If someone had shown up during your war claiming to be you how would you have reacted.

<...I would have been very suspicious, I think. Probably I would want to go in their head and see for myself, if I could arrange to do that safely.> 

And he won't have that option. Though he has the magic mind control.

<And some people here have permanent Detect Thoughts, though I am not sure if he is one of them. ...Anyway, it seems unwise to startle him, given that he is under threat and is probably feeling very paranoid.> 

I definitely have enough to go off for a Sending. I - guess we should think through what happens if - we contact this Ma'ar and we're - wrong and he's not a you, or he's very like you but not in a way that'd make him safe to work with - I don't know if that's possible or if it'd be too unlike you -

<I am tempted to say that would be too unlike me, but - it would not be implausible for a me to react with hostility if he believed we were much more powerful than him and he was unsure of our intentions. And - he will badly want to be in control of the situation, which he might attempt to get by kidnapping us. I would prefer to avoid that.> 

Yeah. 

So what are our options. We could just - surrender to the Predain forces somewhere, explain, hope they take us to him, hope he's not hostile then because he's in control but - if we were wrong about anything we're pretty screwed, at that point, because of the mind-control...

We could do a Sending and go hang out very far away where he can't do anything other than respond. 

We could gather more information - are your people getting anywhere on infesting a mage voluntarily, if we know how the mind control works I'd be less nervous about doing the first plan...

<...I think the first plan should be a last resort, if it seems that the situation is worsening or escalating further. I would prefer to wait until we know more, but it seems my people are having a difficult time in the Haighlei Empire; they have extremely strict controls on their mages, all of them are taken away from their families in early childhood and raised as part of an elite priesthood of some kind, this makes it hard to determine who they can try recruiting without leaking the secret to the entire rest of the priesthood.> 

Huh. We could try some other place? Back in Seej, or, I don't know, are there civilizations on the other side of the planet?

<I was thinking of sending them to try the opposite coast, on the east side, it is very far away and it does not appear that Teleport is widely available here, so probably there is not much communication between that region and Tantara or Predain.> 

That sounds good. Do we have good enough information on both sides to guess if the war's about to escalate and we need to intervene more - I bet they can't detect electronics, we can't...

<I have the ship monitoring the planet closely for any change on the magic sensors, which might give us some warning; I can have the ship fly in a lower orbit at regular intervals to get closer sensor coverage on Predain and Tantara specifically. And, no, I do not think they can detect electronics. I am thinking about where we can place some concealing recording devices; we probably want it to be at a military location, but a less important one, so it is not as risky to infiltrate.> 

Nod. I could Dimension Door invisibly in from the ship, drop something, and Dimension Door right back out, but we'd want to check first that they don't have trap-spells that'd stop me leaving...I could go in as a bird, I think the locals can't do that so their defenses probably aren't meant for it...

<I would definitely be concerned about trap-spells. Going in as a bird seems safer, and we could try to arrange it so that you would not need to land - maybe you could drop it, disguised as a pebble or some other innocuous object. Or we could send a drone, but I am not sure we can convincingly disguise one as a local bird.> 

I'm willing to drop pebbles as a bird. Not over the city Ma'ar is in because I've been kidnapped by yous enough, and not over the city Urtho's in because he sounds very scary, but - outlying installations, sure. If we've observed other birds to fly in and out of them and not die of it.

<All right. We will obtain sensor coverage of some facilities and their local wildlife, and if birds can come and go safely then we will go ahead with that plan. Though I would be more comfortable if we were first able to test whether your protective items or the wig block the local Detect Thoughts - actually, how do those interact with being a bird -?>

You can Polymorph with your clothes but they won't protect you from mindreading. Nondetection should still work to the extent it's working against these people in the first place. 

<Unfortunately I am not sure we can afford to delay getting the recording devices in place while we wait for my people to try recruiting on the eastern coast. I suppose you can stay out of Detect Thoughts range and descend only very briefly.> 

If we had a better wizard here we could have a Contingent Teleport back to the ship that functions even if I'm unconscious. Frustrated sigh. I guess maybe if I do enough espionage I'll level eventually.

<Maybe. All we can do until then is be careful.> 

It's still only noon, so they can get some more shuttle footage of outlying military barracks in both countries and pick a candidate spot in each to drop some sneaky recording devices disguised as pebbles. 

She prepares Beast Shape so she can turn into a bird. Better to not be an invisible bird, right, in case that trips sensors...

<I think so, yes.> And he reluctantly concedes that Carissa should go alone; it would be worse if they both went and then got caught, even if it's more upsetting somehow to imagine Carissa being captured alone. 

Plus she's not actually sure what would happen if she Polymorphed herself with him in her head. You can abort a pregnancy that way which doesn't suggest good things for Yeerks. 

Once they've seen some birds pass through unmolested, she turns into a goose of a kind she's seen in the area, takes a pebble in her beak, and exits the shuttle in the middle of the air. She has eight minutes.

They're hitting Tantara first; it's a supply warehouse of some kind, south of the shielded Tower and the region around the capital currently under Predain's control. The building itself has magical shielding but there isn't any additional shield over the whole area. There aren't very many people around and none of them seem to be interested in birdwatching. 

- There is, however, some sort of large stone-and-crystal freestanding archway, and a few uniformed staff are hauling and stacking crates up in front of it, for unclear reasons. 

That's fascinating and probably the ship cameras are on it. She tries to not-think, it's not much of a defense against Detect Thoughts which will make it instantly apparent she's of human intelligence but it's not nothing. Flyflyflyfly pebble drop flyflyflyfly back around to the shielded ship.