"The air. They look much clearer when you're up above it."

"Cool."

Palace.

Liatsi is there, of course. Will the redmage be wanting his own guest room.

Yes please.

Liatsi is mildly surprised but doesn't comment and has one made up for him. Cir isn't surprised at all.

Good. It'd be worse if Cir thought he'd been - purchased for fun.

He goes to his room and watches a movie on his computer and sings quietly all night.

There is breakfast. There's a seat next to Maitimo for his redmage.

How is his redmage doing?

His redmage slept fine and enjoys breakfast and keeps smiling at Maitimo all the time.

Oh good. He shouldn't surround himself with people he personally rescued who adore him for magical reasons, it'll probably distort his judgment or something, but it really is wonderfully flattering.

What is Liatsi's agenda for today?

She wants to figure out how to deploy those crops without angering the keystones of the existing agricultural economy.

That sounds like lots of fun! He can offer distribution options and clarifications on things about the crops and so on.

Liatsi isn't as gleeful about it but she's very good at her job.

Excellent. After a while of planning he will ask about introductions to the other nations of her world.

She is married to the king of, and technically queen consort of, Niohain; it's just lucky that he caught her while she was in her own capital. She is on reasonable terms with Caplare after cleaning up from the incident a few years back. She has civil relations with Mocorne and other, farther countries. Here is a map. Here are facts about their politics and their godsprings.

He is fascinated, and starts drawing up plans for future visits. 

"Wars with sufficiently advanced technology can be very disruptive. The last time my people went to war, hundreds of millions of people died and a world were left uninhabitable. I worry about having a destabilizing effect on your world, even though we're not trading weaponry directly."

"We're not a warlike country," Liatsi says, "even though we're the only one with godsprings that produce goldmages."

"I am glad. We are considering a policy that we will come to any nation's aid in ending a war in which they were aggressed against, but after aggressively checking that we have not been mislead on that front, and with the aim of bringing about peace and prewar borders as swiftly as possible."

"That seems like it requires you to form advance opinions about claims to any disputed territory and what the correct prewar borders are. Cefax has none, it helps that we're an island, but some locations are the subjects of ongoing tussles."

"Hopefully the participants will prove bribable into a settlement."

"That seems like it will incentivize muddying the waters about any conceivably disputed territory."

"If we refuse to trade with anyone having an ongoing dispute, and have lots of presents for everyone who isn't?"

"I suppose that could get people to give up territory with only small and practical value. It will be harder to convince them if they value it for other reasons."

"Are there a lot of disputes of that type?"