"I know it's with Tantara. And I know Tantara has - the Mage of Silence, right, who's very powerful.  And I heard Tantara started it but they thought we were going to start it if they didn't. And - I heard we use blood-magic. For lots of things." The person she is pretending to be looks very innocently discomfited about this and also she casts a silent Detect Thoughts.

The recruiting officer is thinking that she doesn't like it much either, gives her the collywobbles, but for all their claims to greater national virtue or whatever, Tantara did start the war, and they've killed far more of Predain's soldiers - and a lot more civilians - than vice versa. 

"Sometimes," she says carefully. "You most likely wouldn't be approved for it even if you wanted to, until you'd been in the forces six months and they thought you were promising enough to go through the training program. And - we don't kill enemy soldiers for it. We follow Tantaran standards for treatment of prisoners of war, even though they don't follow their own damned standards half the time. If blood-magic is ever authorized in combat, it's convicts who're sentenced to death anyway, or - the commander asks for volunteers."

It sure makes her uneasy. Convicts is one thing, but upstanding soldiers, men of honour.... She gets it, soldiers who expect to die anyway in a suicidal charge on the enemy's Adepts will figure they might as well instead give their side's mages the power for a cleaner attack, it makes a lot of sense to have both strategies available, just - well, it's never for certain the first way, right, and there's something awful about lying down and dying by your own commander's blade. 

Shiver. "Isn't it - worse, for your soul - than dying normally?"

The woman's surprised to hear this as an objection; it's not the first time she's encountered that argument against blood-power, but it's not a common one, especially not recently, and she's never heard someone in the north bring it up before.

Her brow furrows. "That's a fair question, but - hmm. Do you mean because it's suicide, or the claim that blood-magic is fundamentally corrupting even for the victim, or something else...?" 

"I heard it's destroying their soul, and that's where all the power comes from."

"What? Goodness!" The woman brings a hand to her mouth. "I didn't think there was any temple that claimed that!" She blinks. "I'm...fairly sure it doesn't do that. I mean, it's hardly as though we know much of what happens to us after we die, as far as I know none of the temples' claims about it are substantiated. And I'm not a mage, like I said, so I can't give you a technical explanation of it. The explanation I got is that our spirits are bound very strongly to our bodies, and snapping that binding releases a great deal of energy - it's been measured in cases of natural death, too, usually it all ends up in the Nether Plane but theoretically a mage could be waiting around nearby and snap it up." 

"Huh." Probably if none of the local gods say it works like that then it doesn't. She relaxes, slightly. "I also heard that they make lots of things capital crimes, so they have enough prisoners for all the works projects. Not that it's anyone who doesn't deserve it but they deserve it for dodging the draft or for disrespecting the King, not for - murder."

The woman scrunches her nose. "That's a reasonable worry to have - you're a smart young lady, I can tell that. As far as I'm aware, the list of capital crimes is exactly what it was before King Arrak ever took the throne. Murder, attempted murder and rape on the third convicted offence, owning or selling slaves, and large-scale arson - they defined that as causing more than ten thousand gold worth of damage to public infrastructure, as assessed by a neutral party. I don't think high treason is on there, let alone disrespecting the King or dodging the draft. My law book said that the thing with political prisoners is sometimes you want to question them five years down the road and it's no good if they're dead." 

It seems like it would be deeply inconvenient to hold them all for five years but - right, these people have enough mages to blanket their army in mind-control. "I see."

You? she thinks at Mhalir vaguely

And aloud, "is the war, uh, winnable?"

It could be? He's getting some flickers of familiarity or recognition or something in that space. But also going to war with the most skilled mage in the entire world, who also has the best mage-school in the entire world and can presumably call on the loyalty of all his current and former students, sounds incredibly stupid. He doesn't think he would be that stupid? 

"I should think so! Looked bad at first, but taking out the capital was a stroke of genius. Their leadership structure is in disarray, and rumour is that Urtho himself is in charge of Tantara's army." She shakes her head. "Say what you want about the man's genius, he's no master of tactics." 

"Why're we fighting, what're our objectives?"

The recruiter is thinking that this young woman doesn't sound at all like she's from somewhere in the north that isn't even a town. She sounds smart as a whip and - like she's had foreign education, maybe. The recruiter is getting pretty suspicious of her story, but for now it seems best to keep talking. 

"We don't want any of Tantara's land, we didn't start this. Since they're apparently uninterested in opening any kind of talks, our objectives are to get them in a position where we can dictate terms. Unfortunately, it seems taking the capital wasn't enough, and Urtho's Tower is a tough nut to crack. Right now we're trying to capture as many termini on Urtho's permanent Gate-network as we can; we can't use them, but he can move troops and supplies that way, we need to even the playing field some more." She says it in a slightly rote tone, like she's repeated it a dozen times before. 

If it's like the Yeerk-Andalite war the Tantaran version will be completely different. And the Mhalir won't be the King, but an important general. "How'd we take the capital?"

"Some mage-artifact that Adept Kiyamvir Ma'ar made - you heard of him? They say he's the King's top advisor, nowadays, that he hardly listens to anyone else. Anyway, he made an artifact that - cast some kind of very powerful spell to cause fear, set it to trigger overnight so it's ramp up slowly while people were asleep and by the time they woke up they'd be in a panic. Just about everyone inside the inner walls ran away screaming, and then in the morning they shut it off from a distance and sent in our troops and mages to take the palace with almost no bloodshed. We assume the King survived, the troops didn't find either him or his body on site, but apparently not in any shape to keep leading the war effort." 

<........That sounds like something I might come up with.> 

Yes, it does, she thinks back, it feels simultaneously very funny and not funny at all. 

"I think that's - everything I was confused about. Thank you." 

What do you want to do next - probably before we go to Adept Kiyamvir Ma'ar we should get the Tantaran side of it -

<I think we should leave, tell her we will come back tonight and then not come back. She is suspicious of you. And - yes, I think we ought hear Tantara's version of things before we plan any other moves.> 

Obviously she's suspicious, she'd have to be an idiot not to be. Carissa smiles at her anyway, as she stands up. "Thank you for your time. I want to think about it and return this evening."

"Yes, of course." The recruiter smiles brightly. She's thinking about getting a sketch of this woman's face - probably she gave a false name - there's no Mindspeaker in town but she can be in Tartta by tonight and get a message out advising people to keep an eye out for a mage of her appearance giving an unusual story for her background. 

No one obstructs them when they slip out of town, though. 

And she also gave a false face, which melts off her about ten minutes later. 

Tantara tomorrow, I think. Espionage is very stressful.

<It is! You did brilliantly, though. ...We are also going to be doing espionage in Tantara.> 

Yes, I know, that's why I want twelve hours off. If they die here apparently what happens after that is completely unknown to the locals. She's trying not to think too much about that. Probably she should go in without Mhalir but that feels obscurely more dangerous, somehow, maybe just because it went wrong last time.

<The situation seems very unlikely to be time-sensitive enough that twelve hours - or twenty-four - will make a difference in the outcome. I also would like twelve hours to consider things.> 

He calls for a shuttle pickup, which arrives shortly later. 

So. Ma'ar. You think it's you?