"Not really ideal."

"Indeed."

"And time is kind of of the essence. I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense for me to jump again, find a place to put a disappearance site, then come back. Of course if I land somewhere that kills me then we have a problem."

"Or lands you some place like Angband. Or even some place not as bad as Angband that doesn't want to give you access to the materials for powerful foreign magic."

"What I brought with me would be enough for one more jump, although they'd have to let me use it."

"Maybe you could jump home and confirm to them that it works and is at least occasionally safe, and then there can be more than one person trying?"

"Maybe. The only people who I can think of who would likely listen to me on that are currently working on a more conservative stopgap project, though."

"You couldn't take it to your -" rulers -" and get people assigned? How does leadership work in your country -"

"Rulers. Uh, Gatesnest is an international hub. A nest of gates, if you will. It's in a state of anarchy at the moment, it was heavily contested in the war and everybody of substantial importance got killed. I could try another country but it'd look - partisan -"

"Ah huh."

"And miiiiight get me assassinated. It is not a risk free proposition."

"The King says that were it peacetime he would offer to go back with you. That would be interesting."

"Yes it would. It would not make it risk-free and I would need a lot of sheep but it might help."

"I expect it would. Regrettably we can't spare him."

"Yeah, I understand."

"Are there things you could do with extra - sheep, or whatever - to make a jump safer?"

"I can try. This is completely uncharted territory, it's kind of - I can design spells to do things but sometimes spells do not work, or do not completely work."

"How does that work?"

"The thing with all the blood and the soot is telling the destruction where to go. The fact that the spell knocked me out means I didn't have it perfect and there was some extra, and that's one of the nice side effects."

"Will it be consistent? Will you be knocked out next time also?"

"I can step it down if you can tell me how long I was out for. If I do it exactly the same way I'll get the same results though."

"I'd need words for your timekeeping."

Cor can supply these! And numbers!

Then he can tell him how long he was unconscious!

"Cool, next time I can avoid that."