:If anybody tries to stop me I'll tell them my Companion said it was okay, how about:

:Ha, sound perfect: Amshalan lets her off just outside the dining hall, which turns out not to contain any Heralds she's met, although several of the strangers look up and wave at her, looking a bit confused but mostly cheerful and welcoming. 

Wave wave. Food food. And back out to be brought to Randi's part of the palace.

Amshalan drops her off. :Good luck. I'll be nearby and I can listen to the extent you want me to: 

Belrun pats her and calibrates the eavesdropping and goes in.

Shavri comes out to meet her in the hall and points her over to the same meeting-room. "So, how did it go? Is Van doing all right?" 

"I think he's wrung out but he'll be all better soon."

"Makes sense." Shavri escorts her in and, again, sits down on the opposite side of it with Randi. 

"So I don't know what format you normally like your reports in but we jailbroke Yfandes and I think they'll be fine."

"That's wonderful! I'm really glad to hear it. I'm pretty curious how it went and whether it was, er, relevantly different from what happened with Amshalan, if you can say, I understand if it's private." 

She summarizes both jailbreakings - "mind that if Sondra hears about this in much detail you will be in a pinch," she adds.

"Right, I'll keep that in mind - she knows not to ask me about details of this." 

"Anyway, I think it should be repeatable - was Savil going to come, Amshalan said she wanted to be here -"

Shavri looks embarrassed. "Oh, right, sorry - Randi, I meant to pass that on to you and I forgot. She wanted to hear how it went and I think ask questions, I told her we were meeting, she must've run into a delay." 

"Oh. Hmm. Well, at this point I'm not sure it makes sense for her to join us in the same meeting, I think Belrun answered all my immediate questions. I want to think about it for a while, and tomorrow we can talk about whether it'd make sense to try the same thing with more of the Companions. Actually, hmm, I guess one question I still have is, now that you have two examples, do you have a sense of there being cases where it wouldn't work? For Companions other than the Groveborn, I mean." 

"Well, basically anything making a human-Companion pair different from me-and-Amshalan or Van-and-Yfandes is a risk factor? Some things I could see turning out to matter are - it might work worse with older Heralds who've spent longer growing accustomed to their Companions being a certain way, or with humans who genuinely think that the gods are doing a great job, or something like that. I don't know where I'd even start if I were trying to do it with Tantras in particular."

"Mmm. That makes sense. I think probably a lot of Heralds just haven't ever thought about the question of whether the gods are doing a great job. And, Tantras... I see that." 

"Yeah, I think I... startled him but perhaps not that much."

"I think the thing with Tran is that he - needs to feel like he has space to breathe, to change his mind? Not to feel like he's being attacked about it, especially not to feel like he's being, hmm, argued into it by someone cleverer than him." 

"I don't know how to not come off as cleverer than him. I've tried pretty hard not to attack him! I think I've been polite! But, yeah."

"It's hard! I think he's got some amount of a point, in that sometimes people are very persuasive and good speakers and that doesn't necessarily mean they're right, especially if they're giving fancy arguments for something that feels horrible on a gut-level. I do think he goes off and reasons through it at his own pace. Usually." 

"I guess he could be put off for later while we work through easier cases but he's acting King's Own and the actual King's Own isn't even around any more." :Has anybody gotten through to her?: she adds to Amshalan.

:No, but it's not like any of the Companions who aren't her Companion have a particular advantage for reaching someone who doesn't want to be reached: 

:Yeah, just was wondering if she'd change her mind about that. Guess not this soon:

:At a guess, not knowing her that well in particular, I think she'd at least want to get all the way home and tell her mother what happened. Can you imagine finding out that sort of news about your child via a letter from the King instead? Not that I think anyone's pulled it together enough to send one yet: