"And you're wondering, am I a whore, who flings herself recklessly at men with no thought of the consequences, so desperate for them I can't bear to wear clothes that'd take time unbuckling? Look at me! Is that what you're wondering?"

Unbelievably, this is also what she is thinking, except she thought 'unzipping' and corrected to 'buckling' because zippers haven't been invented yet.

This was really not what he was wondering, actually! Why is this the conversation he's having right now! Why is this his life right now??!! 

Nayoki spends several seconds involuntarily snickering, and then relays this to Leareth. 

...Huh. Leareth is suddenly very curious about "zippers" and why exactly they're harder to invent than buckles! Inconveniently there's no good reason to ask about this without revealing that they're reading her thoughts, which he doesn't want to do just yet. 

He's still - not exactly sure what to do next. 

:Maybe just give it a minute or two: he sends to both Nayoki and his staff in the room. :Wait and see if her thoughts are more informative: 

Sure okay he can stand here being AWKWARDLY SILENT for a minute??? ....He's pretty sure that he is normally much better at professionalism than this, but to be fair he does not normally in the course of his job duties need to interact with people who are inhumanly hot and also.......like this in conversation. 

She reaches out to trail her fingers down Talking Dude's cheekbone, very gently, since he still seems scared. 

"Is there a problem?" she asks innocently. "Are you worried you'll get in trouble? Did the Emperor - it is an Emperor, right - decree that none save him should touch me? Understandable thing for him to do but basically completely unachievable. I have the perk where he won't blame you because no one who sees me is capable of blaming you for fucking me."

This last sentence - she says it, but no one would be able to say quite what she said, except that it was a very convincing explanation for the fact that 'he won't blame you because no one who sees me is capable of blaming you for fucking me.' Her thoughts have precisely the same property. 

That's incredibly weird!!! Also, what??? 

This is an even weirder experience if, like Nayoki, one is standing outside of the room, not actually looking at the visitor at all or even hearing the words she's saying, and only interacting via reading her thoughts! 

Nayoki relays this latest update to Leareth, but includes the fact that something very odd is going on here and she's not...sure...if her Thoughtsensing is entirely accurate? 

The problem is not that he desperately wants to fuck her but is scared of getting in trouble! ....All right, he hadn't previously considered the question but he maybe does, sort of, want to. This still seems very beside the point. The actual problem is that something concerning was going on in Valdemar - he doesn't personally know all the details - and Leareth was worried enough to stage a conspicuous and costly intervention about it. And he's not less concerned now! 

This is fascinating. ...It's not not concerning but it's a far more interesting kind of concerning than Leareth had expected. Though, again, it's not like he has any clear sense of what he had been expecting, just - not this. 

:She seems to - think that she is here on some kind of mission?: he sends to Nayoki and the staff in the room. He's not entirely sure where or how he's getting that sense but he thinks it's true. :Can you please ask her why she thinks there is an Emperor involved and why she thinks he might have made decrees about people touching her? And also - I am not sure if this will get a useful answer, but - ask her why she thinks that being brought here is a step toward accomplishing her goals. Because it does seem to me that she thinks this, and I do not at all understand why: 

"- I'm not worried about getting in trouble? I - do want to know why you think I might be worried about that. And why you think there must be an Emperor involved here. Also you - seem to not be upset about us kidnapping you and all, and I don't know what you're expecting to happen here but it would make things way easier for us if you could explain." 

....That was super not what Leareth had asked him to say but, to be fair, Leareth had said multiple sentences in a row and he can't actually think very complicated thoughts while incredibly distracted because the hottest person in the entire world is touching his cheek and talking about fucking him.

It's got to be the Emperor of the Eastern Empire because otherwise the villain wasn't foreshadowed at all before he kidnapped her which would be terrible plot development. She does in fact know for sure that being brought here was a step forwards accomplishing her goals because she got 'welcome to the neighborhood II' from it, which probably comes with some more ability to use her magic powers not that she's checked, reading her notes in the middle of an interrogation scene is the kind of thing where something ridiculously inconvenient will happen and you will totally deserve it. 

She doesn't say any of that. She says instead, "Upset about you kidnapping me? Why would I be upset about that? Such handsome kidnappers, it'd be positively unsporting to get upset. Unless you're into that, in which case, I will warn you, you're going to have to try very hard, because upsetting me isn't easy."

"I don't -" why is this hot he hates his entire brain right now. 

Nayoki is so confused but it's not her job to understand this. She calmly relays to Leareth. 

What. 

...On reflection Leareth should probably swap out the Fetcher currently doing the talking here. This should have been fine under any normal circumstances but these are, clearly, not even slightly normal circumstances. 

:Nayoki: he sends. :Can you please attempt to place the standard prisoners' compulsion on her, not to harm anyone or sabotage any infrastructure? And then watch very closely and inform me whether it seems to work: 

Nayoki can do that although she is SURPRISINGLY DISTRACTED by thinking about how their prisoner is hot? Which makes no sense because she hasn't even seen her. 

She tries the default compulsion - it's a little harder through shields but not intractably so - and then watches very closely, especially with her Mindhealing Sight. 

It lands lightly on the surface of the prisoner's mind and - dissolves like there's nothing there to catch hold of.

She doesn't seem to notice. That's Magic Immunity III and she only has Magic Immunity II.

"You were told to take someone prisoner. And then you - weren't told not to touch her? In that case I will confess myself outright offended by your restraint," she is saying to the Talking Guy. 

Aaaaaaaaawhat? 

:It did not work: Nayoki informs Leareth, trying to keep her mindvoice much calmer than she actually feels. :It failed to work in a very odd way: 

Leareth really feels that he's going to resolve this baffling mystery much more quickly if he has the conversation himself, but Nayoki's report is really not making him feel any more comfortable about entering that room! 

(...Why does she think he's the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, that's such a bizarre specific assumption and - especially weird given how specific it is - it's surprisingly not-totally-wrong?) 

Nayoki sighs. :Do you want me to go in there? I might be able to make more headway: this is definitely not motivated reasoning on her part not at all

:...Maybe. I am considering it: And he reaches for the Fetcher's mind again. :Ask her if she intends harm to anyone here: 

This is, on top of everything else, the most sheerly awkward social interaction of his entire life!

At least being given another question to ask is an excuse to (awkwardly!!!) ignore everything else that she just said. "I, umm, do you - intend to harm anyone here?" 

"It's okay, it'll all be safe, insane, and consensual. And no under-18s, if I ever do go home I don't want to be awkwardly editing my memoirs."

Whyyyyyy does it feel like every time he asks a question, she answers a completely different question that is also much sexier not the point. It's very disorienting, is the point.