Crap crap crap crap crap. This was a very bad plan. 

Vanyel's whole body hurts from Yfandes' hard landing after leaping the stream, his head is ringing from the levinbolt he didn't see coming, there are six men standing in front of the wards, and all of their auras had the heavy, sticky wrongness of the freshly ‘fed’ bloodpath mage, gods, thanks to his stupid, stupid attempt to probe they've had time to kill some of the hostages, what if the kidnapped children he's here to rescue are already dead–

The node he was tapping on his journey here is nearly depleted, the ley-lines roiling in confusion; he drops the connection and reaches for another more distant nexus of mage-energies, and draws that power through himself to fling it into a shield. Just in time to catch the next coordinated attack, the men aren't as skilled as Savil but they've clearly practiced working together, and his hands are smarting from taking the brunt of the transferred heat.

And then–

:Kernos' balls!: Yfandes yelps in his mind. :Where did SHE come from?:

Vanyel is thinking the same thing. 

The... mage? there's some kind of magic going on there, though it's not like anything they've seen before... staggers a bit as she appears, unprepared for the uneven footing. She's not shielding at all, and her mind is, frankly, a mess, wreathed in a half-unraveled mass of spell energy and badly damaged under that, like it was scoured clean not too very long ago and her healing since then has been focused on having any complex mental functions at all rather than the sturdiness of the structures that produce them. Her companion - shorter, and apparently made completely of silvery metal - is even stranger: that there's a mind there is the only thing they can tell about her; there's no way of knowing whether she's shielding or her mind is just that alien by itself.

They take half a second to take in the scene, and then the metal one ducks down, curling into a ball, while the apparently-human one produces a glowing red blade from a short copper rod on her belt and closes with the blood mages, pulling their shields down with a gesture from her other hand.

...What in all hells, what is she, how did she get here, how did she...just do that, Vanyel's never seen anyone take shields down that way – she didn't pierce them with energy so much as peel them open like eggshells, what what what–

At least she's distracting the mages from attacking him. And he doesn't want to get in her way, right now, he'll...leave it to her and see what happens next? Vanyel takes the moment of reprieve to centre and ground properly and then build up some better shields, heat-sink in case they throw fire at him again, bowl-shaped physical barrier in front of him and Yfandes, he's practiced enough that it only takes him seconds and he watches her with the other half of his attention. 

She's making pretty short work of them - from the way she's taking the time to counter their spells, she's not completely invulnerable, but she doesn't seem to be tiring, doing it, and that red blade is unstoppable when she brings it to bear. She has two of them down by the time Vanyel has his defenses up, and the other four - shortly three - seem entirely too distracted to be any sort of threat.

Focus. Orient. 

Vanyel definitely doesn't want to get in her way by accident, he has no idea what that red blade is, clearly magical but the kind of magic is, again, completely unrecognizable. And it doesn't look like she's in difficulty, at least not yet. He...badly wants to talk to her, figure out why she's here and what her goal is and if they're somehow both showing up to rescue the children then maybe they can coordinate. But it seems ill-advised to distract her right this second. He'll...wait. And ask Yfandes to watch out while he does a quick dive back into the warded area with Farsight, neatly evading the spells that thoroughly block both mage-gift and Mindspeech. Interesting – it's not blocking his Fetching channel either. 

The wards have got to be powered by an artifact, the shield is too flawless and he highly doubts any of the mages here are skilled enough to cast it themselves.

...Focus. Return to his senses – what's the strange mage up to now? 

She's down to the last one, apparently agile enough to give her any amount of trouble - until she reaches out and simply grabs him with magic to hold him still while she cuts him in half.

She doesn't pause, with her work done, but moves to plant herself between Van and her still-crouching companion and stare him down.

Yfandes can keep an eye on the barrier, just in case they held any of their good fighters in reserve. For now, though, none of the men inside look at all inclined to move. They look gobsmacked. 

And the woman looks like she's...not afraid of him, exactly, but at least on guard. Vanyel quickly holds out his hands, palms open, hoping she'll recognize the gesture as non-aggression. 

He clears his throat. Swallows. His mouth is very dry. "Er, hello," he manages. "Do you understand me?" She doesn't look Valdemaran, but he's not sure where else she could have come from. 

She stares at him for another second, and then shuts her eyes - there's no impression that she thinks this makes her any less dangerous - and slides gently through his shields, barely disturbing them.

What, she sends. There's a distinct sense that she's quite out of practice at arranging her thoughts communicatively.

...Um. That's not something he was expecting. He tries very hard to stay calm. 

:Hello?: he tries to send. :I mean no harm – I wanted to ask, er, where you came from and what your aim is. I'm trying to rescue some kids who are inside those wards. Are you here for the same reason?: 

(He wants to ask what happened to her, her mind is...well, it's obvious that something wrong-and-bad happened and not too long ago. He's not a Mindhealer, to have any idea what he's seeing – the scoured-clean effect, would tapping a node too strong for her do that? But she doesn't read like a normal mage at all, her aura is completely alien, really he can't make any guesses and right now when there are maybe-still-alive but maybe-not-for-much-longer children inside the wards, isn't the time to be guessing anyway. It doesn't seem like the damage impedes her ability to fight.) 

I'm a Sith, she sends, and there's a sense of the power and hostility that this represents, which certainly accords with her fighting style, if not with the rest of her behavior. Not here for that but let's go do it.

:I don't know what a Sith is: Vanyel admits, :but explanation can wait. Um, I can use Farsight to scope in there and find the children but it'll take time. Can't tell if they have more mages, doubt they held their strongest fighters back but it's possible. If there are blood-mages they can kill more hostages and get power that way so we shouldn't give them time to do that. I think the wards are powered by a talisman but I don't know where it is. What powers do you have – er, can you take down the wards from out here?: 

He knows his mindvoice is frantic and it's probably very obvious that he's inexperienced and hasn't ever done this before, if that wasn't already obvious from his apparent age. It's pretty nerve-wracking to have a clearly practiced fighter like her show up from nowhere, especially with that flash of hostility with the word 'Sith', but...if she'll help him get the children then it doesn't matter, he's clearly outnumbered and unprepared here. 

Yeah. Kids are -  she gives up on communicating per se and just shows him her sense of the area inside the ward.

Oh. Wow. That's...both really helpful and alarming. Apparently, however her mind-Gift works, it's not blocked by the shields like his Thoughtsensing is. 

:All right: he sends. :Looks like...four more mages, but weak Gifts and they haven't 'fed' on bloodpower: Yet, they'd better move fast before that part changes. :Eight children: thank the gods, that's all the missing kids accounted for, they're all alive, :think they're not hurt, but not in great shape either, they may not be able to run. If you can take the shield down, we can both rush them at once and secure the area where the children are?: He grits his teeth. :I'd prefer nonlethal force, er, it'd be good if we could question them after: that's definitely why, it's not because killing people still makes him want to throw up, :once we're in I can probably trap them in a barrier until reinforcements get here, there's another Herald and some Guards a couple miles away but I told them to hang back at first:  

–Oh gods and he's completely forgotten to ask about or think about her companion, the...whatever it is, silver thing. Which all of her initial body language indicated she was trying to protect, first from the blood-mages and then from him. He's unsure whether this is an enormous faux pas, and whether or not it is his mind decides to generate some embarrassment. 

:Your, er, friend: he sends. :Can they fight as well– do you need to hang back and cover them? If so I can rush them alone, I ought to be able to take all of them. I'm pretty strong: Experienced, no. Smart, apparently not at all. Power he's got plenty of, though. 

That's too much for her to keep straight, and she hisses softly in annoyance as she tries to sort it out, but after a few seconds - Reinforcement has your magic? I'll call them, shield the children; you trap whoever. 'Saber's no good for nonlethal.

Whoops, he sure did say too much too fast, he's still terrible at coordinating with other people in a fight and he's never actually had to take the lead before. Also the part where he's halfway to panicking doesn't help. He forces a breath in and out, calm calm calm, stay calm, he's a goddamned Herald he's supposed to be able to do this. 

:Reinforcements don't have mage-gift or Mindspeech but Herald Jores' Companion does: he clarifies. It occurs to him that she's obviously foreign and maybe she doesn't actually know what a Companion is. :Er, Yfandes who I'm riding is my Companion. If you look for a mind that feels like hers...?: Deep breath. :I'm ready to go in: He doesn't feel that ready but they're on a countdown here. 

Ten seconds. She slips back out of his shields and opens her eyes. The first thing that happens is a gentle pressure on his emotions, easy enough to throw off if he wants to but pushing him toward clearheaded calmness. As he's figuring out what to do with that, she crouches to sign to her companion, who stands, moving close to her; she closes her eyes again to send a message to the distant Companion - foreign magic-user assisting mission, going in now, come immediately - and then checks to see that Van is ready before pulling down the ward.

Vanyel starts to shove away the push at his emotions on instinct, then forces himself to relax into it instead – she's clearly trying to help and he clearly needs it right now. There. That's...a lot better, actually. 

He leans forward in Yfandes saddle and fixes his eyes on the shield, waiting to move the instant it comes down. 

And down it comes. The new mage is fast, more than a match for Yfandes, and carries her companion with her as she heads for where the children are being held, moving too quickly and erratically for anyone to target her.

Vanyel will focus on the mages and un-Gifted guards instead.

It's obvious that they've been completely caught by surprise, and weren't at all expecting the barrier to come down with no warning, but three of them react in time to rush him anyway, throwing a concerted fireball attack. Without blood-magic behind it, though, it doesn't have a hope of making it through his shields. He shrugs it off easily and then, very carefully, strikes, not with his mage-gift at all but along the Mindspeech channel, with the power of a node behind it. (His mage-gift isn't that good for 'nonlethal' either; unheard-of power makes control harder rather than easier.) 

If not for the calming effect, he might not have managed, but as it is he's able to calibrate it – enough to knock them out, not enough to kill them. Ouch. His head throbs but it's bearable. 

Several of the un-Gifted bandits rush him with swords. They've got even less of a chance. He just knocks them down with unformed bolts of kinetic force – only one man makes it far enough to go under Yfandes' hooves, and he winces but manages to keep his breakfast where it belongs. It's convenient that they came at him like that and now they're nice and close together. He spares a moment to whack down the men who went after the strange mage instead – though she's moving very fast and he really doesn't think they'll catch her – and then, barrier. He does end up having to put a second barrier up around the men who went other way. He can consolidate later, if need be. Barriers are easy – it's a simple spell and it's not hard for him to overpower it to a ridiculous extent, when the node is right there.

He dismounts, only a bit shaky, and that's when he sees the dismembered bodies. Adult ones, two of them women, and...mutilated. A painful death can eke out more blood-energy, he's been told. 

Vanyel can't help it; he bends over and throws up. Gods, that's embarrassing. He stands, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, and only then thinks to look over and check at how the stranger's half of their plan is going. 

There wasn't much in the way of obstacles between her and the row of wooden huts where the children are – some long grass, an open firepit, easy to dodge around, a row of tripwire-wards that go off but don't actually do anything to impede her, some guards near the doors who run at her but Vanyel whacks them well before they reach her and then encloses them in bubbles of magic while they're still half-stunned. 

The doors of the huts are barred shut, but on the outside. They're also protected by magical wards, but these ones aren't nearly as flawless or strong as the main one, they're the direct work of one of the mages rather than from an artifact. There are three inhabited huts, holding three and three and two kids, all tied up and gagged which seems a bit like overkill. Most of the children are some degree of malnourished; there are bruises and other minor injuries but nothing more serious. All of them are terrified. 

She pulls down the wards as she's decelerating, and debars the first door, turning to guard it while the droid releases the children inside.

The children's eyes widen at the sight of a short silvery metal thing moving toward them. They hold perfectly still; only one of them moves once the ropes and gag are off, a girl who's also the only one who's well-nourished. She puts herself in front of the other two. 

"What are you doing here?" she says. "Are you coming to rescue us– What are you?" 

She answers in a polite tone but unfamiliar language and gestures at the doorway.

Vanyel finally manages to unfreeze himself. 

:Can I help with anything?: he sends to the foreign mage. :I can, er, try to talk to them. They probably speak Valdemaran and they'll recognize my uniform: He never knows what to say to littles but he can muddle through. 

She nods and gestures vaguely at the door behind her.

Vanyel walks over and tries to smile reassuringly.

"Herald!" the girl in front says, sagging with obvious relief. 

"Um, we found out you were here and came to rescue you," Vanyel says. "We won, everything's going to be all right. I'm Herald Vanyel and this is–" oh gods this is so awkward now, :um what's your name? And your friend's name?: 

She flashes a sign at her companion, who points at her and says "Xaari Deskyl," then at herself and says "Dee Zee Du-Desimt Cue".

Vanyel nods and tries to smile at the children. "Right. Er, and another Herald and some of the Guard are coming." Flash of inspiration. "Why don't you come over and sit with my Companion?" Kids like Companions, right, that's a thing?

It seems like Yfandes is one of the less scary things around, at least. If Deskyl can get the other doors open, then Vanyel can lead the other children over and get them all sitting down and put a heat-spell nearby, he's not sure if they're shaking from cold or fear but it is a bit chilly and they're not warmly dressed. He gamely tries to talk to them until reinforcements arrive. 

Reinforcements arrive another few minutes later. If the other white-clad Herald and the half-dozen blue-uniformed Guards accompanying him on horseback are surprised at Deskyl and Dee Zee's appearance, they don't say anything. The Guards just exchange terse nods with Vanyel and then spread out to search the area, while Herald Jores takes over sitting with the children. 

Which leaves Vanyel standing around awkwardly, unsure what to do with himself next. 

:Why don't you speak with Deskyl?: Yfandes suggests to Vanyel, privately. :We do still have a lot of questions, and the emergency's over: 

So Vanyel squares his shoulders and heads her way, trying to steel himself – she helped him, sure, but she's also terrifying. He clears his throat, and offers her a waterskin. :Thank you for you help: he sends. :Er, can we talk now?: 

She takes a sip from the waterskin and offers it back before closing her eyes and slipping inside his shields again. :Sure.:

Vanyel looks around for a place to sit, and spots a log by the nearby firepit. He heads over and hunkers down. 

:I wanted to ask you some things, but you might have questions for me too so we can alternate if you want: he suggests. :Um, so, you said you weren't actually here about the kidnapped children. How did you end up here at the same time as me, then?: 

She leans on his senses a little to follow, rather than open her eyes. :The Force is like that.: The Force being magic as she sees it, wild and unlimited and at least slightly conscious.

:I've never heard of the Force before: Vanyel admits. :I think you must've gotten here from somewhere far away. Is it sort of like a god?: The only things he knows of that work even a bit like that are gods, and the Web in Valdemar, which is partly the miraculous creation of a god.

(If Deskyl is curious, she'll be able to skim some fragments about both of those from Vanyel's mind, though they're sparse because he doesn't know much about them either.) 

:Different world, pretty sure. Sort of like a god, sort of like the laws of physics.:

Vanyel stares at her, the idea of another world is obviously a startling one, but he doesn’t pursue it further for now. 

:Is that how your powers work as well?: he asks. :With the Force?: Which would mean it exists here in Vanyel’s world as well. Right? Probably? 

(If Deskyl is paying attention, she’ll notice that now that the battle-adrenaline is fading, his thoughts are tinged with a background pain-loss-grief, though whatever the source is, he’s keeping it shoved away in a deep dark corner. On the surface layer, he’s mostly feeling nervous and very self-conscious - he’s suddenly the one responsible for making a good first impression to someone from another world, who’s more powerful than him to boot, how did that happen?)

:Yes.: She's starting to flag herself, though the result of that is that she calls on the Force for support, not that she shows it in any outward way - she'd probably be close to collapsing if she didn't have that option. Still: :Explain later. What now?:

:Well, I think the plan is to bring the children back to town once they’re calmed a bit - um, I don’t know if the Force is calling you to go somewhere else: having a source of power that's something between a god and the laws of physics dragging you wherever you’re needed sounds even more exhausting than being a Herald, :but if not you could ride back with us and grab a hot meal, and there’s a Healer there–:

Oh. Right. 

He gulps. :I, er – I swear I wasn't trying to be rude, I didn't mean to read you, just, you weren't shielding: she can glimpse in his embarrassed surface thoughts that he considers this a massive faux pas that she'd be well within her rights to be upset about, :and I know it's none of my business, but, um... Are you injured? It looked like there was something... If you were in a battle somewhere else before this and then the Force dragged you straight here, er, you'd be welcome to come back to town with us and rest for a few days. I mean, the town does sort of owe you for helping me out just now, I think: He ducks his head. :If you want:

She seems a little taken aback at this, and takes a few seconds to get her immediate hostile reaction under control and think about what she actually wants to do. :No healer.: She's firm to the point of threatening, about that one. :Do need to rest. Droid learn your language - we're not going back.:

:Oh. Um, that's fine, of course: He's pretty sure he just put his foot in it, maybe he should have just pretended he didn't notice, but then again he seems to do that constantly and half the time he doesn't understand why so he might as well just feel vaguely embarrassed about it and move on. Also it wasn't clear if she knew that not shielding here means anyone with Mind-Gifts can see it and now she knows at least.

:I can help with language! Um. What's a 'droid'?: Also he still needs to clarify what a 'Sith' is but he's trying not to make the additional faux pas of asking more questions than a person can answer at once. 

:Droid,: she sends - her metal companion, and others like her, mostly much less human-looking, all of them powered by something like tamed lightning and a special language that she knows very little about without, somehow, being magical at all; she tries to keep the fact that she's in love with this particular one out of the impression she sends but only mostly succeeds at it. :Person,: she adds, as if that needs clarification.

It had not in fact crossed Vanyel's mind that the silvery humanoid wasn't a person, she moves and interacts like one and there's a mind there even if he can't actually read any of it. :Neat! Are droids a species that someone made, then? We have some intelligent species like that in my world but usually they're made originally from other animals, using magic... Um, sorry: It's such a fascinating and exciting concept. 

Behind them, the children are being rounded up and carefully, one by one, deposited to ride in front or behind of one of the mounted Guards; there are enough Guards that all the kids get a seat, the brave little girl in particular riding with Herald Jores. 

Vanyel clears his throat. :Deskyl – or should I call you Xaari – anyway, um, would you be all right to ride up behind me on Yfandes? She can carry us both easily and get back to town fast: He glances over at the droid before remembering that she can't speak the language yet and he's not at all sure Mindspeaking to her would work. :Can Dee Zee move quickly on her own – if not, is she heavy? Er, and she is female, right?: The silver body is feminine but he's not at all sure that's an assumption he can make with a species made of metal and tamed lightning. 

:Female, yes. Heavy for her size but within human range. I'll run if you're out of room.:

Vanyel glances around hopefully, but they do in fact seem to be short one horse in order for everyone to have a spot to ride double. He offered Deskyl first because, while she doesn't look particularly tired or haggard, he still wonders if she could use rest more than she's letting on.

:Er, maybe you and Dee Zee can take turns?: he suggests. :And I think they left a few extra horses back where the reinforcements were staged, so when we get there we can nab one, it's about halfway: 

:Don't argue with Sith.:

:Um, sorry!: Dee Zee can ride Yfandes on the pillion-pad behind him until they get to the staging point, though, and when they do then Deskyl can grab an unused horse if she wants or she can suit herself and run the whole way. 

Still, he's really confused and keeps putting his foot in his mouth. There's some sort of context he's missing. :I wanted to ask what 'Sith' means: he sends. :Since we don't have Sith in this world: His best guess is that it's either a generic term for someone who uses the Force – someone Gifted with the Force? he's not clear on how that works – or else a specific school of practice. 

:Type of Force user. Emotion makes us stronger, less stable. Sith use it. Jedi don't. Enemies.:

She can be kind of touchy and she's scary and so he doesn't really want to ask, but he grits his teeth, it might turn out to be relevant. :Er, is it important that I know anything about what Jedi are? Or no, since they're from your world and aren't here?: 

:Not important. Force users can't usually teleport.: She's a little smug about it.

:Right. Thank you: That's a relief, overall, and also opens some more questions about how she can teleport, but he decides to leave the matter alone for now. 

The group departs. It's very easy going; while the area is dense forest, a wide strip of it has been flattened, as though a house-sized sledgehammer recently passed through. 

Very convenient. She doesn't seem to be able to run and mindspeak at the same time, though, or at least isn't trying to.

Then Vanyel will let her focus on running. He kind of appreciates the break; his head still hurts a bit from straining his Gift with the nonlethal attack, he hadn't wanted to complain earlier. The headache is feeling better by the time they reach the staging ground; the mage-barrier he put up at the time to offer protection to the un-Gifted soldiers is still there, shimmering translucent, with a couple of rather confused-looking horses grazing inside. 

They don't exactly need it anymore. He takes it down. :Deskyl, you can take one if you want, they're extras: The party pauses, stretching getting out waterskins; Vanyel offers Deskyl his again. 

She drinks. She considers the horses, and her chances of riding one any substantial distance without panicking the poor creature and having to deal with the results of that, and doesn't approach them. Instead she checks in with DZ; she seems satisfied with whatever their conversation is about.

Vanyel doesn't make any comment about her choice to keep running. The party continues on, the spare horses tethered behind a couple of the guards; it doesn't seem like any of the rescued children know how to ride on their own. 

They reach the town about a half-hour later. It's small and shabby and looks very low-tech, dirt road and wooden buildings with thatch roofs; only one building, maybe the town hall, is made of stone. 

A woman in green robes comes out to look at the children. :She's the Healer: Vanyel explains, :Healers wear that shade of green here in Valdemar. We can go on to the inn, Jores is going to explain: He starts moving without bothering to dismount. 

They don't make it far, though – a woman whose plump face bears a noticeable resemblance to the young girl who tried to guard the other children runs up to them, and drops to her knees at their feet. "Thank you, Herald – and you, milady – thank you thank you, for saving my baby..."

Vanyel gets a stiff, pained look. :Oh gods this is awkward: It's not clear whether or not he meant to send that in Mindspeech. 

Deskyl goes stiff when it becomes clear that the woman is approaching them, hand on her 'saber hilt. She relaxes when she drops to her knees, though she does shoot Van a skeptical look.

"It's, um, you're welcome, it's nothing..." Vanyel eventually manages to point her at Herald Jores and then break past in the direction of the inn. 

And Deskyl follows. She seems to be starting to truly run out of energy; it's subtle, but she keeps catching herself listing to one side or the other when she walks; after another minute DZ taps Van's shoulder and attempts to ask in gesture to be let off the horse.

Vanyel hops down and helps the droid dismount. :I'll run in and get us both rooms: he offers, and darts ahead into the building, which is also made of wood but has two storeys and a slate roof. 

A minute or so later he pops his head back out. :Come on in?:

DZ is now very subtly steadying and guiding Deskyl; they go in.

Vanyel hands Deskyl a heavy, old-fashioned looking key. :Over this way: He starts walking, then mounting a narrow, steep staircase. :Er, taproom is back down that way, if you're hungry, but...personally I'm going to hide in my room for a while first. You can call to have food brought up instead–: except that she doesn't speak the language, which presents some difficulties, :um, or I could call for both of us, if you'd like, they gave me adjacent rooms: 

They reach a landing and a row of doors. :Yours is this one: Vanyel heads one door further down and goes to unlock it with his own key. 

DZ takes the key, when it's offered; Deskyl doesn't object to her doing it. They follow him to the rooms and go into theirs without Deskyl saying anything further.

Vanyel locks his door behind him and flops down on the narrow lumpy bed and closes his eyes. 

Deskyl and DZ will find themselves in a room identical to Vanyel's. It's small and boxy. Contents: narrow bed, one, against the wall. Washstand with basin and towel hanging on a hook, one. Jug of water next to it, no sign of running water. Tiny table with chair. Narrow wardrobe. Window. The room does not have its own fireplace but there's a sort of vent with warm air from below wafting out. 

There's a bed; that's all Deskyl notices or cares about. It is perhaps a minor miracle that she makes it to it; she's asleep immediately.

Vanyel, somewhat to his own surprise since it's not like he did much actual fighting, also falls asleep and naps until midway through the afternoon. 

He wakes up, lies in the uncomfortable bed for a while and stares and the ceiling, and then sighs and gets up and splashes water on his face, and forges out to get something to eat. 

He stops in front of the other door, and hesitates for a long time, torn between whether knocking to ask if they want food too (does the droid eat? how does that even work?) is polite, or incredibly rude. 

Eventually he compromises, and does knock, but with approximately the force of a baby kitten batting its paw. 

DZ answers. Deskyl is visible behind her in the bed; he doesn't seem to have woken her.

Oh dear, language barrier. :Food?: Vanyel tries, sort of sticking the Mindspeech at the alien-unreadable mind in front of him. For good measure, he mimes holding a plate and a spoon and bringing invisible food to his mouth, then makes a questioning face. 

DZ says something polite but incomprehensible and repeats his mime, then nods.

Probably a yes?

Vanyel nods and smiles and then backs again, and heads downstairs to the taproom. He doesn’t stay to eat down there, just exchanges some more of the Heraldic tokens for bowls of stew and hunks of bread and cups of cider (he...guesses for now that DZ doesn’t eat, so gets two bowls and cups but extra bread in case), and then balances all of it on a tray and hauls it back upstairs. Quiet knock.

She answers promptly.

Food? 

She says a different polite thing and takes the tray, holding it out for him to take his own food off.

He squints, trying to catch what she's saying, but it's too fast and foreign, so he just takes his own portion and brings it back to his room and locks the door again. He's going to hide there the entire rest of the day unless someone comes looking for him. 

That doesn't happen.

What does happen, just a few minutes later, is that DZ wakes Deskyl up, and - she's not projecting, but she's still not shielding, either, and she's very upset. If Van looks, he'll notice that her mind is in somewhat worse shape than earlier; some of its fragile structures seem to have collapsed while she slept.

Vanyel is trying pretty hard to not-look. The walls aren't shielded, this is a small rural town not the Palace, so he does catch a quick accidental glimpse when he Reaches to talk to Yfandes, enough to notice the upset and that something is wrong, more wrong than before. But he pulls his senses away as though flinching from a hot stove, and manages to avoid seeing anything more. 

She calms down over the course of maybe twenty minutes, and another twenty minutes or so after that she goes back to sleep.

It turns out that hiding in his room the entire afternoon is both boring and kind of embarrassing. And he promised to help the droid learn the language, didn't he? Vanyel doesn't actually have any idea how to teach a language to someone when they're starting from nothing, he was hoping he could cheat from the fact that at least he and Deskyl can communicate mind-to-mind, but probably he can point at objects and make any progress that way even while she's asleep. 

He gets up, combs his hair and puts on clean Whites and checks them in the mirror, and then goes next door and very-quietly-knocks again. 

...Oh no how is he going to communicate the concept of 'teaching you to communicate' without being able to communicate? He hadn't thought of that problem. 

DZ answers promptly.

All right, how to do this?

...Just give an example? He keeps his voice low because it does look like Deskyl is asleep again, but he taps the door. "Door," he whispers, and then makes a questioning face at DZ. 

She cocks her head curiously, but touches it and repeats the word, then points across the hall to another one and repeats it again, questioningly.

"Door!" he agrees, smiling and with an exaggerated nod. He looks around for more examples, and squats to touch the floor. "Floor." 

"Floor," she repeats, nodding, and steps out into the hall and shuts the door behind her.

Vanyel isn't sure how far she'll be comfortable going from Deskyl, but he figures he can follow her prompts there. "Stairs," he points. "Lantern. Rug. Bannister." Lots of nouns. He's still unsure how to get from there to the other parts of language. 

She repeats them back, her accent perfect. When he starts running out of words, she points to herself.

"...Person?" It's not like Valdemaran has a word for droid. To make sure it's clear, Vanyel quickly points at himself as well. "Person."

"Person." Okay. She makes a show of looking around and then heads downstairs, presumably in search of more things to get words for.

He follows her, still mulling over how to explain words slightly more abstract than objects and actions. 

They end up in the taproom, where she solicits more nouns. Eventually she catches someone serving someone else a meal; she points this out to Van, and asks "person aukoti person food - aukoti?"

They're getting some very confused looks from the other patrons, but no one seems frightened; maybe the sight of a Herald alongside the weird stranger is enough to make the weird stranger seem safe. 

"Serves," he says. "Person serves person food." He has an idea. Point at the server again – a matronly woman, balancing several trays rather acrobatically. Wait until she sets one down in front of a white-haired bearded old man who blows her a kiss. "Woman serves man food." Next patron is a young lady. "Woman serves woman food." Then he mimes that he's holding a tray himself, and offering it to her, like he did upstairs. "Man serves woman food." He has no idea if that got across but maybe? 

She can demonstrate for him that she understands this concept, yes, and then she leads him out to the front of the building to ask for the word for the sign above the door.

...All right, hmm, does she want 'sign' or does she want the word that the sign says? 

"'Bear's Head Inn'," he reads off, pointing slowly to each words. "Sign," he makes a sort of square gesture that's meant to encompass all of it, then trails his hand to point at each word, and reads them again. 

"Bear's head inn", she repeats back, and then points along the line of text, all in one gesture rather than pointing at each word individually, and looks to him again.

"Sign," he says again. "Writing?" 

More inspiration. He runs down the steps, scrapes a spot in the dirt smoothish with his foot, and uses his magic to scratch the same letters there. "Writing," he says. 

"Writing!" she nods. "Person serves DZ writing?"

Blink. It takes a few seconds for it to make any sense, and then he thinks he has a guess at what she means, maybe, so he beckons for her to follow him back upstairs. 

