She shouldn't have gone back.

She should have left the children to die and made it out ahead of the avalanche and GOTTEN COMMUNICATIONS BACK. Almost nothing else matters, next to that. 

She knows they aren't going to make it and she reaches ahead, instead. 

:ROLAN AVALANCHE NORTH TRADE ROAD BY WESTMARK SEND HELP THERE ARE CHILDREN–: 

And then the snow hits her like a living thing and for a moment she's almost swimming in it and then it closes over her head and - 

- pain - 

- nothing. 

Somehow, despite the awful suspense of waiting, Vanyel managed to doze off. It's late, they were up today a candlemark before dawn, and it's not like there's been much time in the last several days when he wasn't on some background level terrified. It starts to become the new normal after a while. 

If Yfandes has time to call for help, he's not receptive enough to pick up from two hundred miles away, and he doesn't hear it. 

He only feels it when it's too late and she's gone. 

There's a howling emptiness in the back of his mind. 

It hurts just differently enough from the last howling emptiness he spent eighteen years learning to bear that he - can't, actually, think around it, for a long time, even though you would really think that he would know how to do that by now. 

"Van - Van - what is it, what's wrong -" Vanyel isn't answering and he isn't moving and something is wrong, and Stef doesn't want to leave him but he's not a Mindspeaker and Jisa is three cave-rooms over soaking in the hot springs. 

He gets up and runs. 

Jisa sprints over naked and soaking wet and before she even reaches the room she knows exactly what's wrong. 

(And has to fight down several entire seconds of gibbering panic because she is four hundre miles away from both people soulbonded to her and that could happen to either of them - both of them - at any time - what if the Heartstone explodes, that can't be what hit Yfandes but whatever did hit Yfandes was almost certainly the Star-Eyed's work. Maybe a Vkandis collaboration.) 

- focus. This is not about her.

"Yfandes is dead." Her voice doesn't sound like it belongs to her. "We're - we're not going to be able to reach Enara."

As though that's the most important part of this situation, but the absurd thing is that maybe it is, and if Vanyel were capable of processing anything right now she thinks he would agree. 

...Jisa has spent the last several years of her life desperately clawing her way toward being - capable, strong, recognized as an adult - and this might be the first time ever that the quiet voice in her head is whimpering, I'm not grown-up enough for this. 

"I. I don't think Van's. Up for getting the comms spell to Leareth. But we need to warn him. If, if this happened, then - I think there must be something the Star-Eyed really didn't want us to know. She was almost in range." 

Jisa wants her mother, which is objectively stupid of her brain, Shavri can't get on a comms spell to Leareth either. 

"...Stay with him," she tells Stef, absently. "He needs you there. I'm going to go learn the spell figure out how the artifacts work."

She really hopes she can manage to direct the spell off, you know, having about as much secondhand knowledge of Leareth as anyone can have about anyone. She's never actually met him. 

---

It's a candlemark after midnight and Enara really cannot justify waiting any longer. Something is delaying Yfandes, and that means she doesn't know when they'll have any opportunity for contact. 

She's going to trigger the talisman for 'out of contact and things are not going fine', which is more or less all the information she has anyway. 

- is Blai still alone? Yes, good - well, not really good, it's now been like two candlemarks since Melody left and it's the middle of the night and what if the Heralds just leave them here until morning without resolving anything - but she can talk to him. 

:Blai? Wanted to warn you that I still can't reach Yfandes. I don't know what delayed her, so she could catch up any minute, but - I think we have to assume it could be interference by the Star-Eyed.: 

:I have a Suppress Charms and Compulsions prepared. Is there a good way to propose that I be allowed to cast that and only that, to see if it affects anything? Maybe while I'm under a pile of other Herald-approved enchantments to demonstrate its effectiveness?:

:I definitely think you should point it out to Melody whenever she's back, she's - most likely to be sensible about it, I think. Would it suppress a Truth Spell? That's the only 'enchantment' that I think is really Herald-approved except in - bizarre circumstances.: Like this one. :I suppose Melody could put a block of some kind that doesn't affect your magic, just as a test, though - it's not clear to me that it would affect Mindhealing, which isn't a charm or a compulsion. Though I don't know how anything from your world works.: 

