"Fair enough."

"I'll write up a letter. You can tell folks on your end to expect it, probably by the next opportunity for a drop but it might take me longer than that."

"All right. Belrun, thank you, this really–" The sky is starting to come apart. He takes a half-step forward. "...Can I have another hug?" 

"'Course." Hug.

And they wake up in bed. 

"Well," Leareth mumbles, "seems less dire..." He sits up. Notes notes notes–

Belrun takes notes too, but after that she's clingier than usual.

Leareth doesn't want her to go either. It's very brave and it's - probably the correct move, strategically - but he's not looking forward to it at all. He falls asleep again with his arms wrapped tightly around her. 

She doesn't get up and about first thing in the morning.

"If they figure they can meet every condition I set -

I mean, I guess the dreams'd still happen, right."

Hug. "I think so? I do not understand the exact mechanism but it started as soon as we were lifebonded and we are going to remain lifebonded." 

"So even if it drags on I'd see you. Sometimes."

"Yes. And we could set a limit on the total time, if we wished, although I am not sure if that is wise overall." 

"Probably isn't. Looks all kinds of suspicious."

"I know. I - very, very badly do not want you to be gone for an unknown length of time, but...if Valdemar agrees to it and they can meet all of our conditions then I think it is our best option. We ought to work on that letter." He isn't letting go of Belrun, though. 

Five minutes won't make a difference.

Eventually, somewhat more than five minutes later, Leareth lets go. "All right. We can work on that and send it, and then - wait more. I am fairly caught up on all of the regular backlog, here, so aside from emergencies, I think my top priority if you may be leaving soon is going to be snuggling you. ...Oh, also we need to make sure the Gate trick works. I think that we ought to be able to get into rapport, given that we are both Mindspeakers, but - it will require more mental contact than you generally prefer, in order to share the location enough that I can anchor my mage-gift on it. I am sorry." 

"I think it might be okay if I'm just concentrating on what my dad's house looks like."

"Your dad– oh, is that your plan for the Guard escort? I ought to have put that together sooner. Clever. Anyway, yes, it would help for me if you concentrated on it very hard and were not thinking about anything else, and also it would mean you were not thinking about other things." 

"Is this going to tip them off with the Web, or can you determine whether it's possible to Gate a place without actually doing it?"

"For the test I would want to do it to elsewhere, your room back in Rethwellan perhaps. The distance will make it more tiring, but for a test I could do a very small Gate." 

"You've seen my room back in Rethwellan. I guess I could pick a part of campus you wouldn't know."

"...Yes, that would be a better test. I think I could still tell if you were doing the location-holding rather than me, but I am not sure." 

She nods. "After breakfast?"

"That sounds good." And they can head off to the cafeteria to eat. 

She eats a little slowly, sits very close to him.

After a couple of minutes, Leareth puts his arm around her and eats with his other hand. He shoos off most of the people who approach him with non-urgent queries or general chatter.