Startled feeling. Alarm. :–Yes. What is it: 

:Lot of people are screaming at each other and I can't get a word in edgewise and I'm not sure what to do - I don't know if you're getting any backchannel gossip from their Companions or anything?:

:...Um, not - usefully...: 

:They just yelling at each other too?:

:Not yelling, just - stunned - normally we'd listen to Rolan, right? But he is kind of busy being very upset right now and - I guess we don't know how to handle that: 

:I wish I could just - put it all down for the night and pick it up tomorrow, or, or next week, but everyone seems very determined to figure something out right away, right here outdoors standing around in the dark, I don't know if I'll have a chance...:

:That seems very stupid: 

:They're panicking. Optimistically they won't be panicking after they sleep. Pessimistically they are panicking too much to in fact sleep, and at any moment Savil may shove me through a Gate to the letter drop location on the theory that Leareth'll notice I'm nearer by and come grab me and I won't be able to ruin any more Heralds.

Hey, Amshalan, I thought of another reason for me not to be a Herald:

:...Oh?: 

What does she want, what does she have, what has already been ripped up and repaved anyway, what can she spend down for all those strangers these people aren't sane enough to protect -

:Yeah. When I was a little kid I saw a Companion standing around and walked up to them and asked very politely not to be one.

- now would be a good time:

Amshalan goes very silent in her head. Several beats pass. 

:...Are you - sure...?: Hesitant, almost shy. :Belrun, you don't have to do this: 

:I'm not sure. I don't know, do you have Foresight showing that in another candlemark they all go to bed and tomorrow we have a nice calm breakfast meeting - if I don't figure something out here - or would I just get repudiated inside of five minutes, maybe this doesn't work either, but I don't have another idea, I don't think they know how to listen otherwise -:

:My Foresight sense is - not showing that: Amshalan admits, a bit shakily. :My Foresight is showing me that we have a very bad problem and - and there is maybe a way out of it but it's also very terrifying, because, see: her mindvoice is sort of happy and sort of nervous and generally just weirdly bouncy, :because - I got a Call for you the day you rode into Haven - but, you know, it seemed like a very bad idea and like it would be disrespectful to what you prefer and - I don't know, maybe it gets us out of this stupid mess, but also I - cannot currently - think straight about - the thing this is a mess about, and - I don't know........: 

Pause. 

:–But I wouldn't be too scared to try: 

:I'm glad it's you.

I think I'll hold up if it doesn't, uh, stick. Dara was all set to travel the same day -:

:Dara's unusually resilient, I think, but - I'd believe you, that you are too, and surely if it doesn't work it'd fail within minutes and that wouldn't be as bad as a year later. Should I head your way?:

She looks at the squabbling chickens. Maybe they're better organized when their King isn't dying and nobody has suggested invading them recently, but if your national government can't handle royal mortality and international diplomacy it would be better suited to running a gardening club.

:Yeah.

Leareth is probably going to freak out but, oh well, he had lots of time to think of a not-invading-Valdemar solution all by himself and he didn't so now it's my turn:

:I'm sorry. ...I do think this isn't actually about Leareth anymore, it's about - someone can end up repudiated inside of five minutes just for asking the wrong questions, that's not how anyone thought it worked, it's really terrifying and also we technically don't have a King's Own and barely have a Groveborn right now: Amshalan is moving closer, fast. :I, er, take your point that they're not - coping - but I don't think it reflects enormously badly on them, and Vanyel would be saying sensible things if anyone had been listening to him at all in the last several weeks, and - I'm sorry but if this works we can figure out a way to tell him–:

And she's there. Cantering right up to the crowd of panicking Heralds. Stopping in front of Belrun. Looking into her eyes, which are somehow very visibly blue like the sky even though it's dark. 

Belrun looks back.

Reaches out to stroke her nose.

Everyone looks so confused! They've stopped shouting though and are instead staring at her. 

Vanyel Mindspeaks her. :Belrun, are you getting Chosen - what - you might want to be careful, you know about me and 'Fandes right now: 

:I know, we discussed that. It'll probably - fail fast if it's going to fail:

Vanyel is now looking very scared but he doesn't interrupt. 

:Belrun, I Choose you: Amshalan sends - and Broadsends it to the entire group too, just in case they haven't clued in yet. 

–It's like falling, toward the blue that's somehow behind her eyes in a place that isn't exactly the ordinary space around her, except - there's a just-barely-perceptible moment that's more like deciding to jump. 

She's jumped off some very tall things before, if only in her dreams.

She falls.

- and she keeps falling and suddenly she's - somewhere else - she's with a woman - blonde straight hair tied at the nape of her neck, beaky nose, an interesting face if not pretty - looking into her eyes -

- and all around them endless blue - strung through with silver threads - dreams, decisions, the pattern of everything now and ahead of them - the pattern of them, woven into it - the future seen in a thousand fragments like scattered sand - 

- a wall of darkness across a thousand possible futures, and for many of them it is very, very near at hand -

- a crossroads -

- one path twists sideways and around and dodges the wall, and then somewhere ahead janks sharply and maybe it's clear all the way, the further ahead she looks the hazier it is - 

...

"Belrun?" the woman who was Sayshen once in another life says, standing in a web of silver, holding out her hand. "It looks like probably we should go that way now."