"...Ugh." 

Leareth finally seems to have absorbed the news about Belrun's Companion enough to speak. "So. You said eventful. What were the events that led up to this? It must have been - rather extreme, for you to genuinely see it as the best option." 

"Uh, the Groveborn's Chosen thought too hard about what I was saying and they had a fight and he accidentally repudiated her - I told her I was going to ask you to pay her way to school someplace, she didn't deserve that, she's a good kid."

Leareth actually looks visibly startled and disturbed for a moment before his expression goes back to pleasantly neutral. "Is she all right? That - is not generally something Heralds would survive, I was led to believe." 

"She told me she was going back to her hometown and snuck off because she wasn't sure she'd be allowed to leave. I can't guarantee she didn't decide to kill herself on the way but she seemed to know what she was doing and it seemed to not be that."

“I’d believe it,” Vanyel adds. “Dara is - unusually sensible.” Sigh. “I’m really going to miss her. In general and also for the talks, it seemed like she was making everything go better just by being around.”

"She was. I think the Groveborn is unusually - brittle - but some caution is going to be required going forward."

“It would make sense, given my understanding of what is different with Groveborn,” Leareth says quietly. “Everybody must have been deeply alarmed. What is the current status with talks?”

"Uh, they left me alone for awhile after that happened, and then grabbed me for another meeting, and wound up in a knot of a bunch of people in the middle of a path between buildings shouting over each other and nobody listening to anybody. And - I'd been talking to Amshalan, trying to learn more about Companions, get some backchannel on what was going on with all the Heralds that wasn't bottlenecked on the extremely busy Heralds themselves, and she's really - reasonable, levelheaded, I don't know if you already got the letter about the tiny Mindhealer poking me but she's the one who interrupted that - anyway, everybody was hollering and nobody was calming down, and I Mindspoke her and she wasn't sure what to do either. But I thought if nothing changed they were going to toss me through a Gate for fear somebody else would get repudiated if anyone heard another word out of my mouth, Truth Spell or no Truth Spell, so... I announced to her that I'd changed my mind about the time I walked up to a random Companion and asked not to be Chosen, and we talked about it a little more, and then she walked up and Chose me right there in front of everybody. And that - snapped them out of it, and we were able to wrap up and go to bed. Me and Vanyel are both in Amshalan's stall cuddled up together right now so I could get into the dream, because he was expecting one."

Leareth looks momentarily nonplussed at the last piece, but only briefly. "Ah. Interesting. I would not have expected that to work, but I am certainly not complaining. I am very glad that you remained calm and made a reasoned decision to regain control of the situation, though of course I am not surprised." Snuggle. 

"You're being very cute," Vanyel says, smiling. "I would not have expected to ever use that word to describe Leareth, but, well. Here we are." 

Snuggle!!!!! "Not that I wasn't ferociously tempted to let them sabotage themselves and go home to you, but."

"While I am awfully touched, it is a good thing that you stayed! Do you have any thoughts yet on what direction you might try to take things tomorrow? Assuming the Heralds continue to respond with this level of confusion rather than being proactive." 

"I think I need to assess what Rolan's thinking, that's going to matter - I hope he doesn't charge right out to pick some other poor teenager -"

"He seemed very distraught and confused over it, and I think the Groveborn normally take a couple of days or even weeks to grieve their last bonded before Choosing again. And probably repudiation is more traumatic on the Companion's side than their Herald dying, actually. I kind of feel bad for him even though I'm also mad." 

"That gives me a little more room to maneuver if he's taking some time. Uh, general options after that are getting sufficiently on the same page that we can reveal your master plan and get their help figuring out something else they like better instead of controlling Valdemar et al which will still work, or not revealing your master plan but figuring out something else which will at least address the Cataclysm, or peacefully annexing them -

- you know what, the king is dying and I have a Companion now, wouldn't it be funny if they decided the best way to manage things peacefully would be - eh, I'm not related to him, that's a long shot -"

Vanyel gives her a startled look. "Wow. Would you actually want to be Queen?" 

"It would make my living arrangements awkward! Also then I'd have to manage all those squabbling chickens! But I do really like the sound of it."

"Huh! I think we must just be extremely different people." 

Leareth chuckles. "Similar in a few ways, but - yes. I had noticed." 

"Not everybody can be me."

Leareth looks like he's not quite sure he wants to agree, but eventually he shakes his head and nods. "No. The world does need several types of people. Possibly even including people who are not primarily made of hubris." 

Vanyel makes a face. "It's possible the world could use less Tran than it currently has." 

"Tran?" 

"Herald Tantras. Former King's Own. Belrun, can you explain...him...? I'm sort of stuck on what words to use other than 'he's very suddenly decided he hates me'. We were - sort of in a relationship before. Well. Sleeping together. It's complicated. He took the news about the blood-magic poorly."