The trouble is that he has no idea what he wants. Wanting things at all is starting to feel like it might not be a coherent concept. 

"I would like to think about it," he says, neutrally, that seems safe. "Can I please have some time alone to do that." 

"...Yes, of course." What does he think Leareth is going to do, stop him from going off to think about it? 

Belrun lets Telumë go and goes and leans on Leareth instead.

:I was expecting that to be stressful, but somehow not nearly as stressful as it actually was: 

:He seems in a really bad way. Uh, should he be maybe checked over for compulsions and stuff - having to hand as we do a recent example of someone being, uh, both genuinely and manipulatively distressed at the same time for mind control reasons - I guess it's also bad if it's not mind control reasons but it's harder to check for?:

:I would have expected Melody to notice, or - someone... I suppose it is possible no one checked thoroughly. Maybe I ought to– no, nevermind, it should not be me. Maybe our Savil? I think she is the mage with the greatest objectivity here, and she would not need to read all of his memories to check for compulsions: Sigh. :That being said, probably we ought to brief our Vanyel and Savil on the god plan? Since it is inevitably going to come up. I am not sure whether to tell twelve-year-old Stef but I suppose we could ask the older Stef for advice: 

:Yeah, it seems like it'd be hard to avoid at this point and better to bring it up in a controlled fashion. Even Amshalan doesn't know yet:

:I wonder if we ought to ask the other Vanyel for advice on how to explain it: 

:That seems like a good idea, he'll have some guess how people will take it:

:That is what I was thinking. I can ask him as soon as they finish their current scrying session: He leans on Belrun. :I am very worried about this situation. There is still a war on in Velgarth-813 and while all of us are here, no one is there trying to prepare for it. And Telumë is honestly not in any shape to be doing it. I–: he stops, takes a deep breath, :I have been wondering if I ought to go take over, there: 

:I guess it might turn out that's strategically necessary:

:I am not sure it would be a good idea for you to come, but it also seems not ideal for you not to come: 

:I'm still not immortal but being far away is a constant attention drain:

:I think we would need more information on how safe the north is, before even considering it: 

He puts his head down on Belrun's shoulder. :Should we find Melody and ask her to check on Telumë?: 

:I think that's probably up to him? We could ask her if there's anything she wants to pass on about her preexisting assessment:

:We could ask her, then: Leareth is thinking that he's not sure he trusts Telumë's assessment of whether it's a good idea for him to see Melody, and layered on top of that, noticing that this is a very weird thought to be having about another instance of himself. 

:And we can ask Savil about the compulsions check:

:Agreed, once she is finished with their mage-work. We could look for Melody now?: 

:Yeah:

Where oh where is Melody?

She's been up for a bit, after being set up with a place to stay as well and grabbing some rest; she's wandering around looking at architecture now.

"Good morning, Melody. We, uh, just talked to Telumë. I'd understand if you want to consult him first but is there anything you can tell us about what happened to him?"

"More than the broad strokes you've already gotten? I feel like just catching you up on the timeline of events covers a lot of it." 

"Yeah, but we're considering measures like, uh, 'see if bits of Leareth can be copied in to Telumë' - if Telumë's on board with that, to be clear, but he might be - so some more detail might help with thinking about that."

"Oh. Hmm." Melody fidgets with her sleeve. "I'd better ask him about telling you more detail, but I could go do that now?" 

"He wanted to be alone to think for a bit so I don't know about right this minute but it'd be good to keep things moving insofar as it doesn't result in rushing, if that makes sense."