"...And Yfandes?" Vanyel is starting to look a bit panicky. "Where is she?" 

"Yfandes is safe and has not asked to be taken out but I'm full up on mana and can get her any time it seems dicey. She's worried it'd look bad to bail out. Do you want to borrow this and talk to her?" She taps the earcuff.

"I'm worried it'll hurt to use Mindspeech but I guess the earcuff makes it basically zero range? And I do really want to talk to her."

"It's zero range and I can step up the painblock if you need it." She hands over the cuff.

Vanyel takes it. :Yfandes?: He winces. "Um, yes, more painblocking please?" 

More painblocking!

Vanyel talks to Yfandes for about five minutes. Not all of it is content-ful; some is just repeated exchanged 'I love you' and 'I miss you'-s. 

"Yfandes says Lancir can talk to you in ten minutes," he says. "He's really not a strong Mindspeaker but if the earcuff makes it effectively zero range then it should be fine. Um, she says she still thinks it was the right call not to bug out right away, when everyone was really upset and wanted an explanation, but - after you talk to Lancir, if you have enough mana then she wants to join us." He offers her back the earcuff. 

She slips it back on. What'd we miss? Is anyone hurt?

:Er, no serious injuries that I'm aware of - Melody's the only one they grabbed and you've got her. What you missed... Hmm. Once the Ifteli force realized you'd nabbed everyone from Healers and they were besieging an empty building, they sort of backed down. They technically had us outnumbered for mages and other Gifted people, but I don't think they actually wanted to attack the Heralds:

Pause. :Er, this bit I only have through Savil, she'd cooled off a bit by the time it was over and she was worried sick about Van and willing to talk to me. Anyway, sequence of events after you got the Healers: Taver went out to demand an explanation from the commander in charge. They, um, demanded you. He said he didn't know where you are and asked what they thought they were doing attacking an ally. They asked what he thought he was doing mind-controlling their troops. He said that wasn't him either and he didn't know what Melody was thinking but that he would expect serious diplomatic repercussions from attacking a Healer - they said she obviously wasn't a noncombatant so it was perfectly legitimate to grab her - that argument went on for a bit. Meanwhile all their mages were bristling at our mages, it was pretty scary. Taver got the part about the Foresight vision their high priest had. He was...really not happy about it. Whatever happened, I don't think it was on him – he was so shocked, he clearly hadn't escalated this enough that calling in other countries' gods was an expected outcome: 

Leareth seemed kind of surprised too by the, uh, escalation pattern, apparently I'm getting all hands on deck and that's atypical for Velgarth gods.

:I've never heard of anything like this happening. Ever: The worry is clear in Yfandes' mindvoice. :Anyway, I tried to explain a little bit more to Taver afterward – it didn't seem like concealing information was going to help our cause, although honestly, telling him didn't seem to help either. And I haven't dared mention the part where Leareth is fighting the gods to anyone except Taver. In case it, um, gives the other Heralds the same problem – I don't know that Taver would let you fix it. Anyway, it was kind of the same thing I had - it's sort of bouncing off him, he just gets furious at me, I'm not sure how much of it he's actually absorbing. But I have technically said words to him about all of it, including the part about k'Treva and where we think Need was an attempt from the Star-Eyed to distract you: 

I'm not sure I'm actually necessary for fixing it. I think anyone who knew what the problem was could talk a Companion through self-jailbreaking, it'd just take longer without the muffle, I didn't have to actually break the mind control myself. In case that comes up.

:–That's a really good point. I can't even think about having to do it without you there, but mostly because it'd have been so much harder on Van, I...don't think I could've managed to be near him without you fuzzing the part of me that was screaming about him not feeling like my Chosen anymore. I might've been able to get it eventually if I just went off alone, but I can't imagine doing that to him. I'm less worried about other Heralds who don't have a preexisting giant hole in them. And I can talk to other Companions, if they'll willing to talk to me: 

To be clear, I'd rather you didn't set off a cascade of this right now if you can avoid it. I don't know what the next escalation will look like and if there's any flexibility on when it happens I'd rather avoid provoking it till I'm standing in another universe, or at least until I have Fëanáro's teleport. He's almost done with turning it into a scroll, and then he has to walk me through the whole thing while I write down his scroll, and then I have to translate his scroll into my own scroll shorthand, and then I have to learn the spell, and it's horrible and annoying but doesn't take that long if I'm concentrating on it and he's worried enough about me to concentrate on it too, which he is. But it's an option if something comes up and your judgment is that it'd be better.

:Right. Um, what are you going to tell Lancir? If you can't explain all the actual reasons: 

I think I will ask him to ask Taver if Taver thinks it would be a good idea for the thing about Companions to be widely known among Heralds given that it might be an information hazard. Taver will probably say no, he does not want that. Then I'll look much less suspicious talking around it.

:That's clever: Yfandes is silent for a moment, thinking. :Er, I think it would help settle things down if you could fix the gryphons, and have Melody fix the ones she did. Lancir was able to check what was done, but he wasn't confident he could take out someone else's set-command without messing things up more, and he can't do anything about yours. But probably talk to Lancir first. He should be ready any minute: 

Say when.

:I'll tell you when Taver gives me the word: Yfandes hesitates. :...Bella, I'm scared: 

Yeah. I'm sorry. I should be able to get everybody who wants to come out of the world in a few months but I realize that may not be much comfort and I don't have a destination scouted to be reassuring about either.

:Gods, if me a few months ago had overheard that sentence, I'd be pretty convinced I was going insane. Honestly, it feels a bit like the entire world's gone insane: 

She's silent for a bit. :Lancir's ready now: 

Thank you.

Hello, Lancir.

:Bella: The overtones are not happy at all, though he seems more stressed and overwhelmed than angry. :Care to tell me what exactly you were thinking, yesterday?: 

I think you should ask Taver whether he'd like me to explain all the context including the part pertaining to my conversation with him the other week, given that it may be an infohazard.

:Bella, that really does not reassure me that you're working in good faith here. But, fine: Brief silence. :He says he doesn't think that would be wise right now. I am baffled as to what could possibly be going on here, but – explain the parts you can, I guess: