"Oh no! I'm sure she'll understand, but that is quite unfortunate. Hmm - I should talk to Keiran, my first thought is setting up something with the Guard section based in Haven. It's not very sex-balanced, compared to the Heralds, but there are a fair number of women and I think lots of them would be interested." A smile starts to grow. "You know, my niece would love the idea. Van's older sister. She's still training but she may be in Haven at some point." 

"I figured there'd be takers!"

"It's an excellent idea." Then Savil frowns. "...Wonder why she came all this way looking for you. Bit odd, that." 

"She said I was 'feisty'?" shrugs Bella.

"Huh, that's not the first word I'd use to describe you but I suppose it's on the list. Anyway. I'll take her to meet Keiran when she's free." She switches back to Shin'a'in. "Embra, would you like a room for tonight before you travel back?"

Embra looks a bit buffeted by the last five minutes. "That would be very kind." 

And, says Bella, setting down her fork, I wish your niece a very happy marriage.

Embra ducks her head. "Thank you. And - thank you for your assistance and understanding, here." 

She follows Savil out of the dining hall. 

"...That was weird," Shavri says, shaking her head a bit. "Er, Bella, do you agree that was really really weird?" 

"It did seem weird. It's, y'know, not the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."

Shavri's high-pitched giggle is more nerves than amusement. "That's definitely true. ...Oh, gods, I'm really late, I told my roommate we could study for a test together. See you later, Bella!" She runs off. 

"Bye!"

Bella considers the matter approximately put to bed. She sits up reading a bit and then puts herself to bed too.

The next few days are uneventful. Savil swings by to thank her again and let her know that Keiran found a roster of twenty different women in the Guard city patrol who were interested, and Need agreed to go with eighteen of them.

Vanyel's next session with her is two days later. He seems to be in pretty good spirits. "Still no trouble from Lancir or Taver," he tells her right away. "I had to talk to Lancir for a bit for a Farsight emergency check I got called in for, and he didn't notice anything. How's your research going?" 

"It's going. Did you hear about the magic sword-person?"

"Oh, right, Savil was talking about that – she said Keiran was setting up some sort of city patrol to catch men assaulting women? She didn't mention you though. Um, she also didn't mention the sword was a person. What." 

"Sword's a person! She has a" modus operandi? "of getting whoever's carrying her to take her to the next person to whom she feels a vague pull and then as necessary using mind control to get them to pick her up and do her thing. I have scolded her for that, I think her patrol group should be safe. Anyway, she dragged some poor lady all the way here without letting her attend her" niece's wedding "or stop for regular meals because she was pulled at me. Guess who I think is behind that."

"Operating style?" Vanyel suggests. "Niece, wedding. And – eek. Um. I don't like that thought at all–"

He brings both hands to his forehead. "Oh no. She was Shin'a'in, no? The lady who got dragged up here. That's - it almost has to be the Star-Eyed. So I bet this is completely my fault. Why was I so stupid?" 

"- huh?"

"I told everyone in k'Treva about you. And I told Moondance about talking to Leareth. And that you knew about that. So the Star-Eyed Goddess could know all of that. And She's the Goddess of the Shin'a'in people too, they actually used to be the same people as the Tayledras but they split apart a few thousand years ago after the Cataclysm." 

"...oh. Well, she didn't do any harm."

"This time! What if She keeps trying more things?" 

"Hopefully I'll be gone by then? This wasn't a very near miss, I don't think. The sword could be reasoned with. It took, like, the duration of dinner."

"That's true. It doesn't seem very well thought out, if it was some sort of scheme to – what, I don't know, distract you from doing anything interesting by making you spend all your time questing to save women instead? But you hate mind control, that's practically the first thing I knew about you, and you can shield. So sending Need is, um, really kind of an incompetent plan. You'd think gods would be smarter than that." 

"They seem maybe not quick on the uptake. I'm hoping I'll be out of the way before they get smarter."