She follows.

Most people don't travel with multiple books in their saddlebags, probably. Vanyel spends a lot of time awake in the middle of the night; it's kind of a necessity. 

He unlocks his door, ushers DZ in, goes and dives into his pack, and comes out with three books. He opens one and shows her the first page, proudly. "Writing!" 

"Dazek j'us, y'chel."

She sits at the desk and begins reading at a speed that would be extremely implausible even for a human entirely fluent in the language in question.

Well, huh. 

Vanyel sits down and watches. Normally watching someone else read silently to themselves would be boring, but he's too burningly curious. What's going on in her mind? 

It still takes her a few hours to get through all three, but she does, reading without stopping until she's done.

Vanyel does go out to use the privy at one point, and then comes back and sits on the bed with one of the books she's done with. It's his room, after all; where else is he going to go where no one will bother him? 

She doesn't bother him at all, until she finishes the last book and looks up. "Thank you, sir. Did you have any questions for me?"

He stares at her, wide-eyed. 

"Did you...just...learn Valdemaran by reading those books to yourself? How did you do that?" He rubs his forehead. "Would it help to have more? I can probably find you more books." 

"Yes sir. A few more books would help but I should be fine with just these if it's an inconvenience."

Hmm. There's a temple on the outskirts of town, they'll have more books. "It's not too inconvenient but I'll go in a little while. I, um–" his brain catches for a moment on the sheer number of questions, no, one at a time, "it's fine if it's private and I won't push, but, er, your friend Deskyl, is she...all right...? Is there anything I can do to help?" 

"It's fine, sir. She's quite badly injured and needs to rest but we expect her to recover."

He sags a bit with relief. "I'm really glad of that." And he's not going to ask about whatever mission or battle the Force brought them to that caused her injuries because he doesn't actually want to know and also it's none of his business. "Er, will she be all right to travel in a few days? I'm not planning to stay in Polsinn for long. The capital is...nicer." He's not sure how to put it any more diplomatically than that.

"I'll have to ask her about it. Can you tell me more about the capital, please?"

He can! He describes Haven for a bit – the Palace, the older and newer wings (the newest ones have running water indoors), the House of Healing, the various levels of walls that were added on as the city grew over centuries. The districts of the city, some nicer than others. The Companions' Grove, where the first King of Valdemar prayed for a miracle and got himself Companions and, thereby, Heralds. The Death Bell, which mysteriously rang the first time a Herald died even though it wasn't finished yet and didn't have a clapper inside, and now magically rings when any Herald dies, no matter how far away. 

...All right, a lot of Valdemar is pretty weird and Vanyel's wondering just how many questions DZ is listing up for him. 

Well, she's not so curious that she doesn't listen patiently to whatever he wants to tell her before asking any questions. When he's done, though, she wants to hear more about the House of Healing, and then about their general technological level.

The House of Healing is attached to the Healers' Collegium, the biggest school that trains Healers – a kind of magical Gift in their world, he thinks to clarify, plus some quick details about how it works, Sight that shows natural energy-flows and problems within the body, plus the ability to manipulate it in certain ways. Vanyel actually trained there, thanks to his (extremely weak) Healing-Gift, so he knows a fair bit about the training and techniques. 

Technological level... She may need to ask more clarifying questions here. They're pretty good at durable stone buildings? They have waterwheels for mills. Herald-Mages can do a lot of things with magic, building and defences and wards, but there aren't enough of them. 

How's their metalworking? Can they make wire? How about chemistry, do they know about acids and bases?

Wire, yes, though he only knows about copper wire used for jewelry. Savil's new student is interested in alchemy and he vaguely remembers her saying things about acids, but he isn't well-read on the subject. 

Okay, good. There's a thing she needs instead of food, and the machine to make it will need wires and acid and maybe a waterwheel, but it can wait a few days until Deskyl is doing a little better and can make a machine like that.

...Oh no that's the question he was going to ask but instead he asked about Deskyl first and then got distracted, how embarrassing, what a terrible host he's being to these strangers from another world. "I'm sorry for not thinking of that," he says. 

"It's fine, sir."

Nod. "All right, I think you'll want to come to Haven then. There are jewellers and artificers there who can make wire for you, there, and whoever Sandra does alchemy with, but none of that is here." He frowns. "Er, how urgent a problem is this? Are you going to...starve...if it takes a week?" Realistically it's a week's journey just to get back to Haven, and then surely it'll take Deskyl longer than a day to find the relevant people and make the device.  

"I'll need to be careful with my reserves to last that long, sir, but I won't starve, exactly. If Deskyl makes a list of what she'll need once she gets there, is there someone who can get those things for her, if I'm not able to?"

"...My aunt can." He says it more decisively than is really justified, but he's pretty sure Savil can pull it off, and that he can convince her it's important once he's back. "I'll think about how to get us back as soon as possible. I can talk to Herald Jores, I...need to help deal with the prisoners we took," according to Yfandes they're currently still inside his mage-barriers, which ought to last at least two days given how hard he overpowered them, being watched by some of the Guard. "But after that I don't think they should need me here anymore." 

He chews his lip. No, he really should say it even if it's awkward. "I, um, wanted to make sure Deskyl knows that, er, a lot of the Heralds in Haven have Thoughtsensing, like me. She seemed kind of upset about me reading her by accident? I didn't mean to, it's just that most Gifted people here shield, and, um, it's considered invasive and unethical to read someone without their permission but if she doesn't shield then other people might by accident." 

"I'll talk to her about it. Can you tell me more about how your Thoughtsensing works, please?"

Vanyel explains as clearly and in as much detail as he can manage. 

The receptive component of Thoughtsensing as a Gift nearly always comes along with projective Mindspeech, though there are rare exceptions. A Mindspeaker can both reach out with their Gift and read the surface thoughts of other people, Gifted or not, and someone with a strong Gift (like Vanyel's) can dig deeper if they make an effort, searching memories. Un-Gifted people usually won't notice a passive read of surface thoughts, but will notice a deeper probe; most un-Gifted people, in his world at least, have at least rudimentary natural shields, but generally with a layer of surface thoughts on the 'outside'. Someone with Mind-Gifts will notice even a light probe, and anyone in Valdemar with an identified Gift (mostly Heralds and Healers, though occasionally a Bard crops up with Mindspeech or Empathy as well) will be trained to shield fully. 

Mindspeakers can also project thoughts into the minds of others. There's a standard protocol for it between Gifted people – meshing shields to form a narrow link, along which words can be passed, but which generally doesn't leak thoughts that are meant to be private. (Sometimes accidental thoughts do get sent, though. The polite thing is to pretend you didn't hear.) A very strong Mindspeaker can also project to un-Gifted minds. Vanyel is strong enough for it. 

Empathy, right – that's a related Mind-Gift, and can show up with or without accompanying Mindspeech. Empathy senses emotions, rather than the content of thoughts. Again, it comes in receptive and projective, and it's more common for receptive to be found alone. Vanyel has both, though much weaker than his Mindspeech. 

Questions? 

"What limits does it have, sir? In terms of range, or anything else that can block it, please."

“Range, er, depends a lot on the person. Mine is over a hundred miles if I push it. But personal shields block it very effectively. Enough stone in the way does too. Oh, and anyone with mage-gift trained in the technique can put temporary or permanent shields against Thoughtsensing on a room.”

”...Do you want me to shield her room?”

"Yes please."

“Um, all right. I’ll only do a temporary one because we aren’t staying here long, and permanent would take half a day. But, er, once we get to Haven I can do a permanent one wherever you end up staying. I mean, if you want me to.”

He crosses his legs and closes his eyes, the expression leaving his face. “This will take a few minutes,” he says, tonelessly, and then goes completely still and silent.

She doesn't interrupt him.

About ten minutes later he stirs, stretches, opens his eyes. “There. As long as the door is shut, no Thoughtsenser can get through.” Well, he could if he wanted, since they’re his wards and he’s automatically keyed to them, but he won’t do it by accident and he’s certainly not about to do it on purpose. 

There are really a lot of things he should go do - talk to Herald Jores about the prisoners, for example - but he’s still drained and going outside sounds awful. Not to mention, he’s burning with curiosity. 

Maybe his Heraldic duties can wait another candle mark... Yfandes doesn’t object, so he turns his gaze back to DZ and smiles again. 

”Can you tell me more about droids?” he says. “How you work, how you’re made... It sounds so fascinating.” They eat...trapped lightning? And aren’t even magical. How?

"Can you be more specific about what you'd like to know, sir?"

There are so many things he doesn't understand that it's hard to narrow it down. "Um, did someone make droids? How do new droids, er, get born?" 

"Droids are mass produced - it's a way of making many identical objects very quickly by having machines do each part."

Aaand that opens even more questions. "Where did the machines come from?" 

"Deskyl's world has had mass production for a long time; almost everything there is mass produced, including the machines themselves. Unique things and things people are designing are still made by hand, usually from mass-produced parts."

"That's incredible!" Now he has a growing cascade of questions, many of them to do with 'how' and 'who invented it' and 'would it work here'. He can't manage to put that pile in a sensible order yet, though. 

"Deskyl says there are different kinds of droid," he says. "What, er, kind are you?" 

"I'm a servant droid. There are five classes of droid: the first class does theoretical science including medicine; the second class does applied science, for example repairing machines; the third class works directly with biological people, usually as servants of various types; the fourth class is combat and security droids; and the fifth class does simple manual labor."

Oh gods there's so much and he wants to know everything and he should be taking notes and aaaa. 

"Can all droids talk like you?" he goes with, it's not the part he's most pressingly curious about but it's the question he can find coherent words for. 

"No; only some class three droids have the ability to independently learn languages, and only class three and four droids can commonly speak the languages of biological people. There's a different language that other droids speak."

"Wow! What's that language like – can humans learn it?" He can't see how they could communicate with the droids otherwise. "Um, and how does it work that some droids can talk but can't independently learn a language?" 

"It sounds like this:" she produces a few seconds of whistles and beeps. "Humans rarely learn to speak even a few words of it, but almost all droids can understand at least one biological language. And the usual way for a droid to learn any new skill is by having a machine of the same kind as our brain added to us with the knowledge."

"What?" He stares at her, amazed. "You can, just, put knowledge into your brain? Just like that?" He is so jealous right now. 

"Yes, if we have the right kind of machine for it."

"...And there aren't any here, are there?" He frowns. "What are, um, the skills that you already have? And can you learn things the nor– um, the way humans usually do?" On reflection it's sort of rude to give that the status of 'normal'. 

"I can, yes. I don't have many skills; my kind of droid is meant to act as go-betweens between Sith and the worker droids, not to do much work ourselves. But I can do simple tasks -" she lists out some things that might be reasonably expected of an unskilled domestic servant; cleaning and organizing and delivering messages and so on. "And I can translate between languages I know, and all droids are very good at math, and at remembering things and maintaining focus."

"Neat!" Vanyel smiles at her. "I think you'll get along with my Companion, Yfandes likes math a lot. Although, um, she can't actually talk out loud. Since she has a horse body. Can, er, does Mindspeech work on you? If you're not sure I can try to test it. The thing is, my Gift can sense your mind - that you're a person - but I can't read it at all." 

"I don't know, sir. Force senses can't detect droid minds at all."

"Huh, that's weird. I'll try." :Hello?: It's very odd, with a human mind he'd have at least a vague sense of 'where' to put his probe but here he has no idea. "Did you feel that?" he asks. "Or understand it?" 

"I felt something, sir, but I didn't understand it at all, it didn't seem like a message."

"That's inconvenient." He makes a face. "Although if I can sense your mind, and you felt it, then...I feel like there should be a way for it to work in theory. But I'm not, I don't know, sending it in the right way."

Shrug. It doesn't seem like something he can figure out right this second. "Anyway, um, I have some work I need to do, but I can swing back and give you some more books in a little while? If you can learn about topics from books too then that would help with some of your questions, maybe." 

"Yes sir, thank you." She stands to go.

Then Vanyel will grit his teeth and go out and talk to Herald Jores about interrogating prisoners, and come up with a schedule which should let him leave the morning after next. Then he rides Yfandes to the edge of town and the local Temple to Kernos. Too bad the Order of Astera isn't here, they're a lot more known for their rare book collections, but he still leaves with his saddlebags full. A Heraldic uniform automatically makes him very trustworthy with their entire book collection, it seems. 

He knocks very gently on the door one down from his, and waits. 

DZ answers; Deskyl is again asleep.

Books! "I'm sorry, I couldn't find any on magic or Healing and definitely not on alchemy. But there are some histories. And these two are ballads – they're historically based but they're stories, not totally accurate." He starts to dig them out and then just offers her the whole saddlebag instead. 

She takes it. "Thank you, sir."

"...Do you need light to read?" It's getting dark soon. "There are candles in the drawer by the bed but I'm not sure if you've used a tinderbox before." He's trying to catch all the moments where he assumes they know how to do something basic; their world is different. 

"I don't, but thank you anyway, sir. Will I need to know how to use a tinderbox for anything else?"

"...Um, I guess if Deskyl needs light to read and wants to in the middle of the night. I was going to offer to light a candle for you now, I can do it with magic." 

"No thank you, sir."

Vanyel nods and smiles and ducks off to bed. 

And DZ looks through the books: what else did he bring besides the histories and ballads?

There's one about crops and gardening – types of soil, climate zones, problems caused by some types of plow or irrigation, an aside about weather-magic but no details on how it works. There's also a book on stonemasonry techniques. And two books that are actually in a different language from Valdemaran (Rethwellani, not that DZ presumably can tell this fact.) 

Well, she's not going to overwrite a second language in her memory banks without Deskyl's permission, but she can read all the rest overnight, starting with the histories and ending with the stonemasonry.

Vanyel is awake early, as usual, so as soon as the sun is up he gives up on sleeping and goes down and buys some breakfast, tea and bread with butter and some oat-porridge, and carries a tray up and knocks very quietly on the door. 

DZ opens it promptly. "Good morning, sir."

Breakfast? Vanyel is trying very hard not to yawn. 

She takes the tray and holds it for him to take his food from again. "Thank you, sir. I'm done with the books you brought, if you'd like them back."

"Right, thank you, I should go return them to the temple. I'll, er, see both of you later today?" He awkwardly hangs the saddlebag over his shoulder so he has enough hands to carry his food and tea back over to his room. 

"-would you like me to carry some of that, sir?" She puts the tray down and reaches to take his food and tea, stopping well short of actually grabbing it.

"No I'm fi– er, actually, yes, that would be really helpful." 

She takes them and follows him to his room with them.

"Thank you." Vanyel sits down to eat. "Um, I need to go help interrogate the prisoners today – I'll be away most of the day. Do you or Deskyl need anything before I go?" 

"Deskyl should eat again at lunchtime and dinnertime, sir, and I should know who to talk to if she wants anything."

"Hmm... Just a minute." Vanyel goes into his other travel pack and digs out a little bag of copper coins. "Here, take this. If you go downstairs to the taproom, you can buy food there to take up, they'll look at you funny but I don't think it'll be a problem. Er, if you need other things you can ask to speak to the innkeeper. If he doesn't know or can't help you... Hmm. How far is Deskyl's range, to use the Force to talk to people? I'll only be about five miles away." 

She takes the bag. "That should be fine in an emergency, thank you, sir."

"And I'll check in tonight when I'm back," Vanyel offers. "I think we should be able to leave tomorrow. ...Do you or Deskyl actually know how to ride horses?" It's finally occurred to him that he shouldn't take this for granted either. "I think the fastest way to get back to Haven involves borrowing horses – er, I'm sorry, most mages could get back right away with a Gate, but I'm...sensitive to Gates, it's a lot harder for me." 

"That's all right, sir. I don't think Xaari Deskyl has ever seen a horse before yesterday, unfortunately."

He turns bright red. "...I guess that explains why she didn't want to ride one. Um, I'm just worried that it's over two hundred miles and I don't know if it'd be bad for her to run that far when she's still injured, even if she could keep up. And...it's cutting it close, in terms of getting there in time to get you the things you need to eat."

He grits his teeth. "Maybe I should just Gate us back tomorrow morning. I won't be able to help you on the other end, but I can give you a note that explains it to Savil, my aunt, and my Companion will be able to talk to her Companion, and I think you'd be able to sort it out fine." 

"-do you have any vehicles we can ride in, sir?"

"I'm not sure what you mean - like a carriage? We could probably hitch a ride with someone that way but it'd take twice as long as riding." 

"That's fine, sir. I can do something like sleeping that means I use much less energy, or something deeper than that where I don't use any energy at all, and I'll be fine once Xaari Deskyl makes the generator for me. The main problem is arranging for her to be all right while I'm asleep."

"...I'm going to have to think about it and ask around." Vanyel isn't sure if Lancir is going to mad about him taking twice as long to get home – make it three times as long, on his own with Yfandes he could travel considerably faster than a normal horse. Not that it matters. He is absolutely going to make sure that Deskyl and DZ make it safely to Haven.

"How much, er, taking care of is she going to need, while you would be asleep?" He bites his lip. "And will she let me do it? She, um, seems more comfortable with you." 

"I'll have to talk to her about what she wants to do, sir, whether she wants to be awake for it or not and what she's comfortable with. She does seem to like you, and it won't be anything complicated in any case."

Oh no riding in a carriage with Deskyl for a fortnight without DZ there to ask for help sound awful, he'll put his foot it in again and get yelled at for sure, assuming he doesn't manage to mess up somehow and make her injuries worse too. 

"All right," he says. "I need to go - I'll talk to you again tonight?" 

"Yes sir. Thank you again." And she goes.

Vanyel eats breakfast, and then hauls himself out for a draining – and mostly boring – day of helping interrogate captive mages. He has to cast some different spells to keep them contained longer; at this point, he's not worrying about what will happen afterward. Herald Jores isn't exactly delighted with him for deciding to leave so quickly, there's a lot left to do, but he accedes to it fairly gracefully. 

He spends another, even more painful two candlemarks going about the town and then talking to the innkeeper, trying to find them a ride back to Haven. It's after dark by the time he drags himself upstairs and tentatively knocks on the door. He's exhausted from sleeping poorly, has a tension-headache, and he never wants to see a stranger's face ever again. Away missions are awful. 

DZ spends most of the day inactive, conserving her energy aside from brief trips downstairs for lunch and dinner. She's a little slower to answer the door this time when Van knocks.

"Are you all right, sir?"

"I'm fine," he says firmly. (He does not look particularly fine). "Just a long day." He tries to peer past her to see if Deskyl is sleeping still. 

Yep.

That's fine, he can keep talking to DZ. "I, um, spoke with all the merchants I could find. The only caravan anytime soon leaves in two days, not tomorrow, and, er, he really didn't give me a good feeling. We could possibly get there by hitching shorter rides with different people, there is traffic on the road, just... I don't feel comfortable being away from my duties for so long either."

(Also he desperately doesn't want to have to spend two more weeks making awkward conversation with strangers who are doing him a favour. It's pushing it to say he would Gate just to avoid that, mostly he's worried about what if something goes wrong and DZ starves so much that she doesn't wake up again, and what if they end up needing him in Haven and he's a week away on the road, but...it's a bonus.) 

He squares his shoulders. "So I think I had better Gate. It'll get you and Deskyl to Haven first thing tomorrow, while you still have reserves and can be awake. I'll be, er, really exhausted from the spell," he'll be unconscious as soon as he crosses the threshold, "so I won't be able to help you find who to talk to, but my aunt will be right there and I'll give you a letter for her explaining what you need. Yfandes will be able to explain too – um, she understands if you talk to her, even if she can't talk back, and she can talk to Deskyl with Mindspeech. Does that work?" 

"Yes sir, if that's what you think is best. We can wait if it would help you to rest beforehand."

"I'll get a good night's sleep tonight," Vanyel promises. "It'll be fine. Did you have any trouble with getting food or anything else?" 

