"I did think the former thing was rather obvious. I...feel as though I am supposed to understand the latter objection but am not sure I do?" 

"I can tolerate people doing unpleasant things in their personal lives but I don't want it to impinge on mine."

"Is it still intrinsically unpleasant even if it is the same amount of happening all inside my head that my ordinary thoughts are?" 

"I wouldn't necessarily find out but there are lots of things I wouldn't necessarily find out about that I don't want as inputs to my life in any context where all I'm consulting is 'do I like it or not'. Arc of history on a divine scale, I can suck it up if it makes sense. Attempts at conducting a romance no."

"Fair enough. It does seem silly to try to romance you in ways you find very unromantic." 

"I think so too. Uh, are we doing that or are we in a weird holding pattern till you ask your Mindhealer if it's secretly easy and harmless and we just have very uncommon preferences?"

"...Oh, sorry, I did ask her. She looked at me like I had three heads and said she'd never heard of such a thing." 

"Is it just me or does it sound extremely weird to describe my two thousand year old god-defying lifebonded as 'my boyfriend', because I just imagined trying to explain this to my mother and it sounded very weird."

"It is not just you. That feels very weird. Are there better words?" 

"I guess 'lifebonded' works. Mind, I'm not planning to tell her the part where you're two thousand etcetera, it just seems like 'boyfriend' is not a you word."

"I suppose that works fine." Leareth sighs. "So, what is our plan from here? I suppose I should bring you back to town at some point before your mother assumes I have kidnapped you after all." 

"Yes, probably. You have another Gate in you and neither of us is going to be fainting afterwards?"

"It is not very far. Another thousand-mile Gate would be challenging, but this ought to be fine. I might want a nap afterward." 

"Okay. Suppose you Gate us back to your inn, you take a nap, I visit my mother, and then since if we're doing this we may as well go about it properly we go to a nice restaurant for dinner, unless you have reason to believe any of this will lead to us being murdered."

"I am not sure but I would not currently assign it a massive risk, although - this is probably overkill but honestly I would feel more comfortable if you had some form of magical shielding and a way to call me in an emergency. There should be some materials here as well as records, if you are willing to do that even just for my peace of mind." Leareth is feeling VERY PROTECTIVE of Belrun but he will, in fact, sometimes need to sleep or let her go have her own life. 

"I don't mind. I know there's such a thing as a shield-talisman but I don't think I've heard of an - emergency contact talisman?"

"I can give you one to call an alarm and let me find you. It would not be trivial to give you one to speak with me since you are not a mage - unless you are a Mindspeaker, are you? You did not mention it but you do have shockingly good shields even for a Healer."  

"I think it's just Healing and Fetching but I guess it's possible I have something else helping there which has never done anything else for me?"

"Did you ever have your Gifts formally tested, the way a mage would do it, or did you simply notice what seemed to be happening?" 

"Just noticed. So I could be missing one that was being unnoticeable. Do you know how to check me?"

"I do, if you are willing to have me check. Sometimes children who develop Mindspeech early form instinctive shields without ever realizing they have the Gift. You have such a strong dislike of anything interfering with your mind, that would make sense." 

"Is there some reason I wouldn't want you to check? Does it hurt? Will you accidentally discern my favorite color?"

"It technically involves looking in your head and it will feel odd. Probably less odd than," he waves a hand vaguely, "everything about being lifebonded, and I am not going to see anything except your Gifts, but still."

"Go ahead then."

Leareth looks. It feels like a weird sort of tickling deep inside Belrun's head. 

"Definitely looks like you've got Mindspeech and Thoughtsensing as well," he says.