The door opens, and a Herald comes in and does a double-take. "...Oh, Vanyel, that's you." His eyes go back to DZ, bemused. 

"This is my friend DZ," Vanyel says. "DZ, this is Tran. Um, do you want to go back to my rooms or something? I can sing you all the rest without bothering people who want to study here, and I'll have my lute there for the instrumental part." 

"If you'd like, sir." She gathers up the book.

Ugh he can't tell at all if she actually wants to or is just humouring him. "All right." He leads the way out of the library. It's not that far to the Heralds' Wing. "Er, what's your favourite poetry from back home?" he says, hoping to make the walk slightly less awkward. 

"I like poems that tell stories - usually ones that are more evocative than I Found a Land, though it is very nice."

"Oh! I can probably pick ones that you'll like, then, some of the songs in here are much more interesting stories." 

Once he gets back to his room, unlocks it, finds her a chair (he only owns two and one is an uncomfortable wicker thing that lives in his bedroom and is usually covered in random clothes and books, he takes that one), and gets his lute and tunes it, he's going to sing her Windrider Unchained. 

Windrider, fettered, imprisoned, and pinioned
Wing-clipped by magic, his power full drained,
Valdemar's Heir is defeated and captive,
With his Companion by Darklord enchained.

Darklord of shadows his fetters is weaving
Binds him in darkness as deep as despair,
Mocks at his anger and laughs at his weeping
"Where is your strength now, oh Valdemar's Heir?"

It keeps going for a number of additional verses.

"That's very nice, sir," she says when he's done.

Oh gods he wishes he could at least read droid body language at all and have any idea if she really thought so or was just being polite. "Do you want to hear some of the others? Um, it's really fine if you have other things you need to do." 

"I'd like to hear them, please."

Then he's going to play her Sun and Shadow, which is really meant to be a duet but maybe he can teach her the female vocal part and then do it properly? And How Could I Have Known and Two Young Fools, he's jumping around the song cycle in semi-random order thinking of his favourites, and then he starts on A Love That's Meant To Be without thinking, before remembering that he avoids playing this one in public ever because he basically can't get through it without crying, but it's awkward to stop now. 

Among the many branches, upon the jeweled hills,
I heard your breathing, I saw you weeping, I felt you waiting still.

And there I lay beside you and uttered not a sound,
I held you dearly, I felt you near me, I heard the mist come down.

"...Um, sorry, d-do you want to sing the rest, tune's the same," he can probably manage just the instrumental part without bursting into tears in front of her. 

"Would you like to play something else instead, sir?"

"Um, sure, actually," his hands are shaking and he wants to flee the room and hide except he's in his room and there's nowhere to go and that would be so incredibly rude. He's distracted enough that the chords that start happening are the opening measures of the Shadow-Lover song and that's even worse, so he has to apologize again and take a deep breath and rake his mind for literally anything that's silly and lighthearted and will be zero upsetting. The one that comes to mind first isn't even from the Windrider Cycle but by the time he remembers that it's too late to start over a third time. My Lady's Eyes is an objectively stupid song, he only knows it so well because it's his mother's favourite, but the tune is interesting at least. 

My Lady's eyes are like the skies
A soft and sunlit blue
No other fair could half compare
In sweet midsummer hue 

She lets him sing.

"...Sorry, that one wasn't actually from the same book, it's one my mother likes, I know it's kind of silly. Um, and I just remembered I have some work I was supposed to do, so I should probably go do that. I really liked showing you songs though. Er, you can keep the book if you want, to show Deskyl or read it more, and bring it back to the library tomorrow?" 

"Yes sir, thank you." And she goes.

Vanyel locks his door and then curls up in his bed and cries for a while. 

He isn't bothered at it.

Two days later, in the late afternoon, Deskyl goes looking for him.

She's going to find him out in the field where the Companions spend a lot of time, sitting with his back against a tree, apparently deep in thought. 

She's pretty sure at this point that she can peek through his shields without him noticing, if she's careful; what's he up to?

Well, for one he's exhausted, seems if anything more sleep-deprived than on the mission, he must've been up most of the night. He's...upset, overwhelmed, scared...but in a different way than before.

If she looks any deeper, the sense of some horrific underlying damage is still there, it's still tinging all his thoughts with pain/loss/grief, but it's not the thing he's paying attention to right now. 

He is inexplicably thinking about a bronze statue of the first King of Valdemar which has a long number written discreetly along the book the King is holding, a number which has two prime factors, he seems to know that from somewhere else but it's not totally clear where, or why this is important. And there's another flicker of memory, a white stallion, like Yfandes but somehow brighter, looking at him, and his words remembered in fragments.

- I recognize those words - died more than seven hundred years ago -

- weird. She's not looking all that deeply, 'upset and overwhelmed and scared' is really about all she needs to know. She goes over, clicking her tongue quietly as she gets close so as to avoid startling him, and settles beside him.

"...Deskyl?" He still seems a bit dazed. "It's, um, good to see you." Then he catches himself and switches to Mindspeech. :It's good to see you. I like your clothes! Did you do that embroidery?: He leans in a bit as though to look closer and then seems to catch himself and pulls back.

She holds out her arm to let him look at the embroidery on the sleeve; the pattern of red and gold circles and dots isn't as neat as the starbursts on the outfit she appeared in, but definitely serviceable. :Mmhmm. I need a little more practice but it turned out okay. Up to anything interesting?:

:What, right now? I, um... Not really, I was just woolgathering: He is not a particularly convincing liar.

:All right. Nice spot for it, anyway.: