Yeah, it is, they just kind of directly do things. The less sleep effect in particular is mediated by the - uh, the planet doesn't have a sun. Valinor is lit by magic giant glowing trees, a gold one and a silver one, trading off all the time, there's no night. The rest of the world is just lit by starlight but Elves can see heat, and see really well even when there's only the stars, and also make magic glowing things and use fire, so they get around adequately. Anyway the Trees also are generally invigorating in a way that results in needing less sleep.

"...That's such an incredibly weird world." Shavri bounces a little in her chair. "I have so many questions! Why did the gods decide to not make there be night, when do people decide when to sleep even, what does it mean to see heat–"

They didn't have a template where there was night to copy from. Elves need less sleep than humans and sleep every other day, usually during the hot part, except Fëanáro who liked to work manically for like a week at a time and then pass out on his desk.

Shavri looks like she can’t decide whether to be concerned or jealous. “Was that, um, bad for him?”

It wasn't great, and mana - the energy used for arcane spellcasting - recharges with rest, so it wasn't great for his development as a wizard, but I don't think it was going to cause any serious developmental problems. As for seeing heat, want me to show you? They can also see ultraviolet and their acuity is astounding.

"Wha– ooh, you can share with Thoughtsensing? That would be awesome. I'm so curious. Also it's sort of like that here, too, at least for Healers, your reserves replenish with food and rest so it's really important to take care of your body – I'm always telling Van that but he says he can just tap nodes which is cheating." 

Vanyel gives her a sour look and then keeps eating his food. 

Oh, we cheated too, Maiar have infinite mana and they'd let us siphon it off. Fëanáro used this as an excuse to skip sleep. But he was also trying to lucid dream and Maiar didn't help him cheat at that at all.

Here is an unfairly beautiful Valian landscape with crazy extra colors!

It is, in fact, super unfairly beautiful and the colours are amazing. "Hey, Van you have to see this!" 

Vanyel has a look, and even manages to seem slightly excited about it. "That is really pretty. Um, why was Fëanáro trying to lucid dream?" 

He just thought it sounded cool.

"It does! I want to learn to lucid dream." 

Shavri chatters on for a while, asking various random questions. Vanyel finishes his food and seems to be a quarter paying attention. 

When they're done eating (and Bella has given Shavri preliminary lucid dreaming instructions) she follows Vanyel out.

"Um, can we go to my room, or your room, I don't actually care I just want it to be somewhere that's indoors and has walls?" 

Sure. You can come see my new suite, Melody helped me move in this morning.

"Oh. That's nice." He follows her. 

Indoors with walls, so not the terrace. She sits down and looks at him expectantly.

"I need...one minute..." Vanyel curls up on the floor against a wall and puts his head in his hands and cries very quietly for about sixty seconds, and then gets up and wipes his eyes on his sleeve and looks sheepish. "Sorry, I, just – I've been around people all morning and it's...exhausting..." He sits down in a chair this time, and looks at her. "I, um, made a list of things I wanted to talk to you about." He digs a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. 

You'll have to read it for me.

"I was about to." He gulps and looks at the paper. "Um, first – I still keep thinking about wanting to die, kind of a lot? I guess I hoped that would go away. I don't really understand it, it doesn't feel like it's about Tylendel the same way. I...don't actually want to be dead? I like a lot of things about being alive. It's just where my mind goes if something feels hard or overwhelming, and a lot of this morning was like that. I helped Savil with some mage-work, and, I could do it, it was just...really hard." He shrugs helplessly. "I don't know, what do you think?" 

So, I separated the grief and the damage but the damage is still there. I'm not otherwise familiar with this kind of problem but it makes sense that if you have a huge hole in you you'll generally be short on cope. And when you aren't sure how to cope it's not a huge leap to 'what if I didn't have to cope anymore'. I don't have a quick fix for this one, unfortunately, but I can try some low-confidence options, and it will probably get better with time if you work on making sure you have plans for what to do when things seem like a bit much, even if the plan is just to tell someone - not necessarily me, but it can be me - or keep track of ordinary things that make you feel better like hot chocolate or getting plenty of sunshine.

Vanyel nods slowly. "I don't know how to solve it if the thing that seems like too much is having to exist and nothing would actually make that better, but..." he screws up his face again, "I don't know that that's actually it? Because...it feels like if I had the option of 'go to k'Treva and do nothing all day for a while' that would be sort of fine? I just don't feel like I can do that. I feel like I have to keep doing things forever. I don't really know what things make me feel better? Also I usually do tell Yfandes and it sort of helps but she also...gets upset, and sometimes that actually just makes it harder?" 

I might need to know about how Companion...ship... works. Do you have an idea of how long a while you'd have to be at k'Treva doing nothing all day?

Another shrug. "I mean, when I was in k'Treva, eventually once my Gifts weren't an emergency anymore, Savil would tell me to take a break sometimes, and...I think usually in less than a week I would get restless and bored and want to start helping out again. It's just, when I was doing things it was only one or two a day? And the timing was flexible and nobody was relying on just me to do something. Here it's – there are things at particular times, there's just more, and sometimes I have to go on a mission for a week where it just doesn't stop. And I can ask for leave afterward but then I'm letting people down. I'm already letting people down, I mean, Savil covers for me all the time, and Tran does the Mindspeech relay on his own when I can't make it, and I'm already scheduled for, I don't know, it feels like half the duties he is, and then I don't even manage all of them. I'm...doing a really bad job of being a Herald." He looks painfully embarrassed about it. "...Er, what do you want to know about Companions?" 

Uh, what the expected relationship and any supporting magical features thereof are and how that works out in practice with you and Yfandes. It's kind of a broad topic but it seems like she'll wind up being part of any long term strategy so I need to know what we're working with to help.