Is it even worth it, given the stakes of his work with Carissa? He's...not sure. But it's not, actually, an option not to do his job. He's sworn and compulsioned to be loyal to the Empire and the Emperor, and that means doing his job, which means that if he was distracted and slipped up then it's on him to clean up the mess.

(And there are a lot of thoughts he can't think all the way through, with the compulsions in place. Maybe an Owl's Wisdom would help, but he doesn't have that. He has his Glibness pin and his headband for Splendor and those are - what he needs, to address this problem - just not what he needs to figure out if it's the right problem to be focusing on at all.) 

It's all right, Carissa has a Teleport and fifty pounds of hidden spellsilver and his notes on immortality research, and even in the worst case scenario he can probably find her again in time

Two days after his departure, he passes a message back via the mages' communication-spell relay. They're going to escalate, in terms of how hard they're trying to root out the underground resistance. He needs a Thoughtsenser; he's requesting Ellitrea, who has the relevant experience. 

....Ellitrea is going to warn Carissa about this, obviously. 

(Carissa is working on...something secret...and Merda has not actually briefed her on it. She might ask Merda separately before she leaves, in case it's relevant.) 

:Do you have questions?: 

Why Altarrin bothers with this stupid thing that's pretty obviously a distraction which may in fact have been engineered to stop the more important project (Carissa's).

She doesn't say that. :No.:

Ellitrea is dubious about that, but also it's - not really her problem, right now. 

- she'll check with Merda too, before she heads out. 

:Altarrin needs me in the south - there is a problem with their stupid religious underground resistance, I think, and he's decided they need to find and kill everyone involved so he needs a Thoughtsenser on site. - I think Carissa is upset about it. I am not sure if she is worried about his safety - I am not, he is careful, right - or just...feeling neglected. But I think it would be good if someone were - looking out for her, while we are away: 

Pause.

:- Also she is - working on that secret project? I am not sure if that is - relevant to Altarrin's work in Taymyrr - but if so I would like to know the relevant pieces: 

:She's trying to seduce the Emperor.: says Merda flatly. :I don't think it's related.:

:She is - what - nevermind. Do you think she still wants personal updates from Altarrin? He - does care about her, I think, to the extent he cares about anyone, he would pay some cost to get private messages to her, but - not if she would not even benefit: 

: - I don't know. I think she's - disengaged emotionally. He should maybe not try to deal with that until he's actually back.:

:All right:

...She's still going to have to find a good moment to tell Altarrin that Carissa is trying to seduce the Emperor, for some reason, isn't he only interested in boys– still not the priority right now. 

She heads out for her Gate down south. 

Caris is very very good looking, in the mold of the Emperor's previous lovers, and younger-looking than Carissa, perhaps twenty. Merda gets him approved for a job as a messenger, grumbling all the while even though in the course of doing so she doesn't actually misrepresent anything at all. Caris needs to duck into somewhere quiet and cast Tongues every now and again, but he considers this an acceptable risk because no one scries random messengers, they'd need mage-sight to see anything, and he still pretends to use an 'artifact' in case anyone is watching and puts him together with Carissa. 

She feels substantially better, actually, even though the plan has yet to bring Caris into the Emperor's presence and even though he has no idea how to flirt as a man. 

Well, Merda can solve one of those problems. (Not the flirting one.) Here's an assignment for Caris to carry some furniture into the Emperor's meeting rooms. He'd better be very strong.

He is!!!

The Emperor is there!

(Well, not in the exact room, he doesn't really like being around when servants are moving his things, but he's in the adjacent room and the door is open.) 

He's sprawled in a chair with a notebook propped on his knee, and is writing in it while absently humming to himself under his breath. 

- he might at some point glance up and look at whoever's fixing his meeting-room. 

Caris who was definitely not trying to catch a glimpse of the Emperor will look at the ground just slightly too slowly to not get caught. And will then bow very deeply, of course. He would kneel but he's still holding this piece of furniture. No, there's no good reason he hasn't put it on the ground yet. 

(Carissa is mostly hoping that the requisite level of flirtation skill here will be low.)

His gaze pauses on him, briefly, and moves on. He has work to do. 

...he's definitely still paying a lot of attention to Caris, even if he's mostly not looking in that direction except for brief glances. 

(It's probably someone's plot - it nearly always is, when a beautiful young man shows up near him - and this doesn't bother him, exactly, but it does make him more inclined to hang back, wait and see what he'll do next.) 

Is Caris bold enough to address the Emperor uninvited? ....no, Caris is not. Where Caris is from, you definitely just get tortured to death, for that, and while he's aware that's not how it works here this awareness has not made its way to all of the body parts that would have to coordinate on a plan like that. He'll just place the furniture, and be caught staring, and then depart. Slowly enough one could call after him.