:Truth spells on Golarion qualify as compulsions, yes. You don't have anyone you can talk to to see about getting this checked sooner? I don't know if I'm expecting her back tonight and should sleep soon if I'm not definitely waiting up for something.:

:...I'm sure there's someone I can Mindspeak. I hadn't been because - clearly they're not supposed to be talking to me - but it's not like Rolan actually ordered me not to. And this - seems important.: 

:I can be kept from casting everything I have prepared now by preventing me from speaking or from moving my hands, and I would take several seconds to get a second casting off after Suppress Charms and Compulsions, so it wouldn't be hard to stop me from casting more if they wanted to even if the spell took off the blocks they themselves placed. I can confirm all that by truth spell.:

...Enara can find someone to pass that on to. Rolan is actively blocking her - and, to be somewhat fair to him, is probably fielding dozens of conversations with other Companions in Haven and genuinely doesn't have time - but probably someone is just outside waiting for their Herald and has nothing else to do even if they've been ordered not to tell her anything.  

Several Companions to Heralds on the Senior Circle will in fact still be up waiting for them, because despite how late it is, the Heralds are still meeting. 

Dara is exhausted beyond belief. It's only partly the lateness and lack of sleep last night. (Nobody slept well, even after they called it a day and went to bed.)

It's also the feeling that nothing is ever going to be all right again - that it's too late, that too many things are already broken that can't be repaired, that they're on a course they can't turn away from toward a war they almost certainly can't win but have to try their hardest, anyway, burning everything left of their hopes and dreams to buy a few more days before Leareth can flatten the kingdom because maybe a miracle will happen. The feeling that the rest of her life is probably measured in weeks and she's going to spend literally all of it like this, amped on on chava until she can barely make her hands not shake, trying to ignore a headache to reason about the strategic situation and make decisions she's inevitably going to screw up because how could she possibly be ready for this, she's twenty years old, and she's never going to have children she's never even going to have time for a quiet evening of cuddling Tran, it's just endless meetings and broken sleep from here until it's over. 

There isn't room in her head to try to reason about incredibly confusing hypotheticals that make her feel like she's losing her mind, and she has to do it ANYWAY, it's not like she doesn't KNOW that failing to do it is another possible way she could irreparably fuck this up, and it'snotfairit'snotfairit'snotfair but that childish plea to an indifferent universe never got her anywhere even when she was six years old, did it. 

Jisa is alive. 

She's alive and her Companion is alive too and so - presumably Leareth wants it that way - and Treven feels like that's the only thing still holding him together. Which it can't be, he needs to be able to function long enough to - see this through - even if Jisa dies, but he can't think about that right now, so - worry about it if it happens. Right now Jisa is alive and that means everything isn't already lost and - cling to that. 

...Also he's tired enough to be seeing spots, and he mustn't yawn or rub his eyes because he needs to be in control, not to remind everyone else that on top of being seventeen, he's slept five candlemarks in the last entire night and day and is really not thinking clearly enough for this. 

He clears his throat. "Sorry, Melody, go over again what you think is confusing?" 

Why are they even still having this meeting. What further information can they possibly wring out of the handful of facts they have, when they've already held them up beside each other in every possible configuration. Melody wants to be done this meeting and go lock herself in her office and take down her redirects and cry until she stops feeling like her mind is fraying, and then go to BED. 

"I'm confused about the timeline. We think Van might have been snatched and Leareth swapped in an imposter, but - you couldn't fool Stef and you couldn't fool Yfandes. One, it's a lot less obvious when Stef could have been taken, Blai and Enara were with him more or less continuously from the point when Jisa arrived until after the Death Bell. The only possible opportunity is when they were asleep, but Enara said the Companions kept watch, so what gives? The point is, I don't see there being any version of this that doesn't posit undetectable mind control that we have no other reason to believe is possible." 

Savil is numb, mostly. There isn't going to be time to finish grieving, one way or another, so why take the cover off that bottomless pit. 

