"...I mean, it's not a lot, but at least she can reassure me everything's going to be fine - which isn't actually very reassuring because it's not like we know that - but it's better..." Vanyel wraps his cloak more tightly around himself, folding his arms. "Er, Randi is working on a proposal right now about having you come. He's including some people who aren't Heralds in the decision-making but I'm not sure exactly who, um, other than Melody who's one of the Mindhealers. Hmm, and I can guess Shavri is involved, probably, she's Randi's lifebonded but she's a Healer and she's not Chosen." 

"That's... probably enough distance. I guess unless either of them are religious. Uh, are we talking me visiting in a diplomatic capacity or the hostage thing? I'm not in fact a diplomat. Though I did recently read two books on diplomacy just in case."

"Hmm. I mean, it might be a little bit of both in either case, I think? But I don't think anyone was expecting you to be leading a diplomatic negotiation here. And Shavri and Melody are definitely not religious." His lips twitch. "Melody is pretty furious about gods, actually." 

"From what I can tell I think that makes it less likely one can hijack her. ...obviously lifebonds are still fair game but subtler stuff and outright possession both seem reserved for people who in some sense belong to some god."

“Huh. I guess I hadn’t thought about what would make someone possess-able or not but that makes sense. Queen Karis did get possessed by Vkandis but, er, she isn’t here right now - Savil said she might have to do a state visit sooner than scheduled, to get filled in. Er, would you feel safer if her not being there was a condition on you coming?”

"I think if I show up I should be under guard. My preferred method would be to Gate into a location I know of less than a day from Haven, turn myself in to the Guard unit there, be escorted to Haven, and have more than one person who isn't likely to be suddenly possessed on me at all times. Make the coincidences that'd need to happen more improbable. Uh, also, we'd need to be clear on - I'm a Healer and a Fetcher, I also have Mindspeech which I didn't know about till Leareth checked me and Thoughtsensing which I can't currently use at all, I'm one of those people who turns those gifts into shields and doesn't do anything else with them untrained? Anyway, if you want to like... remind people to think for a while about what they imagine I could do if I were there as a plant, given that array of Gifts, and specifically considering that I studied diseases, and then make up their minds not to freak out and blame me the next time someone has dysentery or trips and breaks their leg or what have you, and remind people that while I could probably do some damage I couldn't do it and get out reliably afterwards and I am a poor choice for a suicide mission... like, this just doesn't work if the gods can give someone a cold and everyone is like 'it's the microbiologist trying to kill us all, get her'."

Vanyel stares at her. "...You know, I am not sure anyone was thinking, er, creatively enough that they would have thought to blame you for someone getting dysentery, until you mentioned it just now. But, getting people to think about it as part of this being an informed decision is probably good?" 

"It is way better for me to bring it up now while I'm well out of harm's way than for a god to give someone food poisoning and the Groveborn to get an urgent memo about how, hey, isn't she a microbiologist."

"Do we think the gods can do that? Give the Groveborn a false clue–" Vanyel stops, rubs his forehead. "Probably. I hate this. Anyway, that sounds like a good plan. I think Savil had also mentioned that Melody could verify the lifebond - we can't verify that Leareth is on the other end of it, obviously, but if you are verifiably lifebonded then that combined with you being in the dream is fairly strong evidence." 

"Uh, that's verifiable with a quick glance, right?"

"Yes. Apparently it's very obvious." 

"Okay. I can tolerate that. I'm pretty - freaked out by mind-affecting magic, in general, this has already come up when we were talking about Bards, remember, I'm not just making it up on the spot. So I'd be trusting Melody and whoever else to back off even if they thought they could get valuable strategic information out of me. - Leareth, you probably shouldn't tell me where we in fact are, I don't know if that was deliberate or if it's just easy to omit when we travel by Gate but continue not telling me."

Nod. "That makes sense. If it helps, I know Melody and I trust her a lot and if she makes an agreement not to use her Gift to get information from you, she won't, even if the King tries to pressure her later." 

"Truth spell also," Leareth says. "She does not know our current location - I did not explicitly think of this but I clearly withheld it on habit and this seems correct - but, I would like it to be up to her judgement what she tells you, and not your King's." 

"Right. That makes a lot of sense. Um, I would normally think Randi would obviously keep his promises on this, but if you're worried about Heralds period because of the Companions thing, Melody could chaperone and make sure no one has a chance to do it. She has pretty strong feelings about people getting pressured into going under Truth Spell. Randi probably would want to reserve the right to use first-stage, but all that does is confirm you're not actively lying, it won't force you to reveal anything." 

"I think that should be fine? If I can refuse to answer and it doesn't do anything but confirm or not when I do. Uh, my worry about Heralds is mostly that you've been - shaped, like how you can make trees grow in weird shapes if you make little adjustments to them or grow them near a stake or whatever? Not that you'll suddenly snap but that you might be wrong, like anyone, except if you are you're likely to all be wrong in the same way at the same time."

"...Um. Right." Vanyel seems pretty unhappy about this. 

"Sorry."

Vanyel acknowledges her apology with a nod, is quiet for a bit. "...I think this seems like a reasonable plan? I'll try to remember all the conditions you wanted - Gating to a place with a Guard-post works, I think, if you know one, we'll just need to be aware that the Web is going to pick up an alarm for the Gate. Probably you should also send us another letter with your conditions written down, so it's not just relying on my memory, and then Randi does have a way to reply, I think, if he accepts?" 

"Uh, sanity-check, Leareth, can you in fact get me to a place I've been and know but you haven't necessarily - and yeah I can send you a letter."

“Yes, I ought to be able to, although we will want to practice it.”

"All right then. Ugh, this is going to suck."

"You don't have to do it! If you're not comfortable with it..." 

"You do not have to," Leareth says quietly. "But - it may end up making a great deal of difference." 

"Yeah, it'll suck less than a war."