"I don't know. I'll ask, and we'll get her medical attention if she needs it."

She would like Urtho to stay in communication with his people and assure them that Tantara still respects the ceasefire and peace talks are planned. She is not going to kill Ma'ar; he surrendered, he's her responsibility now, she won't let anything happen to him. They'll probably have to let him go in the next few hours, but she wants to make sure there isn't another surprise coming, first, and to get a better sense of the man. He's been circumspect so far.

Urtho will do his best.

...His people want assurances that Iomedae can come and protect them if they do end up under attack. Is that going to be in conflict with Ma'ar being her responsibility? If he's not badly injured, and maybe even if he is, he can probably Gate out given a couple of seconds to do it in. 

(The Predain monitor is in fact unconscious and is now being transported to the Healers' tent. The Healer who briefly looked at her in Judeth's command tent thinks that she'll be all right and will probably regain consciousness soon – it's harder for non-mages to cause themselves serious backlash damage – but she's certainly not going to be any use for sending Mindspeech communications for probably the rest of the day.) 

Yep, if there's an incident anywhere on Tantara's side of the line she'll either let Ma'ar go or render him unconscious and then go defend Tantara.

"The monitor who contacted you is unconscious, on her way to Healing, the Healer who looked at her thinks she'll be all right," she reports to Ma'ar.

He relaxes. Slightly. 

:I want to contact the nearest camp on the Predain side with Mindspeech: he sends. :To verify that Tantara intends to keep the ceasefire and to make sure someone is dealing with General Shaiknam. Do I have your permission to do that: 

"Dealing with him how."

:I am not sure because I have no idea where he is right now or whether he has faked other orders from me. I would rather manage this myself but I do not expect you to trust me if I give my word to go and come back. By default I would spread the message that no one is to obey orders from him, and then send a team of mages to hold him until things have calmed down. ...They are not going to kill him: 

Right, because Ma'ar's people can hold mages prisoner, with compulsions. 

"I think it would be good to tell everyone not to obey him, but I do not want you to authorize an operation to get him while he remains on Tantara's side of the lines unless there's reason to think his next move will be immediate and much more dangerous. I will probably release you in the next few hours, but I don't want to ask an oath of you that I indeed don't expect you to keep."

Ma'ar does not believe for a second that she actually intends to release him in a few hours. Why would she do that. 

He thinks. 

:...I think that he wanted to corner me into sending in our mages in force. I am not actually sure why or what he was thinking. Ten percent chance his next move, when he realizes what happened instead, is to panic and do something incredibly stupid. If you have a channel of communication with the other Tantaran camps then you will likely learn of it before I do and - be able to respond as you see fit. Maybe a...thirty percent chance? that his plan had a second half but it is not immediate or catastrophic. If I have your permission I am going to try to reach my nearest camp with an update now: 

Pause. 

:Do I have your permission to tell my people that they can capture and hold him if he crosses onto our side of the lines?: 

"Yes, absolutely." Probably Urtho's people should be going to take the man down now but Urtho's side can't capture mages - ugh - well, everyone's alerted, sometimes it's better to wait on high alert than to rush into a fight -

He'll use the communication-spell. It's detectable and it's not secure, but he has Iomedae's permission and, in this particular case, isn't conveying anything that he needs to keep secret from Urtho's side. And he's a much stronger mage than Mindspeaker; using Mindspeech at that range for a lengthy conversation will wear him out, and he might need that Gift functional later. 

...His commander at the nearest point behind the Predain lines is so freaked out! Does Ma'ar need a rescue team??? 

No! Absolutely not! They should stay exactly where they are and not make any unexpected moves and try very very hard not to spook Tantara any further. That's the most important thing by far. Ma'ar will be fine. 

(Ma'ar is not at all sure he'll be fine, actually. But Iomedae is clearly - experienced at navigating this kind of thing - and probably doesn't want the war to re-escalate, and so all he can do for now is trust that she isn't going to do anything that will inevitably cause that, such as killing him and then not communicating anything to his people about why.) 

Iomedae is doing another round of communication with Tantara's people about where everyone is and what is going on and how to react if anything concerning happens and what should be done about Shaiknam, to whom they have not yet communicated that the assault failed or indeed has yet started. The man should be limited in spies who can report on that to him, what with how they'd have to know he's a double agent. 

She nods curtly at Ma'ar when he's done with the communication spell. "Is there any other context you think it's important for us to have from you, or for you to have from us?"

She apparently has a way to speak his language now (?????) and Ma'ar has finally managed to get his physical terror under control enough that he can speak normally. He'll save his Mindspeech energy. 

"...I am not sure what context you already have on - this region more broadly and the recent history. Urtho's telling of it may not include everything that I think is relevant. You are from elsewhere but I am not sure how far away, or how - different - it is there. ...I have never heard of your god or your religious order and I think I would find it easier to know what to tell you if I knew more of your...goals...in intervening here."

"I want a stable peace with prewar borders. It doesn't sound like either Predain or Tantara can capably administer the other and it doesn't sound like the prewar borders were the product of or cause of recent previous conflicts. I want, if it's possible, to maintain the geopolitical equilibrium that is low on mind control, mile-wide suicide explosions, and human sacrifice, because I can imagine the geopolitical equilibrium that is high on those and I don't like it much. I want everyone fed and clothed and safe and with many routes by which they can serve those things they believe in or care about or are indebted to. I want to try to set up political relations so that if there has to be a next war it won't immediately turn into an existential threat to both countries and everyone involved will know how to deescalate it."

"...It might be useful context - which I am not sure whether Urtho would have mentioned - that the strength of Tantara's taboo on compulsions is actually quite unusual and possibly unique on this continent. And the extent to which their use in Predain is governed by laws which are actually enforced, and they are restricted to official, voluntary oaths of service or criminal penalties, is also somewhat unusual. In the Ceej Empire, for example, it is commonplace for nobles to have their house mages place compulsions on all of their servants - or sometimes secretly on their rivals' servants. I...am not necessarily opposed to making compulsions illegal except in very rare and specific circumstances - like, for example, preventing mages from Final Striking, there is not really another way to do that - but if you are used to a culture where that is already the case, that is not actually the balance we are in right now. Even if Urtho sometimes forgets to - clarify that not everywhere in the world is Tantara." 

Sigh. "I think I would be in agreement on everything else." 

"It makes sense that it is commonplace in many countries for people to be placing compulsions on all their servants and all their rivals' servants, but I disapprove of it, and would work quite hard to avoid it becoming the case in any place where it is not so at present. And to bring it to an end in places where that is how things work, though that's often much harder."

"Mmm." 

He's not really sure what else to say. He still doesn't really understand Iomedae as a person, why she's doing any of this, but he tried asking and he's not sure how to ask differently to get a more useful answer. He would obviously like to know a lot more about her capabilities and her resources and whether she has allies who will be joining her soon, but equally obviously, she has no reason to tell him those things. 

He'll...wait, and hope nothing else explodes. 

"I spoke to some people from Predain, prisoners of war, about what they wanted from the peace. They spoke very highly of you."

...He's not really sure what to say to that, either. It's - a good sign, probably, that Iomedae sought to hear out both sides? 

"Do they have any of our mages alive, that you know of?" he says, dully. "We do not have - lists of names - not for the last six months." He's been sending reports with lists of prisoners, very diligently. 

"I'm sorry; I should have ensured that was done." It's not really about the specific thing but about reciprocating whatever effort-at-not-being-as-terrible-as-possible you see the other side putting in, where you can. "I'll get you a list, probably within two days. I don't think they have any mages strong enough to Gate; they don't have a way to hold them."

Ma'ar closes his eyes for a moment. Strange, how he already knew exactly what her answer was going to be, and yet somehow it still hurts.

He knows exactly how many of his mages didn't make it back from battles. It's...a lot fewer, at least, than the number of Tantaran mages currently held on the Predain side, but given their lower population and much lower number of trained Adept-strength mages, proportionally it's probably a much greater loss even before you take into account that the Tantaran mages are mostly still alive, and will be rejoining the country's productive capacity as soon as the war is over. 

...the war is going to end. It seems nearly certain, now, and the only question is how messily, and at what cost to Predain. 

It's...still sinking in. But it's still a better outcome than he could have imagined, three days ago. 

"Are you going to wish to speak to the prisoners we are holding?" he says, quietly. "We have more of them." Thousands, in total, it's been a serious drain on their supplies but you can't exactly decide to stop feeding prisoners of war once you've committed to holding them alive, even if your own peasantfolk are starving. "...I would actually like to arrange a prisoner exchange for the gryphons as soon as possible, holding them is - fraught." And they eat SO MUCH FOOD. He's been trying hard not to mistreat any of the prisoners including by underfeeding them but they don't have an unlimited number of large livestock to slaughter. 

"I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to travel within Predain right now. One of the things I have been working on is a prisoner exchange, and I'll speak to them once they return. No one has alleged that you mistreat your prisoners." She's mostly trying to keep her voice calm, steady, hard to read, but she sounds approving, at that.

Nod. Ma'ar, too, has been keeping his voice very level, his expression flat and his body language controlled. "What would you need to change, or be demonstrated, to feel safe traveling within Predain?" 

"Mostly I think I'd need it to not be overwhelmingly in your interests as you might reasonably perceive them to try to kill me. You probably couldn't, but you could cause a lot of death and destruction trying."