do you recall when the war was just a game?

"That sounds useful. I'd like to talk to someone like that."

Tarwë calls one in, and then he leaves.

A new Elf comes in. She sits down and says, "Do you know already how Elf oaths work?"

"Somewhat."

"If I swear to do something or not to do something, I literally, physically cannot. I have already sworn not to reveal directly or by implication anything told me in confidence, and I can do so again while you listen if you would like me to."

"I would like details on what counts as revealing things by implication before I would feel comfortable thus binding you."

"If anyone asks what we talked about, I will tell them that I'm a sworn confessor and can't say. I avoid situations where I have to act differently depending on information I know, or might know but don't, which I'm unable to act on, but if I find myself in one I will do my best to act as though I don't have any of the information you gave me. If you want any of that information to have effects outside this conversation you can take actions yourself or ask someone else to, not me - I can't reveal the information even if you want me to, so whether or not I do is never information about whether you want me to."

"...Is that likely to get you into trouble, such as being futilely tortured for the information?"

"No. In the unlikely event that comes up I can commit suicide at will and wait to be reembodied by friendly parties."

"In that case, yes, I'd like you to repeat your oath for me."

She does. It's sung, and very pretty.

"Thank you. I - I don't know if anyone has noticed that Sesat fundamentally only functions by coercing people into staying. Staying physically present, or staying loyal, either or both depending on who it is. It's not just the chattel slaves, though it is all of them, it's everyone. I can break the entire system, or at least I have a plan for how I might. I'd need a lot of finesse and more time than I have and a teleporter who's a Sesati citizen who doesn't answer to Vanda Nossëo, at least in the sense that anyone doesn't answer to Vanda Nossëo, which is of course no more than a polite fiction in any case but it's the polite fiction that matters here. I've sent someone to get the teleport and if he comes back with it I can use him. I can use an escaped slave instead, if the man I sent can't do it and a former slave can and happens to think quickly enough of not emigrating, which they're not very likely to think of but it could happen. Once they answer to Vanda Nossëo, then, of course, Vanda Nossëo has to stop them, when they go to rescue people and dismantle the whole - the - everything - but if they're not yours you can just stand aside and let it happen.

"But that hinges on them being able to at least pass your screening, which means no one can have taken a restraining order out against them. And to the best of my knowledge, everyone in Sesat has done something you'd construe as grounds for a restraining order. To my knowledge, there are no exceptions, because all of the exceptions are dead. And I see how delightfully clever it is to come in and say we're all welcome to join you, oh, unless we happen to be unusually savage, so sorry that every single one of us turned out to predictably be so unworthy, guess our grandchildren who hate us might fare better. But if Vanda Nossëo did, actually, want to free everyone, I could make it happen. If I had a teleporter who was Sesati and not yet officially one of yours. And Sesat is currently divided into groups who've each noticed that everyone in the other group merits a restraining order. And I need a freeze on restraining orders granted to Sesatis because otherwise - honestly, my real reason for caring is because otherwise my entire family will be tortured to death, but a better person in my place might care about the entire rest of the country.

"Oh, also, if I can't make something happen that placates the person some escaped chattel slave took out a restraining order against already, I probably won't have to see my whole family tortured to death but I am less sure of that than I'd like to be and the reason I feel even that safe is because of who exactly the target was, because there are people it could have been such that I would be pretty sure of the opposite. And any of those people could be next, at which point I am out of time. So. Did that make sense?"

She listens to this very gravely.

"I can think of two options that aren't getting your helper through his screen as fast as possible," she says. "One is that you could find someone who already has a teleport, and is willing to lose their job and possibly go to jail. I think that wouldn't actually be very hard to find if your plan is solid. The other is that you could find someone who already has a teleport and doesn't currently belong to a peal polity - rare, but not nonexistent - and is willing to help. But I think the situation may be somewhat less dire than you think - restraining orders only work against specific individuals, not entire classes of people. The specific escaped slaves who happen to be taking out restraining orders are unlikely to have crossed paths with most specific free Sesati. I'm also not sure what you mean about - I think you may be conflating restraining orders with being unable to be a citizen? Not being able to get a teleport license doesn't mean that, at least to us."

