Uh-huh.

Cam is going to make a new drone with a fucking bow tied to it - in such a way that it won't foul the rotors - and he's going to attach a little gift tag to it reading If you wanted one, you could have just asked nicely! And he is going to appear it right over the place they took it to and set it to doing a cute little choreographed airdance in loops around the area till they grab it.

....They do not take this one. Nothing happens. (Well, a lot of magical observation is happening, but nothing visible to Cam.) Possibly they're worried that this is Somehow A Trap. 

(Valdemar and its surroundings do not currently have gift-wrapping traditions such that the bow ends up being all that meaningful.) 

Cam checks his mail before he updates anything about the behavior of the dancing giftwrapped drone.

He has a message from Savil in Haven! She just picked up a Web-alarm; it seems like powerful magic just happened in Haven, but the Web is failing to be at all specific about what or where? She's wondering if Cam saw anything from orbit? 

He also has a message from Vanyel, asking for a status update, and pointedly adding that Moondance mentioned something about a supervillain mind-controlling people? 

Northerly supervillain stole a drone! It was not carrying anything at the time so this isn't a huge deal but perhaps they should work out an encoding system for sensitive messages.

Vanyel can be told that Cam conversed with the Star-Eyed and has become convinced that he should operate out of range of potential mind-control considering the downside potential if somebody got through his talismans. Apparently She didn't think he should be broadcasting the details of their exchange far and wide, it's nothing personal.

(The courier drones bringing messages to Haven and to Vanyel are not interfered with, this time.) 

Mail from Haven, within minutes: northerly supervillain did WHAT? How? Does this mean he has spies in Haven? If so does Cam have any idea who the spies are? Encoding for confidential messages seems good but maybe that should be sorted out in a way that doesn't involve Cam sending another drone with a reply that could get stolen. 

Message from Vanyel, almost as quickly: He thinks Cam should be aware that the Star-Eyed Goddess - isn't human? And doesn't, necessarily, have goals that line up with Valdemar's? That's basically all the content, but Vanyel takes more words and circumlocutions to say it than seem necessary, and in general his letter gives the impression of quite a lot left unsaid between the lines. 

In the underground room to the far north, after a pause of thirty minutes or so, someone appears to be...dismantling the drone, from a distance, presumably using magic? 

He probably has spies in Haven! Cam doesn't know who they are, his opsec's pretty good even versus forensic conjuration.

The giftwrapped drone gets a friend joining it in its dance. This one's label says It does not have a gooey custard center!

Nothing visibly happens for a few minutes. 

(A very startled and confused Fetcher-Farseer is reading the label - briefly noticing his confusion that it's in a language he can read at all, despite the clearly-alien artificing work - and then he thinks all of this very loudly in the direction of the agent with Thoughtsensing stationed a mile away - who receives the message, and passes it on via carefully directional long-range Mindspeech, there's a risk of detection but not that high and the Heralds are clearly distracted as well...) 

Twenty minutes later, a piece of paper with writing on it appears from apparently-nowhere in the room where the drone is, and flutters slowly to the floor. 

Oooh what's it say.

(Leareth is so confused, and increasingly disturbed and uncomfortable, even though on the surface most of the recent interventions are neutral-to-helpful? He doesn't understand what this apparently-new Power WANTS, from him or from anyone here, and he hates not understanding things. Also he's confused because the default hypothesis here is that some god, irrelevant to his work until now, has decided to show up and make a scene, and the timing sort of makes sense but the method really doesn't, he's especially baffled by the...quips making fun of him? He's not sure he's ever encountered a Velgarth gods whose modus operandi included snarky commentary, via a human mouthpiece or not.)

The letter is short. Leareth acknowledges that he's noticed the Power's recent activities and that the Power is feeding people, which Leareth is grateful for, and indicates that they may share some common goals? And so he would like to open communications if possible.

Cam puts an old-fashioned blue metal mailbox complete with the US Postal Service logo in the middle of where his drones are dancing, lands them on top of it in a stack, and drops his reply in the mailbox, to be retrieved by whatever means.

