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Belrun is so close to getting this damned flu strain to calm down in this one egg. She copies the change across to a few more eggs' worth, iterates, writes everything down, and Fetches the egg that is getting scary into her pot of simmering water before it makes a break for it. It's getting on toward dark and if she keeps working she's going to have to do it by candlelight, and she doesn't like that - it's already too easy to bump into things when she can see them. She calls it a day and closes up the lab for the night and heads out to walk over to the university cafeteria. It's a nice evening, and it's Flatbread Night, and she's in a generally good mood.
velgarth bell and leareth become very upset
no-laid-course
"Seems like a pretty tall ask for you to - I don't even know what needs doing, honestly. Reassure everyone that the world isn't about to end and they have time to think carefully about this. Maybe they're starting to get there now."
occhiolino
"I think I make the Heralds, or at least most of them, nervous. Shavri wound up doing most of the talking - I don't know if she's usually very talkative but everyone else was so conspicuously quiet. I think Herald Tantras hates me, possibly just for having a personality such that I could possibly get lifebonded to Leareth even though I didn't do that on purpose."
no-laid-course
"Weird. Shavri hates that sort of meeting normally. And, er, sorry about Tran. He's - got some good reasons to be sensitive around some of these topics, and - it's been a hard few years for him in general. He hates me as well right now, and that dates from before knowing about Leareth, even."
no-laid-course
Vanyel winces. "Mad at me for mysterious reasons probably related to gods, and refusing to say so outright, because that would involve admitting we were having a conversation on the topic of gods. It's just - most of my thoughts are about that, right now, this is so stupid that I can't even talk to my own Companion about it."
occhiolino
"...I wonder if I've just, uh, done the same thing to a bunch of other people. Probably not, they weren't really - listening right? Which makes me more pessimistic about trying to talk to them about anything but is probably convenient for their Companionships."
no-laid-course
"That seems right. Talking to Savil was like that, she was trying to listen but it just wasn't quite landing, it–" He swallows, blinks. "It's very lonely."
no-laid-course
"I'm scared that there just isn't going to be a way of resolving this? If none of the Heralds can think about it except me - and I basically can't because I'm too much of a disaster when Yfandes is refusing to speak to me..."
occhiolino
"And the entire government is based very explicitly on only Heralds having access to all the high-responsibility positions specifically because of this handicap - yeah, it's messy. The, the King's Own in training is new, right? I hesitate to suggest this because the Groveborn's likely to be worse if anything but if his Chosen is not yet too - dependent -"
no-laid-course
"Huh!" Some animation comes into Vanyel's face for the first time. "I hadn't thought of that. She's fourteen, which is why we didn't involve her, but - I met her to assess her Gifts and I like her, she seems very levelheaded. I'm a bit worried that the idea coming from either of us will make people think it's a bad one, but maybe we can discreetly tell, hmm, Shavri? And she could pass it on to Randi if she thinks it's a good idea."
occhiolino
"Maybe I'll mention it. It's really hard to operate under the 'anything coming from me is suspect' constraint, though... I was hoping I'd get less of that because I'm verifiably not two thousand years old."
no-laid-course
"You would really hope! Is Shavri less like that, at least? I was getting the feeling that she might be, er, thinking a bit more clearly about this. Though I think everyone being upset is getting to her a lot, so maybe not."
occhiolino
"She seems, uh, tired. She kept fidgeting with the sword and my dad - oh, uh, this is my dad, Chalan -"
occhiolino
"He asked her about it and apparently it's this ancient mind-controlling sword Leareth's met a couple times and I was not super thrilled about that being nearby even though I'm apparently personally not subject to getting stabbed by it because I'm female. And she put it away and looked even tireder afterwards but for someone who is that tired she does seem to be thinking pretty clearly."
no-laid-course
"Oh, right, Need. We found her in k'Treva. She's magical, I wonder if Shavri was getting some extra energy that way? It definitely seems like she can give you energy in a fight. Shavri doesn't normally wear her around though, because of, er, the part where it's inconvenient to have a sword suddenly mind-control you when you're in an important meeting."
no-laid-course
"You would use much stronger words than that!" Sigh. "I'm worried about Shavri. She's taking on so much and it's not really fair to her. Not that I'm in a position to do anything about it."
occhiolino
"She had time to read several of my papers? But yeah, I doubt she's sleeping enough and I don't know how to - not make that worse, let alone improve it."
no-laid-course
"I'm guessing the way she found time to read your papers was by doing it instead of sleeping. Which - I get it, she hardly ever has relevant Kingdom work that involves getting to read original Healing research, she must've been delighted about it." He rubs his eyes. "Part of the problem is that our King is dying of a mysterious illness and he needs her constantly."
