was without even having Carissa. But he wants...not this...and that want has nowhere productive to go either. 

Urtho comes back a few minutes later, looking - relieved, and tired, and uneasy, and sad. 

"Well. We're - not fighting over the Gate-terminus anymore, at least. Ma'ar's messenger offered to - do something, about General Shaiknam - I agreed, it seemed a good test of his intention and...I did not really feel I had a choice... I think they kidnapped him or something. I hope they do not intend to kill him out of hand." 

Probably not, there's less option value there. "We could provide technology so that the two of you could talk, but not harm each other through the communications device, because it wouldn't be magic."

"Huh. How does the technology work - could it be subverted without my knowledge? I would not have any way to tell, if it is not magic..." 

"Someone else who had a lot of technology could intercept it and send different messages, but I don't think it could be intercepted with magic, not without years of research."

Urtho frowns, looking very unhappy, and then beckons Lady Cinnabar in from where she's been waiting just outside the room, sort of half-guarding the door. "Could I - you would understand if I want to verify this claim, right, and have Lady Cinnabar read your mind again?" 

"Of course." Carissa would understand if they wanted to hold her hostage for the next month of talks because Carissa is not from a place that is going for Good and certainly not one that is going for nice.

Lady Cinnabar nods, and her eyes go briefly unfocused again. "She's telling the truth."

Nod. Sigh. "All right. That - seems reasonable, then. ...How did you get in, by the way? It is not impossible to Gate here, blocking Gates is infeasible at the scale of something like the Tower, but it should not have been possible for anyone to target a Gate to that particular room through the shields. And Ma'ar has never seen it before, I had most of the operations rooms moved after the war began, so that if he - did try to come here, the alarm would be raised well before he reached anything sensitive. ...It did set off an alarm, of course, though Lady Cinnabar recognized you quite quickly from Mhalir's mind and Mindspoke the guards responding to stand down." 

"I scried Mhalir with our magic, and Ma'ar was able to Gate me from that."

"Ah. So the difficulty is that we cannot block your scrying. Fascinating! I would very badly like to study it, but now does not seem to be the time. What do you need to do, in order to provide us with the communication method?" 

"The ship shuttle would need to drop it off. I...don't have a way to communicate with them right now. I guess someone could contact them with magic."

"Our communication-spell requires the mage using it to have met the person they are sending a message to, so I am not sure we could target it to anyone on your ship–" He stops. "- Unless Ma'ar is still there, I suppose." 

"I ...expect he is."

Urtho hesitates, his hands restless in his lap. 

"He - could, if he wished, use it to target an attack or otherwise harm me," he says. "You - seem to think he would not do this. How certain are you of that."