"He told me about the bad idea revenge scheme you mind-controlled him out of."

Lancir both winces and looks faintly offended. "I see. I - wish there had been a better way of handling that situation; I needed to put him under a Truth Spell before he would even tell me and I hated doing that to him given the givens. I didn't control him, though. Compulsion spells are possible here, there's even something similar I could do directly with Mindhealing, and that isn't at all the thing I did. I...got through to him that it was a bad idea and he oughtn't." 

"I mean, I'm not saying mind control was the more bad option, there, it sounded like a pretty bad revenge scheme, I think we're all glad it didn't happen, but like, I do think magically impressing on someone that they really shouldn't do a thing qualifies as mind control even if it's shouldn't and not can't. --Uh, not the point, quibbling over a value-judgment laden piece of terminology that didn't have the relevant weight of value judgment behind it is so extremely not why we're having this conversation, also this isn't even my first language and I only started learning it a month ago SO."

Lancir doesn't seem to know what to say to that; he walks in silence for a few paces.

"I'm behind you on bringing Staven back," he says finally. "The way he died was awful; in addition to the good for him, of course, and for Tylendel, I think it would bring Elspeth some peace of mind to know that some of the results of that disaster we failed to catch in time can be undone." Sigh. "However, the political consequences here are going to be a good bit messier than they were with 'Lendel." 

"...Well, 'Lendel's already a secret, couldn't that be--extended? I know if I was dead and had loved ones alive waiting for me I'd rather be back sooner and have to hide than wait until I could do it openly."

"Hmm. My concern is that Staven may not be particularly in favour. If he considers himself still the rightful heir to the landholding." 

"...That being why bringing him back is messier, I assume."

"Yes. It would be one thing if, er, anybody thought it was a good idea for him to take back the position. Vanissa's claim is much weaker; however, she's far better suited to it, she's older and less hotheaded and she's been doing wonderfully." 

"That sounds obnoxious. Is there a clear path to fixing it or is it just sort of a matter of hoping it can be a mess when you have more slack to handle mess."

"Well, I'm also hoping that I think of a clearer answer at some point." He frowns. "If you want to bring back more people eventually, which I imagine you will, then, er, this is going to come up again. We really ought to figure out some policies before the mess happens." 

"Yes, I can see that...I'm alright waiting while things are specifically progressing forwards; I'm not sure I'm alright waiting while we hope something comes up. Are you sure the secrecy thing wouldn't work? I mean, at least in theory, he could be a secret for a while and then take the holding back later when things weren't secret, and then, I don't know, while things were being secret he might find out how good a job Vanissa was doing and internalize it or find something else he wanted to do with his life or something."

Lancir looks thoughtful. 

"...And, of course, he might grow up a little in that time," he says finally. "Could be that Staven at eighteen, with a bit more distance from his parents' deaths, would be a perfectly respectable Lord Holder. Hmm. The trouble is that I don't really want him in Haven while his, er, return to life is a secret. Tylendel is one thing, he's got Gala to keep an eye on him. But he also can't stay at home, for the obvious reason..." 

"There's that whole isolated house in the countryside idea I mentioned," Lucy says thoughtfully.

"It's a thought. Though I–" He breaks off. "I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. What about k'Treva? Savil actually said to me last year that she wished she'd brought Tylendel there. He was training with her for three years and still had – has, I assume – control issues. And Van could benefit from more time to learn the ropes as well, we could plan better which books they bring with them. It wouldn't have occurred to me to send Staven there but it would definitely keep him out of trouble. And make the secret easier to maintain. What do you think?" 

"...It'd be really nice to see Moondance and Starwind again and see what they did with the basilisk bones." 

"...Sorry, what?" 

"Oh, I dunno how much of this you know--the way Savil and Vanyel found me was that they were traveling towards Valdemar from k'Treva with Moondance and Starwind, and there was a basilisk around, and Moondance and Starwind were keeping track of it, because, basilisk. And Wilbur and I had gotten attacked by some random wild wyrsa, and I killed them all, but I only ate some of them on the spot so the remaining wyrsa corpses attracted the basilisk to our camp and I smelled it from a ways off but I couldn't make it shoo so I bit its head off and left the rest to eat later and when Moondance and Starwind found the basilisk's body they tracked me back to camp to find out what had done that. And then when Wilbur and I agreed to head for Valdemar with Savil and Vanyel I had to eat the rest of the wyrsa and the basilisk right away, but I saved the hide and the bones because they might be useful, and I cached them for Moondance and Starwind to pick up later instead of them being carried there and back."

Lancir's expression shifts through a dozen stages of startled, alarmed, and mildly appalled, and finally settles on 'impressed'. "That's...quite something." A quick smile. "Probably helped Van feel safe around you, that you can just, er, eat wyrsa like that." 

"It hasn't come up with 'Lendel or Gala yet but I bet it'll help there, too."

Lancir chuckles. "I imagine so." Then the smile fades. "The remaining obstacle would be obtaining his remains; it's going to be hard to explain that if the entire thing is still secret." 

"Well, it'll help that I'm invisible and can share. I was thinking I could sort of--go there invisibly and dig him up at night and try to pat down the soil to look like it did before I did so once the digging's done, I can be careful of the grass."

"...I suppose you probably could pull it off. I - don't feel great about the ethics of that plan, digging up the graves of people's loved ones without their knowledge would be pretty widely frowned upon, but. I'm also not sure I trust Vanissa to respond well to us asking, even though from all reports she's quite level-headed." 

"I mean, it's not great, but, like--if someone wouldn't allow you to do something with the information they have now, but they would if they had all the information, but they don't have all the information yet and can't for a while, and you do the thing, it's not the same as if they just would be really upset even if they knew all the everything. And, like--the people graves are for is the living loved ones, but the person whose business the whole thing most is is the currently-deceased."

"Give me a moment to think, please." 

Lancir walks in silence for a while. 

"...I'm inclined to say yes, do it," he says finally. "However, I think Elspeth gets the final say. Which I expect means she'll want to meet the boys. Talk with Tylendel a bit, see for herself that he's, er, the same as he was before." 

She considers this briefly, then nods. "Okay."

If Elspeth says no, she's going to ask Tylendel if he wants her to do it anyway, and if so how they should handle the logistics, but nobody needs to know that until and unless Elspeth does say no.