"No sir."

"All right," yawn, "do you need anything before I go to bed?" 

"No sir. Thank you again."

Vanyel nods and trails off to his own room, where he mixes up some of his sleeping-herbs. (Yet another reason to Gate: he only has about three doses left, he can't imagine getting through a two-week journey staying in inns without it.) 

He still lies awake for a while, but manages to sleep solidly until the sun is up. He packs his things carefully, takes some steadying breaths, and goes to knock on the door for what will hopefully be the final time. 

DZ answers promptly. Deskyl is awake, this time, standing behind her in the doorway.

    "Yes sir?"

"I'm ready to go when you are. We just need to go to the edge of town to use the temple archway." Don't look terrified don't look terrified don'tlookterrified. Fortunately controlling his face is something Vanyel is practiced at. He's shielding as hard as he can, and hoping Deskyl won't bother to read his mind now that DZ can speak Valdemaran. 

She doesn't seem to be, no.

    "Yes sir," DZ says, and relays this to Deskyl via sign language.

Vanyel hefts his pack and starts walking downstairs, glancing back to see if they're following. 

They are, yes.

All right. Yfandes is waiting, already saddled, she must've successfully indicated to the stablehands that she needed to go in a hurry. He fastens the saddlebags on, and hands DZ the letter he's written, more hastily than he hoped since he slept in for once. "This should cover the basics." He climbs up into the saddle, gestures that DZ can join him on the pillion-pad if she wants, probably that lets her save energy over walking? 

Deskyl helps her up, and they can be on their way. DZ attempts to read the letter as they go.

It's fairly short. It gives their names, phonetically in the Valdemaran alphabet, and explains that they ended up coming to Valdemar from another, very different world due to a power called the 'Force' which is something like a god and something like the laws of nature, and the Force had them turn up at exactly the right time to save the kidnapped children. He explains that the Force also gives Deskyl powers that are sort of like mage-gift and Thoughtsensing, but work differently and he doesn't know more details yet. He writes, vaguely, that due to 'all of this' (not specifying if it's the journey or the fight or something else), Deskyl is 'tired' and Savil has to make sure no one tries to send her to rescue more people until she's rested. He writes, underlining it, that they come from a different world with different customs and Savil should be mindful of that. 

Then he adds a brief and slightly garbled explanation of droids, and how Deskyl needs help getting the materials to make a device so that DZ can 'eat' before she runs out of energy, they'll need to talk to the artificers or a good jeweller and also any alchemy experts that Sandra knows of. 

They reach the temple. Vanyel already got their permission to use it when he returned the books; there's a young acolyte waiting for them. 

Vanyel is starting to worry that he should have contacted the Mindspeech relay after all. Gating to Haven with no warning is going to...alarm some people. His aunt in particular. Yfandes should be able to soothe everyone down, though. It'll be fine. Definitely. 

He dismounts and helps DZ down. 

Deskyl lets him, and she and DZ give him a bit of room to make the Gate.

"This is a complicated spell," Vanyel warns them. "Um, please let me concentrate. Once it's up – you'll know, it'll suddenly be a different place through the doorway – go through ahead of me." He doesn't know how long the Gate will stay up if he passes out. 

:Are you sure this is a good idea, Chosen?:

Ignoring Yfandes, he turns his back to them, which has the helpful side effect that they can't see his face, and raises his hands. Start laying the first threads of magic on the threshold – ow ow ow ow – he can do this – but he's never tried to Gate this far – but he can do it, power isn't the problem. 

- trapped in a tiny stone cottage - the screech of wyrsa outside as the light of the Gate begins to glow - drawing the strength from his blood - 

He yanks himself back to the present. Focus. Focus. 

Threshold complete. He bits down on a moan, it's even worse now, and holds onto the mental image of the Heralds' Temple. 

- blue-white fire filling the horizon on the other side of a Gate - 

Vanyel whimpers softly, but holds onto the spell, as it drains energy from him, searching. 

–And lands, the threshold flashing white and then clearing to show a courtyard and fields beyond. 

"Go," he pants between gritted teeth. "Go. Now." 

DZ goes, and Deskyl follows right behind, turning to check on him as soon as she's through.

Vanyel gives up on trying to hide the fact that he’s in agony, and just grips a handful of Yfandes’ mane to stay on his feet as he makes his way toward the Gate. 

Three steps away. Two. One. And - he sort of throws himself at it, because he can’t actually make himself take that final step, and cries out and then goes ragdoll-limp and falls facefirst towards the paving-stones.

She catches him, of course, darting forward Sith-fast to close the gap. :What-:

Vanyel...is not currently capable of answering her. He’s breathing in uneven gasps, eyes rolled back in his head. 

:Damn it, we have to get the Gate down: Yfandes sends to Deskyl. :I think help should be on its way:

She can do that. It's a little harder with her hands full but not substantially so.

Vanyel relaxes. He's still unconscious, pale and clammy, but he no longer looks like he's on the edge of having a seizure. 

:I forgot you could just - do that: Yfandes sends. :Thank you: 

And then there are shouting voices in the distance. 

"Mm." She lifts Van with telekinesis to get a better grip on him, and heads toward the voices, slowly enough for Yfandes to keep up if she cares to. DZ is quickly left behind.

Yfandes keeps up. She's not about to get any further away from Vanyel than she has to. 

And a white-haired woman at least sixty years old, clad in white, bursts around the corner at a sprint and, glimpsing Deskyl, flings up both hands. Energy moves, a barrier flashes into place around then. "Stop there!" she shouts. "Don't move–"

She stops short, leaping back from the barrier in a most implausible reversal of momentum. :Injured!: She shifts Van to be a little more visible in her arms.

Which is around the same moment that Yfandes' immediate message to the nearby Companions actually gets relayed, and that her urgent Mindspeech warning to Savil sinks in. She staggers to a halt, too out of breath to speak. Fortunately, she's a Mindspeaker. 

:You've got Van, what– Oh. I see: She straightens up, lifts a hand, and drops the barrier. :Sorry. Still catching up on the - what was he THINKING? Also, er, are you - all right...?: Deskyl isn't shielding. And Savil is a strong Thoughtsenser, and has all her magical senses on full alert. She's not trying to read her, it just...happened. 

:I'm fine, he's not.:

:No of course he isn't, this always happens when he tries to Gate. I've alerted the Healers, we need to get him to the House of Healing. This way: Savil turns and takes about three steps before a white stallion skids around the corner as well, and she scrambles up onto his back. :Follow me: 

She follows. :Someone needs to get my droid. The metal woman by the gate.:

:...Er, right. I've passed it on, one of the other Heralds will go pick her up and they'll catch up with us: Savil's mindvoice sounds like someone who is very confused but is keeping a lid on her many questions because there isn't. time. 

It's not far; they turn another corner and there's a wide low building with a courtyard behind it, and someone in green robes sprinting out to meet them. 

:I've got him, he's stable.: she sends to the newcomer. :Show me where to take him.:

The heavyset woman in Healers' robes seems kind of bemused, but nods briskly. "Follow me." She heads back into the building, someone else is holding open one of the heavy double doors, there's a wide open room with a curved central desk, and then a row of rooms. "Shielded room, please," Gemma barks, and directs Deskyl to the end of the hall, Savil trailing after. "In here." 

The room is big and seems to have a second door at the back, wider, and a - stall? There's also a bed. 

Deskyl deposits Van carefully on the bed - it's fairly obvious that she's using telekinesis to keep his arms and legs from dangling inconveniently or getting caught on anything - and backs off to let the healers do their thing.

"Thank you." The older woman nods to her again, and then she and one of the other green-robed people who's just caught up with her get Vanyel undressed and covered up with blankets, and then the woman sits at the side of the bed and closes her eyes with her hand on his forehead. 

(Yfandes catches up about thirty seconds into this, and Savil lets her in through the big door). 

:So: Savil sends, leaning against the wall, most of the way to having caught her breath. :What happened? What exactly did my nephew think was urgent enough to warrant Gating you here? Oh, sorry - I'm Herald-Mage Savil: 

:I'm not sure. He might have misunderstood my companion's needs.: Most of her attention is still on Van and Gemma.

Gemma eventually seems to notice this. "He'll be fine - he's just given himself horrific backlash, apparently this happens when he Gates. He'll be here a few days." Shrug. "Not much we can do about it aside from give him something for pain when he wakes up." 

Deskyl huffs in annoyance and turns her attention more fully to Savil. :What do you need to know right now.:

:...I'm getting a bunch of it from Yfandes. You need to be introduced to some people so your, er, metallic friend won't starve to death? You've got a letter for me?: She shrugs. :Is anything going to explode on me if you don't warn me about it right now? If not, I'll start with the letter. Are you in a hurry about something?:

:Gonna heal the boy. It'll take me about an hour. Can't disturb me during it.:

Savil...does not look completely comfortable with this idea. :Are you sure it works the same here? Can one of our Healers at least watch and make sure nothing goes wrong?: 

:Of course it does. The horse can stay.:

:It's all right: Yfandes sends, including both of them, and Gemma. She tosses her head a bit. :Go on. Shoo: 

Savil gives her a very skeptical look, but she shoos. 

Gemma hesitates longer, but eventually she sighs, throws up her hands, shoots Deskyl an irritated look, and leaves, closing the door behind her.

:Thank you,: she sends to Yfandes, settling into a crosslegged position on the floor. :The healing only takes a moment; the meditation that lets me do it takes the hour. I'll tell you when I'm ready.: And then she settles into the process of calming herself and tucking her emotions away where they won't interfere.

Yfandes waits patiently and doesn't bother her. 

Savil, somewhat less patiently, paces back and forth outside in the hallway muttering things to herself. 

It doesn't end up taking an hour; more like three quarters of one. Her mental voice is oddly flat when she sends to Yfandes again, :ready.: And then, assuming no objections, she produces a small globe of blue light in her cupped hands and touches it to Van's chest.

