Vanyel shrugs. "I don't know that he expects it to be convenient for you. We kind of wrecked one of his main courier systems within Valdemar a while back, so it may just be the most feasible for him. Or could be he's guessing at what your magic does and trying to test it. Anyway, I can ride there in, um, not no time but much faster than you'd expect, Companions aren't normal horses. Oh, and actually I've been to that border town – I can just Gate." 

And then he makes a face that he quickly tries to hide. "I wouldn't say I'm fond of Gating, but it's not far." 

"I could send a drone and use it to aim, I just wasn't expecting him to know that."

"...I can't imagine he's guessed that specifically, no, but I imagine he's wondering if magic that can pluck a letter from one place to another given just the first line and sender – which is really all I implied about yours – can also put it in an arbitrary location, and whether it comes with Sight to aim, and I'm not worried about an ambush but I do wonder if he'll have a spell set up to see if actually I just show up on 'Fandes." And infer what he infers from that, probably holding some skepticism that they're concealing Cam's full power. 

He's starting to relax, now that it sounds like he might be able to avoid Gating. "If what you need is something to aim for, I can find it with Farsight and then scry it for you – er, I could share the Foresight directly, I'm a strong enough Mindspeaker, but that involves some unavoidable level of mindreading even if I'm very careful not to actually look at your thoughts. Um, that's assuming you do want to let Leareth make guesses about how powerful you are, beyond the access to other worlds part." 

"I don't know if the scrying trick would work. Cameras don't - those are devices that can show a picture of a location in another location in real time."

Vanyel nods. "How do these 'drones' work, then, and why is that different? Would it be like, I don't know, sending a trained falcon and scrying from a focus around its neck the whole route, so you've seen all of it?" 

"So there's two ways I could do it with a drone - I could send the drone already carrying the letter, like a carrier pigeon, and have it drop it off, using a camera to steer. No making anything at a distance. Or I could have the drone fly there, steering to the right place with a camera, and then tell me exactly in what direction and precise distance it is relative to me - or, rather, my computer - and I can use that. But without a visual or proprioceptive direct lock on the place, or a really exact figure like 'fifty miles thirty-seven feet six inches, and another ten feet up in elevation' - I can't be sure I won't land the letter in a mountain, or worse in the middle of somebody waiting for it."

...That's a gruesome mental image. It does give him another idea, though. 

"I can combine Farsight and Fetching," he says. "Since I'm doing both. Farseeing from a map starts with something like aiming blindly down a bearing, and then once I've found the place, it gives me something like what I think you mean by 'proprioceptive direct lock'. On the one hand I don't have the strongest Fetching Gift and I've never tried fifty miles, but on the other, a letter doesn't weigh much. I'll be exhausted after but if I rest with the door shut and it won't matter."

He shrugs. "Your method would work as well, either way, if you're fine with him making some wild guesses about how your magic works based on it. Probably wrong guesses, since this is a machine and not a magical artifact, but still." He really needs to ask Bar for recommendations of books about computers sometime. 

"Making a drone has the advantage of being non-exhausting. Is it bad if he figures out how I work?"

"...Let me think about that." Vanyel closes his eyes, bringing his hands to both temples. "It's...not bad if he decides to help you. Which I think is, ummm, at least eight in ten odds? Maybe nine in ten?" He shrugs. "It only matters in cases where he decides to cause problems for you, specifically, instead. Which would be hard to pull off. If his goals aren't what he claims, he can definitely make my life a nightmare, but all you have to do is kick me out and close the door, and he can't get at you even in principle. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure your power has him outclassed no matter how much he knows about it. I'm in the habit of not revealing anything to him without a good reason, but that's mainly because I'm in a relatively vulnerable position." 

He frowns. "In case I'm missing some obvious vulnerability that he'll see and exploit because he's smarter than I am."

:'Fandes?: He's not sure he actually wants her advice, she's been strange and prickly about all of this, but he can feel her simmering unease even through his shields and he really ought to ask. 

She doesn't answer at first. 

