He nods at the Archon’s questions.  Ah, he is doing the angel thing of worrying about a weird abstract philosophical problem!  He smiles amicably at the abstract concern no normal person would have.

A location that can only be entered by Terendelev on a good day is secure unless you end up urgently needing to leave and she is having a bad day, for example if Deskari comes back while Tanya isn't there because you left her someplace she can't leave on her own. That sounds like a really bad idea, even if Tanya trusted Terendelev without reservation.

An anti-fear spell would definitely be useful for rallying morale (and enabling suicidal charges), it's no surprise that it would be popular with people who incentivize and normalize constant fighting. "I'm not interested in any mental alterations, thank you." It's odd that he called it a 'concern', though - did he mean she'd be concerned to be in the company of battle-crazy maniacs who had their fear impulse surgically magically removed, like the fabled berserkers? Unfortunately, Tanya has spent the last few years leading men who might have been born with this defect, so she can't muster up any genuine fear about the local warmongers' suicidal impulses.

Angels are wise beyond the ken of mortal men.

“Uh, sorry, a moment.”

He’s practiced at doing this mental motion the other way, extending his aura to sketchy adventurers he wouldn’t otherwise think of as allies.

“That should do it.”

The internal mental difference is subtle, Tanya’s anxieties are just a little less under control, but it is immediately noticeable that the man no longer radiates confidence.

...

He mindcontrolled her and she didn't notice!!! The divine factions gave the locals mental contamination spells! It's as insidious as anything Being X ever did except she didn't notice because she didn't expect it, she thought she was among allies, an enemy who mind controlled her wouldn't be subtle they'd just have her kill everyone in the room but this, this - perfidy -

They could have lulled her into agreeing with anything they wanted because they have a spell that turned off part of her mind and made her irrational -

Tanya barely notices she has shot up towards the ceiling and is on maximum speedup and gathering power, the door is closed and Terendelev is in front of the door but she can make her own exit and her instincts are screaming at her to get out, it's fight or flee and she's fleeing but she could flip in an instant if that doesn't work -

But it takes a second to strengthen her barrier and shape the spell to blow the roof without burying herself under rubble and without killing everyone here and that means five subjective seconds to notice that she doesn't want to kill everyone here, which might be mindcontrol but - Jon told them to stop and he did it because he knew she hated it like every rational person would but he said it's an aura, he's doing it to everyone, habitually -

She needs local allies and if they're willing to mindcontrol her then she's already lost but if they'll stop when asked then maybe they can be negotiated with -

They still need to feel the depths of the mistake that they made, because she was this close to killing all of them and levelling this building from the inside out -

It could be mind control but she'll never be able to rule out mind control -

Tanya slowly descends from the ceiling and turns around to stare each of them in the eyes. Not with the poite face of someone excited to work together, but with a judgemental stare that makes veteran soldiers quake in their boots. (This works better on men who have an appropriate sense of who the fuck she is, but she can at least get across that she is extremely unimpressed.)

"Let me make myself perfect clear."

"You will never read or alter my mind, or countenance anyone else doing so, without my knowledge and express permission. This is not negotiable."

"I will excuse you this once. Because your 'gods' don't respect mental privacy, a fundamental human right, not even your own privacy. They gave you this spell and told you to use it all the time, and you followed orders."

"But now you know better, so I'll tell you what I told Iomedae: there will be no second warning."

He is totally undaunted by her attempt at intimidation!

“It’s not a ‘spell’ and I’ve never met any adventurers that tried to call it mind control or whatever and I think I know more than you about what Iomedae respects.”

It’s the latest part that really makes him angry. The Goddess is the only thing keeping this country together.

Her first assumption when Tanya seemed to panic was some sort of delayed stress response to combat, so she started to cast a calm emotions before stopping herself when she took half a second to think about how calm emotions works.

She addresses Brogan tensely.

“I think you should step out.  Send -“

Ser Brogan is actually usually relatively easy going as far as paladins go.  And he is well read and used to dealing with foreigners, at least much more than anyone else she can spare from the battle (Irabeth would be competent to handle this, but she is as busy as Terendelev).  She wanted a paladin because the protective grace would make them hard to get anything out of with divination.

“Actually I’ll just handle this myself I suppose.  I still want the bodyguards.”

Ser Brogan step outs.  There are two other paladins at the door, the additional bodyguards Terendelev requested.  Terendelev nods to them, and they stand away from the door.  She closes the door behind her as she turns back into the room.

She tries to pull her thoughts together.

“I’m sorry, I apparently misjudged his tact, and we genuinely hadn’t thought about how someone who had not previously encountered paladins might think about their aura of courage… he will keep his word to keep your secrets, that much I’m still sure of.”

They didn't think. They didn't think!

Tanya slowly simmers down as she reluctantly comes to believe that, indeed, they simply did not think, they followed their church instead.

Individuals should not bear the blame for systemic failures, but neither should they be left blind to them.

"A resistance to fear - a disinhibition, not unlike alcohol. It puts people at their ease, makes them trust you. It makes them agree to things they'd normally be wary of, sign up to risky plans. For example, sleeping in a less secure location than they would normally prefer, because they feel less apprehension about it. A valuable skill in negotiations, surely, in soliciting, in all social interactions."

"I imagine perhaps your society has grown so used to ubiquitous mind-influencing magic that you think this is unremarkable. Nothing to get upset over. And if you don't bespell people to trust you, you'll be at a disadvantage against less scrupulous competitors, is that so?"

"I am far from home and among literal aliens, and it behooves me to be a polite guest. I will respect your laws and your customs, I will not object to the ways you treat one another, as long as you do not impinge on my personal autonomy. Mind control does that."

"Jon informed me earlier that Iomedae told him about me a little before you called him. Because she found me interesting, and so she read my mind. It is apparently her excuse that if she didn't do it, other less friendly factions would. But she did not ask for permission. I told her that this is completely unacceptable, and it will remain unacceptable to me even if tomorrow I should find it to be the case that mind-reading is routinely performed by her priests."

"It would be quite unfair of me to hold you and your people responsible for the failings of your society or church or divine backers. I don't regret having helped you today, and I hope we can still build a working relationship even if I turn out to be a poor fit here socially. I had hoped to spend the next days learning more, under less time pressure, and I still hope this can be arranged without more unpleasant surprises for either of us."

...that said, it's something of a conundrum how to preempt all possible misunderstandings. If the aliens don't see mind-control and thought-reading as obviously wrong, what can you rely on? Do they lack the concept of private property because teleporting makes theft and trespassing trivial, or of bodily freedom because mind-controlled slaves are available for rent? Do they expect her to confess her sins daily to be a member in good standing of the church that controls healing and reincarnations? Where do you even start, when dealing with literal aliens?

“I’m sorry.  I wasn’t aware your planet didn’t have paladins.  I agree trying to obtain an advantage in negotiations with an aura of courage would be unethical.  Lastwall, I think, has more consistent training and catechism and their paladins are more careful with their aura and wouldn’t use it on a counterparty during a negotiation, or even a discussion with differing interests, without advanced permission.   Here in Mendev…”

It feels bad admitting to how her city’s Paladins are worse, but it’s true.

“A lot of things are worse here with the constant pressure of the demons.”

“And in the interests of disclosure, one of the buffs I cast on you earlier today, Heroism, is a mind-affecting enchantment.  It’s subtler and less potent than a Paladin’s aura, and more well rounded, it makes the target a little bit better at everything, notably to your case resisting mind control.  It would have worn off after 40 or 50 minutes.”

She admitted fault while saving face by blaming others outside her direct control: this is someone Tanya can understand and work with. Shifting responsibility to the church's poor training while acknowledging that of course following the true teachings of the gods would have avoided this problem is a nice touch. Terendelev is also pointing out an acceptable way for the locals to criticize the church, by comparing it to stories of what the same church is supposedly doing elsewhere. Tanya relaxes a little.

She... affected her mind earlier, by making her - think in ways that would better resist other mind control? The locals must have build up complex layers of tactic and countertactic of mind-control, just as they have for teleports. 'The side with the better mind control wins' is probably a truism here, whether in business or in war. In any case, Tanya isn't going to get worked up again about something that was done in good faith before she started complaining about it. It's in both their interests to rebuild their relationship from a clean slate.

"I understand. It was done in good faith and was quite reasonable given what you knew at the time, but please don't do it again until I understand the effects well enough to consent to them."

"Can you afford the time to explain things to me in person, or are you going to read someone else in? Or should we delay confidential discussions until later? The only things truly urgent on my end are understanding my personal security situation, reacting appropriately in case of attack or other hostile actions, and ensuring my safety later tonight when I sleep. ...I do have goals of my own to pursue, of course, though none of them seem actionable on the scale of hours, and I need to learn about this city and the rest of this planet. I would also appreciate a better understanding of the money you owe me, what I can buy with it and who from, so I can begin taking up less of your personal time; normally I would consider hiring a secretary for this but I'm not in a position to vet local people."

"I was planning on flying as over watch to support the building clearing efforts while you took a break, so I shouldn't take too long here.  This room is covered by a teleport trap that covers almost all of the cathedral.  Any attempts to teleport to it are redirected to a fortified room that acts as a kill box against intruders.  So that just leaves ground approaches, which I was hoping some degree of anonymity and the bodyguards outside could cover.  Although maybe we should risk a less secure room with a window so you have a clean path to fly out?  That would in turn allow the potential of threats flying in... do you have a clear preference?"