"I can certainly try to get a teleporter from some other polity if you have recommendations but I'll have a much easier time finessing all of this if I can work with a Sesati - I'd take a list of polities or people to try, if you've got one, though - or, you know, getting someone willing to lose their job and go to jail might actually be better, I assumed you'd be very sure none of your teleporters would and I suppose if you had a list of those who would you wouldn't have given them the ability so I'm not sure how to follow up on that one. I suppose you in particular might know but that also doesn't help. How would you go about finding people like that?"

"The screening isn't perfect, and people change over time anyway. And one of the things screened for is being compassionate people who really would want everyone in Sesat to be free. People who understand the value of the thing we're doing that doesn't involve vigilante teleporters, but - not necessarily to the point where if there are suffering people they can rescue they wouldn't do a few years in jail for that. Like T'Mir. - one of the Bells."

"I am assuming I shouldn't specifically ask a Bell, even if I could get an audience with one - how would you go about feeling people out to see if they're likely to be on board without saying anything they'd be obliged to report if they're not willing to break the law?"

"Oh, no, I don't think you should ask a Bell, I'm saying she did a bit of time in jail for illegally bringing people into contact with the wider universe, so it's a familiar example you can draw on if you want to try to convince people. I don't know how I'd feel out a stranger. I know Nelen Utopia is the teleporter in your envoy group, with Tanaka Natsuko supplementing - do you know how fast a teleport you need for your plan?"

"Do you mean how soon do I need it available or is there a - some kind of time it takes to make the spell happen?"

"Nelen's teleport he can do as many times as he wants as fast as he can think of it. Natsuko's relies on mana; there is a Maia on the ship she can get more mana from, but she would need to do that every few times she casts a spell if she was doing it in rapid succession. A wished-on teleport power is quick, but needs some recharging from listening to a magic song. So it might be that you need someone with the spells Nelen has."

"...Might depend on capacity - so, and this is selfish of me, the bare minimum I want out so I stop having to listen to the Star-of-Stars is my own family, who are watched often though not literally constantly so I'd want to get all six at once or very close together unless I could manage to suborn one or more of the people who'd try to stop me - but beyond that, and not necessarily afterward given which will be more noticeable, I need to get a lot of people out, almost none of whom are watched quite so much. Some will be clustered, though I'm not sure how much that'll matter. I'll need to be the first to take news of the disappearances of the ones in the capital to the rest of the country, because if the Star-of-Stars is faster it won't go well at all - I might be able to do that with technology instead - and exactly what I'll do with the slaves depends on who I have to work with but they're going to be scattered. Or maybe I can do it with just my family and the hostages from the capital, depending on - things that aren't the specs of the teleport I'm working with, anyway - in which case it'd only be the ones who are clustered... I don't know, is that sounding like something any teleporter could manage?"

"Risky for a wizard, like Natsuko, because the Maia they need to recharge from might notice, or tell someone who'd notice, that there's no authorized reason they'd need to be casting that much. Fine for the other kinds."

"Okay. Should I try Nelen or is he too...?" Vague handwave.

"He wouldn't be a bad choice. It's a lot to ask of him, though, I think he's hoping for a long career. Do you think you could try to find out who might be able to get a restraining order against your helper, and check if they're currently in a position to do that? If they are you could potentially intercede with them directly."

"I know one. I don't think there's more than one but I'm not confident of it. Maybe... I could buy her and tell her I'll free everyone if she'll just hold off on any restraining orders and give her to Nelen who will predictably set her free someplace nice? I'm not thrilled with the part of this plan where I trust her or an alternate plan where I keep her on hand conspicuously until I'm done, I really feel like it'd harm my rapport with Tarwë besides making it obvious to our king that she's somehow important. And I'm only mostly sure there's no one else, I honestly don't fully understand what Vanda Nossëo even thinks is bad enough."

"What's she like?"