"And you ended up in the stars. Unfortunately landing here, for now." But maybe not forever. Istredd wants to stay there forever, but he understands that is not everyone's preference. The life he's made is better.

"Very patient. Our mages had to soothe and pet the leaders and give in to all their whims, hoping to gently lead them in the direction they wanted. I would lose it within days." Istredd is patient in other ways. Very patient as a teacher, as a researcher, he spent half a lifetime digging around for answers to a historical mystery he only recently learned about. To other people that would be frustrating, to work so hard and have been no where near close to the truth, but he just saw the truth and got excited.

But patient for people like royals, no. He barely is civil in Thorne, although to them, his perfectly polite calm works in pretending otherwise.

"It's true, we have several royals in Thorne. I don't know that I believe they can entirely control who they are Summoning. Otherwise they would wisely Summon only people who are likely to help them, and no one who is a threat." That's how he would do it anyway. It seems very risky to do it this way. "But it's possible they have a wide net aimed at a type."