Taver's tail flicks restlessly. The look he gives her indicates that he finds her immensely frustrating and isn't sure what to do about it. 

:I see: he sends finally. :Perhaps we have nothing more to say to one another, then: He waits a moment, as though daring her to speak. 

"Maybe not! Good morning." And she attempts to go on to breakfast.

He does nothing to stop her. 

Sayshen, Taver's pissed off, I don't know how or if he'll escalate but you should know.

Yfandes, Taver knows something's up and he's mad at me about it, though I don't think he knows about you; watch out.

Bella just gets a world-weary mental sigh of acknowledgement from Sayshen, but Yfandes holds the link when she reaches out. 

:...Did he say anything about Leareth?: 

Name didn't come up. I was stonewalling him pretty hard, I guess if I'd been more cooperative it could have? If he knows about Leareth.

:He does. Not much, nothing recent, but – well, Lancir and Elspeth and Savil all know about Van's Foresight dream, so they know Leareth exists, but nothing else. We went to Taver after the first lucid dream, no, maybe the second. To confirm Leareth's immortality. So he knows that much. But nothing about his goals, he hadn't said much at that point. I never spoke to him about it afterward: 

Okay. It doesn't seem like an obvious connection but maybe he has little enough to go on to reach for non-obvious ones.

:Well, if he didn't mention it, then hopefully that means he hasn't connected it yet. I guess we'll see: A humourless mental chuckle. :There are other things that would bring Sayshen to your attention. That part doesn't necessarily point at me: 

Whoever I originally asked for directions can confirm that I said at the time that I wanted to learn more about Companions and was directed to her because she wasn't busy, at least.

:That's something: Yfandes agrees. :Not sure if he'd buy general curiosity being your only reason, but – maybe: A pause. 

Yeah, I don't know where he's... going with this. I'm going to warn my Elf friends too but thought you should know.

:Thank you. I'll warn Vanyel as well, in case Lancir tries to corner him instead of me: 

Good idea.

Yfandes drops the connection and heads off, presumably to do that. 

Bella goes on to have breakfast in a slightly dark humor.

Just before lunch, Vanyel reaches out to her with Mindspeech. :Bella, um, are you free?: 

On my way to lunch. What's up?

:I'm just kind of having a bad day. But Yfandes told me about the thing that happened to you, and I'm scared that if I ask Lancir for leave he'll remember I exist and be suspicious of us. I think if I talk to you for a bit I can probably get through the afternoon and then tomorrow might be better: 

Your bad day is separate, not about the Taver thing?

:I guess it's a bit related? But it's...everything: He doesn't seem to know how to explain it better than that. 

I can come over. She does this.

He lets her in and then goes back to his desk chair by the window and curls up in it. "Sorry to interrupt your day." 
 

"It's okay. What got you down?"

He considers it. 

"I think it's that Savil doesn't know," he says finally. "It's just - I trusted her. She promised I wouldn't have to deal with Leareth alone. But I can't tell her anything – I especially can't now, either she wouldn't believe me or she'd get mad, or she'd have the problem with Kellan and you'd have to do something and end up in even more trouble. But it means she kind of has no idea what's going on in my life anymore. And I have to pretend everything is fine when I'm with her. It's really exhausting and it feels bad, like I'm lying to her, and I, just... I need there to be one place where I don't have to hide what I'm feeling all the time."