"Oh, um, you can fix it, I didn't think to ask. Yfandes made me do some tests earlier, that's why I was late. Still have to compare them to sometime later when I'm not sleep deprived and don't have a headache, though." 

Yup. Ideally a few times. Fix.

"Thank you!" Vanyel perks up a little, though he still looks tired. "All right. Notes? And, um, if you have time I'm still...kind of overwhelmed, about that conversation. It feels like everything changed a lot really fast and I already had no idea what to do about Leareth and now I have no idea even more." 

She translates the notes, which are outlines rather than exact words except in a couple places but allow her to pretty comprehensively recall the substance of the conversation. Yeah, it's sure something. I don't like the smell of it but he's either going to make himself my business or do something I'd consider my business. If he's actually immortal, anyway, maybe we could put it off for a hundred years, regroup when I have my own demiplane and stuff.

:...Um, sorry, put what off?: Vanyel stares blankly at her. :I'm not going to be around in a hundred years: 

I probably am. If he decides to just avoid me I can revisit things later.

"And then you'd talk to him then? Or, I mean, is that in the case where he's lying and he isn't immortal?" Vanyel makes a face. "I believe him about that part. Taver believes him about that part, and he's a Groveborn Companion and has a bunch of Foresight hints."

He shakes his head, sort of dazed. "It...would be something. If he avoided Valdemar entirely because of you, I mean. That's not at all how, um, how I thought my life would go. But I suspect he's going to try a lot harder to talk to you before deciding to avoid you." 

He sits back on the bed. "Um, how likely do you think it is that he knows I was talking to someone in the dream?" 

You were spacing out a lot but he might think you were talking to someone else. The part where he gave you permission to repeat the conversation to me was maybe tongue in cheek if he's given to that. Also kind of rich, like you'd need his permission.

"Oh, he does make comments like that sometimes – er, at least half the time it's something he guessed right, sometimes I have no idea what it's about. And from other things he's said, he absolutely thinks I don't and shouldn't need his permission, that was - I don't know, maybe more hinting that he suspects." A pause. "Or, hmm – my best guess actually is that it was aimed at the scenario where I was considering talking to you but hadn't yet? I don't know, though, trying to guess what he's thinking is like," he strains to think of a sufficiently comparable example, "like putting together a puzzle blindfolded." 

That's so frustrating! Does it serve his goals to be frustrating - not just cryptic! Frustrating! - or has he failed to learn basic conversational skills in however long he's been around?

Vanyel makes a face. "I'm not sure I understand what his goals are. I mean, he's sort of trying to convince me of things, but...he isn't being convincing, the normal way? And it seems like he could be, if he wanted, I feel like he can talk circles around me, but... I don't know, it feels like he's just trying to make me think, sometimes. Or testing me. He reminds me of reasons why I should be careful about trusting him, which is really confusing if he were just trying to be persuasive." 

No, I don't think that's actually confusing by itself. There's actually a few ways it works - if you get in the habit of relying on him for those reminders he can leave some out, or if you think it's a sign of trustworthiness for him to be cultivating your epistemic standards, or something. What's confusing is doing something like that and then being separately annoying on top of it.

Vanyel shrugs. "I don't know that I actually find it any more annoying than the, um, entire overall situation? I hadn't thought about whether it was frustrating, I was just trying to figure out what it meant." 

Maybe it's not weird for him to be doing it with you because you take it well and he can suss that out, I guess.

"Huh. I don't know. I've had teachers who were like that before, I guess it's annoying sometimes but mostly if they're also not saying anything interesting." Vanyel looks down at his own quick notes from Bella's read-off of hers. "...Stupid question. What's a demiplane?" 

Magically created miniature plane.

"You can do that?" 

Not yet.

"But if you had one, you'd be more powerful than Leareth for sure, right?" 

"More powerful than" isn't a single axis.

"...I guess that's fair. I don't know what my point was there anyway. If it would take a hundred years." Vanyel still seems discomfited by that prospect. "Anyway. What do you think we should actually do next, now in the present? Try to come up with a good list of questions and send him a letter?" 

Or try to come up with some adequately paranoid way to communicate with him that's faster.

"Adequately paranoid against him deciding to harm us in some way, or against something else?"

Oh, I mean if he wanted to get within 300 miles at predictable times that would work but he might not want to expose himself like that.

"Oh, right, you mean for his paranoia. That's a pretty good point. Although if we went all the way north to the Border, and – hmm, can the earcuff tell direction? Even if so, he could still be north of the mountains, we'd have a pretty hard time getting at him there."