Vanyel opens his eyes, blinks at the ceiling. "W-wha..t?" He starts turning his head, very carefully as though he expects it to hurt, and seems surprised. "...I did Gate us here, right? Deskyl?"

Yfandes, noticing Deskyl's blank look, relays the words in Mindspeech and then prods Vanyel. :She doesn't speak the language, remember?: 

:And I healed you about it. Don't do that.:

He sits up. Wow. He feels...incredibly fine, actually. Probably the best he's felt physically in months. And for some reason Deskyl is mad at him? 

:Look, it was the fastest way to get us here: he sends. :Not just for your sake, I was worried about being away too long and them needing me. It's fine – Gating isn't life-threatening for me or anything, it's just unpleasant for a few days. Still saves over a week total even when I take recovery into account. But, um, thank you for healing me:

Despite the blunt command, she doesn't actually seem angry, but oddly flat and detached.

:Bad use of resources, scaring everyone like that. It's not just your own time you use. And the gate didn't close on its own, that was dangerous.:

He turns pink. :Sorry: 

She nods. :Just don't do it again. Your aunt wants to see you.: She nods at the relevant door.

Vanyel gets up, moving pretty carefully at first – and then notices that he isn't currently wearing any clothes. His cheeks go crimson, and he glances around frantically until Yfandes helpfully indicates with her muzzle where his Whites ended up, and he snatches them and dives into the stall area to dress. 

Composure recovered, he opens the door. "Savil?" 

"Van, ke'chara?" She marches the five paces it takes to reach him, stops, and whacks him in the chest hard enough that he stumbles. "What were you thinking?" And then she pulls him into a hug. "I can't believe you sometimes. But it's good to have you home. Bit of an, er, eventful first mission?" 

(Deskyl shifts to lean against the wall, quietly - her emotions are coming back, now, and this part always aches a little, metaphorically speaking. DZ comes in behind Savil and goes to stand with her; when she notices, she reaches over to give her hand a brief squeeze.)

Savil releases her nephew. :Thank you for Healing him from the results of his own idiocy: she sends to Deskyl. :I'll show you to your guest-room so you can rest: She holds up the letter that DZ had been holding, from Vanyel. :I think I've understood the basics of what you need – I've been speaking with your friend: 

:I should rest, yes.:

:Follow me: Savil's takes Vanyel's arm in a firm grip and hauls her along with him. 

It's maybe a ten-minute walk, and then Savil brings her to another long, old-looking stone building, and shoves open a heavy oak door into a drafty hallway, then opens a door. :You'll be able to stay here at least the next week: she sends. :Probably longer but need to sort out details. It's shielded: 

It's a slightly nicer room than the inn. Bigger bed with more blankets, large window, proper desk. Still no indoor running water. :Need anything else?: 

:No.:

Then Savil will nod to DZ and leave the two of them be while she drags Vanyel back to her suite. He has some explaining to do.

An hour earlier:

DZ arrives at the House of Healing, along with the Herald who led her there.

Savil has been pacing. She's anxious about her nephew, but Yfandes seems fine with the slightly scary stranger, so she's keeping a lid on it. And she's had a bit of time to catch her breath and get her bearings. 

"You're the, er, droid, right?" she says. "I'm Herald-Mage Savil. What's your name? Also I heard you have a message of some kind from me." Yfandes, also stressed about Vanyel, hasn't exactly given her a detailed report on the situation, but she got that much. 

"Yes ma'am. My designation is DZ-twelve-Q." She offers the letter.

Savil, too stressed for courtesy, takes it without a word and reads it. Then reads it again, a frown-line between her brows. Then a third time. 

"So you're...a species made of metal and you run on lightning and can learn things by having new machines added to your head?" she says slowly. "And you don't eat food, you eat...something that comes from a device Deskyl can make but she needs to talk to some artificers and an alchemist? Is that right?" 

"Droids aren't a species, ma'am, but that's otherwise correct, yes."

"Right. Er, how urgent is this, actually? Tell me the truth, don't sugarcoat it. Van did write that you won't die, you can...sleep or something, maybe more like hibernate, and wait it out. But how long until you would need to do that to survive?" 

"It depends on how active I am, ma'am. My reserves would last about two and a half days at my normal activity level, right now, but I should be able to double that without inconveniencing anyone very much."

"All right. We can work with that." She nods briskly. "Your friend. Deskyl. You're not magical but she is, she's a different kind of mage than our kind - she can use this 'Force' that Van described. Van just said she helped out in the fight with the bandits who kidnapped those poor children, he didn't say how. What kinds of powers does she have?" 

"The Force is very versatile, ma'am, I don't think I know everything that she can do. But her primary powers are telekinesis, including making herself faster and stronger, and emotion-sensing, and she can also produce lightning and project emotions, and she seems to be able to disrupt your magical structures. And she has her lightsaber, which isn't a power but should be mentioned - the copper rod she carries produces an energy blade that can cut through almost anything."

Savil nods. "Ah, so that's what she did back there, when I, er, reacted hastily with that barrier." She's not going to admit to 'panicked'. "...She said she's going to heal Van, just now. Is that with the Force or with something else?" 

"That's a Force technique, yes ma'am. She considers it very private."

"Oh. All right." That...might have something to do with the thing Van underlined about the 'different customs'. She won't ask any more questions. Savil isn't the best in the world at tact, but she can make an effort.

"Er, it sounds like the two of you have had a busy time. Van seems to think that Deskyl was already a bit worn down before this. Is she going to be really tired when she's done in there?" 

"I don't know, ma'am. She should be allowed to rest in any case, she's recovering from an injury that nearly killed her."

"Oh. I see." Savil frowns at her. "Is there a reason Van would've danced around that point in this letter? He said that she needs to rest and I need to make sure no one prevents that, but nothing about the injury." 

"I'm not sure how much he knew about it, ma'am - he did mention that he'd noticed it, but it was accidental, and I don't know if he spoke to her about it or what she might have told him."

Savil nods, slowly. "I should admit, I noticed something too. She doesn't shield at all. Is shielding something the Force can do?" 

"I expect so, yes, but she's not well enough to learn new techniques right now."

"...Right. Er, on the assumption that she doesn't want to be leaking everywhere, ought I arrange for the two of you to stay in a shielded room?"  

"Yes please."

Nod. "Ought to be feasible. The rooms in the guest wing aren't shielded by default but I'll, hmm," she doesn't actually want to leave to go prepare it, "I'll ask my friend to do it." Herald-Mage Justen won't mind. "Good?" 

"Yes, ma'am, thank you. And please make sure that she won't be disturbed; she wakes up disoriented sometimes and can be violent if she feels threatened."

"...That's extremely good to know. Thank you. And, er, are there any other things like that, or customs from your world, that I should know about? Van seemed to think that was relevant. I don't want to accidentally offend her. Or you." 

"I should explain Sith, yes, ma'am." She pauses to consider how to do it. "The most important thing to know is that Sith culture is very violent; rank is important to them, and is gained by defeating other Sith in combat - any Sith outranks any non-Sith, and the only laws that apply to them are ones imposed by stronger Sith. Xaari Deskyl in particular is very calm for a Sith, and I don't expect her to attack anyone if she's not provoked, but you shouldn't expect her to tolerate being challenged or opposed; she'll take it as a threat."

"That does seem important to know. Thank you for telling me." She's wondering if Vanyel knew that, or was just vaguely guessing that he was missing context. "I think that answers my questions for now. Er, do you have any?" 

"Can you tell me about what will be expected of us, while Xaari Deskyl is recovering and afterward, please?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure I know the answer to that yet, definitely not the 'afterward' part. We deeply appreciate your help up north, and with healing my nephew – and we'd house and feed you anyway until you're settled and Deskyl is recovered. Afterward will be up to you and Deskyl. You don't even have to stay in Haven unless you want to. Van made it sound like the Force sort of tugs you around to where you're needed...?"

She stops. Frowns. "Deskyl mustn't murder anyone. Or seriously harm them. That's against the law here. Even if they challenged her first, though I'll do my very best to make sure that doesn't happen and I don't see why it would." 

"I can't guarantee that she won't, ma'am."

Sigh. "Well, just so you know. I would try my best but I can't guarantee her safety here if she does. Though I imagine she's all right at defending herself. Just, my nephew seems to like the two of you, it would upset him if she ended up in trouble with the law here." 

She nods. "It might help for me to tell her that; I will if it seems like a good idea when I've talked to her about it. And - Sith don't usually take guidance from the Force that way; I don't expect her to start."

"Right. Well, that's all I had to say." Savil will just keep pacing until that door opens again, unless DZ speaks to her again. 

She doesn't.

She does seek Savil out again after lunch, with two lists of items Deskyl can use to make a power generator - one list for if there's a waterwheel available to use, or one can be made; the other more complicated one for if there isn't and the generator has to use sunlight instead.

Does she need a dedicated waterwheel or only part of the time? There’s one about a half-mile down the river, just before it leaves the Palace grounds, but as well as being slightly inconveniently located, at it’s hooked up to a grain-mill and in use part of the day. If that’s fine, then Savil will check out the relevant list to give an estimate of how long it’ll take her to gather up the materials in question.

It will probably be good enough; they won't know how much power it generates until they have everything set up. In the worst case DZ will have to be careful with her power use until Deskyl can get a second generator set up, which is fine.

Savil reads over the list. 

"This should be doable," she says finally. "It'll take a couple of days to assemble it all, though. I'll swing by when I have, or come find me again if you need something sooner than that." 

"Yes ma'am, thank you."

The next couple of days are uneventful; Deskyl spends most of her time asleep, and DZ stays in the room with her. The morning of the third day, though, she goes looking for Van.

It's not going to be that easy finding him, unless she thinks to ask one of the Companions out and about in the grounds, in which case it'll be trivial to find out that he's teaching a lesson in one of the sealed Work Rooms but will be out very soon. 

She does think to ask Yfandes; she goes to wait for him.

