"Hmm." Savil strokes the tip of her nose. "Do the gods in that world communicate with humans?" 

I was the only human. They talk to people in general all the time, though, especially the little gods but including the big ones.

"Right, Elves. And, interesting. Things aren't like that over here. What's the difference between the little gods and the big gods?" 

"What are Elves like?" Vanyel jumps in. "They're...slower to do things?"

Well, most of them. I was friends with a fast one.

The Elves are tall and pretty and they need everything around them to be pretty and they sing a lot and they're all telepathic and so - good. I never heard of a bad Elf. Petty rumormongering sometimes, or confusion about what was best, but they didn't hurt each other.

Vanyel perks up with an interested look when she mentions singing. 

Savil looks surprised, then thoughtful. "How do they manage that? The being good part, I mean. We have a setup here that's meant to help the people in charge be good," for some reason she pauses to pat Vanyel's shoulder reassuringly, "but, er, it's not frictionless. Are Elves all just born that way?" 

I think so. They age a lot slower than humans so the long childhoods might help but even little Elves are very gentle and thoughtful compared to comparably sized humans. What's your setup?

"Well, we have Companions – those are the white horses you must've seen around, outside. The first King of Valdemar was a refugee from an Empire that was a very bad place at the time, might still be for all I know, and he tried to make everything different, but I guess he was worried that at some point one of his descendants would be corrupt or rule badly. So he prayed to every single god whose name he knew for a miracle."

She frowns. "They don't answer prayers like that often, but they did this time. The Companions are intelligent – and also telepathic, actually – and they go out and find youngsters with, er, good hearts and leadership potential. Generally magical Gifts as well. Anyone Chosen by a Companion is called a Herald and we wear white. The monarch is always a Herald, and there's about a hundred of the rest of us." 

She pauses, and her words become a little rote. "We play a lot of roles. Messengers, spies, information-gatherers, judges, peace-keepers… Most Heralds spend their time on circuit within some area of the Kingdom, riding around resolving legal disputes, supporting the Guard, and acting as representatives of the Crown. If there’s a war, we fight. Our Companions are meant to ensure that we don't become corrupt, and to act as a visible sign to everyone else that we're trustworthy." She shrugs. "Most Heralds are – trustworthy enough, I mean – and most citizens of Valdemar do trust us. But we're not perfect. Occasionally we can be imperfect in ways a lot worse than petty gossip." 

How do they tell who has a good heart?

"You know, I'm not exactly sure how it works. I mean, once they're bonded to us they can read our minds, but before that I think it's a sort of Foresight. That's a Gift we have that can tell the future. Hmm – I'll ask Kellan." She closes her eyes for a minute. "He says it's something like that, yes. They just feel it. It's a part of the 'miracle' that the god or gods involved set up." 

"I wasn't exactly a good person when I was Chosen," Vanyel says tightly. "I try to be now." 

Savil smacks his shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

Okay.

"It's pretty strange," Vanyel says, a little more animated. "There are some other things in other kingdoms that are almost as weird. Rethwellan, er, they're southwest of us, they have a magic sword that selects the heir to the throne. Hardorn has – actually Rethwellan has as well, I think, on top of the sword – anyway, they have a religion that worships the Earth-Father and the priests can do some kind of magical binding between the ruler and the land, which in theory means that they can't act to harm it. I don't know if Karse has that but they have a god who apparently intervenes a lot." 

He stops, blinks, and deflates slightly. "Sorry if that was boring. I, um, do the gods in the Elves' world do anything like that? What about in the world you're from originally?" 

Um, I don't think they're controlling Elf politics like that. Gods in Materia also mostly don't.

"How does your magic work?" Savil says after a moment. "Lancir seemed to find it very intriguing but I haven't heard much." 

My telepathy and telekinesis are not technically magic according to the definition of my home society, it's called subtle arts. Uh, what do you mean how does it work - it gets better with practice? Some people are born with some subtle arts and most people aren't? Some people can also use it to control fire but I can't. At the time I originally had the magical accident I was in school to learn therapy.

"They have school for that?" Savil glances at Vanyel, who is stubbornly staring at the floor, and rubs her nose again. "Better with practice and some people are born with but most aren't is how it is here as well." 

There are a lot of kinds of magic there, some anyone can learn if they're bright enough or devout enough or something. And a lot of species of people. It's a really complicated place, Arda was simpler.

"You said you helped the people in the other world, er, Arda, with your mag– with your subtle arts?" Vanyel says, cautiously. "They don't have that even though they have telepathy?" 

Their telepathy only reads surface thoughts that aren't being hidden, and sends meanings and sense data. It's communicative but it wouldn't really have a therapeutic application. Uh, one of the Valar sort of tried to do therapy - he's the god of the dead and considers part of that to be healing dead people's traumas and personal flaws-in-his-opinion before he puts them back to life - but he was so bad at it, he mostly just made people forget things and turned them straight if they weren't straight before. I got permission to let people un-forget things, from one of the other Valar, and did a lot of that for ones who wanted to remember.

Vanyel is staring ahead with an increasingly frozen look. 

At 'turned them straight' Savil nearly spits out her drink, but she waits for Bella to finish. 

"That's certainly an interesting type of meddling," she says dryly. She reaches to squeeze Vanyel's shoulder again. "Not that I'd be shocked if the gods of our world have that, er, specific prejudice, but they're less obvious about it." She smiles tightly. "And I do see why Lancir is intrigued. We've got a similar division here, actually. The Mindspeech that Van and I have is closer to what you're describing with the Elves. Lancir is a Mindhealer as well, which is a separate Gift; it's absurdly rare and I'm not actually sure how it works, but I gather he can See different things as well as affect them in deeper ways. Van, you might know more?" 

Vanyel squirms. "Um, not really. He can See structures and patterns of thinking, I guess?" He looks like someone who doesn't want to be discussing this topic at all.