"Unless you've concealed the true power of technology, I don't see what dath ilan could do for us even if a Sending reached them.  They don't have Plane Shift or a tuning fork for whatever plane we're on.  Even if we're on the same plane, they don't have Scry to get an eye on our location, nor Interplanetary Teleport to get here and evacuate us.  Am I wrong?"

Cultural Adaptation thinks that if he asks an average dath ilani for a list of people who might be able to teleport to a distant star, he's failing to blend in by doing that, and not because he should already know their names.  But this, Esta will forbear to say directly; it will be interesting information if Merrin lies.

(Not that Esta would hold that particular lie against her.  He's already expressed to her that Asmodeus might stop giving him spells, if Asmodeus sees in his mind that he has no way to get home.  Lying to him in order to create reasonable doubt about his potential return, so he keeps getting spells, would be at least slightly cunning of her, and not of itself injurious to his interests.  He would have encouraged Mariona had she shown the initiative to try such a strategem at all, against him or anyone else; trying a less obvious or more Evil plot could come later.  Unfortunately Merrin has even less chance than Mariona of beating his Sense Motive; but she might not know she wouldn't.)