He puts his arm around her. "Any other questions for now?" 

"Not today but I want a map of the presumptive god-territories to look at eventually. Not for any specific reason, just to have a visual."

"I ought to be able to do that, though it does involve guesswork." 

"Yeah, that's fine." Nuzzle.

Snuggle. "Bed?" 

"Mm-hm." Bed ensues.

The next morning, Leareth watches Belrun with a thoughtful expression as they get breakfast. 

"Now seems to be a good time to cover some - final context - and then my actual current plan," he says. "Although it would be easiest if there is a good long block of time free for it; what is your schedule for today?" 

"I have my morning classes again but not microbio today, and I can skip them and get notes from Kamie or somebody to copy, they just won't be as good as mine."

“It seems probably worth having somewhat worse notes in order to have that discussion sooner, but I suppose it is up to you.”

"I can skip. Though that decision is at least seven percent wanting to snuggle you all day and I really hope that whole phenomenon calms down or accepts partitioning or something after a week or three."

“Perhaps the gods’ plan with this is simply that I cannot do the particular work that annoys them most while snuggling you. Certainly it would crimp any scheme to invade Valdemar. Though I am hoping not to do that anyway at this point.”

"Yeah, so, uh, why do you want to invade Valdemar? I've been using as a placeholder rationale 'the whole thing with Companions is fucked up and cannot be stopped while Valdemar continues to exist as a state' but I made that up so I'm assuming it's wrong."

"That is not the ultimate reason, no. The Companions are the major reason I did not think it would be possible to ally with Valdemar for this plan, and therefore if I wanted to use their territory as a staging-ground, which has several advantages, it would have to be by conquest. That is also why I initially did not think there was any real chance of allying with Vanyel, though he keeps surprising me." 

He lets out his breath. "I want to start with a different piece of context about my life that I elided before. Less because it is sensitive and more because, well, I expect to have emotions about it." He shakes his head. "I suppose it is a lost cause not to have emotions in front of you, even if I am apparently a dour painting with Vanyel." 

"Okay." She squeezes him.

"I have mentioned the Cataclysm," Leareth says quietly. "My first life was immediately before it. I actually have almost no records from it, unsurprisingly given what happened at the end of it, so I have minimal information about what happened. I do know that I studied under a mage called Urtho, a brilliant and innovative man - he created gryphons as a species, and a large network of permanent Gates, and various other wonders. He ran a world-renowned academy for mages from his Tower. I remember little else about him, sadly, but I know that I respected him a great deal." 

She nods. She isn't trying to take notes right now.

"I know that after I finished my studies, I went back to my home kingdom of Predain," Leareth says slowly. "It was kind of a terrible place. I think Urtho did not truly understand the conditions there, since Tantara, where he was based, was prosperous and thriving. I - tried to fix things."

A flicker of a smile. "In my characteristic ruthless way, I suppose. I ended up as advisor to the King. Urtho did not believe that mages ought to seek political power and he was very against this. Even though he had been appointed Archmage of Tantara by then; I suppose he thought that had not been his decision and so it was all right? Anyway. We continued exchanging letters and I thought we remained on good terms. I had told him that Predain had no intention of trying to conquer any of Tantara; what would the point have been? However, he must not have trusted that claim, since he - started a war against my country. I do remember that it came as a surprise to me." 

"- I'm assuming I should hold my questions since you don't remember much?"

"Probably. I can try my best at the end to answer any questions you still have." 

"Okay. Go on."

"...There is not much more to it. He attacked. I fought back. It was - very damaging, to a country I had just barely wrestled into better conditions, but I suppose I saw no choice at the time, I did not think it right to simply surrender. I–" he looks down. "I wish that I had. It was not worth it." 

"Why didn't he think mages should seek political power?"

"You know, I am not sure. I assume it was somehow part of his philosophy of life. He thought humans could not be trusted with multiple sources of power, I suppose." 

"Any guess what would have made it look like you were going to invade?"

"We were expanding on other borders, I think, though that was into land that was not held by an organized state and so I consider it different. May I finish saying what happened before more questions?"