<All right> And she gives him both.

It takes a bit longer than five minutes total and Vanyel has to sit down on the floor for a while before he's ready to move.

:Stef: he sends when he's feeling strong enough to stand up. :Please tell everyone we're meeting in an hour. I need to go eat something and lie down first: 

Everyone can be assembled an hour later.

"First," Vanyel says, "we have a tiny bit of actually-good news. The southwest of Valdemar is still holding off the army. I doubt they can for much longer, but Leareth's organization can get some people out. Heralds if there are any, and as much of the Guard and surviving civilians as possible. It doesn't look like Iftel has been slaughtering noncombatants wholesale but there'll definitely be casualties otherwise, if they get in the way. We should know more by tomorrow." 

Treven lights up, though his smile fades quickly to a more subdued one. "That's very good." 

Vanyel waits to see if anyone else has additions, then properly goes through the news from k'Treva, for Treven and Jisa's benefit since he only gave them a very quick Mindspeech update earlier. He briefly describes the god research that Nayoki wants help checking, and gives Fëanáro the notes he took at the time; it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to follow although Yfandes thinks she got all of it. 

"And Leareth has an army of thirty thousand," he finishes. "Three hundred combat mages - about another hundred mages who aren't combat trained, mostly working on the god aspect. I am so glad we didn't end up going to war with him because we would have lost in about two days." 

"Is it enough to win now, though? _ I guess we'd need to know a lot more about what the Maia's capable of and what Vkandis is directly doing."

“It’s - not obvious, that it’s enough to win now,” Vanyel admits. “Then again, we have Maiar too. And your world’s magic. I think it’s not impossible to win. We just have to be very smart about it.”

"Well, we can probably manage that."

"I hope so." 

Treven takes a deep breath. Squares his shoulders. "Tomorrow you'll check about survivors they rescued from the southwest?" 

"Yes." Vanyel starts to stand. 

Treven stands as well, reaches out to grip his arm. "Van? Take care of yourself, all right? We've got exactly one of you and this - isn't going to be over soon." 

It probably will, as the Quendi count things, but he manages not to say this. 

"I asked Maitimo's staff to be ready to come over next time we Gate to Vinyamar in case they're any use," he says. "I will have some mathematicians join them."

"Thank you." Sigh. "I think I should take a day off the scrying thing - it'll still be good to have but it's less urgent now that we have eyes on the ground in Velgarth - and make a communication-spell artifact and do at least a tiny Gate to drop it off in k'Treva. Harder to get one to Nayoki because I don't know where she is, but it'll cut down on how tiring it is to contact the Tayledras, and it'll let them contact us with urgent news." 

"Sounds good."

Vanyel does this, and actually gets most of one artifact done by bedtime, minus the part he needs Curufinwë for. The next morning, again, he checks with Starwind first. No notable news; it's a short conversation. Then he swaps to Nayoki. 

:We have some really good news!: he announces to Fëanáro and Stef, who are both in range. :Survivors! Herald Dara got out with Rolan, the Groveborn. Katha knew about an underground passage, apparently. Randi and Shavri didn't make it - the King's suite was targeted directly - and, um, we have confirmation of a lot of suspected deaths. Including every single mage working for Valdemar. But a few Heralds, and...Queen Karis got out with them. She didn't know anything about the plan. Er, she's being kept under guard in a separate location up north, now, in case Vkandis tries anything, but she definitely wasn't on board with this and given the enormous crisis of faith she's apparently having over it, I'm not sure Vkandis could possess her anymore, her theological belief is that someone has to be willing: 

Is she still in charge of Karse? What's the news from there?

:No, she's not. And, confusing! We don't have communications with anyone officially in charge, but Nayoki's people picked up some rumours in Rethwellan - Leareth's spy network is remarkable. It sounds like there was a coup by the priesthood. Again: His throat tightens. :Karis...has a daughter. Who was in Sunhame, the capital, she didn't come along when Karis made a state vision to meet Leareth and Maitimo. Last time there was a coup, the entire royal family was killed, including the children, Karis was the only one who got out alive. I - don't know...:

He's never told anyone in Arda about this, but it's hardly worth keeping the secrets of a dead man who used to rule a lost country - although probably Fëanáro is going to be very horrified about it, given how Quendi feel about this particular matter. :Randi couldn't have children, probably due to his illness. Shavri was desperate for a baby. I, er, did them a favour. I'm Jisa's father by blood. And when Karis needed an heir, and the world needed to believe her child was Randi's...: 

Oh, Vanyel. I'm so sorry. Is it worth checking - is there a good way to check - even if it's insane for you to go to Karse right now some of Leareth's people could do it -

:Nayoki already offered - she doesn't even know that part about Arven, but obviously Karis is terrified for her daughter, and they're sending agents in. Even if Arven's alive and they can find her, I'm not hopeful about them getting out again, but...maybe I can at least know one way or another...: 

Yes. 

Leareth believed his god project might be able to raise the dead.

:I know. He told me: Vanyel is starting to wonder desperately when Fëanáro is going to be ready to leave the subject alone, it's very sweet of him and a lot better than him being angry or disturbed about the parenting situation there, but it's hard enough not to cry already. 

This seems to be everything he has to say on the topic.

Vanyel thanks him and goes off to find Stef. There's a lot to do, but - he needs a break from it, right now. 

The ensuring days start to fall into a routine, hard to believe as that is. His country is lost and nearly everyone he's ever cared about is dead and - life goes on, one step after another. 

He makes an artifact and drops it off with a tiny Gate in k'Treva; un-scaffolded, it's still tiring enough that he needs a rest afterward before he can keep working, but he's averse to building any kind of Gate-scaffolding on this side again, in the remote case that it makes it easier to Gate back from the other side, and that the enemy has Leareth again. (Which hurts to think about, and seems unlikely, there should have been time for him to at the very worst call down a Final Strike, and Vanyel can't imagine that he would have hesitated. The scrying done by Leareth's organization, which has much better techniques for it than the Tayledras, even shows an area of slagged and then scorched earth that looks very much like the aftermath of an Adept's Final Strike, though it could have been Savil.) 

They get word from Karse. Arven is alive - it seems that the new leadership is using that to claim continuity with the old, though it's a slim excuse. She's well-guarded and there's little hope of getting her out, and a rescue attempt risks killing her in the struggle, so best to leave it alone and hope they don't change their minds. 

They hear back from Mandos. He grudgingly agrees to travel to Tol Eréssea, and Vanyel can briefly Gate there, rest, and then cast an exhausting inter-world Gate to a random patch of jungle in Jkatha where he and Dara camped once. He isn't going to cross himself, and Mandos thinks it could take weeks. So Vanyel will leave him there and check back a fortnight later.