"If you would. Amshalan's not getting along that great with him right now."

"Right. It sounds like Amshalan is a very good fit for you, which - I can see how that'd lead to something of a personality conflict with Rolan even if we weren't dealing with all the other messiness."

"Amshalan's great!" chirps Belrun.

Aww. Shavri doesn't say anything but she's smiling to herself. 

"I'll try to... tone it down with Rolan... insofar as I can while staying on topic, which might not be very much. I have read two entire books on diplomacy."

"I think you're doing fairly well? I mean, correcting for the fact that the topic you have to stay on is contentious and problematic to discuss with Heralds at all. You've handled it all very politely." 

"Thanks. Doing my best."

Randi pinches the bridge of his nose. "All right. Thank you for your report. Is there anything else you want to convey to me now? We'll probably meet tomorrow but it may not be until afternoon, I'd want to see what happens with Savil and Kellan first." 

"If it winds up being that - Rolan is in open conflict with everybody else - how much of a legal and practical obstacle does that present, as distinct from the obvious sociocultural fallout?"

"Hmm. There's not really anything in our official written laws on that, actually? It would be problematic logistically, I think, the Groveborn actually does do a lot of very important things that a non-Groveborn Companion would have trouble standing in for even if we appointed one of them; he's a coordination point, he can track several dozen conversations at once and keep track of all the rest and that's doing real work, in terms of keeping us organized and relaying important information. I'm sure we could manage without if we have to, most countries don't have intelligent Mindspeaking magic horses to begin with, but it'd be a huge adjustment." 

"Okay. It might be a good idea to have that on the back burner even though I'm really hopeful I can talk him around, but - Dara couldn't."

Randi nods. "True. Although with Dara he, well, had a lever to permanent end the conversation at the first moment he got spooked. I sort of assume that's what happened, at this point, that he's set up different from most Companions, much stronger balance of working for Valdemar versus supporting his specific Herald, and that means it wasn't an equal tug-of-war?" 

"Yes. But he probably also understood Dara as a person better whereas I'm this stranger who shows up and starts jailbreaking his herd."

"That's fair. I don't know how it'd balance out, but it seems worth you giving it a go, even if only because he's had a while to sit on it now." 

"I can organize my thoughts a little and by tomorrow I'll be ready whenever he is."

"Sounds good. Thank you." 

"Of course. Anything else?"

“Not that I can think of, no.”

"All right. Thank you for seeing me and, uh, letting me experiment with this."

"You're welcome. Thank you for bearing with us and the extent to which our system of government, er, struggles with this particular challenge." 

"You're welcome." And out she goes.

Amshalan is waiting for her. :Seems like that went pretty well?: 

:I think so! Randi seems really sensible:

:He's a good King. This is a lot for him to handle, especially with his illness, but I'm glad it's him. Elspeth was - pretty conservative, really, I think she would've had a harder time responding to it gracefully: 

:Yeah, 'conservative' isn't a good look at this moment even if it has its place. Am I wanted anywhere else or should I go wind down for the evening, test if I can Mindspeak Chalan?: