Savil doesn't like him. This is unsurprising; these people seem to have 'hating the Eastern Empire' as part of their state ideology, which is the worse way for his arrival to have gone.

Well, he can always move to Rethwellan if he needs to.

... And they are generally short of Gate-technique. Unsurprising, they are generally short of technique. Well. He passes through the gate quickly and with polite thanks.

When he arrives in Horn, he looks around; it seems to be a perfectly ordinary 'town not big enough for a sewer system swelled by an army'; hopefully that's short-term, given the way army camps breed disease, but he'll see what there is to see.

He doesn't get much of a chance to see Horn, because Savil immediately steers him away from his scant view of the town, around the corner of the building and then over to a back door.

She raps on it, and shortly later they're being ushered in by a young boy in a pale blue page's uniform - or possibly a girl, it's hard to tell from the kid's messy hacked-off haircut - and through some narrow, rickety, currently unoccupied hallways to a meeting room. The meeting room has a window, and judging by its position in the building, the window probably looks out onto the main street. The shutters are firmly closed, though. 

Savil immediately sags down onto one of the stools set out by the table, and starts massaging her forehead. 

O-kay then. This feels like the sort of thing that is a horrible trap, but his shields are up and he does know how to throw lightning bolts. Once they're alone, he'll raise a questioning eyebrow, that being safer than just saying 'so, what's all the fuss about?' in a foreign language.

If Janos thinks to check, he won't notice any particular magical signs of a trap. The outer wall of the whole building seems to be shielded against mage-attacks and Farsight and scrying and probably Thoughtsensing, though not to the Empire's standards, but there's no internal shielding on the room itself, and Janos can't sense any magical traps nearby. 

Savil takes a while to notice the eyebrow, and then shrugs. "Lissa was supposed to meet us here. Guess she got delayed by something or other, it's not really surprising. We could arrange to have one of the Karsite refugees meet you now, if you're impatient, but she could be here any minute." 

Janos is absolutely checking for traps, just on automatic, but as long as he can still Gate he's fairly confident they can't catch him; the answer is still 'no.'

"Forgive me if I'm unnecessarily paranoid," he says, "but in the Empire this would be the setup for an assassination. How sure are you that Karse doesn't know I'm here?"

She blinks at him. "I would be very surprised? We've only discussed this trip at all within the Senior Circle, with precautions in place, and we don't think Karse has any spy penetration there or they would have acted differently in earlier battles. No one on this end should know you're here, or who you are. Not to mention, it would be a remarkably fast response for them, to pull together the logistics for that in a day. Maybe the Empire is, er, more experienced at assassination plots." 

"I'm sorry to say that it is." He pauses. "Most likely just my nerves, then." Hopefully she'll forgive that, given that he was stabbed yesterday. "Do you think it's worth starting on the earth-mapping spell while we wait?"

Savil nods. Reluctantly, but probably the reluctance is mostly to do with her general air of exhaustion. (It's clearly not just from the Gate. Her weariness is a lot deeper than physical.) 

She gets out a piece of paper, just before a knock on the door interrupts them. 

Savil's hand flies up, her eyes going unfocused. 

"- Oh." She raises her voice. "Come in, Lissa." 

"So sorry I'm late. Major Lissa Ashkevron, pleased to meet you." 

Major Lissa Ashkevron is wearing a recognizable blue Guard uniform, more visibly worse-for-wear than those of the Guards in Haven. Her brown hair is pulled back into a tight braid. Her hawk-like nose bears a visible resemblance to Savil's. 

She aims a blandly pleasant smile at Janos for about half a second, and then blinks, and then looks at Savil as though to silently ask, what? 

Janos rises, returns her smile with a sweeping, smiling bow, and says, in Hardornen, "I am very sorry, Major Ashkevron, but I do not speak your language."

A pause, if it looks like she understands - "Colonel-Adept Arjan, military advisor. I am pleased to meet you as well."

Lissa looks like she understands, though based on her squint she's having to work a bit for it. 

"Colonel-Adept Arjan," she says back with a tight smile, slightly mangling the pronunciation on his title. And then she turns an even harder glare on Savil. 

"One moment," Savil says levelly, "I need to add some privacy spells." 

She's a strong enough Mindspeaker to reach Janos as well, it turns out. :You're welcome to put up some more of your own, if you don't trust ours: 

:I trust you, but it's no cost to me -:

And he'll toss up a couple more privacy spells of his own, aiming at somewhat more obscure defenses than they might be defaulting to.

Savil waits until he's done. 

"Lissa. The public story is going to be that Arjan is a former mercenary from Hardorn, originally from Valdemar. The true story is that he fled the Eastern Empire after surviving an assassination attempt there - barely, it sounds like - and is hoping to help us win the war with Karse. But needs to verify first that the situation is really the way we're describing and that we're the right side to be helping." 

"- You're kidding with me. Right?" 

Savil shakes her head, tiredly. "J– Arjan, anything to add to that summary?" 

"I know designs for imperial light artillery and served as a staff officer during General Kordas's recent campaign? I think your brother is excellent? I'm under a compulsion to be loyal to the Empire and have said under truth-spell that I intend Valdemar nothing but good?"

Sure, why not tell her everything, it's not like she's only a major or anything.

"Oh, you've met Van? Neat." Lissa turns another meaningful look on Savil. 

Savil hates meaningful looks! Why can't people just say the thing they mean in some more comprehensible medium! She supposes Lissa isn't a Mindspeaker and has fewer alternatives. 

"Van approves of him," she says, in case that's the implicit question being asked. 

"Oh. Well, that's all right then." Lissa smiles at Janos. "Welcome to Valdemar. Glad you escaped being horribly murdered. You wanted to ask me some questions to check that I'm not committing atrocities out here? Savil, did he want that under Truth Spell? I'd rather it be first stage but I don't mind." 

"Thank you. I'm glad I did, too. And yes, essentially, first stage would be ideal, if you're willing."

Savil nods, unsmiling, and casts a first-level Truth Spell. 

Lissa waits, and then smiles at him. "Go on, ask away." 

"Is it the case, to the best of your knowledge, that Karse invaded Valdemar unprovoked, and are you confident your knowledge is good?"

"To the best of my knowledge, Karse invaded unprovoked, and I'm pretty damned confident in that. I was with the first deployment sent to respond after they captured Horn. Which is Valdemaran territory and has been for a long time - you could confirm the events we're describing by talking to any of the villagers, they're not about to forget it anytime soon. I wouldn't necessarily know about all the behind-the-scenes diplomatic communications that might've gone on right before, but it would've been stupid of us to declare war on them as soon as Elspeth died, and I believe Savil that we didn't." 

The blue halo stays bright and clear.