Leareth's nearby Fetcher-Farseer spends a while staring at the suddenly-appearing contraption with concern and some distress! It doesn't obviously look like a weapon, but who knows what weapons would look like, with this level of technological sophistication. 

Eventually he receives more instructions, and he tries Fetching the contents of the box. Not to his current location, he's not stupid - Fetching by itself shouldn't trigger a massive alarm, so he drops whatever is inside the weird blue box in a secluded garden area near the Healers' wing, comfortably within range for both his Gifts but hopefully still safe from any explosions. 

He examines the letter with Farsight, using his Fetching to unfold it if necessary. 

The letter is on nice embossed stationery and scented with vanilla, the latter of which touches will go unappreciated given these precautions.

Dear northerly supervillain and assorted minions,

You may drop your replies in the same box this letter was placed in, though, like you, I will not need to approach them closely to read them.

Leareth's agent is starting to feel pretty messed with! Right now he really wishes this were someone else's job. It hasn't escalated to actual violence yet, but this - mage? god? whatever - is clearly making a show of how easily they could destroy Leareth's operations and defeat his people, if they so wanted. 

However, he thinks the contents of the letter along to the Mindspeaker relaying to Leareth, with only medium overtones of anxiety. 

Leareth allows himself a total of five minutes to ponder his reply. It's not anywhere close to long enough to make sense of the situation, but it still seems better not to delay, both because that could itself show how off-balance he is and because it's...disrespectful to this being's time? 

He dictates a reply. It's not one he's delighted with but it's the best he can manage on short notice. 

---

Dear unknown Power

What you are are doing seems to me to be not so much reinventing the wheel, as newly-inventing (he has to pause for a while here to find the right metaphor) Gates between the stars. I know of no magic that can summon, or perhaps directly create, such quantities of food, thus all of my previous efforts have been more indirect and it is not clear how to combine them with your current operation. 

If you could make use of a weather-magic reference book which contains detailed climate maps of the continent and predicts regions of famine, that can be obtained. I might also offer you a list of contacts for relatively more trustworthy temple orders and orphanages, which could distribute food to those most in need. 

Sure, thanks!

Leareth is not any less confused! 

He calmly relays for his agent to drop a reply telling the unknown Power to expect a delivery within one to two candlemarks, and then gets to work. 

Obtaining two specific rare manuscripts and getting them into Valdemar is nontrivial. Doing it without setting off incredibly obvious Web-alarms is moreso. But Leareth's organization has a lot of resources that can be directed at this problem, and if some of his mages and Mindspeakers are going to be tired after this, well, he has a lot more of them. And it's worth quite a lot to him, if there's any way he can steer this away from hostilities. 

Leareth points a few dozen of his scholars at skimming records lists from the Temple of Astera, locating the documents he wants. Which gives him a chance to add some other books to the list. He doesn't have confirmation of what this Power's goals are, but maybe they can make use of a treatise on reducing deaths from disease by introducing sewage systems and water purification in cities? (The Eastern Empire has running water in most of its cities, and does sewage processing partly with magic. Nowhere else has anywhere near enough mages for that.)

He's also able to track down a thousand-year-old book he wrote in a past life, on magically altering crops to grow better in difficult climates; he's not sure whether the Power will be able to use this at all, but at least it's a demonstration of what Leareth's goals are. 

While Leareth is occupied with this, the Heralds in Haven are busy being very stressed. 

Cam releases a plague of gene-driven mosquitoes o'er the land.

Randi sits heavily in his chair at the meeting-table, head in his hands. 

"It's Leareth, right? I mean, Cam hasn't said, but..." 

"There can't possibly be two evil blood-mages in the north." At least, Savil really hopes so. 

Shavri stands with her hands on Randi's shoulders, not speaking. She hasn't said anything through the entire meeting. 

"Randi, at this point we have to brief the rest of the Senior Circle. Maybe even the Council. He could be preparing an attack right now." 

"He'd have to get past Cam first," Savil points out.

"Cam hasn't been willing to step in and interfere in our wars."