:I'll duck out during the question period, he's wrapping up now, you can meet me en route?:

She's on her way from the lecture hall a few minutes later.

:Of course:

Leareth meets her not too far outside the lecture hall, offers his arm so she can walk faster without tripping. It's not worth another Gate just to get back to the house a few minutes earlier; he's already a little tired from the thousand-mile one. 

:So what happened?:

:I am not sure exactly! Vanyel's letter is very short and mostly it just says that - things are not fine - and Yfandes is not speaking him. And he wished to warn us that the King was likely to find out at least something about our conversations. That is all: 

:Oh dear. Uh, if I imagine I'm - reading a history book, this is the part where you send a letter saying you currently do not intend to invade Valdemar, the dream setting is out of date, would Valdemar like to receive a diplomatic party?:

:I have not decided the exact contents of the message yet, but I am going to send one, and specify a faster method of reply than the initial one. Also I intend to find out as soon as possible whether there are any Herald or troop movements on the northern border of Valdemar:

:Do you have anything vulnerable really near there yet? I'm not clear on the exact location of your library bunker or anything:

:Not really, no - Valdemar's current border is almost two hundred miles south of the pass, and all of my core operations are on the other side of the mountains. It would be informative as to how worried Valdemar is: 

She nods.

Leareth walks the rest of the way back in silence. 

"All right," he says, wearily. "Sending a message is the highest priority, I think." He frowns. "I have considered whether it makes sense to relocate north and minimize friction in terms of communicating with my people. The one advantage of being here is that it is not where anyone in Valdemar would expect to find me, but also it is not remotely likely that they will try to attack the north directly, and if they did they would certainly not succeed." 

"I've gotten the lab experiments down to two dozen eggs, I can bring them all home today."

"All right. I am not feeling an emergency level of rushed to relocate, but would like to do so in the next day or two, I think. I will work on a draft message and you can make suggestions after?" 

"Sure."

Leareth spends the next hour or so writing up the letter, crossing out bits, rewriting it on a new piece of paper. The eventual draft is reasonably concise, with some polite diplomatese, expressing that he is not currently leaning toward invading at all and certainly is not going to do anything in the next year, and stating an intention to withdraw any active operations from the region directly north of Valdemar. (He doesn't really have that many, he tells Belrun). He gives them a different message-drop location and promises any letters left there will be read within a day. He is willing to send an un-Gifted messenger or a larger diplomatic party, but will wait on either until he has contact from them. 

"Do you really want to leave it that wide open that you'll decide to attack anyway? 'Not leaning toward' isn't much."

"It is not the case that I am fully decided against it in all scenarios, and I do not want to lie. Also I think they would be unlikely to believe it if I promised I would not. I suppose I could give clearer odds." 

"I... guess, but I'm not sure 'oh, I might decide not to attack you and have no demands that would get me to stand down' is the most deescalatory option available. Mind, I don't have a better one, I'm not a diplomat, but..."

"...Let me think. I - do think it is less likely at this point that something resembling my original plan will end up making sense, given, well, you. Also, I – well, I suppose I am used to not having options open to me that rely on being perceived as at all trustworthy or honourable, because - a cost of the choices I have made in my life generally, but the last hundred years in particular, is that they are not conducive to that. However, you are much less fundamentally untrustworthy than me. Which does change what is possible here, I think." 

"I don't run your organization," she says. "I can tell Vanyel that you listen when I have ideas but I can't unilaterally do anything much."

"Vanyel might be much more willing to, for example, go out and meet you to speak. Which is the sort of demand that might actually change my future actions, here, but I would not expect Vanyel to be comfortable coming to speak with me, and am reluctant to even request it explicitly." 

"I guess that makes sense. We're assuming that's safe for me, presumably, that Vanyel is not the gods' instrument to cripple you by lifebond-breakage?"

"I really doubt it? He does not have a relationship with any god where they could directly possess him, as is sometimes possible with the peoples in pacts with the Star-Eyed, or with priests and others closely serving Vkandis. It would be very out of character for him to harm you, and the gods mostly act via people doing exactly what is characteristic for them and makes sense given their motivations, but nudged in a particular direction."

Sigh. "That being said, it would not be guaranteed safe and I would wish to take precautions. I am not sure what precautions would work without having more of a plan there. For now I suppose I can add that offer to the letter, and work on a phrasing that is both not a lie and also as de-escalating as possible." 

"Okay." She looks over his shoulder while he edits.

Leareth eventually gets it down to a phrasing that, while not the most conciliatory one possible, is minimally confrontational-sounding and also true. The letter is substantially longer but still fits on a single page, which Leareth thinks is concise enough.

"How would me going to talk to Vanyel work?" wonders Belrun.