Sofia thinks frantically for a few moments, but eventually nods. "Between what I've seen so far, and the opportunity presented, up to handing myself in for treason if I misjudged," she replies, gravely.

Hopper nods. "I'm happy to write a contract guaranteeing that no illness and no armies will be brought on this side of the portal. I'd want to sign a contract specifying what would be allowed to bring through the portal, if at all possible. I'd feel much better if we had that worked out in advance."

"Absolutely, I love to work with someone who wants to get the details straight.

Alejandro, can you draft for us while we talk?

We will undertake to build such a vessel as can reach your inconveniently placed portal entrance, presumably required as soon as possible as we have no idea how long it will persist, so long as a supply of weirwood can be secured - we can put some cash towards this endeavour, but would be relying on Sofia for appropriate contacts to approach, and can likely only fund one or two wains ourselves.

You will undertake to include people of our choosing, details to be negotiated but no less than three individuals, in your return through the portal; to avoid importing pathogens, including by failing to take reasonable precautions; to await proper authority regarding whether any military endeavour will be welcomed by the Empire, to consist of either the consent of the Senator for any territories involved - including those bordering the area of deployment; the consent of the Senate, or the consent of the Military Council.

Other trade to be permitted by default but subject to scrutiny by expedition-appointed members of House Ezmara in the first instance; we are likely to escalate to the magistrates or the Senator if the scale seems to warrant it.

Non-military individuals to be permitted back in small numbers to begin with - I'm not sure what kind of size you'd expect for a diplomatic delegation? I suppose they'll want to meet the local Senator first, as Anvil isn't in session, but shouldn't expect to get much done until it is, at the next equinox - Anvil is a few days down the coast by boat, then about half a day's walk or ox cart ride down the Trods from the nearest port."

Alejandro mutters under his breath about not being the help, but does get a piece of paper out and start drafting a contract.

"Waiting for approval for anything military-related makes too much sense, and I'm more than happy to comply. So, too for bringing people through the portal. In fact, I want to bring every willing human being here back with me."

"Why would it be necessary to have more than one person in a diplomatic delegation? You'd know if you needed delegates and things for more specialized tasks like handling trade or military coordination. We're expecting... sufficiently many people. Don't know what to say here."

"Generally either they all want to keep an eye on each other, or they want to have their servants or apprentices or what have you with them?

Also, I'm not sure whether they have them where you come from, but we also have a considerable population of orcs - in the Empire, I mean, as well as the Grendel. Did you actually mean human, or did you mean 'people who can reasonably expect to be conducting themselves in a civilised fashion rather than being slavers'?

Actually that's probably a tangent, I'm not expecting any orcs in the initial delegation and I expect us to decide later how to make access available for people into your portal who don't have a giant unwieldy seagoing edifice to transit from, after we've made initial contact and hopefully ascertained something about the portal's stability."

"Who would keep an eye on each other? I'm mildly confused. Diplomats don't have apprentices, generally. Also, servants? Eww!"

"Well, I mean all human or generally human-intelligent creature. I thought that humans were the only ones in existence."

"Also, yeah, a better option than a huge ship would be great for letting people move into and out of my world. Absolutely."

"I do apologise - remember, I'm not actually aware of what I'm dealing with here, there are many cultures in this world who do keep servants - or yeofolk, or whatever they want to call them.

The members of the diplomatic party - often there will be people from multiple internal factions? It sounds like you must have a much more sensible set-up," or are suppressing dissent an awful lot, she doesn't say, "and might only require one diplomat to come to speak to our Senator and on to address the Imperial Consul at Anvil when they're available.

I recommend we scope this contract to initial contact, since we're clearly running into misunderstandings already? Initial contact, we construct the ship pending weirwood, we send three individuals of House Ezmara over plus possibly whoever our weirwood supplier wants to send, as that's who we've got on hand, you get back in touch with your own government and get a diplomat to come back with you on the big boat to make further arrangements.

Break clause... we undertake not to try to collapse the portal or aggress against your person unless you break this contract, in which case we are likely to do so? What would you want of us if we refused construction even provided suitable materials and time - this isn't going to be a quick project, I'm afraid, I expect we're looking at - I'm not a shipbuilder myself, but at the very least a month from delivery of materials, and likely more, usually this kind of work is measured in seasons."

"Ahh, factions, I've read about those. Also, don't worry; servants aren't a huge problem for us. Although they will make us do a double-take. Also, sending your diplomats out and my diplomat in is 100% fine."

"Also, your break clauses make essentially perfect sense. I don't even know what I'd want to ask you if you randomly chose not to build the ship, honestly. There's basically nothing that matters compared my opportunity to save vast amounts of people from Grendel slavery."

"That is certainly a virtuous aim!

Alejandro, any other thoughts?"

"Here, read this over, I have left places for Huppera, Yasmina and Sofia to sign if you are content. Sofia, are you seeing to Huppera's care and feeding during the project duration or should we also consider that?"

The contract is very exactly as Yasmina stated, not even in especially flowery language.

Hopper accepts the contract. She doesn't say anything about how a contract has limited meaning when not implicitly enforced by a third party.

"Are there other contracts I'd need to sign? Or is preparing a ship that lets us reach the portal our next step?"

"Unless there's anything else you'd like to bind us to, I'm not inclined to tie us up too thoroughly until we can at least investigate the portal?

We might send out a vessel to the location and see if we can find the regio that's powering it, but that also has the potential to give away the position before we're ready; the Grendel are rather eagerly watching the sea."

"Yes, I'd be extremely unwilling to acknowledge the portal's existence in even that way. I see no greater risk than the Grendel making it inaccessible to us forever."

"Well, it could just disappear on its own, or one of the Eternals could take umbrage to its existence and indeed your people's existence and send some kind of hideous magic through it. But yes, I expect the primary risk is the Grendel climb through and attempt to sway your people to their cause; they're also not a people known for turning down opportunities, so I expect they wouldn't just destroy it out of hand."

"I was trying to ask about things I could do, not things that could happen. But it seems we're in agreement that avoiding the notice of the Grendel is to be priority number one."

"If I was you, I'd be writing down everything useful I could remember, in case that portal disappears before we get to it. We can write something up for supplies in return for access to at least some subset of the information, if you'd rather we handle it than Sofia."