"I mean, this is evidence it exists, and it makes sense that Leareth would have wanted to keep some capabilities in reserve. I think the confusing part here is what he's aiming for. I don't think it can just be making us all feel like we're losing our minds, or - if it is that, if he wants us too off balance to think, then - it's because he's planning something else and doesn't want us catching on." 

Savil isn't wrong, is she, that there's a pattern here - that Melody is looking at a room full of exhausted, drawn faces, and fully aware that no one here is anywhere near their best, but she doesn't quite feel like she can tell them off like children and send them to bed because maybe it really can't afford to wait until morning.

A thought manages to rise to the surface.

Someone definitely doesn't want the people in this room to be very able to think. There's a story you can concoct where that someone is Leareth, but - is that the story that holds together best? 

The unanswered question there is, who else would have wanted Vanyel dead? 

Herald Katha clears her throat. 

"...I'm confused about the fake Yfandes. Melody is right, it's - a confusing level of commitment to realism - and it's baffling that the construct would jeopardize its mission by going back for some kids and dying in an avalanche. I mean, we could posit that this was its mission - that Leareth caused the avalanche, that it had orders to - behave convincingly like Yfandes would - and of course we can't check anything now that it's dead? But I don't actually know how he could set off an avalanche without a Web alarm, so that's positing an unrelated impossible kind of magic. And positing that he still can't trick the Web, which - I mean, you would think if he had Van for most of a day, he could have wrung that much out of him?" 

It's not like Leareth wouldn't kill most of a family - probably a few families, there were farmhouses in the area - as part of a plan.

But -

Melody isn't sure what the 'but' is, actually. 

The message might have been incredibly suspicious - especially because the real Yfandes would have been in range for fifty miles already - but it was enough for Rolan to order a Farseer to check, and then divert the nearest Herald, and they dug up the body of the not-Companion and pulled the younger child out of the snow still (barely) alive, sheltered by her dead brother's body. 

It's unimportant, in the grand scheme of things, but - it feels like something could have been lost and wasn't, and maybe it's stupid but Melody is kind of finding herself clinging to that. 

"I'm confused about the prophecies. Especially a third one. I - think that has to be evidence that Blai at least really met with Leareth and really cast spells on him, because - he couldn't have known what Brightstar found, Leareth couldn't have known what Brightstar found, I literally can't think of a way that any of them could have known without a genuine prophecy." 

"I mean. One goal of replacing Vanyel with an imposter could have been steering Blai into meeting Leareth and willingly casting his spells. I don't think we have to posit a lot of mind control on Blai specifically - maybe just enough for him to miss the switch - which plausibly happened in Leareth's records, I don't know what they were thinking going in there. Anyway, all that would really need is to keep him asleep, they could've done that with Healing and kept him out through a whole fight if necessary. Jisa must have had more done to her, but - maybe there's an amount of messing with his head that Blai's god would notice and object to, and then his magic would stop working? Or maybe Leareth just thought there might be, it doesn't have to be true to explain Leareth being cautious. And the better strategy Leareth saw was a setup to fool him. Since, you know, he apparently used to work for an evil god apparently. He can't be that hard to fool." 

That's not fair. The poor man. 

...Not actually a logical argument and she's not going to try to twist it into one. 

Savil drags a hand over her face. 

"We're going in circles. Leareth could have done all sorts of things, including - I think we've proposed at least four different behind-the-scenes plans that could result in what we know so far. We don't have a good explanation for why he would have done any of those rather than, you know, flattening us with his enormous army and hundreds of mages a couple of days ago. I don't know that we have enough information even in principle to figure that out before it's too late, or what we could do differently that would change anything. Are we gaining anything if we spend another candlemark in the middle of the night on this?" 

That should feel like the most sensible thing anyone has said in candlemarks but it...doesn't, actually.

Why not. 

Because it does feel like they're missing something. Like they're not actually doing the most they can to wring answers out of the few pieces they have. More importantly, it feels like maybe those answers could be relevant, could - change something - 

Probably they're not going to get there if they stay up until two candlemarks past midnight arguing about this. Even though it does feel like tomorrow morning might already be too late.