:Depends for what: 

:Dara says you don't want me to talk to Leareth and I was wondering why since, uh, I already did:

A long pause. 

:...All right, if we're going to talk about this, it'd better be face to face: 

:If you say so. Now?:

:Might as well be now, I'm not likely to be less busy tomorrow. I can meet you at your room: 

:Okay, see you soon: "He's coming over to talk about it," she updates Dara.

Dara blinks, seeming a little surprised. "Oh. That's good. I should probably go." 

"See you later."

Tran arrives a few minutes later. There are dark half-moons under his eyes, and his hair and clothes are rumpled as though he took a nap in them and didn't bother to fix it afterward. 

:What did you actually want to talk to Leareth about: 

:I just want to be able to pass messages between you and him so you can all chill out and not have a war:

:What would you say that we can't just send in a written message: 

:I mean, you can do that too, but it's slower. It would probably be ideal to have a quicker way to get ahold of him if something else happens that you think is him, or something, and also ideally the first time would not be an emergency:

:I guess a backup plan is good: Tran allows, grudgingly. :I, just - I don't trust him to actually want peace, if he - thinks he has the upper hand... And what if he can somehow get at you through the artifact, even though you made it and not him...: 

:He's not omnipotent, he's just old:

:But he was already pretty damned good at magic when he was a teenager, no? How much better could he be by now?: 

:Presumably lots, but you don't seem to be being very systematic about your paranoia here? It's like you're concerned that mice want to get into your house, and you have no idea how many mouseholes there already are, but you certainly don't want to make the problem any worse so you refuse to ever open your door. It's just not that likely that any important outcomes hinge on whether Leareth can somehow hijack a communication artifact I made myself! He was not expecting me! I am a totally out of context insertion into the situation! If you have some reason to believe he was angling for someone to make a communication artifact all along and I just happened to slot neatly into a preexisting plan I am happy to hear you out about that, but...:

:Hmm: Tran is giving her a very nonplussed look, as though he didn't ever consider it that way until right this moment; he also seems slightly indignant or something, though he's keeping a lid on it. Mostly. :Well, what would YOU recommend I do?: 

:Use the artifact and set up, I don't know, some sort of regular check-in and emergency thresholds for when to bother him outside of those?:

:And you trust him not to abuse that to his advantage because, what, you knew a different version of him as a little boy?: 

:I also spoke to him in person literally yesterday:

:But he's changed a lot. Right? He's - a cold bastard, he's willing to go to any length to get what he wants -:

:I mean, sure, but also I can detect lies and did some of that and he said he didn't do several of the things previously attributed to him, so you clearly have some history of overinterpretation:

:Hmmm: 

Tran seems displeased, and confused, and mostly very off-balance. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, not quite looking at her. 

:Also he says that the existence of other worlds changes things a lot and might make him reassess his whole plan, so it would be a shame if you were on a war footing and got spooked assuming that's true, and you could, like, ask him for assurances or reparations or whatever it would take to make it right for you:

:- I suppose that's...something to take into considerat–: 

Tran breaks off mid-word, going rigid.