Maybe it's less obvious if you aren't him. 

"It - matches the pattern of my own life. I...am still not clear on why or what that means, even now, but - it was a different kind of confusing, right, it seems - much less plausible that it was because Iomedae had - studied me in order to write a fake holy book that was maximally convincing. Even if I assume Alfirin had been reading my mind, and that afterward there was enough time to produce a new text, it - I was not thinking about the analogous events in my own history. I very rarely do." 

How is he even supposed to respond to that. There are a lot of things he could say, but either they would be stupid and missing-the-point (if Altarrin is in fact doing all of this of his own free will) or else wouldn't make any difference (if he's, as Bastran mostly expects, mind-controlled by Iomedae's ally to believe in Iomedae's goals.) 

He hates having important conversations like this on a time limit, and he hasn't missed that Altarrin keeps glancing at the clock. 

...He nods, expectantly. 

They are in fact running short on time, they have less than ten minutes to go, and - he wanted this conversation to go differently - still not a productive thought to dwell on, this is the situation they're in. 

"I learned from Iomedae that Aroden had sent a vision to her, when she prayed to Him for advice. I - decided to pray to Aroden, I mostly did not expect it to - do anything - but the information value seemed worth the risk, at the time.

- I am not expecting you to believe me, and separately, I am expecting you to - make negative updates on my trustworthiness, based on what I just said." 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhh???!!

He did what????? 

"...I gather from the way you are bringing it up now that something did happen." 

Nod. 

"Aroden spoke to me directly. This is apparently quite rare. I honestly do not remember the conversation that well, which I expect you will find concerning, but. What I do remember is that He recognized the - goals I have, and the things I care about, and the methods I use to achieve those objectives. And He - wanted to convey that He was already, and always, my ally, just because of those shared goals, and that - no one with those goals could ever really be alone, because many people care about - things being better - even if they are un-strategic about pursuing it. 

- I am aware of how suspicious all of that sounds." 

'Suspicion' doesn't even really describe how Bastran is feeling right now. He's - well, he's mostly trying not to feel any emotions at all, because all of them are stupid and unhelpful as per usual - but if he's feeling anything it's just - the metaphorical sense of falling, of no solid ground under his feet, of the world coming apart around him. 

"I see," he says, inanely. 

Sigh. 

"...I really do wish we could be having this conversation under better circumstances. I am - I have been trying very hard not to lie to you, and I suspect that in the short run this will mean communicating my current beliefs and understandings less accurately, given how you will predictably interpret my words. I would do better if I could, but - 

- I could be wrong, right, and I– it is important to me to treat you as an ally, which to me means - communicating what I am thinking and what I believe, and why, and - trusting that you will take that information and use it well toward your, and our, goals." 

(Which may or may not even hold, given that Bastran is still under a loyalty compulsion to serve the Empire. Altarrin was under a lot more compulsions, of course, but - it's not a symmetrical situation.) 

That was - less coherent than usual for Altarrin? He thinks? 

....It's unclear to Bastran whether this is evidence for or against him being mind-controlled by Alfirin or whoever else. Surely they would want to be unsuspicious, to avoid drawing attention to the question of 'is Altarrin being mind-controlled' - but maybe they could have guessed he would think that, and take the suspiciousness as evidence against mind-control– ....ugh. He has no idea how to think about this. 

"Is there anything else." 

Less than five minutes to go, on the clock. Which also means less than five minutes for the Empire to mount any kind of additional protections on Aritha. 

He wishes even more that this part of the conversation could, somehow, be happening in a different context, where it could be less adversarial than this. 

"I personally pushed for our return visit to happen sooner than it might have otherwise. There - are many reasons for it, the church of Aroden wanted to buy more diamonds, they are absurdly valuable in their world. And Iomedae wanted to send some volunteer delegates to explain her recent decisions from their point of view. But. The urgent reason is Tar-Baphon, and - what might happen if you - if the Eastern Empire - gains the ability to scry Iomedae's world, and - uses it with insufficient paranoia, in a context where it would be almost impossible to judge the right degree of paranoia." 

That's more than enough background explanation. 

