"Can you put one on yourself so we can test? Also - I think I should be able to shrug off compulsions easily enough but we should test that too."

"Doing complicated compulsions on oneself is harder but I can try a simple negative one and see if you can override it, and a simple positive one to see if you can block it." 

He will try to compulsion himself not to move his feet, to check if Alfirin can make him walk anyway.

(It doesn't occur to him until he's mid casting it that he would under normal conditions find this test very stressful, and it's interesting that he doesn't now.) 

For the positive one he'll try compulsioning himself to keep his arms raised above his head. 

She would make him stand on his hands, except that she doesn't know if he can do that and she doesn't want him to fall and get hurt. Instead he can pace a small circle with his hands in his pockets.

"...That seems suggestive even if I'd hesitate to call it conclusive. Now on me?" The dominate will allow him to apply exactly those same compulsions and no others because, while she is starting to trust him she does not see any reason to give him the opportunity to control her mind just because she trusts him not to take it.

Incredibly reasonable of her! Altarrin will try both. He can't see what he's doing, with Mind Blank in place, or get any feedback on whether it's working 0 which actually makes it kind of hard to aim for 'exactly that and nothing else' - but he's very good at this, and they're not complicated compulsions. He will try dropping them on the mind that he knows is there, and - after checking with her - try again with five times as much power as usual if she confirms the first attempt doesn't work.

The first attempt landed! Enough that she notices and can identify it, if not enough that she can't pace a circuit around her own chair with her hands in her pockets. Ditto the second.

"And are your abilities here typical? How much better than you, if at all, are the Empire's best? I'd hate to throw all caution to the wind here if it turns out this area of magic is a particular weakness of yours."

"I am probably one of the best in the world at it." Being 700 years old helps; he's at 'among the best in the world' level skill in most areas of magic, with the exception of some kinds of heavy-duty combat casting where raw Gift-potential matters more than finesse, there are Adepts stronger than him out there. "There is one mage who works for the Emperor's guard and has Thoughtsensing as well, and he is better at - fine control - but not power, and in any case would lose most of that advantage while his Thoughtsensing is blocked by your Mind Blank spell - I suppose I cannot test directly whether it is but I am quite confident it would be." 

This does not surprise her! Being 700 years old seems like it would help with a lot of things, especially in comparison to one's countrymen if this is a unique trait on one's planet.

"I trust your assessment. Thank you for helping me with these tests, I'll let you finish your letter while I prepare the rest of my spells, and then you can get me when you're done? I'll still be here, probably, I can get the next bit of my work on the wards done from here."

"Of course." 

And he goes to write a letter. He'll be short and to the point; the real conversation is going to happen later, in private. 

He addresses it to 'Emperor Bastran', from...he puts 'Altarrin' with no titles, it is almost certainly incorrect to call himself Archmage-General now and he wouldn't be very surprised if they had stripped him of his noble title as well. 

First: it was by my own choice, or close enough to it, that I defected to Iomedae's world. I do not expect you to believe this, and cannot at this time offer proof, but it seems worth saying. I was not at the time thinking especially clearly, but I believe the compulsions were more at fault than the headband, though I admit I was in an unusual mental state to which the headband was contributing. 

At the time, my reasoning was that if I returned to Jacona, it would likely be in the interest of the gods to plot for my assassination. In hindsight, I think this is not true, and I was biased in my reasoning by having to work around the compulsions and believe that leaving was the best way to serve the Empire. I realize my departure must have been incredibly disruptive and terrifying, and I am sorry that I could not see a better way. 

I do, in fact, think that my choice to defect will serve the Empire better than anything else I could have done. Had I returned to Jacona, even if I had survived, it would have been far harder to avoid a pointless and wasteful war that is in neither side's interests. It is not a war the Empire could win; again, I cannot prove this, but I expect you will come to agree once you know more. In the interest of full honestly, I expect that had I returned and spoken to you, you would have concluded either that I was disloyal or having a nervous breakdown. I admit that I was arguably having a nervous breakdown, though I believe I was in my right mind in the ways that matter. I also believe that I remain loyal to the true Empire, the vision of the First Emperor, but of course I would say that anyway. 

I can only repeat what Iomedae has already written to you: it is of the utmost importance that you do not attempt to scry for Tar-Baphon. If he learns of the Empire and decides to seize control of it, both our side and Iomedae's will lose. 

I am not sure, yet, where to go from here. But I do not see myself, or Iomedae, as enemies of the Empire, and I hope that instead we can rebuild some kind of trust and have something better. 

- Altarrin

It takes him twenty minutes, and then he goes to find Alfirin - and the paladin volunteers, who hopefully already have Iomedae's letter - for the Gate. 