:Leareth as good as told us he intends to fight the gods: she sends finally, mindvoice tense. :Doesn't actually matter what for – I'm not sure we should be giving him any more weapons for that: 

It's the same stupid argument they've been having for two years, and if he spends much longer at it, Cam is going to notice him staring into space again. :'Fandes, you know how I feel about it. It's really up to Cam, if he wants to help. I just want Cam to be able to bring back his dead people – is that really too much to ask?:

:He destroyed a planet and all the living things on it: Acid in her mindvoice. :Chosen, I know how you feel – it's done, he had a good reason, worth it, and now that's the world we're in and it's better if the million dead people can get resurrected. But, just... I don't know how to feel about helping him: 

...Is that what she's been upset about this entire time? It's not the ideal response, but Vanyel doesn't know what to say or do about it, so he blocks her, and returns his eyes to Cam, trying to look attentive. "Um, any thoughts?" 

"In my original world billions of people have known about daeva for more than a hundred years and have given some thought to what to do about how powerful we are. There are ways to inconvenience us but that boils down to not letting him see a summoning circle, and even if he did, there'd be more steps to inconvenience me personally about it."

"Huh. Then I guess you don't need to worry and the drone plan seems best. Honestly, I'm used to being the single most powerful person on this planet aside from him and still needing to worry, but you're in another league." 

(Vanyel wonders whether a Valdemaran god could inconvenience Cam, remembers what happened to the last god that was doing something he disliked, and quickly tightens his shields just in case Yfandes is listening, hoping that Cam doesn't notice his sudden wince.) 

If he sees it he does't comment on it.

"Well, do you want to read everything with the door closed first before sending a message? I was meaning to ask if there's anything I should read for more detail on the war and stuff. Since, um, I assume you'd rather not talk about it in a lot of depth, and also it'd save time if we can both be reading." 

"Go ahead and let the door close. Has the advantage of letting more people come in, maybe ones who can help either or both of us.

"I'm not sure what if anything has written up in the last few months. Bar might know. But it wouldn't surprise me if there were nothing, Elves are very - patient, meticulous, probably take more than a year or two to write a book."

This is the moment that Lissa chooses to come in, stretching and yawning. 

"Morning, everyone." She glances at the closed door, then shrugs and ignores it. "Cam, what's it like to have wings, anyway?" 

"Well, I like it, or I'd take them off. I could give you a set but humans find flying very tiring and can't heal trivially if they change their minds."

Lisa’s face goes through a number of fascinating expressions before she settles on a grin. “I’ll tell you if I want to risk it, then. Flying sounds amazing even if it’s tiring.”

She beams at Cam for a moment before heading for her brother. “Van, hey, come here.” Against his muttered protests, she drags him to a booth, which isn’t quite sound-isolated from where Cam is.

“You seem less miserable here,” she stage-whispers in his ear. “Anything to do with the incredible handsome winged person? I can’t seem to get his attention, maybe you’re more his type.” 

Vanyel makes a face at her. “Liss, please, can you not?”

Cam puts on some music rather loudly and starts plowing through his reading list.

Vanyel is peeved with Lissa, because he in fact wasn’t miserable and now he sort of is, not to mention embarrassed because he’s pretty sure Cam overheard, and honestly she should really have learned tact by now but he’s pretty sure she never will.

”I have reading to do,” he says sharply, yanking his arm out of her grip. “Go find some other way to amuse yourself.” 

He goes over to Bar and asks for books about the recent war in the Elves’ world, and, failing that, more specific background on the various gods involved.

Not so much with the recent war books. Bar can do newspapers? Would he like recent newspapers?

“Um, sure, whatever you’ve got.” Pause. Blink. “...What’s a newspaper?”

A publication issued on a frequent basis to keep recipients up to date with current events.

"Oh! Like a proclamation but written? What a good idea." It sounds way better than yelling in Mindspeech followed by passing on news to a town crier. Although it would take an army of scribes, or almost as many clerks to keep up with one of the printing devices he's heard of from the Eastern Empire– no, of course not, makers like Cam could just make a thousand of them, and there must be plenty of other methods in other worlds.

He has lots of time to read. "I'd like all of the ones since the war ended, please – um, and also any from during the war, if they were still publishing it then." 

That quantity of newspapers will not fit on me. Would you like my recommendation of the highlights of a single city's paper?