...You know, if he were less distracted by the massive implications that he's barely had time to absorb let alone reason through, and by the fact that he's multitasking with inane small talk, he would probably have seen that coming. 

:I - think it will not destroy our working relationship, she seems to expect that I can do whatever I want. I...am not sure it will help with setting the expectations that I want her to actually have, but it is a reasonable request - and she should in fact learn to shield: 

A pause. 

:- Can you warn her? I would rather not speak of it aloud: 

Sigh. Again. Mindspeaking people with talismans against Thoughtsensing is perfectly doable, they have a loophole for that, but it's extra work and she isn't, in fact, fully sure that Carissa knows how to push her surface thoughts in the right way to answer her. 

:Carissa, Altarrin is leaving for a meeting soon. Altarrin wishes you to practice natively shielding against Thoughtsensing, in case at some point you end up in a situation where someone tries to take your artifact for it. A Thoughtsenser is available for it this morning: 

Carissa isn't an idiot; she'll get the other implication. 

They want to check if she's loyal and obedient, and why shouldn't they? There's the possibility this isn't authorized by Altarrin, but if it is, she will of course submit.

(She's indeed not bothering to formulate her thoughts usefully for the Mindspeaker; she seems to be assuming that her mind will be read effortlessly if it's being read at all.)

Ellitrea doesn't pick up much of that! A vague sense of assent, maybe some hint of uncertainty... 

She switches back to the Mindspeech link with Altarrin. :I think she's willing - can you discreetly confirm to her that you're aware she agreed?: 

He's in the middle of listening to her recounting some other made-up story about Aksell street festivals, but he can arrange to make eye contact and nod in a way that, he hopes, should stand out to her while being meaningless to their watchers. 

Yep, understood. Aksell's street festivals! She's claiming her mage-school was quite sheltered, because that covers for a lot of lack of regional knowledge, but of course some other students would sneak out, and she'd have memories from when she was a little girl, and of course there's some occasion when she saw Altarrin's face....

"I sketched you afterwards, you know, in my notebook - and thank goodness I did, or I don't know if I'd have had enough to target the spell off. You had a very memorable look about you. I thought to myself, that's a very determined man." 

Broad smile. "I am flattered. And your Wild Gift is rather remarkable - it takes years of training for our mages, to target a Gate-search on a person rather than a place."

And he should change the subject, rather than dwelling on her "Wild Gift" and risking some suspicious inconsistency being noticed. "- You must sketch something for me, later. I have little talent for it myself..." 

And Ellitrea blinks, tucks her shields fully back into place, and turns back to Merda.

"Altarrin agrees. I should send you and the youngster in a few minutes - his pretext can asking questions about her translation, since if it were really a Wild Gift, it would have to be related to Mindspeech. Do you have any urgent questions before that?" 

"Are we meeting in his sitting room?" Where there will definitely be spies; not an impossible constraint to work around, but a substantial one. "And are you sure the girl's not dangerous?"

"You can try to devise an excuse to meet in his bedroom suite, but I admit I am not thinking of a convincing one. Or you could carry on the sensitive conversation by private Mindspeech – Ketar is strongly Gifted enough to relay. We should assume the servants will be selling information and that his quarters are being watched, but almost certainly not by Thoughtsensers." 

She nods, stands up. "And my second question?"

Shrug. "I am certain her abilities include dangerous ones. I am...almost certain that if she tried to escape or attack either of you, she would not leave the palace alive, and that she is aware of what is in her interests here. I have some concern that, in the scenario where she is using mind-magic on Altarrin, she might manage to slip it through on you – which is why I am not going myself, and I will arrange to check both of you for compulsions afterward before we debrief. ...And I am not very worried, she would need to be very fast and skilled to get both of you before one of you noticed." 

"Hmmmph.  - I also want a guard, if this is magic from another world. Neither of us are mages, she teleported into the palace despite all its precautions..". and if it's going to leak anyway a guard is just additional control over who it leaks to. "- Hakkon, or Kordas."

Sigh. "Altarrin won't like it, but he cannot deny it is a sensible precaution. Should I insist to him on one of them, instead of one of his people?" 

You want someone who'll sell to everyone so no one figures they have less information than anyone else, they'll try harder if they think someone else has more access than they do. Altarrin's people usually leak more selectively than that. They can, of course, be less discriminate in who they tell, but since they're usually selective people will wonder if they're being selective this time. But ultimately she just gives advice, and she doesn't know all the considerations, and she doesn't care that much if he chooses to follow it.  "If he wants it to be one of his, fine."

Ellitrea has no idea if Altarrin will object or want to make a different request; she barely has any idea who either of those people are. Obviously Merda has an agenda – everyone, always, has an agenda – but she sees no obvious reason to think that it's one opposed to Altarrin's interests here. 

"I will ask," she says, neutrally. :Altarrin? Given our uncertainty, Merda would feel more comfortable interviewing your...guest...with a mage-gifted guard. Do you have any objections to Hakkon or Kordas? She will understand if you want to nominate one of your people, but those were the names she suggested: 

Merda isn't stupid, and presumably she's thought this through - in more depth than he has, or has time to do on the spot. He allows himself ten seconds to consider the question.

:Hakkon: He's not exactly the sort of man who Altarrin likes, but he's - predictable. :She - can warn him that Carissa has abilities in addition to the ones mentioned in her cover story, but not the part about other worlds, and I want any very sensitive conversation held in Mindspeech without his participation: 

Hakkon will speculate, probably with some creativity, but the sort of hypothesis he'll tend to come up with is of a political plot, which is - well, not false, but not much of a lead on the rest of the secret. 

Sending a guard in with such minimal context is a great way to make them much less effective, but Merda can decide if she wants to point that out and object. Ellitrea relays Altarrin's instructions with no particular affect. 

Merda mostly expects that if Carissa wants to kill her she'll succeed, but she's less likely to want to kill her if there's a guard; even if her abilities let her Gate out from under wards, the guard is an unknown quantity who might be able to interfere. "Sure. Now?"

Nod. "Altarrin's other commitment is not for another quarter-candlemark, but I assume you need time to coordinate with Hakkon. And - detour past the Archives first, I will send you with a requisition for documents that Altarrin is going to want anyway."

Not that he's asked explicitly, but he has a lot on his mind right now, and Ellitrea can guess what sorts of records he's going to want conveniently at hand refer to in his upcoming meetings. 

"I will have Ketar meet you there," she adds. "And...keep an eye on him, please. He is very young and - not tested under circumstances anywhere near this strange." 

And wouldn't be anywhere near it, presumably, except he's a Mindspeaker and Altarrin can't have many of those who he trusts. As far as she knows it's pretty much just Ellitrea. She's glad she asked for the guard. Having a guard is probably a good influence on Ketar as much as on Carissa. 

(She has nothing on Ketar specifically. It's a big palace; she hasn't met everyone, and one avoids Mindspeakers when one has the opportunity. No offense to present company is intended.)

"Understood," she says, and waits for the document requisition.

Ellitrea fills it in for her, and stamps it with the seal that shows that she's requesting it on behalf of Altarrin, it'll get things looked at faster than requesting it in her own name.

She sends Merda off, and Mindspeaks Ketar. Doesn't tell him much, just that she's reassigning him from his current mindreading task to the more important task of training their guest slash political prisoner in maintaining her own Thoughtsensing shields, which of course incidentally means he's to report on everything he picks up from her thoughts in the process. (Usually this doesn't even need to be said, but for him, she's making it explicit just in case, and also making explicit that Altarrin's quarters will be watched and he needs to be discreet.) He's to rendezvous at the Archives with one of the palace clerks, Merda, and he's reporting to her for the duration of this mission. Altarrin and Ellitrea are both very busy and should be disturbed only in emergencies, and Merda is fully briefed. There'll be a guard. He should take cues from Merda on what the guard is and isn't supposed to know. 

Ketar is very stressed about Carissa's situation! Altarrin slept with her and then inexplicably hauled her off to the Ifteli border region, except he's really suspicious that Altarrin was covering for something else because that makes no sense. He is very sure that Ellitrea is failing to tell him a lot of important things. He's kind of unreasonably anxious about being in the same room as Altarrin. 

...On the bright side, at least she's giving him an opening to check how Carissa is doing. Not that he has any idea how he's going to respond if the answer is as bad as he's afraid of, but - he'll figure something out. 

Ketar is not completely incompetent at controlling his reactions. He heads to the Archives requisition desk and looks only a little bit nervous. 

"Kid," Merda says with utter disinterest both in her voice and in her mind; she rarely finds people interesting, and doesn't expect Ketar can hurt her for a lack of deference. She's received most of her requested documents already, and is waiting on one more. "I hear you met Altarrin's latest girl already? Is she pretty?"

And lifted where he should hear it easily: We are not to indicate her situation is in any way exceptional; it's better for Altarrin if everyone thinks she's just a random girl with a moderately interesting Gift, and best for him if they come to the conclusion she's not worth watching or trying to get their own hands on. Most convenient if she is pretty, but there's no point lying about that, is there.

Ketar shrugs, with the awkwardness of someone who finds this a vaguely uncomfortable question but has also thought about it more than he entirely wants to admit. "Pretty enough. She looks foreign - not in a bad way, just, memorable, you know? I don't think that's why he likes her, I think he thinks she's clever. ...She must be less than half his age, too. I don't know if he likes that in particular."