He leans against the wall, tapping his foot. "I'd like a duchy. A nice one. And your word that you won't interfere in my business, if I don't interfere in the capital." 

"I have been here for four days. I don't know who Tantara's existing dukes are, or how I'd go about replacing them. I'm sure I can figure something out, but I'm not going to make promises until I could at least name a duchy."

"Plenty of nobles went missing after the palace was captured. I'm sure you won't even find it inconvenient to arrange something." 

Just keep him talking. "Are you going to interfere with a peace with Predain?"

"Hmm. I reckon we could come to an arrangement, on that. ...I'd want your oath that you'll prevent any of them from coming after me. They're a violent and untrustworthy lot, if you haven't already noticed that." 

"I don't know how far that's in my power, but as far as it is, yes, certainly. I'm - confused. Sheiknam betrayed Tantara to Ma'ar. He was working with you, but you don't work for Ma'ar, I take it. Playing both sides?"

He waves a hand, lazily. "I'd have taken a duchy in Predain, too, but after Ma'ar responded like an idiot to that opportunity we gave him, it wasn't looking so much like a good place to put down roots in. Seemed like I might not even get the gold he agreed on. It's nothing personal." 

"You think he was being an idiot? If he'd Gated the mages in, I'd have killed them too. You weren't giving him an opportunity for anything except, I guess, to see what I could do, which is actually what I originally thought you were aiming at."

"I mostly meant managing to get himself captured. Don't know what he could possibly have been thinking." 

Elsewhere, one of the hertasi mages who does know what Urtho keeps in his basement has been frantically trying to reach her and failing because the shielded section blocks even the communication-spell. They have no idea what's happening down there and can't even scry to check if she's in the middle of a fight that no one but her could survive, and it might be a very bad moment to joggle her elbow, but this is important...

The mage will let himself in through a different door, and from there - staying on the very top step of the stairs - a Mindspeaker can reach her. 

:You need to keep him away from Urtho's Work Room at any cost. And absolutely do not let him Final Strike. There are weapons in there that could destroy the whole Kingdom: 

Isn't that fantastic. She wishes she was more surprised.

:Acknowledged:.

"He's a puzzling man. I think he thought I'd kill him. I don't know what he thought was worth that. I do think he's the only person who can pull Predain's forces back to its borders without months more fighting, though, and there'll be a lot more left of Tantara if we end this faster. 

So - you gave up on Ma'ar. Why poison Urtho, at that point?"

"...Oh, that part was never Ma'ar's idea. Shaiknam wanted him dead. Probably figured he could wrangle being Tantara's next king, with Urtho out of the picture – doubt that would've worked out for him but he paid up front, so didn't matter to me either way. And the man's a smug hypocrite with no common sense, he had it coming." 

“And this adventure here, did someone pay for that in advance or is it improvisational?”

"Shaiknam would have paid me if I got him a way to heroically crush Tantara's enemies – he could've spin that into taking the throne without even trying. But it sounds like you'd be amenable to paying me not to tell the next-highest bidder what's down there, and it's the same to me either way. Is that right?" 

“Shaiknam is dead.” Because she decided she didn’t think she could afford whatever he’d do next if I let him go, so it is interesting to learn what that would have turned out to be. Usually you never know, when you make those calls.

”The thing I am willing to pay you to do is to leave this place and not interfere in the peace efforts.”

"What sort of terms are you intending to get us? I wouldn't see any need to interfere if the terms are going to be favorable to my business interests." 

“I’m not clear on your business interests or why I’d be interfering with them. I’m not going to let you sell Urtho’s weapons to the highest bidder.”

"Well, if you're getting me a duchy, I don't want to be spending the first decade getting it back in shape. I think they should be responsible for dealing with any infrastructure damage they caused. And cleaning up the blood-magic residue." 

"I will ask, though I get the sense Predain is quite poor. Why do you even want a duchy? Is there someone you're trying to impress?"

"Who wouldn't want a duchy? And I'd never have to take orders from bloody Urtho again." He's tapping his foot. "Do we have a bargain? If what you want is me out of Urtho's basement, I'd be delighted to Gate myself out. I don't want you following me." 

"I absolutely want you out of Urtho's basement and will not follow you if you Gate out. If the deal is that I won't have you tracked down and killed absent further provocation substantial enough to justify that on its own, and I'll ask around about whether I can get you a duchy, knowing you'll try to sell Urtho's weapons to the highest bidder if I fail, then we have a deal."

"All right. Deal." 

He raises a Gate. The other end is in a nondescript field. He aims an ironic salute in her direction, and steps across. 

She nods evenly. Waits long enough to make sure he's not immediately Gating back in for Urtho's workroom.

He doesn't seem to be doing that (though if he were Gating directly into a shielded Work Room she wouldn't necessarily have any idea.) 

Then she'll race up the stairs and get back in contact with Urtho's people and demand to better understand this 'weapons that could destroy the whole kingdom' situation IMMEDIATELY please.

...They don't know very much. Urtho is the only person who has more detail than 'the room exists and there are multiple very very dangerous experimental weapons in it.' 

The Healers are working very hard to get him stabilized and lucid, but it looks like Conn Levas had somehow gotten his hand on miranda thorns – an obscure and invariably fatal poison. It might not be invariably fatal with Iomedae's healing but Urtho is not currently very able to answer questions.