"Can you understand me?" Somehow he can, though she's speaking an unfamiliar language. 

....This is apparently what's happening, then. Altarrin is managing to retrieve slightly more of his recent memories and - he intended to do this, he intended to come to Iomedae's world because he - because Iomedae thought (but it was him, actually, he thought it, with the headband, pretending he was just trying to model her because he couldn't think any other way) that he was in danger from the gods from the Empire he created from whatever horrible thing ended up existing caught between those two competing pressures - 

(This is a line of thought he's tread over a few times by now and it makes perfect sense in his own head, if perhaps less so in his surface thoughts as read by someone else.) 

He can think again but also he can't because he's apparently now a prisoner of something else and this was - not even unexpected - just, he would probably, predictably, be curling up in a ball and crying now, or something, if not for the fact that he isn't allowed to do that. 

Iomedae is here. He doesn't actually trust her but he trusts her more than the Empire. 

...He can understand her. "Yes." 

"Is Tar-Baphon operating in Velgarth presently."

What? 

"No." Though the fact that she's even asking the question is maybe informative, so... "- Not that I am aware of. Not why I came here." 

"Do you anticipate being pursued?"

"...Not especially. At least not anytime soon. I - was the one who developed the Gate-technique to come here and I did not teach it to anyone else." 

It depends how much Aritha, the clever mage-researcher, actually picked up? But she couldn't cast even the scry-technique she helped develop with him, she didn't have a powerful enough Gift - or enough control to compensate with more efficiency - basically no one but him has that since no one but him is 700 years old. ...Either way she had the headband for her work on that, was relying on it heavily, and she doesn't have it now, it was in the box in his rucksack because he wanted to return it to Iomedae - 

:...He's some sort of immortal. 700 years old. Also he brought back the headband, and he has an assistant who might know enough to help someone more powerful than her cast the it but probably doesn't.:

And, also, Altarrin is going to give more complete answers going forward.

Iomedae does not visibly acknowledge this at all, though over the Telepathic Bond she sends wordless acknowledgement.

The most powerful mage in the Empire, the Marshal had said, was Archmage General Altarrin, the only person to improve Imperial standard spells in several centuries.... he'd have mentioned if the man were known to be immortal, presumably - 

- this isn't even necessarily Archmage General Altarrin, but he was the one who'd written to her as well as the most powerful mage -

"There is no one in the Empire, now that you have left, who could scry Tar-Baphon today, even if they were highly motivated to do so?"

"Not that I am aware of, and I ought to be aware of anyone who could. It was very difficult research to figure out and I did not keep complete notes on it - I think even Aritha does not have full context on the interplanar routing technique, I was running half of that on intuition anyway. ...I separately doubt anyone would be motivated to try, the Empire's prior institutional history does not incline it to - reach out actively to potential allies especially dubious and terrifying ones - and the leadership will be very frightened of the gods of this world after I Gated out - will maybe assume Tar-Baphon might serve a different god than yours since it was never specified that he did not..." 

His thoughts are not really any more coherent than the words he's managing to say. 

And she relaxes, visibly and notably, and - smiles at him, warm and encouraging (not a supernatural aura of courage. She doesn't do that to people if they in fact might have something to fear from her.)

"All right. I'm glad of that. Both our worlds have a great deal to lose, should Velgarth come to the wrong attention. If you think of anything else that might be, in hindsight, the operation of Golarion magic-users in Velgarth, or a way the Empire might contact Tar-Baphon, I have some options to protect both worlds but I'd need to know about the threat in order to counter it. 

Can you tell me - who you are, and why you came here?"

 - He can think more freely, though still definitely not use magic even if it's a purely mental action. He can even think about escaping if he wants! That would be informative.

The main effect of being able to think more freely is a lot more random agonizing emotional pain!