She looked almost ready to fly through a wall earlier, and if her defensive magic matches her offense, maybe she could.

"For sleeping tonight... do you need 8 hours of solid sleep specifically for your magic?  It's a thing for this planet's wizards.  If not, there is a spell called rope trick that creates an extradimensional space you could rest in.  I have someone with an open slot, and their rope trick would last 6 hours.  For money... Vissaliy Rathimus is a 5th circle cleric of Abadar, and would likely be a good point of contact to familiarize yourself with anyway, I will try to secure some of his time later...  But those things aren't urgent.... I've thought of some more risks of cultural clashes along the line of mind control and mind reading, nothing right this moment but I assume you want to prioritize discussing them anyway?"

She is kind of wondering what Jon was discussing and why couldn't he address these things himself but maybe he kept running into seemingly totally harmless topics that prompted Tanya to issue ultimatums and so decided to pass the conversation back to mortals.  She doesn't always get humans even after the centuries, but she can do better than many angels.  And she is one of the few people with the authority to make requests like 'don't mind read this person no matter what, yes that includes you Hulrun' and make them stick so she needs to be in the loop anyway.

If she's woken up by an attack it will take her several seconds to spin up her orb and fly out under her own power. (She's not sure she should share this fact with Terendelev yet.) If the attack is on her, personally, and she wakes up at all rather and isn't killed in her sleep or mind-controlled by surprise, and she can't take on the attacker directly, then she can fly out the door. And if the attack is on the building, being deep inside far from any windows might help her survive. ...Tanya isn't sure if the logic still holds, there's too much she doesn't know here or hasn't had time to realize.

Eight hours of solid sleep is a great job perk for someone who might otherwise be on-call, did these 'wizards' negotiate for it as a union or other class? 'I'm sorry, if you wake me up in the middle of the night my magic doesn't work and I'm useless to you' is a perfect excuse for begging off late shifts and nighttime patrols. Yes boss sir, I understand the demons are attacking but unfortunately the laws of the universe won't let me help out, I hope you all live through the night, best of luck and good night boss! She wonders if the local mages have enough bargaining power to occasionally earn a promotion to 'wizard' rank or if it's just that the 'divine' rulers restrict some spells to wizards which are too good to pass up.

Tanya is tempted to claim her magic requires eight hours' sleep and morning coffee with chocolate cake, but she probably can't maintain the ruse... Ah, well. 

"I think a deep, defensible location is preferable to a window. I don't want to rely on my instincts when I'm so unused to the available weapons and tactics, but if you also think the inner room is significantly more secure that is probably best."

"I don't strictly need eight hours of sleep to use magic but of course I get tired and sloppy without enough sleep, in magic as in everything else. I don't understand what an 'extradimensional' space is, but if there's a way to gain greater security for only six hours then I have no problem with moving once in the middle of the night. Cultural clashes are important to defuse but I can't judge how soon they might come up; I hope your experience as a multi-species civilization with interplanetary contact will be of help, but since this entire planet is strongly influenced by the same divine factions it seems likely that there are more things which hold almost universally here but not on Earth." 

‘Divine factions’ is… certainly a wording choice to describe the Gods.  Maybe her planet has a lot of tiny localized gods organized into factions?  And that is also why they don't have Paladins?  Tanya also seems to be overestimating the frequency of interplanetary contact, but that isn't urgent right now.

"I'll just focus on the points related to mind control and mind reading.  For other mind control... Bardic music can be mind affecting, it is most often used for a minor boost to allies, technically different in mechanism and thus stacking with heroism.  Most types of bardic music have a 30 foot range, so if you see someone playing an instrument on the battlefield... you can just stay away?  Heroism is the most commonly used mind-affecting spell, I suppose there are some other spells that aren't typically thought of as mind affecting because they aren't enchantments, like the spell your headband is based on?" 

She looks at Jon in case he has any ideas.

"Many spells provide a 'morale' effect despite not being primarily enchantments.  For example, the main option I had ready to counteract a dominate on Tanya that somehow got past my magic circle against evil was suppress charms and compulsions, which although it is an abjuration, subjectively feels like an immense surge of willpower.  Several other spells follow this pattern... remove sickness at 1st circle for example."

"Also, some necromancy spells can cause fear, and as a dragon I can allow my very presence to cause fear (although I think that effect might be entirely nonmagical)… just checking... you aren't so categorically opposed to mind control that you would be opposed to us using it on the demons?  At least not enough to make your aid conditional on not using it?"

Tanya continues not to understand the local schemes for classifying spells! Spells aren't thought of as mind-affecting if they're not 'enchantments', but some mind-affecting spells are 'abjurations' or 'necromancy'... Curing sickness is mind-affecting, presumably they mean mental sickness... How can Terendelev not be sure if she's using magic? - presumably if the 'gods' are doing it for her, what an interventionist bunch they are...

