"I don't know about around here but if an - uh - another kinda thing like me but with different powers - turned somebody into stone they would count as dead."

"It doesn't count as death in the sense that your soul doesn't go to an afterlife."

"But does it count as death in the sense that your apsels snap back home? We don't know! They won't test it while you're the only summoner they've got. I'm not saying I wouldn't spread the knowhow around if I found someone I trusted with it but I'd have to be fairly convinced they would not dispose of you to trust them with this information since disposing of people is not an especially trustworthy thing to do."

"...I mean, it kind of is? If I didn't want Cheliax to have this power, and I had it myself, I would kill the Chelish wizard who had it. It'd be irresponsible not to!"

"I'm not planning to give you the ability to do this alone, I'm planning to make you pre-print circles for you to fill in summoning known apsels I correspond with ahead of time."

"That doesn't sound very in my interests but it does make sense given yours."

"I mean, they won't need to worry about you skipping off and summoning additional apsels and you will accordingly be less threatening but equally valuable."

"Why do you like this plan better than working with my people?"

"Your people suck."

"You think they're worse than all the people elsewhere, none of whom you have met, and most of which won't work with me unless I figure out how to Polymorph male full time?"

"I actually specifically think that gender inequality will improve as people get richer! I mean, maybe not immediately, but since that seems to be something you're tracking. I have been doing research in your sleep, anyway, and many of the other countries seem like they might respond better to the carrots I have to dangle."

"I'm not defecting. Cheliax wants to be - rich, and to defeat the enemies of peace in our world. And everyone wants the Worldwound closed. We'll work on that.

Can you look up the last letter's author for me?"

"What do you want on her?"

"A pamphlet explaining who she works for and what she's done and how she heard about me."

"...sure, gimme a bit." He requests this of the apsels back home.

"Does that take longer than diamonds?"

"Yes it does." Wag.

Well, if he's being mysterious on purpose because she said she's not defecting she's lucky if that's all she needs to deal with. 

"Okay. I think the next step is to go hide somewhere lead-lined and try to figure out mind-buttressing armor and better headbands so I can check if my current plan still seems smart when I'm smarter. And maybe to ransack the libraries of lost Azlant, it'll be good for my mood."

"Sounds fun! The shuttle is already lead-lined, do you want to land or nah?"

"Can it just stay up, uh, indefinitely?"

"Yes." She said he could make anything standard with the ship and that includes periodic refueling.

"Then I guess we can stay here." This feels - terrifyingly vulnerable? But probably that's just stupid. It's already the case that she can't make him land. And if they're not scryable and can't be teleported to then - this is as safe as they can get. Probably.

"It is kind of small? It'd be nice to have a workspace that I can set up properly, for magic armor research."

"Sure, I can add a few rooms, it's a nice modular design intended for apsels who might want to spontaneously augment their craft."

What does that expression mean??? "You can add a few rooms to the shuttle in the fashion that's usual for doing that."

He adds some doors. One swings open of its own accord revealing a nice little suite for her.