...Altarrin is mostly not even paying attention to it. Not because of any current mind control, it's more a deep reflexive habit, he isn't safe and so he cannot be miserable that can wait. There will be plenty of time, later, to figure out (a tangle of unfinished thoughts and unprocessed emotions that even Alfirin won't be able to get much out of, since Altarrin himself still hasn't, though the overall gist is one of exhaustion and regret and the sense of having, in hindsight, been incredibly stupid for entire centuries and he hates it.) 

"Archmage-General Altarrin.

...Shakari, in my last lifetime."

If the Dominate is still forcing complete answers, he will give names for every previous incarnation, back to Lionstar k'Leshya, and then Ma'ar. 

"...I came here because I - could not - the Empire could not–" 

And he is actually failing to come up with an answer, here, because all of his reasoning up until now on why Gating to Iomedae's world was necessary and his only remaining option was, in hindsight, obviously a rationalization to get around the compulsions, and he assumes there's a true thing he wanted underneath, a reason he tried at all, but he's overwhelmed and terrified and not managing to come up with anything more specific than -

- a vague not-memory of looking at the stars and making a vow to fix everything and he's been breaking it for 700 years - 

...Oh. She gets a bit more, from the edges of his thoughts, about exactly how he's immortal and -

Everything about him as a person, really. It's where she could see herself in 700 years. She hopes she'd have been smart enough to not fall into the same trap of being committed to his empire, but other than that -

:I'm going to loosen up, let him speak freely, I think we've covered all the specific, urgent questions? And I think you'll get more from just talking to him. I think you'll like him.:

And Altarrin can move, and is not compelled to speak or take any particular actions. He won't be able to use magic or draw a weapon or try to attack anybody, and can't move more than four feet from where he is now, but if he doesn't try any of those things he won't even notice.

That was her instinct too, though she wasn't going to push Alfirin on it. She tries not to, on matters that aren't life or death.

She is going to order people who have dispersed in case of imminent war with the possibly-puppetted Empire to stand down and return to their previous duties.

"Archmage-General Altarrin. I got your letter. I appreciated it. I'm Iomedae, Knight-Commander of the Shining Crusade. I - wish we could have spoken face to face a lot sooner, really. Are you comfortable? Should I have someone get you - food, water, a lesser restoration - somewhere more comfortable to sit -"

The loosening of the bonds on his mind is - actually really not helping, at least with the short-term goal of 'answering questions which are clearly important' - and Iomedae's...kindness...is even less helping with that. He has no idea if he's comfortable. Why is that an important question. He wants - he doesn't know what - 

...he needs to focus and tell them the important things and he can deal with - everything else - after that. 

"...I know. I -" thank you for not killing me even if it would have been entirely fair, "- I wish we could have spoken sooner as well. I - I said most of the apologies I wanted to in the letter... I brought diamonds. In the rucksack, the velvet package. Not sure they are the kind you need but." 

" - well, do you want to toss them over here, and I'll take a look." 

He can do that. His hands are slightly shaking though not because anything is physically wrong with him. 

:He might want a calm emotions actually, if anyone has one - He seems to almost want the more restrictive dominate back but I think the situation will be better in twenty minutes if I don't:

:I'll ask if anyone has it free - I'm also just not in a hurry at this point, though, if he wants some time to process - he's spent this whole life under the Empire's mind control...:

And she opens it, and -

- is speechless, because there are dozens of these, including a dozen that are notably bigger than you need for Wish -

: - can you - come check that they're - magically active -: She's not sure the easiest way to do that, she's not a wizard.

:It'll take a minute, I don't have anything prepared that needs one right now, I'll send someone for someone who can use a stoneskin:

She'll dispatch an aide-de-camp to fetch whoever's rotating into command of the rearguard next and pull her spellbook out of thin air to start preparing.

She shouldn't gape like an idiot at Altarrin for the whole minute. She also cannot allow herself to believe they're real until Alfirin has checked. "This is Alfirin," she says instead, inanely. "She is a powerful spellcaster who I have worked alongside for - most of both our lives."

She doesn't actually like preparing spells standing so she'll have an unattended stool pull itself up.

"Hello, nice to meet you, wish the circumstances were better, interesting language you've got here" she says in Jaconan