Luckily, it doesn't seem to matter too much at the moment. She's starting to suspect Jon is the kind of magic nerd engineer who'll keep bringing up technical details in a management meeting even if they're not decision-relevant.

"I'm not opposed to using mind control on enemies. ...clarification, I'm not opposed to using mind control in order to kill them more safely or efficiently if you were going to kill them anyway, or to pursue other legitimate goals. Using it on people you're not fighting constitutes an attack, in my view."

"...although, if you've taken over someone's mind, can that oblige you to make them surrender and take them prisoner instead of killing them? I should learn the laws of war followed here but that is probably not urgent."

“That all makes sense.  Lastwall has a sophisticated definition of what formally counts as a surrender… this is something of a non-urgent tangent because even Lastwall doesn’t offer or accepts surrenders from demons or their cultists under most circumstances.”

“There is one more common use of compulsions I forgot to mention, truth spells.  They prevent the target from telling a lie.  Abadar grants a first circle version to his clerics because it is such an advantage to business dealings and negotiations to be able to confirm your counterparty’s honesty.  If you went to an Abadaran with your story, they would likely want you to accept a truth spell under which you would confirm key aspects of it.”

Ah, a sophisticated definition that excludes the enemy they're actually fighting. Well, if 'demons' are stateless hordes that don't take prisoners of their own that they can exchange, and if they only present a problem when a city's wardstone fails, then it might not ever make sense to take them prisoners... This is speculation, and doesn't apply to her anyway.

'Cultists' sound like the followers of disapproved-of churches. Bleh. Tanya will do her best to stay out of the interfactional squabbles that the locals are encouraged to code as religious enmity. Wars of religion are bad enough when they're not being encouraged by beings playing at being the different sides' gods.

'Truth spells' sound enormously useful as long as you can confirm a truth spell is what they're casting, but look, they'll swear to it under a truth spell! - no, that's not far, the locals presumably do have ways to identify spells and even Tanya might be able to learn to do so... in a non-adversarial environment, anyway, her orb wasn't built for this. Hmm.

"Truth spells sound extremely socially useful if everyone involved can be sure that's the exact and only magic being used. I, uh, imagine you have ways to ensure this? Do you routinely conduct all important business under truth spell?"

Do they require it of politicians? Negotiators representing their offerings, corporations submitting taxes, making representations to regulators or being inspected - so much extra work and lossage could be saved if you could just take people at their word because they couldn't knowingly lie - 

...accused and witnesses in court? The judges themselves, swearing they uphold the law fairly? News anchors breaking a story, leading by swearing to an unbroken chain of truth-spells all the way to the original sources? What societal ill  couldn't you solve with a truth spell -

oh.

...this is why they developed the memory-editing spells, isn't it.

“Experienced spellcasters can identify spells by their verbal and somatic components.  And Abadar would take the powers away from any cleric of his that tried lying about what spell they were using in that sort of way.  And Abadar’s variant of truth spell has a clear and distinct visual indication that it is working correctly.  This is getting into a tangent, is there anything about this that is urgent?  If not I’ll move onto everything I can think of that is mind-reading adjacent.”

"Sorry, it's not urgent." Tanya just wants to know how this place works so she can figure out how to interact and eventually fit in but no, it's not urgent compared to an ongoing battle.

"The easiest and most direct way of properly reading minds is the second circle spell detect thoughts.  Clerics and paladins don't get detect thoughts, but inquisitors can get it, and Mendevian law is not entirely consistent on exactly how they may use it."  

She winces slightly.

"The inquisition is not actually under my command, but I'll personally get their word not to use it on you or else warn you they refused so you can leave.  They don't exactly have many second circle spell slots to spare anyway, although with the unusual circumstances you appeared under Hulrun will likely want to question you."

Hulrun is really not going to be happy about not being allowed to have her mind read, but 'single-handedly stopped the demon's attack' should be enough to silence even his complaints.

"Wizards can prepare detect thoughts, but we don't have a lot of them in this city, the few we have powerful enough to use detect thoughts are in the Eagle Watch, under Irabeth's command.  I plan on informing her about you anyway and she should definitely recognize that as a reasonable request and comply with it."

Considering that Tanya thinks of a paladin's aura as mind control Terendelev really needs to think about a wide definition of mind reading.

"But, there is another spell like ability, that is clearly legal to use, can be used at will without using spell slots, and although it isn't mind reading might be construed as excessively privacy invasive by you?  It is alignment detection.  Did Jon explain alignment?  Actually Jon mentioned he cast nondetection on you earlier so it probably won't come up right away, but maybe I should explain now anyway, this seems like it might be a sensitive subject."