Why

They'd reached some kind of agreement. We're having a hearing in order to answer these questions.

...Cam goes over to sit with his alts. Mirelótë waves him over and puts Tireh under his wing so she can instead dual-snuggle new Bell and Rúmil.

"I, uh, yes," says Niari to the Vala.

"What would be the added benefit of my presence?" asks Lilie.

We will have people present for forensic confirmation but if your organization would prefer their own representative for that -

"I will notify Rochelle and attend," says Lilie, and she goes to tell Rochelle and comes back.

"Uh, yes."

And then there they all are. 

This is an emergency hearing under Statute 44 of the National Security Act of 1517, which authorizes relocation and questioning of persons not subject to our jurisdiction in cases where there is a grave immediate danger to our world and no less intrusive remedy. The High Court of Valinor has authorized the hearing on the grounds that several hundred of our citizens are dead, alleged to have been murdered by operatives of the Yeerk Empire from the dimension hereby designated ‘Thirty-eight’, and that the stated goals of the Yeerk Empire include the conquest of any worlds accessible to them. Under Statute 44 subsection 11, testimony at an emergency national security hearing cannot be introduced in court as evidence; parties will be invited to repeat their testimony for a non-emergency hearing once they have had access to counsel.

This hearing is occurring in sixfold time dilation, meaning that time within the Máhanaxar is passing 10⁶ times as quickly as time elsewhere in this and time-stabilized dimensions. Dimension Thirty-eight is presently paused, and all Yeerks in the known multiverse outside Thirty-eight are present here; those over eight days of age have all been charged with kidnapping, torture, and conspiracy to first-degree homicide, with additional charges pending.

As is standard for hearings before the High Court of Valinor, an effect is in place making it apparent when a speaker lies. All persons present are invited to test the effect. Two and two is five. 

It sounds distinctly different. 

The effect is non-invasive; parties may decline to testify with it in place. The effect has been modified to function in response to statements made with thought-speak, osanwë, or other telepathic forms of communication as relevant.

The following accommodations are being put in place in order to enable communications: all parties present at this hearing can now communicate telepathically according to the protocols of osanwë, with thoughts defaulting to private. Parties cannot communicate telepathically with each other, even if they are usually capable of doing so, in order to ensure witnesses do not converge on a single interpretation of events. 

The following accommodations have been put in place in order to ensure the safety and perceived safety of all parties; except for forensic conjuration and the previously described effects, magic does not work for the duration of this hearing, and mind-altering spells have been cancelled. All parties are temporarily physically invulnerable in the manner typical of daeva; this effect will cease when parties depart the Máhanaxar.

As is standard for hearings before the High Court of Valinor since the Evidential Procedures Act of 1517, corroborating forensic evidence will be entered into the record during testimony. An emergency hearing is automatically concluded should the court conclude that the evidentiary standard for imminent danger to the world is not borne out by testimony.

This court invites Campbell Mark Swan, who communicated to us the nature of the emergency, to testify. 

Cam unwingwraps Tireh, who puts her own wings around herself and shivers, and goes up.

Less than a full day ago my subjective time a new Bell of the same appearance as Mirelótë and the six-year-old entered the bar and described herself as a veteran of a war against parasitic brain slugs with the help of blue centaur aliens. She acted convincingly Bell-like and gave no cause for suspicion and Bar said that she was a Bell. She brought in her twin sister. I was then suddenly dismissed to discover that the GCP had circles out for my arrest again and I took one and was then gagged. The soul Elves usually on duty as translators at the Ganymede prison were gone. I met a fairy who said she'd been Imperiused into killing them and identified Timothy as the person who'd done it when she saw a picture of him. I got her to email Theodore, who came to visit and went to get my gag lifted. When that came through I wrote to Trelane, who was in Vala custody, asking her to tell the Valar that the Milliways population was likely taken over by brain parasites. Then I got invited here.

It was communicated to Ganymede that you were rearrested because you had been using mind-altering magic while on parole. Can you comment -

I have never cast mind-affecting magic on anything other than animals of species not protected by Revelation law and as authorized on Melkor and Sauron.

The court calls Timothy Laurence Way to testify, and notes for the record that he is sharing bodies at this time with the Yeerk Orik 044.

- uh, twelve days ago subjective, I got a message notifying me that a new Bell had entered Milliways; we went downstairs and met her. She struck me as - extremely stressed, but that was explained by the war she had described recently surviving. She invited me to her room to get an Andalite shapeshifting technology in which she and her sister were practiced; when I opened the door they stunned me with a weapon of some kind. When I woke up I could not move, and Orik 044 identified himself to his confederates, confirmed successful infestation of a host, and began discussing with Antren - the Yeerk controlling Isabella Swan and Kestil - the Yeerk controlling Alexandra Swan - how to take control of Milliways.

They had access to all my memories, all my thoughts, I think they also get any skills and abilities possessed by the person infested. They confirmed that a Yeerk controlling a Hazel wizard could use Hazel magic. The first stage of their plan was to murder all of the telepathic Elves in Milliways, since those could hear the host screaming and alert everyone. They summoned a demon, Orik Imperiused him into permitting infestation, they sent him off to commit those murders, they debated methods of infesting the other daeva present in Milliways. They couldn't think of an angle to persuade or magically compel Cam to accept infestation, they thought they could get the others.

Orik was instructed to distract Cam, and did that except when needed to Imperius people until they had arranged to have Cam arrested when dismissed. They had him dismissed, paused the worlds outside Milliways, and finished establishing control of the establishment.

I'd been speaking intermittently with Orik about what it was like to be a subject of the Yeerk Empire, what Yeerks wanted, why they did this, what they got out of it. After ten days I persuaded him to let me secretly place a circle, thereby starting time again in the affected world, in exchange for my assurance on a number of points, specifically that I would arrange for all Yeerks to have a consent-compatible and emotionally satisfying hosted relationship without any Yeerks living involuntarily in pools, that Yeerks prosecuted for their role in war crimes in their home world would be included in that access, that Yeerks would be made immortal if they wished it and have access to as much scientific and magical knowledge as was compatible with ensuring they did not again cause harm to other species, and that he could continue to control me personally until he was presented with an alternative he found satisfactory. Time started again in the paused worlds. After a while Orik's commanders noticed and scrambled to figure out what was going on. When repeated attempts to pause the worlds had failed, the Valar materialized suddenly in Milliways and freed everybody. 

...Cam had not been sure exactly when they got Timothy and now he knows.

Timothy would glance over at him apologetically but he doesn't control his eyes. 

Are you able to testify? Varda asks Butterfly quietly while questions are asked and answered about this.

I think it would be easier for her to answer questions than to produce a monologue, says Ambela.

Shudder. Nod.

The court calls Isabella Marie Swan to testify. 

How many days has it been for you, subjectively, since you encountered Milliways?

"I, I wasn't counting, maybe a week."

Can you describe how you became aware of the existence of Yeerks?

"Me and Andi were abducted by Andalites as native consultants and they told us."

And then at some point you were captured by Yeerks?

"Twice. First one let me go. Matirin went on a mission and came back infested and his Yeerk got Andi and hers got me."

How long ago was that?