Damn it, what is it now? 

(Dara spent this entire morning reviewing plans for moving forces north until she went cross-eyed. And they're all running on about four candlemarks of sleep because Melody made...choices...and then someone had to figure out what to do about it. She is not in a good mood.) 

Rolan's mindvoice is...odd. 

:A Companion appeared in the Grove a few minutes ago. He demanded entry to the Work Room where we were holding Select Blai and, when this was denied, forced entry, apparently with the intention of Choosing him.: 

.........What. 

:Wait, so there's a second Groveborn?: 

:Not exactly. Or, Groveborn in the literal sense, but not built as I am to lead the herd. It - has been known to happen before, in sufficient emergencies, when there was no suitable unbonded Companion in the herd.: 

:What, really?: Dara hadn't known that. :What does that...mean. Is there any possibility this is a trick, too?: 

:He appeared in the Grove. I might prefer if he had alerted me immediately, but - Companions that arrive under such circumstances are often unusually willful.: He sounds disapproving. 

:So it's...not a trick. Which means...?: 

:That Select Blai would be a Herald, if he had agreed to it.: 

:He refused the Choosing?: 

:He has concerns to address first, apparently. I am on my way there to confirm that the new Companion is not 'undead'. ...He is in the Web, so - everything appears to be in order.:  

:Right. That's...good, then...: 

Dara rubs her eyes. It takes her several seconds to form the rest of her current thought. 

:Rolan! That means he's not– does this mean he wasn't mind-controlled or tricked by Leareth?: It feels like it has to mean something. :That he's...: 

Rolan is doing that frustrating thing where he's not actively shielding her out but is radiating being too busy to answer questions right now. 

Also now Tran is trying to get her attention too, with a rather urgent rapping at her shields. 

:WHAT: 

:Word on the relay.: Tran's mindvoice is also very odd. :It's - there's -: 

:Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. What is it?: 

Very stiffly:

:A party arrived in Waymeet. Claiming to be Vanyel and Bard Stefen. They're willing to be read by a Thoughtsenser. And - willing to come to Haven, if we sent Melody to block Vanyel's mage-gift, that was the condition.: 

But that - 

- does fit, actually. Like an artist drawing one of those weird illusion-drawings that could be a beautiful maiden or an old crone, depending on the angle, and then adding a touch that resolves it fully into just one of them. 

:Because he's worried that otherwise he could be pushed into Final Striking the Heartstone. Like in the vision.: 

:He - apparently - said that 'the conditions for it probably don't hold' and didn't explain further. But as a precaution. Otherwise Stef will come alone.: 

:So we could at least check that it's really him, and the lifebond.: 

Dara feels like she's falling. 

She's pretty sure, now, that they've made a terrible mistake. 

...Were about to make a terrible mistake? Maybe it wasn't quite made, yet. The armies are in place but they haven't, yet, moved to attack. 

:...Pass word back: she sends dully. :If a Thoughtsenser who's met both of them before thinks it's really them, then - um - Melody is going to be really mad but she'll go. We need Vanyel's side of the story.: 

Also it sounds like she owes Select Blai an apology, but what if his Companion kicks her in the teeth she's going to be a coward and fall back on having one conversation, once Vanyel is here. 

(If it's really Van, then it was really Yfandes who– ...deal with that later. She owes a lot of people a lot of apologies. In the meantime, it's not suspicious - not even surprising - that he's still moving anyway, though it does do a lot to explain why it took them almost an entire day.) 

Rolan will come over and stiffly convey in Mindspeech that Seldan is indeed alive and Companions are...indeed...usually reincarnated Heralds, though going around telling people is usually not the done thing. Does Select Blai need more than that? 

(Rolan does not offer Blai an apology.) 

Well if he's offering apparently he needs to be authorized to leave this slightly dented Work Room. Can he have that.

He is authorized to leave the Work Room. Rolan seems to be saying this on autopilot as much as anything else.

:I did some asking around, and you apparently have guest quarters that haven't been reassigned, but I won't fit, though I don't mind talking through a wall. I had vaguely intended to go rudely interrupt some meetings and demand to know what people were thinking, but mostly because it would be satisfying to me personally, and I could work up a much better rant once you've filled me in on what in the world happened here. Anywhere in particular you want to go?: