He nods. "Rather than continuing to take up this administrative space, would you like to retire to my office? It has a greater degree of privacy, comfortable chairs, and no one to feel awkward about our presence."

"I don't mind."

He nods, and there is a slightly louder cracking noise, and then the two of them are in a tastefully decorated office with several comfortable chairs. He sits down in one of the ones not behind the desk.

She sits too.

"Can you tell me more about the Valar?"

"Have you heard any of what I told Odette and Illia?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"There are magical beings in my world and most of them are Maiar and the fifteen largest and most powerful are called Valar. One is not in good standing due to war crimes in our history's only war, and is imprisoned by the others. They have specialties, although some of them have more relevance than others - Mandos for instance specializes in the dead and can reembody people, from chips if they survive or from backups sent from the chips if the chip is physically destroyed. They are psychologically different from incarnates in many ways but have learned to accommodate incarnate needs and are very useful."

He nods thoughtfully.

"Given what you've learned of this planet so far, what would you expect them to want to do if asked to help?"

"Apparently you die for no reason. That's stupid."

He smiles lopsidedly. "It rather is, yes."

"So I think they'd fix that, but I don't know much else about what would need doing."

He nods. "There is, unfortunately...something of a complication."

"Oh?"

"What have you been told of my status as a Great Mage?"

"There's some threshold of magical capacity that one crosses to receive the title. It is somewhere past being able to fly."

"That much is true.

All the Great Mages in the world form the Council of Magi. Five hundred years ago, all but three were killed."

"How?"

"Do you wish for me to tell you how things are as the general public believes it, and then clear up any falsehoods, or explain the truth and then the misapprehensions?"

"The second, please."

"Alright," he says. "Three Great Mages didn't survive; four did. I escaped, altered my appearance, hid my power level--not something everyone knows how to do, even all Great Mages--and assumed a false identity; I am many centuries older than is commonly believed. The three known to have survived murdered the others and have been quietly picking off anyone who looked like they were going to be both able and inclined to upset the status quo."

"I see."

"I created Genosha to--ah. Had it yet been brought to your attention that the city is flying?"

"...no."

"There are rules against mages as rulers that I managed to circumvent by creating a flying city instead of occupying a preexisting territory."