"- we are going to kidnap Aritha, the mage-researcher who worked with me on scrying. Alfirin is going to begin in - three minutes, it looks like. I would rather we finish the conversation by then. Do you have any urgent questions that I can answer very quickly."

Why is this happening to him.

Questions that are short and can be answered quickly...? 

"How much more expensive are diamonds in Iomedae's world, compared to here?" 

"...I cannot give you an exact exchange rate, and probably it will change rather quickly once there is more interworld contact and trade. But - a fraction of the diamonds I bought for three pounds of gold are what let Iomedae conquer a city held by Tar-Baphon with minimal civilian casualties, which is apparently a near-impossible feat by their world's standards." 

...It is an incredibly bad use of their precious remaining seconds of dream-conversation to sit here staring at each other, even if Altarrin feels like Bastran's facial expressions are pretty informative toward...something, he's not sure what. 

"I do not expect you to believe this or anything I said earlier, and do I think that the Office of Inquiry, if they investigated me now, would conclude that I am a traitor. But, for what it is worth, I still think we care about the same underlying things, whether or not we share the same immediate goals. I founded this Empire, and have returned to it again and again, over the centuries, and I still consider myself loyal to its ideals – which is perhaps a trivial claim, to the extent that I wrote them myself, but - you know what I mean. Or so I hope." 

Bastran thinks he does understand what Altarrin means. He wishes he didn't that's a stupid thought, which he's probably having because his emotions are not sufficiently staying out of his way like they're supposed to. Go back in the box and stay there, feelings, you're not helping here. 

....He has at least a hundred questions, and he wants to pin Altarrin down in a room and pause time so they can talk for a week. Clearly neither of those things is possible. Given that, he's - what is there even left to talk about...

"Come back," he hears himself say.

(Come home, is what he wanted to say, but - is this really a home for either of them, he's not sure.) 

"I - just - send a letter, or whatever works, when, if, you can, just - tell me what it would take, to - get you back...?" 

Bastran is clearly upset and - this is not a problem Altarrin can solve, right now. (Or even less than usual, that is. Bastran finds a lot of things upsetting and usually this is not very solvable.) 

I wish I could free you, he thinks. Which might, hypothetically, be productive to say out loud, in some other circumstances which are not the ones they're in. 

"I will," he says, and stands up, and heads for the door. 

- pauses there. 

"...Alfirin told me that I should walk through the door to wake up. I am not actually sure if you need to do that separately - if you are stuck in the dreamscape spell it will probably disturb your guards -" 

Does he care what disturbs his bloody guards? ...he probably should. but. no. he doesn't, actually, not right now. 

"Stop," Bastran says, in the tone of voice he hates using because it means obey me. "I - just stay there." 

This is not actually a compulsion and Altarrin could just step across that doorway but - clearly Bastran isn't done, here, with what he wanted to say, or get out of this interaction, or...whatever, he's not sure.

He turns and stands still, his back against the dream-parlor door. 

Bastran crosses the room, looks Altarrin in the eye.

(It would be satisfying to hug him, in some sense, but also agonizingly awkward in a different way, and Altarrin has never given the slightest indication that he wanted that. So he won't, even though he...kind of wants to.) 

"I - thank you. Is all I wanted to say. For - teaching me things that made me better at being Emperor. ...For supporting me in becoming Emperor at all, I guess, that must've been you." 

He can't see the dream-clock because Bastran is blocking it, but they must be at or over the candlemark point. 

"...You are welcome. I think I also owe you an apology for - putting you in this situation at all. ...We ought discuss it later." 

And he steps through the doorway. 

...Bastran is maybe going to stand here and stare at the dream-parlor doorway where Altarrin just disappeared for a while, unless some outside force (which he's sort of vaguely hoping for) causes him to wake up anyway. 

When putting the Emperor into a mindscape, she cared about being detected. If she were detected, the Emperor's security would be panicking for an extra hour, and they'd be on high alert and that might complicate taking Aritha. Not a major complication, but worth a little more effort to avoid.

She doesn't really care about that when kidnapping Aritha. The Empire is going to know she's been active in a few minutes anyways. Scry. Teleport. Dominate Person.

Aritha is sleeping after a lovely day of magical research. The Dominate Person doesn't even wake her.