"Mmm." Leareth chuckles. "...I could cast an illusion on it to make it silver temporarily? I think it comes out looking rather silly, though." 

"Well now I'm curious."

"All right, give me a moment. ...Please do not look until I am done, it will take time to get it exactly right." 

She shuts her eyes.

Leareth fiddles with it for a while. "...All right, look now?" Getting the exact detail of individual hairs would be very hard, but just laying a different colour tint over his actual hair is a lot easier. It's the same length and general shape as before, but gleaming silver-white. 

He has not done his eyebrows or stubble, with the result that it sort of clashes. 

"It might work better if you'd done your eyebrows. And your beard. But probably still not as well as having them black."

Leareth laughs. "I was being lazy. Anyway, I think white eyebrows would be terrible - they would be invisible!" 

"Not completely, but yes."

"Anyway, I am going to put it back now." He releases the illusion. 

She pets his hair. "Thank you for indulging me."

Hug. "You are welcome."

The rest of the day passes uneventfully, and that night they find themselves back in the dreamscape. 

Vanyel stands unmoving at the mouth of the pass for a few seconds. "Leareth," he says finally, and starts walking. 

"Does this usually happen two nights in a row?" Belrun wonders when she's caught up to within conversational distance.

"No," Leareth says, also looking confused. "It has rarely been less than a week." 

Vanyel doesn't say anything, just watches Leareth with a very neutral expression. 

"You okay?"

"What? Yes, fine. Er, Leareth said last time that there were more things to talk about today?" 

"Yeah, but since it's only been a day it'd make sense if you hadn't caught your Companion up yet due to, I don't know what you do all day but that."

"I did relay the part about the Cataclysm," Vanyel says, very levelly. "She was not seized by any sudden premonition to tell the King." 

"Did somebody die? I guess you don't have to answer that but -"

Vanyel gives her a carefully blank look. "What, today? No." 

"Okay.

I was... thinking today about how we could conceivably get higher throughput communication if we had a way to send letters? I don't know if it's likely to be useful but it would be hard to set up suddenly if it ever got that way..."

"That does seem plausibly useful to have set up." 

"Yeah, I... didn't get as far as thinking through an entire proposal but will mail addressed to Herald Vanyel at Haven get to you?"

"I mean, if you have a way of mailing it from the Valdemaran border, sure. Can't promise it'll get through from further away, we don't have a good way of linking up mail systems with neighbouring countries. If you gave it to a merchant or something that could work." Vanyel's voice is still very neutral.