do you recall when the war was just a game?

"I was wondering if you knew her before she was enslaved, but I suppose not. If he's physically attacked any other slaves, or caused them to be physically attacked, that will do it, and anything else will at least be less straightforward."

"There wasn't a before. Are any of the escaped ones known to be smart and circumspect and cooperative and maybe willing to prioritize solving problems over vengeance?"

"I'm not keeping tabs on all of the former slaves, but I can show you how you would put out a bulletin, or ask one of the envoys to." She pulls her computer and demonstrates what forms you can use to post calls for this sort of thing.

"Thank you, I can figure that out. Do you think it'd be feasible to explain to me how you hint about things in Vanda Nossëo or is that the sort of thing you can't really explain in a reasonable amount of time anyway?"

"It's not something you can easily do across translations, cultures, species, and so on. Most people get out of the habit after enough exposure to mixed groups. I agree it's inelegant - I grew up with telepaths, and it mattered whether you said something aloud, how loudly, whether you sang it, whether you sent a thought directly as a communication attempt or just thought it passively in public - that sort of thing breaks down when the assumptions are too different."

"...How silly of me to have imagined telepathy would lead to less subtext all by itself. Thank you anyway. I'll do what I can."

"Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?"

"Hmm. I've been focused on teleportation as one way to achieve my goals, and my riskier backup plan if I have to use it is to try to finesse the membership referendum. Am I missing any obvious other ways to make it unfeasible for my king to hurt my people?"

"You could smuggle them all defensive devices."

"What kind? Can they be confiscated?"

"The main one I have in mind is a magical personal-space-enforcing ring. It won't let anyone get within several feet of them while they have it activated. They'd need something else to manage ranged weapons, but the ring won't let anyone forcibly take it off them."

"Can they be hidden and what would you do about ranged weapons or being trapped in places?"

"They can be made invisible. For ranged weapons I'd suggest some kind of technological force shield, I believe there are some suitable things in Cube. Being trapped is more difficult, I don't immediately know what would work for that, but the first places I would check would be Hex and Hazel. If you don't expect their attackers to be creative you might be able to do well enough with a music player that has some magic songs on it, though, for grace and speed and slowing other people down."

Nod. "It sounds harder to make work but maybe better if I can manage it. Will there be any difficulties with sourcing that sort of thing or just distributing it?"

"The magic rings will be a little expensive. I would offer to pay for them for you, but I can't, that would leak information via the state of my bank account."

"I might be able to find some way to cover the expense. They won't get anyone else sent to prison for helping me, though?"

"Those things are all available on the open market. It's legal to give you money or buy you presents."

"I can work with that. Thank you so much. Uh, one last thing, what do you think I should tell Tarwë?"

"That depends on how much trust you want to extend to him."

"Hm. I was willing to hint that something might be happening but I was trying not to give so much information that he could easily stop us. Not sure if that's still the best strategy, if you have advice I'll entertain it."

"If you need to ask for money, I think asking him would be pretty safe. I think you are probably overestimating his duty to report, also, though there is some personal discretion there so if you aren't sure he'll sympathize it would make sense not to let on to him."

"I'm pretty sure he'll sympathize. What can you tell me about his duty to report?"

"He is supposed to report it if it seems to him you are planning to harm people or commit a crime under Vanda Nossëo law. It is neither harmful to people nor criminal under Vanda Nossëo law to make some purchases of defensive items not suitable for attack and give them to people, even if you were already subject to Vanda Nossëo law, which you are not."

"But it is criminal to rescue chattel slaves - is it also criminal to rescue hostages?"