The Emperor sets aside his notebook and stands, when it looks like Caris is on his way out. 

- He stops at the threshold of the meeting-room. Hesitates. "I don't believe we've met. What's your name?" 

He very gracefully kneels. "Caris, your majesty, of no family. At your service."

(Up close, the Emperor is visibly younger than Altarrin, though of course much older than Caris – he looks a well-preserved forty (though Caris knows that he's a mage, a powerful one - the Emperor usually is - and, assuming he's using magic to delay aging and extend his life, he's probably in fact older). He's very handsome, and clearly takes good care of himself. He's a small man, slim and compact, fit but not excessively muscular, and probably actually shorter than Caris though it's hard to tell for sure while kneeling. He's well dressed, in a richly embroidered velvet tunic; the deep jewel-green is very flattering. His jet-black hair is streaked with silver at the temples.) 

...Hmm. The young man is even more handsome up close, he's– someone clearly handpicked him to perfectly fit the Emperor's taste. He's nervous, which is unfortunate; that's the sort of thing that one is sort of supposed to find appealing, but actually it's a huge turnoff, and unfortunately you can't just tell a page from a lowborn family - maybe newly arrived in the capital, too, he has an excellent memory for faces and doesn't think he's ever seen Caris before - to relax and be more confident, when you're the Emperor. It doesn't work, though usually enough wine does the trick. 

- does the young man want him, separate from presumably wanting to please or impress whoever arranged for him to be attractively hauling furniture in front of the Emperor. It's - an inconvenient trait, to want his lovers to be not just attracted to him - (that part is fine by itself, he knows that he's still attractive - it shouldn't be a sacrifice to be endured, to sleep with him, like it would be with some wrinkled potbellied governor) - but also bold and even maybe a little impertinent. 

(He's going to pursue it anyway, probably, that's nearly always where he ends up landing, it's still flattering and it's still a few nights of pleasure, a perk of his position that he's not going to just turn down. But it's - emptier, when he can tell that someone wants to advance their position or pay back a favor more than they want him.) 

"New at court?" he says, casually. "- You may rise, it's not a rule that you need a good view of my nostrils while we speak." 

He rises. "I can't say I've been here all that long, your majesty." He's already made up his mind never to outright lie to the Emperor; that would just be stupid.

It’s a measured, careful response, one that leaves you with the feeling that there’s a lot more going on behind the young man’s (gorgeous) eyes. Huh. Maybe this one will be interesting. 

“Have we overawed you terribly? One does get used to it, but I’m sure it’s a lot to get used to.”

What even is a truthful answer to that. "They say to never meet your heroes, but it's worked out well for me so far." Do they even say that here, or does it mark her as foreign. It's not even a Chelish saying; it's an adventurer one. Well, being mysterious is often an advantage.

...Maybe not as intimidated as he thought? The young man has poise, which he appreciates, because while it may be straightforwardly true that the Emperor could trivially order the death of anyone as unimportant as a lowborn page, while at the same time literally everyone in the palace is compulsioned to be directly loyal to him, it still kind of ruins the mood when he can tell someone is thinking about that the entire time. 

Meeting his heroes, hmm? That could be a hint that seducing an Emperor is among his fantasies and not just - a chore for someone else - or it could be about someone or something else entirely. Though Caris genuinely doesn't seem surprised or disappointed by what life at court is really like, at least as far as Bastran can tell – the idealistic youngsters usually are. 

(If the phrase marks Caris as foreign, the Emperor isn't letting it on.) 

"Well, but have you met our musicians? I haven't seen you at the concerts." (And he attends nearly all of them.) 

"I can't say anyone has extended me an invitation."

"Well. Tomorrow night, and consider this an invitation if your schedule allows it." 

He's pretty sure he knows what game is being played here, at this point - and that he's up for it. (Where do they find these people? Caris isn't just physically perfect, he's also - intriguing.) He's not going to be the first to escalate, though. It would be one thing if he actually had to chase someone, but he doesn't, and it's just undignified to be the one inviting a man into his bed, when he's fully aware that anything he says is more or less an order.

(His bed – or his study, or the library, he's finding himself in the mood to be uncomfortably pinned to a bookshelf like that one time, and Caris might be bold enough for that -) 

Anyway, waiting a day seems only fair, he should give the young man - time to get his head in order - he's pretty sure he isn't wrong that Caris was scared, even if he's now hiding it beautifully. And he can use that time to...get used to the idea. 

(And maybe ask a few questions about Caris– no, he'll delegate that to his secretary, who will be responsible and make sure this isn't a hostile plot, but he doesn't really want to put his spies and Thoughtsensers on this, that also ruins the mood.)