Any spots of magic that aren't on the surface of the planet itself? 

Some on the moon. 

Mhalir tells them to wait, and thinks for a few minutes. 

<...We are not going to learn anything if we avoid going near the planet> he thinks to Carissa. <I am worried the gods can detect us, but...I think we have to take the risk, if we are going to bother exploring this system at all.> 

Are we? I guess I don't like not knowing what's going on, but - it doesn't seem to be going on very fast...

"....they have internet," a Yeerk at the sensors says, a bit incredulously. "DIdn't recognize it at first because they don't have satellites or anything, they seem to be - using people as relays to remote parts of the planet? But - they have internet. Trying to get it translated now."

"Thank you," Mhalir says to the Yeerk, a bit absently. 

<...I want to. I think there is a substantial possible upside - the Elves are very smart and have an impressive intellectual culture if nothing else - and...I am worried that without outside intervention, something very bad could end up happening here. And even if they are not my people, I still care about preventing that.> 

He made a vow, once, and he still isn't sure if Carissa could possibly understand why, but it covers these people just as much as it covered the Yeerks back home. 

That's true of anywhere and most places are probably going to be easier to intervene in than a planet with a lot of gods who don't agree with you. And if we have lots of Yeerks in Endorë we'll probably have a better position from which to do things here.

<...I suppose so. I think it is not that likely the gods can detect us, though, if they do not even know to look? Maybe we can stay out here until we have more from their internet, and then decide whether to go in closer.> 

"They....unrelatedly, apparently - made contact... with aliens....yesterday," someone reports in astonishment ten minutes later.

"- What? What sort of aliens - what were they there for–" Mhalir cuts himself off. "Sorry. Please gather a more detailed report and share it when you are ready." 

It takes a while to get all the detail but eventually they have it. With pictures and video! Three humans arrived yesterday, asserted they were aliens from a terrible awful world where people shrivel up and die eventually, and have begun cultural and artistic exchange with the locals.

They put up the pictures.

"That's Urtho," says a completely baffled Carissa.

<....What.> Mhalir is EQUALLY BAFFLED. <I - who is with him...?>

Them I don't recognize but I didn't really meet very many of Urtho's people.... the kid looks more Predain but I guess probably some of Urtho's people do.... The kid looks kind of like Ma'ar but that's probably just the thing where when you have only a few examples of an ethnicity new ones look very alike.

Mhalir is also thinking that the kid looks like Ma'ar - and they met a lot of the Predain locals, and the kid looks more like Ma'ar than the others - though, of course, children change a lot as they grow up and it's hard to tell what they would look like as adults... He doesn't recognize the other man at all. 

Mhalir asks his staff to gather more information on the cultural exchange in progress; does that give them any more information on Urtho's background, and how and why he ended up here...? 

It seems shockingly uninformative about that. There's a detailed guide to how to speak Tantaran and then a lot of interest in fixing their problem where they age and die and lots of pictures of them from different angles and a transcript of everything they had to say about magic....

"....not a coincidence, they were chasing us," someone says, finally, two hours in.

....Huh. What's the context of that? 

They don't explain much but at one point in the transcripts of everything they've said since they arrived they explain they were chasing someone, and asked about unusual occurrences on the planet, at which point these Elves surveyed everyone about unusual occurrences. One hundred twelve people over the age of 6 didn't answer the survey - "out of fifty million, apparently, and they've sent people to their houses to check on them -" and no signs of other aliens were found.

"If they do that on Endorë they'll find us."

<Yes.> 

Mhalir is feeling moderately alarmed. And also so confused. 

<...Fortunately I think they cannot easily reach Endorë, from what we know even the gods cannot travel there quickly - though I suppose they could send communications...> 

At least there doesn't seem to be any sign that their presence here has been noticed? Mhalir wants to keep their distance for a while longer, though, while they skim everything on the internet. 

There's a lot on the internet! It's hard to characterize the Elves' level of technological development, because they seem to have never industrialized beyond some small experimental steam engines and showcase factories, but eventually they got around to some geothermal power plants and then to some nuclear ones and now some people have boutique tiny factories in the back room of their boutique tiny stores and they have computing and so on.

....also, their souls are computer chips. They have computer chips embedded in their head with which they interface with the internet. It's also how they do the telepathy. The chips also make backups, and the god of the dead has copies. 

What? 

- Well, it sort of makes sense, Mhalir thinks vaguely, that's how he woudl have tried to implement immortality if he'd gotten that far back in his own world. And yet. What. 

<...I find it interesting that, unlike us, they did not try to stay incognito> he thinks to Carissa. <I wonder why not.> 

Urtho has never in his entire life encountered nuance or subtlety. 

Mhalir...is honestly barely absorbing that, his mind busy bouncing between half a dozen attempts at forming theories of what can possibly be happening here - could Urtho have developed interplanar travel, that - doesn't really feel like an explanation, even, Ma'ar would have been far more likely to pull that off... 

...why would Urtho want to chase them through hyperspace at all, when they left they were allies... 

The possible implications are catching up with him, now, and he's scared. 

"I want the ship on full stealth mode," he snaps. "Do not approach the planet any closer. Keep monitoring." 

Thy read the internet. They monitor. 

About half an hour later there is a hyperspace jump on the planet's surface.