"The gods don't like magic printing presses? Huh!" For a moment Savil seems too baffled and curious to even be uncomfortable. "Weird." 

"Yeah, isn't it? I think the disease eradication one is a more damning example but that's speculative, they didn't actually stop me except insofar as I am currently not conducting any more systematic research because I'm doing this instead."

"You know," Dara says thoughtfully, "if I were the gods I'd be concerned that throwing someone at Leareth who's compatible enough to lifebond with him at all is not going to help, because they'll be the sort of person who wants to eradicate several diseases." 

"I mean, I've mentioned before but not with you in the room that our first guess was that they were just going to promptly have me killed to see if that would incapacitate him longer-term than trying to kill him directly does."

"That's horrible!" 

"Yes, I know. They do lots of horrible things. Leareth thinks one of them was nudging things to get Vanyel's lifebonded killed too."

Savil's dark look does not contain surprise, especially. 

"Even if we posit that's true - and I'm not going to hand that point to you, yet, given how convenient a claim it is for Leareth - but even if it is true, that doesn't actually mean Leareth's goals are better than theirs." 

"Than whose? If you have a case for any specific god, or even 'whichever one or coalition of them is behind the Companions', I'll hear it out. They have a common interest in not all going blind but they do vary."

"...I mean, Valdemar's pretty good, I think? We've had consistent leadership for eight hundred years, and we're pretty well organized, and our Laws are reasonable, I think, and enforced decently well. It's not perfect but I do think whichever god created the Companions didn't completely screw up." 

"I'm not making the case that every single god is definitely bent on maximizing human misery. Valdemar is stable and predictable. It happens that for most people living in it most of the time, stability and predictability are good, compared to, well, instability and unpredictability, unless you compare to a specific sort of instability and unpredictability. Valdemar doesn't look that great if you compare to an alternate possibility where books cost half a copper and nobody loses six babies to various diseases and the general population rather than magic horses decides who's in charge."

Tantras makes a noncommittal sound. 

"Where did you actually grow up?" Savil asks curiously. "Your father is Valdemaran but you were going to school in Rethwellan...?" 

"I was born in Fork Village, where my father lives, but my parents divorced when I was a baby and then I lived in Haven until I was eight, at which time my mother finally responded to my begging her to move us literally anywhere other than Valdemar, because I had debilitating nightmares about getting Chosen, and we can all see how well this worked at keeping all forms of mind-control-induced personal relationships out of my life," says Belrun flatly.

Dara fidgets some more. "I would hope Companions would be considerate enough not to Choose someone who had debilitating nightmares about their existence, but, I'm not as confident in that as I might prefer." 

"Well, one time I did try walking up to one and asking them nicely to please tell all their friends to leave me alone, but I did not get a reply."

“Companions don’t usually talk to anyone except their Heralds, I think, though occasionally they make exceptions. I bet Yfandes would’ve made an exception if she’d been the one you stumbled on.”

"Then I guess it wasn't her. I assume one learns to tell them apart with more exposure."

"Huh, I never really thought about how I tell them apart but I guess I just can." 

"Anyway, that's my nationality situation."

There are some looks back and forth. Tantras' expression is still more confused than angry. 

"Anything else here it makes sense to follow up on in more depth, before we go off and talk amongst ourselves and schedule a time later?" 

"Nothing leaps to mind."

"All right." Then Savil will head out with the others. 

Dara smiles over her shoulder and waves.