The paladin volunteers have no magic items, each have a copy of Iomedae's letter, and are waiting for the Gate, not apprehensive because they are paladins.

Altarrin has multiple copies of his letter as well, and gives one to each of the delegates. 

And once Alfirin and her mysterious fox assistant are ready as well, Altarrin sits down to cast his Gate. He's going to use a doorway for the departure threshold, and the destination is a records cache with an embossed archway on one of the walls that, while not actually a permanent Gate, has been used for several thousand Gates over centuries, eventually naturally aligning the stone with the Gate-search spell and making it an easier target. He warns them that he's still going to be tired, after this. He can probably manage a same-world Gate immediately, to get the volunteer paladins and their messages dropped off, but after that he may want half a candlemark to rest before they go off on their diamond shopping expedition. 

...actually, since they're paladins, would one of them mind sharing the fearlessless effect? He - is noticing kind of a lot of flinch about Gating back to Velgarth, and it's fine, he can do it, but it would be nice if he wasn't doing it with his heart rate elevated. 

The paladins would be happy to do that for him; it's a pretty unremarkable request. 

And he raises a Gate. 

It is, in fact, easier from this side, and he knows the routing better. The Gate is up within ten seconds, a neat defined blue-white glowing threshold and a rippling milky-opaque membrane filling it, because for whatever reason you can't see across this kind of Gate. It would be nervewracking if he could experience fear. 

He stands - he's glad he was sitting for the casting, but he's steady on his feet - and beckons for the others to follow, and steps across into the muffled underground silence of a records cache in the far northwest.

He is followed by Alfirin, Curiosity, two paladins and an accountant from Pereza's department who looks totally ordinary to mage-sight by virtue of in fact being totally ordinary.

He drops the Gate as soon as they're through, casts a mage-light, and manages to actually cross the room to sit down on a crate rather than sagging to his knees where he is. 

"Two minutes," he says, slightly out of breath. 

"Telepathic bond is down." Enter mindscape - "...And I can't reach the mindscape on the other end. Status and deathwatch are still active though I bet the cleric back in Golarion is not getting useful readings anymore. Take as long as you need, we're in no hurry yet."

She hasn't started laying supply caches for her future self yet - she could not really justify spending fewer resources on the war to do that - but she thinks when she does they'll be...smaller than this. This is rather a lot of supplies.

It's so many supplies! Once Altarrin has slightly caught his breath, he goes and removes a crate two down in a stack, which proves to contain ALL OF HIS MAPS. There are so many, at various scales - and from various time periods - and carefully cross-referenced. 

"I am going to send the paladins to the Lastun Province administrative center," he says. "Or a field near it, rather. It is on a direct Gate-link to the capital, and it is not in a war zone so I expect they will be less - excessively jumpy. ...I will give you some standard shield-talismans just in case someone is having a bad day, and - if it is all right for you, may I test with something innocuous whether compulsions work on you in the usual way? I think they should, but the guards will be more likely to escalate to the use of force if they behave unusually, in which case I would probably advise that you stay in the field and wait for someone to respond to the Gate-signature, rather than walking over to the big stone building to surrender." 

"Go ahead," says Tiaves. "I won't resist."

He'll use the same two test compulsions as before, warning him in advance each time. It seems to work fine, and he's content for now not to test what would happen if Tiaves did resist. He takes them off right away. 

"Thank you for being willing to do this," he says, seriously. "It is - so much to ask of you, and I expect it to be terribly unpleasant - but it may end up mattering a great deal." 

And he scries the field to make sure it's not randomly occupied, and then tells them to be quick about crossing before raising the Gate. It's going to trigger an alarm and he wants it to be down long before anyone can respond. 

The Gate goes up to a field. There is, indeed, a looming stone building visible in the distance. 

Iomedae thought it was important, and explained why it was important, and you don't really become a paladin of the Knights of Ozem if you don't trust Iomedae's judgment about these things. She also said it would be terribly unpleasant, so that's indeed what they are expecting. 

They hurry through the Gate.

The Gate is down well before anyone responds, though every center in the Empire has in fact been raised to a higher than baseline alert level, and the response will be fast. 

Altarrin wants half a candlemark to rest, probably. And a snack. He has some non-perishable foodstuffs, additionally preserved with spells that delay mold. It's not very tasty food but Alfirin is, if she wants, welcome to share extremely hard biscuits and jerky and a block of dried fruit. 

She'll pass. Ring of sustenance and all.

Jerky's good!

The field is a park (clear lines of fire!) right outside the citadel in Lasavun, capital of Lastun Province! Since Lastun is at peace, there isn't any kind of immediate ambush. But gates are regulated and this is wartime, so a squad of un-gifted soldiers will show up to see who did this and if they or their bosses need to do anything about it.