"...Gods, it's hard to keep track of what time it is out there," Lissa says finally. "It's probably lunchtime-ish. I should go. Van, can you take over on the door?"

"Of course." He relocates and sits with his back to the door with his reading material while Lissa darts out. 

A couple of minutes later: "Cam? Are you still present?" 

"Yes, hello."

Leareth's image is back on the portal-display. "I have taken the time to consider, and I will accept your offer. I can meet at the message location in two candlemarks. Is there anything else that we need to discuss now?" 

"I don't think so."

Leareth nods. "Vanyel, we meet in two candlemarks."

"...Er, yes." 

Leareth turns to walk away, and the portal goes blank. 

"Vanyel, how far do you want your shuttle and in what direction?"

"Hmm, just a minute, I need a– oh, right." Vanyel goes to his conjured travel-pack and digs around, coming up with a map, which he unfolds. "Edge of the Forst Reach holding is here, that's about five miles. Should be a nice big meadow right about...here." He indicates a spot on the map. "'Fandes and I can ride there without much trouble. Does that work?" 

"Is there any substantial difference in altitude between there and where your door is?"

"I don't think so? Hmm. I'll do a quick Farsight check." Vanyel closes his eyes and goes silent for a minute or so. "...It's a bit downhill from here, I'm pretty sure. Not a huge difference though." 

"More or less than fifty feet grade."

"Fairly sure it's less." 

"Cool."

Five miles away in the chosen direction, fifty feet up, it gets foggy gradually, and then there's a shuttle, which lands itself neatly in the meadow. Cam displays this on his computer for Vanyel to see once there's a camera there.

Deep breath, in and out. "We'd...better go, then." 

"I'll come with–"

"No you will not, Lissa. Cam needs you to hold the door. Also I can protect myself more easily than I can protect you as well. Not that I expect anything to go wrong, but..." He hugs her, and then steps back. "See you both in a few candlemarks, hopefully." 

"Good luck. If you need anything on the way I can make stuff in the shuttle, it gives precise enough location data."

"That's good to know, thank you." Vanyel glances around, seems to decide against bringing anything with him. "Let's go, 'Fandes, should have time to swing by the stable and grab your tack." 

And the two of them slip out. 

Lissa sits down with her back against the door, hugging her knees. "I shouldn't be nervous. It's going to be fine, right? ...I'm so nervous." 

"Yeah, me too. Even if it's going to be fine it's really big, that's stressful."

Lissa lets out a shaky breath. "...I guess that makes sense. I was about to say, probably you're not stressed because you've got insane power and Leareth can't do anything to you, but...it doesn't really work like that, does it?" 

She leans her back against the door for a while, staring vaguely out at the empty courtyard. 

"I'm glad Van found the door," she says finally. "Even if he did ruin my vacation. Again." Heavy sigh. "Gods, though, I hate the waiting part. I've always been terrible at waiting." 

"Well, if you want to pass the time feeding my computer more vocabulary it would be better at speaking Valdemaran for it."