"You were? Oh wow. Yeah, uh, Tantras is this very... rigid, parody-of-ethics-having... person? He seems to hate me but also was horrified at the idea that this might make me at all frightened that he could conceivably do anything worse than glare at me, he seems really suspicious of creative solutions to problems... did he use to be less this way before Taver got to him, Van?"

"I hadn't thought about it before, but maybe? I think he's always been a very bright-lines sort of person, but he was a lot more, I don't know, like a friendly puppy when I first met him. He had a lot of responsibility on him when he was King's Own and I think that changed him a lot. Also fighting a war. I think Tran in Elspeth's time would still have been really really upset about me using blood-magic, but he'd have been kinder about it. He's - also just angrier as a person in general, I think, after what happened to Taver." 

"Yeah, that makes sense. I don't have to love where he went with that to figure it was really unfair to him."

"It sounds as though he might continue to make talks difficult even if you are Chosen, given that he is not listening to Vanyel, who has a perfectly good Companion. Belrun, what do you think?" 

"So I did think of that and I think it might conceivably make a difference that I got Chosen after having aroused his suspicion. It will certainly be a stumbling block if and when I have to present him with further unpleasant revelations, but I think 'Yfandes hasn't actually ditched Van over this and they're merely having a tense time of it' is different from 'Amshalan walked right into this and Chose it while it was happening'."

"That makes sense, I think." 

Vanyel looks like someone who's kind of upset and trying very hard to hide it. 

"Vanyel I would hug you but I do not want to let go of Leareth. I will hug you when we wake up."

"No, that makes sense - you've got a very limited supply of hugs right now." He makes a face. "We know this works now - damn it, does this mean we need to do a sleepover every night?" 

"That does seem like it would be awkward. Maybe just when you're expecting one, since you have kind of a sense for it?"

"Sure, that works." 

"Thank you."

"Is there anything else we ought to discuss?" Leareth says quietly. "If not, I - think that I prefer to focus on just holding you. I missed you so much." He sounds almost confused about it. 

"I missed you too. I think everything else that's happened so far can go in letters."

Vanyel seems amused. "Do you two, er, want some privacy - I could go back over there...?" 

Belrun giggles. "It wouldn't hurt."

Vanyel glances at them one more time, still smiling, and then tromps back through the snow and ducks into the pass. 

It is almost certainly not tenable to actually have sex right here in the snow in the time remaining in the dream with Vanyel over there and also all the uninhabited dream-avatars staring at them but they can get in a real good snuggle.

And a while later the sky starts to come apart. Leareth kisses her. "I love you. I am very, very proud of you. Be careful, please." 

"I'll do my best. Love you."

She wakes up with her cheek pressed against Amshalan's shoulder. She sighs and shifts around enough to get her notebook. :Van? Light?:

Grunt. "Justa minute..." A soft white mage-light appears in the air just above them. Vanyel sits up, brushes straw out of his hair. "Ugh. I'm too old for sleeping like this." 

"Next time can be at your place but I had a day and Amshalan is cozy." Scribble scribble. Mostly not a substantive information-exchange dream, so it doesn't take her long. And then she gives Van a hug.

He hugs her back. "That's really nice...thank you..." 

"You're welcome. Sleep well." She squirms back into the most comfortable position available in this stall on her Companion and closes her eyes.

Vanyel really should go back to his own bed now that the dream's happened, but it's so far... He curls up on the other side of Amshalan and is asleep within a minute. 

...A few candlemarks later he wakes Belrun up by having a nightmare and projecting a burst of anguish near the end of it, and then startling awake, realizing what just happened, and bursting into tears.