"Yeah, we do do a lot of that."

"Execution is one of those things that can vary in its alignment consequences for the executioner depending on their state of mind in the process, I believe," he adds, "if you're worried about that at all I can do it, I've done it before including since Iomedae picked me up and seem acceptable at it."

"Hmm, what's the right state of mind to have?"

"You can't be acting out of a desire that they come to harm, which I suppose some people find difficult to maintain perfectly as an attitude while cutting off a person's head."

"No, I think I see it. It did already seem to me to be - inappropriate, to be acting out of personal animosity in this kind of context - like, I'm not above getting frustrated with an opponent who's hard to put down, but if I let that frustration drive my decisionmaking I'm doing my job wrong."

Nod nod.

"So I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it, but if I turn out to be wrong about that I'll ask you to step in."

"...do you want me regularly detecting your alignment to check or do you just expect to notice if you have a problem?"

"I expect to notice at the stage where I'm thinking of executing someone and I'm still annoyed with them, but I wouldn't mind you regularly detecting my alignment, either."

Nod. "Aura Sight does it all in one spell but the one-at-a-time Detects are lower circle."

"We can figure out what they're each trading off against and see when it makes sense to try them as we learn more about how your spells handle in local combat."

Nod nod.

She has been very distracted from this game and playing accordingly badly. She makes another move but it's not looking good.

His trap is ready to spring!

"Oh, nicely done."

"Thank you."

"It's interesting that I get a lot worse at chess when I'm thinking about something else, and you don't seem to at all."

"I'm better at thinking about things when I'm playing chess. Possibly only up to a point. I don't think I have ever successfully concentrated entirely on chess."

"Huh. A lot of other things to think about?"

"If there are no useful topics my mind comes up with increasingly useless ones to fill the space."

"Aha. So in theory, a sufficiently engrossing chess game could take up all your attention, you just haven't met one yet?"

"Perhaps, yes. I can get close with the four-player variant if the other players are quick enough."

"We'll see how the four-player games with Chris and Rupert turn out, then."

"Should I be aware of some reason it's desirable to have my undivided attention on a game?"

"Hmm, not necessarily, it's just interesting to me to find that sort of thing out."