- and there it is, more evidence for the hypothesis that Cheliax manages to be even worse than the current (deplorable) state of the Empire, in terms of - permitting and rewarding its most talented mages and scholars and leaders in actually thinking through plans and coming up with ones that work, in actually trying to understand the world, and discover things that no one else has before...

"I think that would be of incredible value to us - if it were needed, I would use my own influence to make sure you are given the resources you need and left undisturbed to work on that, but I think it will not be needed, because the value will be obvious. ...Can you make the other magical artifacts you carry? The ring that replaces food, or the bag that is bigger on the inside?" 

"I haven't made a Bag of Holding but I could. I haven't trained in rings at all - it's a separate problem topologically - but it's probably not very difficult to learn." Making magic items is never really all that difficult. She'd be tempted to pretend it was, so he'd be impressed, except he's reading her mind.

(He's not the one reading her mind, though from her perspective that doesn't matter - he still wishes, entirely pointlessly, that she could have picked better timing and arrived in this world when his current incarnation did have Thoughtsensing. He's a lot better at it than Ellitrea, it's not her fault, no one who isn't centuries old can be expected to match him, but he's sure that he isn't getting everything, and could be getting a lot more from her–)

She's unusually competent at artifact work, relative to the expectations of her society and teachers. That much comes through clearly. And it seems like a lucky coincidence - or not-coincidence, as the case may be, he still doesn't understand most of what's going on here. 

"I think all of that would be of enormous value to the Empire," he says. "Though I would also wish to spend some time on research, and seeing how our two worlds' different kinds of magic might best combine." 

"I'll need spellsilver - I know which ores it can be refined from, and how to refine it - and a quiet workspace, and, if the Emperor does not prefer I sell everything directly to him, a rule of who I'm permitted to sell it to, and what share of my profits I am permitted to own in my own right," assuming perhaps optimistically this is a place where women can own things and a place where non-nobles can own things, but may as well set high expectations.

"Of course! We can provide a summary of the Empire's property law and the usual systems for entrepreneurs - I am sure the Emperor would be happy to pay you directly for your work, and probably very well, but it is not mandatory and you ought know all of your options. ...Remind me, how long will your translation magic last, and does it also allow you to read written text? We will probably need to find a better solution long-term, we can use Thoughtsensers as a stopgap measure but they are rare here." 

"I don't know your time system but we've used maybe a fifth of it. I can prepare enough Tongues to mostly get through the day if you return my headband to me" too pushy? well, the only way to find out is to get lit on fire sometimes, "but can't make it permanent until I'm much more powerful."

Nod. "It certainly seems that returning your headband would improve your effectiveness in almost all areas, and especially those which are likely to be most valuable to the Empire. I think - I hope - that it is in both of our interests for you to have that, but since our world does not know of this magic, we have no way to know what else it might do. Could you explain in more depth how the intelligence-enhancing magic works?" 

(He's smiling slightly, now. The difference is quite notable.) 

Is he mocking her? Carissa loves Abrogail very much and also if Abrogail were smiling like that at someone they would be about to have a very bad day. 

"It enhances what we call Intelligence or Cunning - the mental quality necessary for magic. It makes it easier to add long strings of numbers in your head, or anticipate the way a spell will balance, or remember a conversation, or use some dath ilani techniques I've been trained in."

That’s intriguing. (And the fact that she can make more of them is - well, it’s definitely going to change a lot of things.) 

“What sort of dath ilani ‘techniques’ are you referring to here? Techniques for doing what?”

She'd really rather not speak of most of what they can do, 'being a heretic' is not a valued skillset, most places. "For developing better spellsilver manufacturing techniques."

(Ellitrea, of course, relays this anyway.)

In fact, Altarrin wants to know everything about the 'techniques' - mental techniques, based on the thoughts that Ellitrea was picking up, exercises for thinking differently, thinking better according to dath ilani tastes but the woman currently feels that it's a worse way of thinking, here in this place. She doesn't trust him, which is honestly sensible of her, so he doesn't want to keep pressing yet, but it seems like - probably the key to why she has such a rare degree of ambition.

It seems plausible that exposure to dath ilan, through this 'Keltham', is what made her the kind of person who would plot to conquer a god and fix His domain. 

"I see," he says, and then gestures at one of the guards. "Return her things. The bag as well, please."

Carissa will have her headband and Bag of Holding back thirty seconds later! 

"I do expect I will wish to study them later," Altarrin says, "but you need not remove the headband for that." 

In fact, watching with mage-sight, does anything change with the headband - or with what he can see of Carissa's life-force - when she dons it again? 

There's nothing especially visible to mage-sight; to Thoughtsensing, it's fairly obvious that she's thinking more, faster, that there's more going on in her head. It makes her harder to read; more of her thoughts are quick-passing internal references to concepts she's not bothering to unpack.

She's letting herself think a little more, now. It's a bad idea to act on ambitious plans formed while her capacities were substantially diminished. It's now a good idea to act on ambitious plans if they serve the Archmage-General, and of course because she is obedient all her plans will serve him, so long as she knows what that means. 

If the Empire doesn't have arcane magic but it works here it's going to transform everything very quickly; she should figure out how much she gets to steer that. It'll also easily enable the Empire to conquer any neighbors; she should arrange, if it's safe, to get some of the benefits of that. 

Ellitrea relays this. Altarrin thinks that it's very impressive. 

"Well. I think our next steps here are for you to speak to one of our experts on magical theory, to explain your magic and ask whatever questions you have about ours. Unfortunately, I need to return to my usual duties."

