"You feeling better?" asks Dallar from down the hall.

(BELRUN REMAINS VERY UPSET.)

"Very much. Thank you. I need to - run an errand..." He flees before anyone can try to decide he's not allowed to. 

Dallar doesn't chase him.

Belrun and all her being very upset arrrrre - that way!

Then he will head that way! Not quite running because if he's about to end up in a fight he would rather not be out of breath going into it. Fortunately it seems like she's not too far.

Leareth scans the area for nodes, finds several. There are a lot of other mages in the city who will wonder what's going on but that's fine. He won't be sticking around for them to ask questions, he's going to get her out of here and bring her somewhere safe up north where the gods don't have any foothold– It occurs to him that she probably won't be very happy about this, but he can explain after, he can set her up with everything she needs to keep doing her research–

Belrun is in that library over there.

She is alone and unharmed and sobbing into her arms in a carrel full of books titled things like Lifebonds and The Deepest Love and Magical Bonds Compared.

Oh. 

...This makes a lot of sense, because she's smart. 

Leareth tosses up shields around that corner of the library and skims the surface thoughts of anyone who isn't shielding to check that, no, it doesn't seem like any of them are here with the intention of assassinating her. Then he approaches. 

"Belrun? It appears we have both had the same realization." 

"Mrrrrg," she says into her elbow unhappily.

"It appears you are not any more pleased about it than I am." Whyyy does he want to hug her about it, as a general rule Leareth does not hug people. 

"This guy," she lifts her head enough to talk and taps Magical Bonds Compared, "thinks it's too late, but it wouldn't have been if I hadn't stayed up so late last night that I didn't write in my journal before going to bed and had noticed then and immediately fled the city, so, sorry, I'm an idiot."

"I also suspect it is too late, judging by the fact that I was able to find you here. I apologize for not realizing last night or sooner today – I noticed something odd but I thought you had some kind of Wild Gift with mind-effects and that shielding would correct it. I placed - very low priors - on this being the explanation, but in hindsight I think that was incorrect. What caused you to notice?"

He is bizarrely curious about what she's thinking - no, fine, it isn't confusing at all, it's just, lifebond. 

"Nobody came to my office hours so I had a minute where I wasn't busy to think literally at all? It's not subtle once I'm not in 'don't lean into the unprofessional opinion on the patient while on the job' mode."

"I think you were quicker on the uptake than I was. I am impressed." Is that because it's objectively impressive or because he's apparently lifebonded to her and likely to find anything she does impressive? No, actually, this does look like an unusual level of self-awareness. 

She faceplants on the desk again. "Thanks," she says, muffled.

Leareth glances around, puts up a sound-barrier around them so that librarian over there won't listen in on this next part. "This is extremely inconvenient and not what either of us wanted to happen but we need to decide what to do based on the fact that it did happen. I am very sorry about this but I have reason to think this could mean you are in danger. This is unfair to you, it would be as a plot against me, but – I do not think I can ensure your safety in this city and therefore I think you need to leave." 

(He definitely could just yoink her through a Gate right this second before doing the explanations part, that would be best for safety margin, except, no he cannot actually do that, because his brain is screaming at him that it would be disrespectful and she would be justifiably even more upset and furious and - apparently that's enough of a reason to stop him.)  

"Couldn't we just not tell anybody? I haven't told anybody, have you been shouting from rooftops - why are you in this city if people plotting against you are around and you can't ensure a person's safety here -"

That's a very reasonable reaction, really. "I am not talking about people. I have not told anyone, obviously, and as far as I know there is nobody plotting against me specifically in this city," although if he's right about the scheme here, there could be all sorts of threats he's unaware of. "There are - other forces - that have certain opinions about my activities, and I am sure They would think a lifebond was a very clever trick to stop me, and...I would rather not explain everything here in a public location." 

Great, she's lifebonded to a guy with paranoid delusions. "Where would you rather talk? I have a dorm room but the soundproofing isn't great."

"Can I Gate you to a place outside the city where nobody knows to look for you?" She's probably going to say no. Very understandably. 

"I realize it would be very stupid of you to murder me but that leaves lots of options so I would sooner you did not do that, no."

"Fair enough. We can go to your dorm room." And he'll put lots of shields around it and be ready to drop her through a Gate the instant anything so much as twitches in her direction. 

She leads him to her dorm room. It is small and tidy and has a lot of notebooks in it. "Don't open those," she tells him, gesturing at the shelf of them.

"All right, I will leave them alone." He's tempted to bring up the fact that he also likes to keep extensive records of his life and his thoughts about it, but - it doesn't really seem like the top priority here is bonding over things they have in common. 

She sits on her bed, leaving him the desk chair. "So some... non-people... are after you, and you think merely not announcing... this... will not help."

Shields shields shields so many shields. He's trying to put the information that needs conveying in a sensible order that minimizes the chance she straight-up won't believe him – she'll probably straight-up not believe him anyway, though, it's just that weird. 

"How old are you?" is the question that comes out first. 

"Twenty-two, why?"