Belrun squeezes her hand. "All right. Kingdom to save."

–And suddenly they're back on the path, in the dark, surrounded by very quiet, very confused-looking Heralds. 

:Are you all right?: Amshalan sends, a bit shakily. :We - ouch - problem maybe - ack my head - but we should resolve this first...: 

Belrun's eyes are prickling. :I feel - okay enough:

She clears her throat. "Well?" she addresses the squabbling chickens. "Will you listen to me now?"

Tantras is making muffled incoherent sounds through his hands, which are both over his mouth. 

Savil is the first to recover. Her eyes aren't quite focusing right, but she takes a deep breath. "I'm listening. What?" 

"I did not come here to sabotage you. I never meant to hurt Dara nor do I think I was sent as part of a plot to do so. We may need to tread carefully to avoid a repeat but it is worth the effort to calm down and put in that work because the default outcome is a war."

"Do you belie–"

"Tran, she is literally under your Truth Spell right now." 

Tantras nods jerkily. "I - know - just - the world has just gone insane and given that, I - just - I..." He trails off, evidently all out of words. 

"Personally I think the world went insane candlemarks ago," Katha mutters. "You know, when our King's Own got repudiated by the Groveborn who is claiming it was a goddamned accident or something." 

Tantras goes cross-eyed. "Rolan - said that...?" 

"Did you not get that from Delian? Kellan has been panicking in my head about it for ages." Savil takes another deep breath. "Sorry, Belrun. Talking over you again." She drags a hand over her face. "I'm sorry we aren't being very problem-solvy right now, just, our conception of how everything works around here did kind of just explode into a lot of tiny pieces. What do you think we ought to do right now?" 

"I think everyone should go to bed. Including Vanyel, who if he gets a dream can spend the entire time explaining to my lifebonded that he has to share me with Amshalan going forward and will probably not have time to get into anything more sensitive, because I bet Leareth felt that from all the way over there."

"We should do that! Er, has anyone told Randi?" 

"...Gods, I really should wake him for this." Shavri rubs her eyes. "I told him we were meeting to discuss plans and he said since he couldn't come anyway he was going to bed and could I please catch him up in the morning and only wake him up if something was literally on fire." 

"The fire, while considerable, is still metaphorical. It's not obvious to me he needs his sleep interrupted as long as nothing else irreversible is done till he wakes up."

Vanyel looks around, only speaks when it seems like no one else is going to. "Fine. We're obviously in no condition to make irreversible decisions right now so we shouldn't. Er, only thing to cover tonight is Dara, I guess. Belrun, why do you think she's probably all right, or as much as she can be anyway?" 

"She told me it wasn't my fault and that she was leaving because no one was going to trust her any more and asked me not to tell anyone right away because she wasn't sure she'd be allowed to leave. She gave me an address to send her scholarship money later, which I expect I can extract from Leareth, since I do feel somewhat responsible."

"...Did she seem like she was, er, in an emotional state where she might get partway and decide that actually throwing herself in the river was easier? What was she planning to do? I mean, she doesn't have a Companion to ride anymore, she would've had to borrow a horse, it's the middle of the night, she's fourteen... I'm just pretty worried about her, actually, even if her plan is 'ride by herself all night' and she's not planning to hurt herself or anything, it didn't seem like she's - making decisions from a place of being especially clearheaded." He sounds like he might be speaking from personal experience here. 

"She seemed pretty stable to me but I can't rule out that it was a front, I suppose. She can't have gotten all that far, though, so I'm not sure why you haven't just Mindspoken her."

"We've all tried! She's always had very good shields and it seems like she doesn't want to talk to us, we can't even find her that way. Rolan could, maybe, but, well..." 

"But, well, he accidentally ripped a hole in her brain, yeah. I think she'll be fine. I can't guarantee it since I am not holding her prisoner to ensure it. Maybe in the morning she'll talk to you."

Some worried and unhappy looks are exchanged. 

Vanyel folds his arms. "I think Belrun is right, and I think hauling her back here against her will is going to make things worse rather than better, even assuming we could find her. So. Plan: I go to bed, if Leareth turns up I can talk to him about the Companion bond, which is likely to take the whole dream, and I'll avoid anything else. I can do that." 

He glances at Belrun. :Um, given the fact that a dream tonight is likelier than baseline, maybe it would make sense for you to, er, sleep in my bed. Unless you want to stay with Amshalan tonight in which case, reasonable. I guess I could sleep in the stables too and just try to avoid Yfandes...: 

:It's really dumb that the buildings aren't made to fit Companions. Uh, I need a few minutes to talk to Amshalan after everybody disperses and then I'll get back to you?: