He's very happy that Blai has his magic back! That seems important. 

:Did you want to ride me?: He doesn't have a saddle because apparently the Grove doesn't helpfully spawn those and he hasn't at any point stopped for it. :- Also do you mind if I ask Enara to catch me up on the conversation? Melody wasn't including me and I wasn't sure if that was because it was private. ...Normally I would know everything you do, but since you haven't made a decision yet, I'm avoiding reading your mind.: 

:I don't have any other way to talk to you, you should probably read my mind more liberally when you're not sure, though I've been told it's unpleasant. Enara, please go ahead and tell him what's going on. And I'm not a very skilled rider but -: He'll haul himself up.

Seldan can kneel to make it easier - the ground is slippery and it's now completely dark outside - and is also capable of moving smoothly and carefully enough that a toddler probably wouldn't fall. 

:I can pick up what you're deliberately sending at me, and Enara can catch me up for now. ...I do suspect the Companion nature means I'm incapable of finding your mind unpleasant.:

Rapport is two-way enough that he's going to continue holding off on leaking any of his impatience at Blai. It doesn't even make sense to be impatient and he's not sure why the Call mechanism works that way. It's too bad that Vanyel's method for talking to the Shadow-Lover is costly enough that he probably shouldn't do it again just so Seldan can register more constructive criticism. 

Enara can very efficiently catch him up, yes. 

:And I may want to go north with Melody: she adds to all of them, :unless Rolan says otherwise, or you would rather I stay.: The last part addressed mostly to Blai. :I would rather not spend longer four hundred miles away from Jisa unless I have to. Unless she's also coming to Haven, you didn't mention...?: 

:Nothing in the letter about her, no, and I didn't hear that she was with them in Waymeet.: 

:- Oh, you probably didn't know - she was in Haven earlier today. Disguised as your granddaughter.: 

:Disguised as - oh, of course she was the one who dragged Clara into this! I'm going to have words with her later.: 

:Anyway, my guess is that Jisa decided to stay up north so she can be our point of contact with Leareth. And I'd rather not be four hundred miles away unless you still need me here.: 

:I don't know any specific reason you might still be necessary here. Thank you for accompanying me thus far.:

:You're welcome.: He has Seldan for translation now and can cast his spells and the Heartstone has been explosion-proofed and it seems like...maybe...things are going to be okay? 

They reach the Gate staging-area. Dara is there, having an argument in Mindspeech with one of the White Winds mages.

She holds up an apologetic hand to the woman and turns to the new arrivals. :Melody.:

Okay she needs to APOLOGIZE even if it's an incredibly awkward inadequate apology because she's failing to think of a graceful way to handle it and Rolan isn't helping. Any apology is better than just ignoring it. Do it. Do it. 

:...I'm sorry about today. Um. Are you ready for the Gate north?: 

:Yes, and Enara is coming, she doesn't believe she's necessary here at this point and would like to be reunited with Jisa. Can I hand Blai over to you and you can sort out having him try his Healing on Randi?: 

Unfortunately Melody is too angry to find a way to gracefully accept the ungraceful apology so she's going to ignore it, apparently, even though she's fully aware she's being rude. 

:Of course.:

Aaaaughhhhhhhhh. This is so agonizing and Rolan isn't helping and it's not fair and this might be the actual worst day of her life. She keeps wanting to burst into tears. And also she needs to stop whining internally like a toddler and handle it. 

:I owe you an apology as well.: Augh augh augh augh augh augh auuuuuuughhhhhh. WORST DAY OF HER LIFE. :Um. It's this way.: 

:Should I explain what I'd be trying to you or wait until we arrive, Herald...?:

:Dara.:  MISERY AND WOE. :If I'm remembering right, you have a spell that cures various conditions and it's what you used for yourself and Savil the day after the k'Treva attack. Shavri thought it was worth trying for King Randale, who has - a progressive condition our Healers don't really understand - but then didn't have a chance to bring it up before, um, things happened. It sounds like you do have the spell today? If there's more you can say about it, sure, that sounds helpful.: 

Dara is doing reasonably well for a Valdemaran at not looking like she's having the worst day of her life - and is actually managing not to let it leak in Mindspeech almost at all - but she is very definitely not Chelish. 

:That's right. It's called Lesser Restoration - the non-Lesser version wants a diamond and I'm not powerful enough to cast it, but if you haven't had the opportunity to try a Lesser before it's a good guess. ...would you like a Guidance.:

If Dara SUCKED LESS she would probably remember what that was! Rolan should remember but Dara is so so reluctant to Mindspeak him, the last three times she asked him something he took, like, five entire seconds to reply and seemed like he was only half present. 

:What does that one do again?: 

:It makes you slightly better at whatever you spend it on in the next minute.:

:Oh. Yes. I would like that.: 

He can lean down from Seldan to boop her with one.

Huh. 

Dara is going to immediately try to use it on pulling herself together. She knows how to do this. She's functioned on not enough sleep before. She's kept going after making horrible mistakes before – all right, maybe it was never at the level of GETTING YFANDES KILLED, but it's the same principle, and the fact that the stakes are higher here only makes it more important. She has to focus, and keep everyone else focused, and figure out what they have to do now, today to get the situation under control, and then it can be time to look back and analyze what went wrong, which is the point at which it might conceivably be useful to feel terrible about herself. 

She's not sure how much the spell helped, versus it was just a useful prompt to actually try to stop screaming inside her head and focus on the present priorities. But she does feel, if not better, at least more focused. 

...It's the sort of thing that Rolan would be able to help walk her through if he was - okay - he's really not okay, is he - it's a sudden shift in her head, like moving to look into a house through a different window and suddenly seeing a room that hadn't been in her line of sight at all before. It slightly makes her want to cry again, but - not the time. 

:Thank you.: 

That was thoughtful of Blai and Seldan is feeling a burst of warmth that has nowhere to go. And wishes he knew what Blai was thinking - and Blai said it was all right - but Seldan isn't entirely sure that he didn't mind, as opposed to not feeling like he had grounds to object. And he wants it to - be right, when (and if) Blai accepts the Companion-bond. It seems like the kind of thing that can matter a lot. 

They keep walking. 

Dara will reach ahead for Shavri. 

:Are you with Randi? Blai has the spell today to try to Heal him. If now is a good time?: 

Nothing has felt real since the Death Bell rang. 

Shavri is aware that she ought to be feeling something about the compounding pileup of recent events, but she can't find it in herself. Randi is dying.

They were...so close...to maybe having a solution or at least a way to buy him time, and it would be so stupid, pointless, wasteful if he dies because she thought about asking Blai to prepare a third Lesser Restoration the morning before he was kidnapped and then decided it could wait. Then, briefly, hope again - Vanyel had Blai back, somehow, impossibly - maybe it had all been a mistake, or something like a bad dream, but now Vanyel was meeting to negotiate with Leareth and - 

- and then the Death Bell rang, and it felt like a sick joke and then it didn't feel like anything, she had used up all of her emotions and not bothered saving any for the end. The shock was hard on Randi and it suddenly seemed like he might only have days left. The two days since the Death Bell have mostly washed past over Shavri's head, as though she's a stone at the bottom of a fast-moving river, immovable, waiting. 

Dara reaches out to her and that doesn't feel like anything either, but she answers. 

:He's asleep. Now is a fine time.: 

:We're on our way.: 

To Blai, :- does it matter for healing someone if they're awake?: