After they're done eating Belrun can try to... Mindspeak at him really hard about a nice creek that runs through the campus at U Petras.

It takes a lot of concentration and Leareth fussing with his own shields and several tries, but he eventually manages a tiny Gate that, if Belrun peeks through, will prove to be right beside said creek. 

"Okay. So that part works."

Then they can work on the letter next. 

She accepts, indeed prefers, her accommodations to be under guard (plural, so it would take more than one thing going wrong for that to be an avenue of assassination), but doesn't want to be in prison quarters; a guest room of whatever sort they put foreign diplomats in will be fine but exact details are negotiable. She is not planning to arrive with substantial amounts of cash and will require a normal person's amount and kind of provisions plus a lot of ink and paper. The paper should not be read without her uncoerced permission.

They have verified her academic background and should decide before she goes that they are not going to freak out if there is a concerning outbreak of disease (or any other issue a person of her Gifts could creatively cause). If they think she's going to do that sort of thing, they should not invite her into the country at all. She is especially not going to be treating patients while it's not absolutely clear that she will not be held responsible for any who don't pull through; they should probably not expect to get any work out of her during her stay. Probably conversations with significant people who don't have their own Healing-Gift to verify her quiescence should all take place at range just for extra buffer.

She requires their promise that her mind be considered inviolate; she consents in advance to checking very quickly that she's lifebonded, and to as-needed use of the first level Truth spell, but they should not expect any other mind-affecting magic to be permitted. It should go without saying that they are also not allowed to torture her. While she is making this offer with the understanding that it does put her life in the hands of the leadership of Valdemar, they should be aware that obviously Leareth will know instantly if she dies and the default assumption will be that they decided to kill her; accordingly they should keep up with any emergent need to safeguard her person until and unless 'we killed your lifebonded' is something they want to instantly communicate to Leareth.

They should take all reasonably feasible opportunities to ensure that their decisionmaking processes are not subject to divine influence; the opinions of gods as a collective on Leareth seem to be decidedly negative and except insofar as the Valdemarans come to the same conclusion themselves they shouldn't open themselves up to corrupt reasoning processes. She acknowledges that this is difficult because of the preponderance of Heralds, the alliance situation with Karse, etcetera etcetera, and doesn't expect some kind of ideal of unswayed logic unrelated to the facts on the ground, but wants them to make a serious good-faith effort to notice and find themselves concerned by and prepared for eventualities like "all the Heralds think X but their trusted non-Herald advisors think Y" or "the Groveborn is freaking out and won't explain why but recommends drastic action" or "Karis gets possessed again and Vkandis Sunlord Himself attempts to pass a sentence on Belrun", in addition to subtler coincidences of potentially divine origin.

If they decide it is time to send her back to her lifebonded they should work out a location with Leareth that works for him and leave her there to be Gated home.

All Leareth has to add is a few notes on precautions for the Gate - they should agree on an exact time, so the Herald-Mages watching the Web aren't nervous about missing a real alarm when ignoring the Gate one, and for the return Gate he'll want a perimeter cleared and to be able to verify this with scrying. He has some suggestions for precautions to take about her Gifts, just as an additional layer against people agreeing but then deciding to panic later - for example, her sleeping quarters can actually be shielded against Fetching and Healing, which would mean that anything happening while she's in there verifiably can't be her fault. She should probably just not meet the King face to face.

Also, he suggests they add an explicit condition that Belrun be allowed to send sealed letters of her own to Leareth along with any other Valdemaran correspondence, with a promise that the Heralds will not open and read them, and that Leareth can send replies for Belrun's eyes only. 

He's not sure about this. "It could be taken as a reason for suspicion," he admits. "That being said, I can imagine it being rather helpful to be able to talk about the - aspects of my work not cleared for the Valdemaran government to know. I can also teach you a more secure code, of course, but even that would not be completely proof against a determined person trying to read your mail. It would be much better to have their goodwill in this." 

"Encode the letters and also circumlocute about the big stuff?"

"That seems correct. Even with circumlocution it would be clear we are hiding something, but I think very difficult to guess what, especially since it is - not a concept that would be high in their priors." 

"Yeah. Project names, numbered subcomponents, generally being vague and allusive."

"Yes, I think that works. We can agree on said numbered components and such in advance." 

They can workshop the letter for a while longer, since it seems pretty important to get right, and then Leareth can go drop it off to be sent unless Belrun has anything more to add. 

Maybe a paragraph about how since they may be expected to continue to share dreams they should exercise appropriate restraint in any department not covered by this list about what they want Leareth hearing she's putting up with.

Seems like a good addition. 

When the letter is sent off she tucks herself back into his arms.

None of Leareth's other responsibilities for the rest of that day are as important as cuddling with Belrun. 

Good. Gotta accumulate plenty in case Valdemar decides they want her.

"Should I be authorized to promise anything or am I mostly just supposed to be a - signal of, I guess not ceasefire, but not-yet-fire, and general increased bandwidth turnaround?"

"That question deserves some thought. It might make sense to discuss some specific things you could be authorized to promise, if they were to ask - we should try to list what sorts of things they might ask for. A longer truce is one and I am comfortable promising that, up to several years, especially if in exchange for other concessions on their part. What else..." 

"...rules of engagement if it comes up? They've got treaties and histories with all the other governments around, you're kind of out of nowhere, they won't know what to expect and that might spook them into doing something nobody would rather they do."

"Rules of engagement for the hypothetical where we did end up at war, you mean?" 

"Yeah. Unless you just want to rule that out altogether."

"I do not think I can rule it out altogether without more information - I would consider making that commitment, but I think it ought to be a decision I make, given correspondence with Valdemar, rather than something you can promise on your own. Hmm. In terms of rules of engagement for war - I was not intending necessarily to use blood-magic anyway, but I am probably not willing to commit to definitely never using it in war. However, I could promise not to use Valdemaran civilians for it. That seems very reasonable." 

"Well, that'll just make it real salient but I guess we don't have to mention it till it already is."

"I think that generally the rules of engagement question ought not be discussed unless it has already come up as salient for them, so - yes." 

"Okay."

They can set up an encoding system and cover more little details and contingencies and Belrun can get to work on memorizing things, since if they want her like hell is she going to bring her preexisting notes.

Leareth can teach her some of the mnemonics techniques he uses to quickly cram the highlights of two thousand years into his brain in each new body. They snuggle a lot. 

Five days of waiting later, there’s a letter from Valdemar. Leareth lets Belrun know as soon as he hears, and Gates over to retrieve it so they can see its contents. 

And what's it say -