"I mean, I can read his mind? I guess maybe you think I'm lying."

"I don't especially but why trust what I can verify?"

"I could let him talk but I don't think he wants to."

"It's not urgent on a scale of minutes but if you're ready now I can get some water for you."

"Water's not very comfortable, are you going to put me back after?"

"I assume if he were going to scream about it you wouldn't be volunteering, so yes, but if there's something more comfortable I'd also like to know about that."

"I mean I don't think he will but once I'm out he can surprise me. Pools are thicker and less transparent."

"Do you know what makes them that way? I don't want to add something that looks right but is actually poison."

"I don't. Water is okay if you will really put me back even if he has some freakout."

"I'm not going to fight him for you. Look, I didn't intend to force this issue until I had a volunteer on hand, and I expect that to happen within a few days at the most."

"Water is not okay for days."

"We can pick this up again when we have more options, if you'd prefer. Right now there's more I need to know. If I contact your superiors to talk with them, are they going to try to take me captive?"

"- well, yeah, of course?"

"What do you mean by 'of course'?"

"That's... the obvious way to find out for sure what your deal is, if you show up like that. Otherwise you could be an Andalite or one of their allies or something."

"Ah. That's reasonable. Would they want to keep me, then?"

"Maybe? I obviously don't know what they'd find out if they sent somebody in."

She nods. "I'll take that into account. On another topic, if you do end up leaving your current host, do you think we can trust him?"

"Not especially, he's reasonably likely to decide you're all secretly demons too."

"That's how it is sometimes. Is there an email or a phone number you'd suggest I use to set up a meeting or should I figure something out myself?"

"A meeting with - who? - I mean, not really, no matter who, I don't think they'll show up to meetings with mysterious people without at least trying to capture you."

"Well, is there a way to get someone important to show up to a meeting and do that and not end up captured by a random person with no incentive to tell anyone anything?"

"I mean, you could probably make it into a big enough deal that coverup would be really hard and then they'd tell people things."

"Do you think I should instead just offer individual people the chance to move here without establishing diplomatic relations at all?"

"I... don't know? Not if you're going to keep them in water?"