The mage will lead him to the tower's Gate-room, where 

an Adept is waiting.

"Hello." He nods equally politely to Leareth and the mage.

"Proconsul." He bows slightly.

Leareth wishes he could remember exactly how that title is used, not that his memory of how things worked in Jacona a few centuries ago would necessarily even help here; he can guess that it's not a role affiliated with the Ministry of Cults, which is probably a good thing, but he's not even sure of that. He wishes he had Thoughtsensing - not that it would get him anywhere right now, the Adept is presumably shielded, but he might at least be able to read a servant's mind at some future point and make inferences off their reactions to the people involved. He wishes it was easier to stop being pointlessly distressed, it's not like it's helping. 

He bows to the Adept as well, and waits. 

The mage leaves.

"- You're almost certainly not in trouble," he says as soon as the mage is out of earshot. "If you don't have a magic secret for beating compulsions, 'being immortal' isn't a crime and you aren't part of any illegal cults, and if you do have a magical secret for beating compulsions we are far too curious to punish you instead of asking you how."

Leareth was really not expecting that response! He doesn't understand what this Adept thinks he has to gain from being reassuring to a random child being held prisoner - and it's differently confusing if they're taking the claim of immortality seriously rather than assuming the most likely case is that he's insane, someone who's really immortal is in much less need of reassurance than if he were really just thirteen-year-old Dalan. It's not something he expects of the Empire for people in power to be thoughtful and compassionate just because they want to. ...It's probably a good sign, it's just that it's more confusing than reassuring. 

Also it's not as though not having done anything illegal means that they're going to let him leave the Empire. 

He nods without saying anything. 

It's not so much that they're taking the claim of immortality seriously as it is that if he's mad then he's also not in trouble.

Seiran will fix his compulsions so they're minimally disruptive (but still keep him from murdering anyone, breaking out, lying to people asking him questions, et cetera), open a mid-range Gate, and through this Gate take Leareth to a mildly comfier room. (If he is insane, they aren't blowing budget on it - just some time.)

"Feel free to take a moment."

Still surprisingly considerate and thoughtful in a confusing way! 

Leareth wishes he had any idea where they are, geographically, but it's not like it would be very informative even if he saw a map. It's not even clearly relevant to anything, he just feels disoriented and hates it. Staring at the shielding on the walls with mage-sight helps, a little. 

He's not going to be in control of the situation, that's unrealistic to aim or hope for, but he can at least try to steer at all. Leareth takes a deep breath. 

"- I have information that I predict you would find valuable, and - goals that overlap at least somewhat with the Empire's, particularly when it comes to gods." What kind of reaction does that get? 

(Externally, he doesn't so much look calmer as more deliberately controlled. He's holding himself very still in an unchildlike way.) 

Seiran is very good at not giving away important information when people say weird things!

"I'll let Avannar know." This is not particularly evidence that the kid isn't mad, but his body language at least suggests it. "Do you need water, food, the privy, anything..." There's definitely been some time to run around in circles since the last time he was interviewed.

"Not urgently." Leareth is wishing desperately that he had any idea who Avannar is. ...Well, it probably won't make anything worse to just ask. "Who is Avannar, if you do not mind saying? And - where are we -?"

(Leareth would normally have more of a guess at least of how far they've come, but he isn't currently calibrated enough on this body's mage-sight to be able to judge Gate-distance at a glance. The Adept didn't seem tired, which is some evidence they didn't Gate all the way to Jacona in one go, but they teach more efficient Gate-techniques in the Empire...) 

"The Count of Avannar is the imperial official overseeing your case, and we're in his mansion.*"

(*: A poor translation because there isn't a good one; think "governor's mansion". The chief rival choice for translation was "headquarters.")

...Leareth has no idea if that's good news, of course, which is probably what he should have expected, he's sufficiently disoriented here that it's hard to put new information in context enough for it to help.

He nods politely, though. "Thank you." He does appreciate that the Adept is trying to be helpful. It's confusing, but it makes it slightly easier to ignore the impossible-to-accomplish visceral desire to be alone in a records cache instead of trapped here. He...is still maybe not going to attempt any more deliberate steering until he has more of a sense of what their default plan is. 

He'll nod at the thanks, then say, "I'll be back shortly" and give him a few minutes to recover.

Leareth has no idea how long they're planning to leave him here, which makes it hard to use the time for recovery!

He'll sit down and - try to think through how to give as clear an explanation as possible, if it turns out their approach is just to sit him down and ask him to explain. Clearly they have enough leverage here to drag everything out of him one way or another - well, everything he remembers, it's perhaps actually convenient how much detail he's missing on the operational aspects of his plan to invade Valdemar - but they might give him some leeway to decide how to explain and in what order, which he clearly shouldn't waste. (Though it's hard to focus on planning for the best case scenario while also trying to be emotionally prepared for the kind of interrogation where they keep him maximally off-balance the entire time...) 

...He could also just decide to explain badly on purpose, if for some reason he wants them to conclude that he's insane. He...probably doesn't want that...? It only feels tempting because it might be a way to end up with less attention-from-powerful-people directed at him while he's in an especially powerless position, but it doesn't get him out of the Empire - eventually he'll have an opportunity, but not now, maybe not for months or years - and, right now, he needs to focus on that...

