Leareth tries to fling up a mage-barrier in front of them and it doesn't work and so instead he dives toward the ground in a whimpering ball. 

Vanyel, fortunately, is also there and has combat reflexes that are arguably less out of practice. You should be able to raise a shield fast enough to block an arrow in flight, he remembers Starwind telling him in his first ever magic lesson, eighteen years and a lifetime ago. Fortunately he is faster than that. His shield is up within about a quarter of a second.

(He also noticeably jumps in front of Stef and then looks sheepish about this.) 

:Maitimo. What: 

Savil leaps toward Shavri and Randi, covering them as well. :What's happening?: 

I have no idea. There aren't orcs this far east, we've been in contact with -

HELLO? he shouts at the direction the arrows came from. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. PLEASE STOP. IF THERE IS SOME KIND OF PROBLEM WE CAN HELP.



There's a moment of silence. 

Then a Quendi drops out of the trees. They are carrying a bow, and wearing a fabric nearly impossible to see in the dark like this, against the backdrop of the forest. 

         This place is not for you, the Quendi says to all of them.

- what, so you were going to try to murder us about it? Instead of asking us to leave?

         In our dreams the bright-elves come, and bring only horrors with them. 

- I see. These people aren't bright-elves. They are something else, called humans, and if you kill them they are gone. - also before that they would kill you. It is admirable restraint that they have not already done so.

        We know about humans. 

...you do? How? 

        We dream of them, too. They do not see very far, and they tear the world apart until it catches up to them and swallows them. Someday they will fill in this lake with dirt and death and sunken warships. They are not welcome either. 

This place, the birthplace of the Quendi, it is sacred to all of us. For hundreds of years we have worked to return here from Valinor.

       You can return if you like. 

- all right? I am glad of that. Perhaps you can put away your weapons and we can meet and discuss -

        You can return if you like but then we will shoot you. 

- well, Maitimo says to Vanyel, sounding utterly astounded, I'm sorry. It did not occur to me that - no Quendi in our history has ever done deliberate violence to another. 

:Let's get the hell out of here: He raises a Gate, to the exact spot they just left. Takes a step toward it, stops, looks over his shoulder. "Stef, Randi, Shavri, get through now." :Maitimo, I think Leareth needs help:

Leareth has no idea what's happening. All he knows is that there's absolutely nothing he can do about it. He can curl up small and take up as little space as possible and be very boring but probably whatever terrible thing is about to happen to him doesn't care. 

Maitimo scoops him up and takes him back through the Gate. 

They are immediately surrounded by people desperate to hear about Cuivienen, who he waves off somewhat rudely.

Vanyel firmly turns his back on Stef, who he is sure did not miss his initial reflex of protectiveness and is going to try to use this as ammunition for something. 

:Maitimo, what now? We're back to the same problem we had yesterday:

"I'm...really confused?" Dara is saying, with a reassuring hand on Shavri's arm. She looks shaken but like she's handling it. "Why are they accusing us of sinking ships or something?" 

"I am also really confused," he says, though he sounds more like 'angry'. "- people get foresight dreams, sometimes, but they don't always come true and in particular we've been theorizing that the interdimensional contact threw a lot of them off. But there wouldn't even be humans in Arda without the interdimensional contact, and while you're welcome to immigrate we will probably not let people do any destructive settlement of Cuivienen in particular since it's the sacred birthplace of our people and everything - and why do they think trying to murder you on sight would make you less likely to bother them -

- We should figure out what's going on there later this evening, I want to get Leareth settled."

"Right – Randi, let's go." Dara starts walking the King and Shavri back toward their guest-room.

Stef gives Maitimo a confused, thoughtful look and then shrugs and follows Dara. 

He takes Leareth to his room and tucks him in and sings. Not the sleep song, just something simple and pretty. 

It takes Leareth a long time to be actually aware of his surroundings again, and even longer to stop trembling. He isn't saying anything or leaving any of his thoughts public. 

I'm so sorry. 

We are in Vinyamar. We went to Cuivienen but the locals were hostile, so we left.

"I remember. I tried to use magic..." 

"You don't have access to your magic right now. I don't know if there's a good way to give you access to shielding and Mindspeech and Thoughtsensing and not the ability to destroy the whole city but I can talk with Melody about it."

Just being able to shield himself wouldn't have helped, the King and his lifebonded and Dara and Stefen were all there and none of them were mages. 

Leareth turns onto his side, away from Maitimo, pulls his knees in to his chest. I want to go home. 

Okay. I'll get Vanyel to Gate us out. Except he should really stay for the conversation with Dara about what happened, he owes the Valdemaran delegation that so they can have any confidence that precautions for their security have been kept in mind generally...I think I need an hour here first. I know that it'd be better for you if we left right away. I'm sorry. I can keep you asleep for that hour, if you'd like.

Leareth doesn't want to be asleep. If he's asleep then he can't do anything if something else happens, he won't even see it coming. 

Are you going to stay here. 

It is a pretty bad time for me to abruptly leave Vinyamar but I am planning to go back with you. I just need an hour first to pass off the most urgent loose ends.

It should be fine. He should be capable of at least one of going back without Maitimo or staying here where Maitimo is and the fact that he apparently can't cope with either is incredibly inconvenient. Leareth is perfectly aware of that fact. I am sorry. 

Larya will be here. I will try to wrap everything up as quickly as possible. You can pay attention through my eyes and ears, if you'd like to. 

And he leaves. He feels awful about this but he actually can't just flee the continent on the Valdemaran delegation after they were just attacked. He goes looking for Dara. 

Dara is still at the King's guest-suite. Randi and Shavri seem pretty shaken.

Stef is there, singing very quietly. Randi doesn't need painblocking anymore but it seems like he does need reassurance, and the Bardic Gift is good for that as well.