The contents of my sessions with Vanyel including what I advise him to do are none of your business until and unless I have his express permission to discuss them.

:Well, he's at your location, isn't he? Can you get his permission right now?: 

I can give him the earcuff if you like.

:Please do that: 

"Van, Lancir wants to talk to you."

Vanyel tenses but nods. "Um, sure." He holds out his hand for the earcuff, and keeps his voice low out of consideration for Shavri. "...Also is there water in here? I'm really thirsty. And I have to use the privy but I don't want to move that much yet so I'll wait." 

Leareth appears behind them, nudging aside the curtain. :Bella?: He turns to a person behind him, speaking softly. "Bring Herald Vanyel some water, please." 

Bella waves at Leareth.

:How are they taking your explanation?: Leareth asks her. 

Not super great but I think the remaining point of contention is 'you should have told us sooner that we should no longer expect an invasion'.

:Really? I would have expected it to be more 'why do you trust the man who is going to invade our Kingdom' and 'which of our secrets have you leaked to him': 

Vanyel's expression is getting more and more stressed. Finally, he takes out the earcuff. 

"Bella, I'm formally releasing you from your oath of confidentiality," he says dully. "You can use your judgement about what to tell Lancir – please, please, if there's anything from our session that you think him knowing might convince my own country not to go to war with us or something, please tell him." 

Then he bursts into tears. The fact that he is incredibly humiliated about crying in front of Leareth of all people does not actually help him be crying any less. 

"- uh." Bella takes the earcuff back. What the fuck did you just say to him?

:What? I told him this was a very serious situation, that things were really tense, and that it seemed you were feeling constrained in what you could tell us due to your other obligations as a therapist, and I was concerned this would make this harder to resolve peacefully: 

Well, he has released me from my oath, so I can tell you that now he's crying!

:Oh: Pause. :...Are you blaming me for that? I was just honest with him about the situation and the gravity here. I can't blame him for being upset. I'm pretty upset about it too: 

He wasn't crying five minutes ago!

:Fine, I might've been a bit harsh trying to bring it home to him how serious this is. But it is serious. Now, is there anything else you're allowed to tell me that will help me understand the decisions you made yesterday and over recent weeks? Because right now all of it seems extremely questionable: 

I think it's still pretty tied up in the infohazard but the infohazard is only applicable to Heralds.

:I...see: From the overtones, Lancir does not see at all. :Does part of the infohazard explain why you thought it was a good idea to dump Leareth in our capital city, where he could have done whatever he liked?: 

The infohazard explains why an army would be after me. I thought it was a good idea to bring in Leareth because he offered to help if I was ever in danger especially for the applicable reason, and I thought this seemed credible. Also, most of my limitations in facing an army are about their numbers, and Leareth is one person.

:–So you could take him? If it were just the two of you?: 

I don't know, but he doesn't either, and my Elf friends know where I am and who I'm with, so given that and since I do believe he values my willingness to entertain what he has to say, I chanced it. I'm not assuming there's no chance he's playing me. I am assuming he at least has a longer game in mind and is smart enough to be aware that this isn't a productive time to spring a trap.

:I suppose that's one way to think about it: It's obvious that Lancir is neither completely convinced nor reassured. The main overtones Bella is getting from him are of massive amounts of stress. And exhaustion – Lancir is clearly among the people who were up late. And fear, which he's trying to keep tamped down but not entirely succeeding at it. 

I realize it must look really scary from your end. I don't imagine you care to talk to Leareth and I don't want to give him the earcuff anyway.