Vanyel slips out from behind the powerful magical shields when he opens the door, and several younger teenagers dart out ahead of him and run off, chattering to each other. He stops, remembering to use Mindspeech with her this time. :Deskyl?: 

:Mmhmm.: She walks over and gestures for him to keep going in the direction he was headed in. :My droid says she suggested we take a carriage; I want to know why you chose to Gate instead.: Her tone is much calmer, today; she seems genuinely curious.

:Oh: He tenses, but follows her. :I, um, already got yelled at kind of a lot. For that. But... There's a few reasons. I know DZ wasn't going to actually die if she ran out of energy, but it still seemed worse for that to happen weeks before we could get back. And...you're injured: he winces as though expecting her to snap at him for mentioning it, :and she said she could tell me what to do but I was worried about messing it up. Um, and I wasn't actually expected to be away that long, for the mission – Companions are really fast, Yfandes and I could've made it in five days alone. So that could've been an issue if they were counting on having me back sooner:

He scuffs at the grass with his foot. :And then I tried to find us a carriage anyway, and the only merchant I could find who was leaving within the week seemed really sketchy, Yfandes didn't like him either. Trying to catch multiple rides from different people might've worked but it would've been complicated and we could have gotten stranded halfway for a while: 

He shrugs. :And...I don't like traveling very much. Gating is miserable but another fortnight or more on the road would have been miserable too: 

:That makes sense. I would rather you had told me - to warn me, if nothing else - but I doubt I could have done anything about it. Who yelled at you?:

Wince. :Savil. My aunt. She agrees I shouldn't have stuck you in the back of a merchant carriage if I didn't like the man, but she'd rather I'd used the Mindspeech relay to ask for support from Haven. They could've sent a fast carriage from the nearest Guard-post: He ducks his head, blushing. :I hadn't even thought of doing that: 

She pats his shoulder. :Well, now you know for next time.:

Vanyel seems kind of startled about the pat. He nods. Squirms. :I'm sorry I didn't warn you and it scared you. That was stupid of me. Is that all you wanted to talk about?: 

:I'm not mad about it. I wanted to make sure you were all right. That was...: she trails off, thinking - the choice to gate was one concerning aspect of a much more broadly concerning situation overall, in her opinion, between the fairly obvious trauma, the fact that he was operating solo in those conditions apparently without enough training to handle them safely, the sleep deprivation, and his general emotional outlook with all that that implies. She's not sure how to summarize, though, especially tactfully, and settles for :Would you like to spar sometime?:

He blinks at her. :Um, sure. I'm not sure if our fighting styles would be at all compatible, I mean, I still don't know most of how yours works. My friend and I spar with swords without using magic at all, sometimes:

:I don't know much about yours, either. We can figure it out.:

:All right: He gives her another confused look. :Er, any progress on the device you need to make for DZ?: He wants to seek out the droid again at some point, their conversation was interesting before, but he doesn't want to make her waste energy if she's still trying to conserve it. 

:Still waiting on parts. Should be soon.:

:That's good: He bobs his head. :See you round, then?: He would ask if she's feeling better but he doesn't want to get snapped at again. 

:Mmhmm. Come by whenever, or I'll find you when I have time.:

:All right: Vanyel runs off. He's still very confused. Deskyl is being friendly to him? 

Later that night, Savil swings by Deskyl and DZ's guest-room with all the requested parts for the generator. She seems quite proud of herself. "Here you are. Will this do?" 

Deskyl is asleep when she gets there, but easily woken. She looks the collection over. :This will do it, yes. I'll set it up in the morning. You can have some people watch, if you'd like, this kind of power is useful for lots of things.:

:Sure. My student Sandra is desperately curious, I'm sure she would like to watch: Savil glances around. :Is there anything else you need here?: "DZ, do you need anything?" 

:I'm going to want an embroidery kit soon. Just a small one.:

    "I'm all right, ma'am, thank you."

:Good, we can do that: Savil leaves the materials for the generator and heads off. 

Deskyl comes looking for her the next morning after breakfast, the generator parts floating telekinetically behind her.

Savil has a teen girl with her. :This is Trainee Sandra:

:Heya: Sandra is very tall for her age, skinny, with short-cropped dark hair. She's slouching a bit and looks several years younger than Vanyel. :I really want to see the thing you're making: 

:Good, 'cause that's what I'm doing this morning. How much of an explanation have you got?:

She can give her a basic rundown of what electricity is on the way to the mill, and then explain what each part of the generator and battery does as she sets them up. At the end, she takes a LED borrowed from DZ and briefly wires it to the generator to see how it glows: pretty brightly, as it happens.

Sandra glows as well, more metaphorically. :That's so amazing. Savil said it's useful for things other than what DZ needs - like what?: 

:Bigger lights than this are pretty easy to make, and so are heating elements, enough to melt metal if you get enough power together for it, or enough to heat a house easily, or cook with. And motors - this whole process can be reversed, you can make a wheel put electricity in a battery but you can also make battery power turn a wheel. On a cart, say, or for anything you'd want a mill to do if you could have a mill sitting in a room in your house.:

Sandra bounces on her heels. :How many more of these would we have to make?" She grins. "I'm good at making things out of metal, or glass. You can do a lot of that with magic here:

:Well, it'd depend on what you wanted to do with it and how efficient your designs were. I'm not going to be as much help as it looks like, either - my world is way in the future from yours, you'd need to make the machines to make the machines to make the machines to make the things I'm used to working with and at some point I just won't know how to go back that far. But I can teach you the principles and we can figure it out from there.:

:Really, you'll help?: Sandra lights up. :Thank you so much! I'm going to go make a huge list of all the things I think we could maybe use this for. I bet tons of things that need magic could be done with electricity instead and then it would be less of a problem that we don't have very many mages:

:That's what it's good for, yep. Magic is really rare in my world so almost everything is done with technology. Maybe make me a list of things you use magic for here and I'll see if I know of other ways to do it, too.:

:I can do that too!: And if Deskyl doesn't do anything to dissuade her, Sandra, who doesn't have another commitment for a candlemark, is going to start tagging along in whatever direction she's going and ask more questions about what her world is like. 

She doesn't object, though she doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular besides 'back into town'. She can tell lots of stories about her world, which is indeed very far into the future technologically compared to this one, with buildings so tall you can see the tops of the clouds and flying carts so common every farmer has one and ships that travel between stars and many more wonders besides.

Sandra's eyes get bigger and bigger. She eagerly follows until they get near the Heralds' wing, at which point she reluctantly peels off to deal with her other commitments. 

Deskyl sits outside for a little while, enjoying the sun and watching the passerby, but eventually goes back in.

A while later, Vanyel comes and knocks politely on their door. 

"Yes, sir?"

He smiles brightly at her. "DZ! I heard that you got the generator working this morning. Did you get your, er, food? Electricity?" 

"Not yet, sir, the battery won't be ready until tonight, but I have enough power until then. Do you need me for something?"

"I mean, er, I don't need..." He fidgets, cheeks turning pink. "It was really interesting talking before. And, um, I thought maybe you'd want to see our library here. It's the biggest library in the Kingdom, we have thousands of books." He tries to peer in to see if Deskyl is sleeping. "Er, if you can't leave here then I could bring you books. I mean, only if you want?" 

"Let me check with Xaari Deskyl, sir, one moment." The Sith is awake, so this doesn't take very long, just a brief signed conversation. "I can go, sir, she doesn't need me for anything else today."

"All right. This way." Does DZ want to be going with him? Vanyel can't tell. She's so...polite...and his Empathy doesn't read anything from her, and she's from a foreign culture and isn't even human and he has no idea if she enjoys his company or finds him irritating. Probably she enjoys books, though? Right? 

They go outside. It's a bit of a walk; he should make conversation or something. "Um, how are you finding Valdemar so far?" Vanyel asks. 

"Everyone's been very polite, sir. And Deskyl is looking forward to getting her new clothes, she says she likes the style of them here."

"I'm glad to hear that. Um, how do people dress where you're from? It must be pretty different." Vanyel used to like clothes. It drove Father up the wall. He hasn't thought about his wardrobe full of nice tunics that flatter his colouring in months, though, nowadays he just throws on whichever pair of Whites are clean and nearby. 

"The outfit she arrived in is typical, sir, though most people wear other colors and embroidery is uncommon."

"Ah, right." Aaaaand now he's run out of things to say and why is it so hard to make friendly conversation, but at least they've reached the main building. "The library's in here." 

It's not a very impressive library by the standards of a high-tech civilization. The shelves carry a couple thousand hand-bound books, and there's a locked room for the Heraldic archives (Vanyel does not take DZ into it). Instead he pauses in the middle. "Er, is there a subject you would be especially interested in reading about? We have a lot of books on magic here, the various kinds of Gifts, and also on, um, law and military tactics and agriculture and building and lots of things like that." 

"Do you have any poetry, sir?"

"Oh!" Vanyel, surprised, lights up with a smile. "We do, actually – well, a lot of it is ballads, they're meant to be sung, but we have lots and lots. Do you like poetry?" This is not an interest he had expected to have in common with the droid. 

"Yes sir."

"Oh, then let me find you the Windrider Cycle – it's a semi-historical set of ballads, one of the most famous." Vanyel finds the poetry section, hunts around, pulls out a fat leatherbound book, carries it to the table. "There you are." 

"Thank you, sir. Can you show me how it's meant to be sung?"

Oh gods he would have brought his lute if he'd known music was going to happen but he hadn't had the faintest inkling that DZ might be interested in it. 

He opens the book and flips to first song that he knows well at all, which is I Found a Land. Singing in a library is probably rude or something, but it's not like anyone else is using it right now. 

I found a land and I built a home where my people can be free,
But how can I ensure that they live on in dignity.
I have no way of knowing what the future will bring,
I cannot watch the growing of the children of my offspring.

He keeps singing through the rest of the song. 

She's nodding by the end of the verse, and joins in for the rest, adding what's presumably a signed translation starting with the fourth verse.

Vanyel is smiling by the end of the song. "I didn't know you could sing! Um, can all droids sing? Also what were you doing with your hands, there? It was really beautiful." Like dancing, almost. 

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.