After a few minutes he'll be taken to another room. It's not an interrogation cell, it's wholly comfortable, with a couch and two chairs and a third behind a desk, and watered wine.

Sitting behind the desk is a white-haired man of unknown age, very shielded. He's clearly some kind of Imperial official, and almost certainly an Adept. "Dalan? Please sit down."

So they're playing nice, at least to start out. Is that...good? It's maybe a sign that they're going to be polite about the questioning, which means more of a chance to steer, but it's bizarrely hard to feel even slightly reassured by that.

Why - it's - just that steering for "being believed and taken seriously" does not necessarily accomplish the thing he wants here. And might instead result in, for example, ending up under even tighter compulsions while they force him to try to set up immortality for the Emperor. Or something. Leareth can't remember any facts whatsoever about the current Emperor and he hates this. 

It would be - safer, probably, and certainly more predictable - to focus on giving away as little as he can, keeping his full capabilities to himself, if he steers for being underestimated then they're more likely to leave him an opening later. It goes against all of his instincts, to be upfront and offer more than he has to with someone who is probably his enemy, if not inherently then at least because of his own compulsions of loyalty to the Emperor. 

It went against his instincts with Vanyel, too.

...He sits down. 

"I am guessing you would like an explanation," he says levelly. "I think it will go fastest if you allow me to explain in order." He can probably manage to do that coherently. The internal screaming isn't that loud. 

"That seems logical." He's under compulsions to not lie, right? Right. Let's hear the narrative.

(Janos is desperately curious. Half of him expects this to be - a diversion? A decoy? Something to keep him busy, while the boy is in fact insane? And most of the other half is expecting disappointment, but there's - he wants to know what is in fact happening.)

Seiran is also curious, but less so. Janos knows what he's doing.

Leareth takes a deep breath. 

"It is true that my name is Dalan and my body is thirteen years old, but - that has only been true since yesterday. I was originally born before the Cataclysm; my soul is nearly two thousand years old and I have had many names. My immortality contingency means that, while my body can be killed, my soul will be preserved in the Void-between-Gates until it can return and claim the body of one of my - my first incarnation's - mage-gifted blood descendants, the first time they use a fire spell. ...The spell itself is not replicable, I am fairly sure I tried extensively, it seems the gods were opposed to it. And to my work in general. Also it has the disadvantage of killing children, obviously."  

Another breath. "I know I was involved in founding the Empire. I am going to be at a disadvantage in proving it - the immortality spell has several other disadvantages and one of them is that I imperfectly retain memories between different bodies - but I do keep much of my skill with magic, and I invented many of the techniques used in the Empire." Not that he can demonstrate that right now, for multiple reasons including 'compulsions' and his mage-gift being barely there. "I - moved on, centuries ago, to - work more directly against the gods. But I suspect we have many goals in common." 

Aaaaaaaaaaah internal screaming What kind of reaction is this getting, so far? 

Seiran is behind him, so Leareth can't see his face.

Avannar looks calm. 

"That sounds improbable," he says. "In particular, most of it seems unfalsifiable. Your void-anchoring spell can only be tested by death, so we couldn't test it even if you could replicate it, and if your memories are poor after eight hundred years, we can't determine how well your past life's memories line up with verifiable events, nor, say, compare your exegesis of classical texts with those of reputed scholars. Possibly you could distinguish between real and fraudulent works, written in the classical style? But that would be very easy to get past with a knack for words, which most likely you have..."

He should be able to find a records cache if they're willing to give him access to local maps, but that's - an awful lot to give away, he won't have any control of what they do with it once he gives them access - the really sensitive records will be in cipher but he can't be sure that the full resources of the Empire couldn't find a way around that, if they were taking it seriously - he doesn't know how likely it is that this man will take it seriously even to the extent of Gating to a shortlist of a few places he can identify on maps as probable records caches... 

He convinced Vanyel but he doesn't remember how, there are maybe a dozen Foresight dream conversations he remembers clearly but mostly from much, much later... 

He probably does remember more about his past in the Empire than it currently feels like, it's just that he comes back without handles to a lot of his memories, the process of reviewing his records often prompts him to remember facts, if not the episodic memories themselves...

"It is difficult to prove from my current position," he says, agreeably enough. "I think the gods intended - well, I am not sure how precisely They could steer any of this, but I think the entire point was for me to be - stuck. ...I suspect I can more easily demonstrate that I know things a that a young noble's bastard with a newly-awakened Gift ought to have no way of knowing, and then you can decide if it is worth your while to try to verify the more specific claims? I can cast complex conditional compulsions, which I think is still an advanced curriculum item here? But it would be understandable if you did not want to loosen my compulsions to let me do that." I could -" what else can he cast with his absurdly weak current Gift, "- I could lay shielding against Farsight or Fetching or other very rare mind-gifts, though not very quickly and I would be exhausted. I should be able to write out the standard spell notation for a number of secret spells, and cast any that have sufficiently low power requirements, if you preferred to come up with tests yourself." 

You can build new shields against Farsight?

(Janos is very practiced in not flinching when someone brings up Farsight.)