Last night's work, fortunately not urgent on the scale of candlemarks but definitely urgent on the scale of days, is still abandoned on his desk. It wasn't the worst timing that could have happened, but it wasn't ideal either. 

"We will arrange for you to have a guest room here in the Palace," he says. "Do you need anything else, to be comfortable here and able to work at your best?" 

No? Yes? If she knew the set of things a person needs to operate in a Palace and not get shattered or executed in the space of two weeks then she'd probably be equipped to handle it! Is she his? Is she the Emperor's? Are they Keltham-ing her, pretending this is a lovely safe place where nothing bad will happen, she should just do whatever happens to suit her fancy so long as that includes building them weapons of war?

Which are reasonable concerns, she's looking for answers to all the right questions, and Altarrin desperately wishes they weren't the right questions, that her fears were unfounded and he could prove it to her - it wasn't like this two hundred years ago...

It was a lot worse fifty years ago, though, when he was working his way up, supposedly the mage-gifted and very promising son of a minor noble, sent to foster (or be a hostage) at the Palace with all the other noble children - an unfortunate practice that swung up during a gap a few lifetimes ago, when he had inconveniently reincarnated all the way down on the southern coast and needed to travel overland as a visibly half-Haighlei twelve-year-old. (Which had also given him a lot more challenges in establishing his credibility here.) But fifty years of work, and his hand in selecting the current Emperor, have at least helped. She will be safe here, because nobody manages to cross him and succeed anymore, but - it's not unlikely someone will try. 

He can try to explain some of it, at least, and - arrange for the servants who attend her to be ones inclined to gossip, and eager to talk to an exotic stranger? He suspects she can garner quite a lot from idle servants' chatter. 

"For now," he says, "you are officially my political prisoner, and I need not explain anything about why. With the level of precautions and restrictions on your movements I will impose - which I think you will not find too onerous - and since you are visibly not local to the Empire, other players are likely to assume at first that you are a merchant who tried to deceive an agent of the Empire in trade, or something of equal severity. They will expect that I intend to use the leverage I would have over you, if that scenario were true, in order to persuade you to work for us. I will be arranging to send you books on our history and our magic - hopefully your magic will let you read them - but in any case, relevant people will infer that you are a mage, that you are clever and not to be underestimated, and that I intend to make use of your talents. There are definitely several players who will be considering how they can turn the situation to their advantage, but given my reputation, I think they will bide their time and try to learn more. - You ought assume that anything you say or do in front of servants will reach the ears of someone - though different servants report to different nobles, and are varying degrees of loyal, so the individuals in question will perhaps end up with rather a patchwork picture." 

He sighs, slightly. "Of course, it will become apparent in not too long that your magic is different, and going to be transformative. At that point, I think there will be - a scramble to plot something - and we ought consider how to make the announcement such that the scramble is to my advantage and does not put you in danger. Does that make sense?" 

She feels substantially safer, hearing that. At least she's not in the hands of someone who has no idea how to navigate his Empire, or is pretending not to, or wants her to believe there's nothing to navigate.  She is of course not at all safe, is in substantially more danger than she was as a traitor in Cheliax, because she knew Cheliax, knew how to navigate it, and here she just has to count on being useful enough to him that he'll manage it for her. 

(Did she land on him in particular for a reason? Keltham thought he'd landed on Carissa for a reason. If the same force picked his landing-place as hers - what force, what does it want -)

(A related question that is also an obvious one with no tropes-related reasoning required: is he inclined to fuck his political prisoner. He's not acting like it, but she shouldn't expect to beat his bluff.)

"That makes sense. I understand and will cooperate to the limits of my ignorance of your society."

(Ellitrea manages to keep a straight face, but barely, as she passes this on.) 

Altarrin knows how to navigate his Empire. He can wish all he likes that it required a different set of skills than it currently does, but it would be stupid, to pretend the world is different from what it actually is.

Though this woman would certainly have been less impressed if she had met Ma'ar, instead...

"You are clearly intelligent even before the extra magical help," he says drily. "I am sure your ignorance will not last long. Would reading our histories help with that, do you think?" 

You can learn a lot about a society from what they allow to be written in their histories. "I'd expect that'd be very helpful, my lord."

Which is very true. Altarrin expects she's going to be surprised by something, here, he's suspicious that Cheliax is in fact doing substantially more deliberately-shaped propaganda on that level. It's...not really necessary, here. You can get away with a lot less social engineering via such indirect means when you can use compulsions instead. 

"Then we can arrange that promptly. Does your magic in fact allow you to read our language, or will you need someone to read it out loud for you?" 

"If permitted to prepare spells, my lord, I can prepare ones that let me read the local language." Though they might prefer to read her the books, if they're changing them.

"- Of course we will let you prepare spells! We could hardly benefit fully from your magic without that." He ducks his head slightly. "Though for now, I would prefer if you tell me which ones you intend to prepare, and we will have someone supervise the process." A thin smile. "In fact, I would rather like to watch it myself, if you wish to prepare your spells now?" 

YES, she'd like to be a wizard instead of a commoner who's harder to kill. "As you wish, my lord."

Altarrin sits back, smiling again. "Right. Can you explain which spells you intend to prepare, then? - Also I am curious about how the process works in general; our magic does not work like that, mages can sometimes learn a technique from books, but once we know it, we do not need to set aside time for preparing it in the morning if we want to use it that day - and it seems as though you have a daily limit that is not just about your reserves. And - you use a spellbook, yes?" She said it was in her Bag of Holding, which is now back on the bed beside her. "Is that just for reference, or something more integral?"