"- anyone in this crowd a Mindspeaker -"

There is a raised hand.

"Cool, you see the white horse out the window? She can double as my mental receptionist. If you guys come up with more questions, Mindspeak her and she can relay them if it's not a bad time, as long as I'm still in town she will be too. That way you won't all be knocking on my head at inconvenient moments. I have the room for another two candlemarks if you want to continue your discussions without me."

:Clever!: Amshalan has been listening through her ears for most of it. :And I'll get to hear all the most interesting questions!: 

:Hopefully those two in the corner will settle their argument about who gets the red-and-white one and you will not have to also field that: Belrun answers one last question on her way out and takes Leareth's hand at the door.

"That's where we met," she says, pointing, "I don't know if you remember - the new wall on that building was not new at the time, it exploded -"

"Oh." He stops, looks at it for a bit. (The guards hang back and wait.) "No, I do not think I remember that part - I do remember our first conversation, and some bits and pieces of context around it but they are hazy. I - where was I standing, where were you standing...?" 

"I was over there, about to turn the corner, and you were just there," point, "and you were here on a recruitment trip, I never got the person's name, and then there was an explosion, and I was barely scratched, her likewise, you got up a shield, but a lot of rubble fell on you, so I scooped you up and took you to the Healers' building - there - and I had some obviously-lifebond-informed excuse for keeping you as my patient, I was rationalizing it as everyone else being busy because normally a lot of explosion victims don't all descend on the place at once."

"...Oh, I think I might not have even been conscious for that, then. I remember waking up in a bed and you were there. And - at some point I got out of bed and you told me off rather sharply for it? I do not quite remember why though." 

"Because I was very concerned for your health and didn't know why! Or do you mean why did you get up, I tripped and bumped something and you were very concerned for my health and didn't know why."

"Warning signs that we both missed, I suppose." Leareth stands, looks at the repaired wall. "It is hard to regret it right now, although I could do without the mind-control part. But, I am glad to have you in my life."

He squeezes her hand. "And...I wonder if it may end up saving rather a lot of lives, in expectation, that I am not trying to do this quite as much on my own. Assuming the gods do not have anything nastier for us in store, which I am not assuming at all, actually, but - I have worked around that before." 

Squeeze. "If you want me to, once we get home, stay up north till I have a winged monkey with my face creepily on it all ready, I can do that. I'm assuming that I will need to make new ones occasionally as previous ones get old."

"I might want you to do that. I apologize for being so inconveniently paranoid, just..." 

"I have an extremely vivid memory of feeling you die and was not complaining about the paranoia."

Leareth looks at the wall for a few moments longer. "...All right, now I would like to go back to your mother's house so I can put up proper wards."

Rana's house is where it was, with the addition on the side they put up for Amshalan now playing host to a few chickens. Amshalan can probably share with the chickens without incident.

Leareth definitely doesn't remember the route back to Rana's house from the university, but he recognizes flashes of the scenery along the way, tries to tie them to half-remembered snippets of conversation pulled out of the vague-blur of memories.

"I do not usually get to have this much continuity," he tells Belrun once they're both in the bedroom they shared before. He's turning slowly on the spot, surveying it. "I mean, sometimes I can go back to places where I spent time in my previous incarnation, and it helps to jog some bits I had not quite remembered, but - I have never had someone else with me who had also shared those same experiences and could recount the details to me. Usually I only have what is written down in my records." 

"Well, here I am. The stall out the window is new though, I used to have a view of the herb garden, we put that in so Amshalan could stick her head in while I was moping in here. I guess now there are chickens. Hi, chickens."

"Bok," says a chicken.

It's still upsetting to think of Belrun's misery during that time period; Leareth spent most of it dead and thus incapable of phantom emotional pain. He hugs her. 

Hug. "I'm glad you're okay. I'm... I guess not exactly glad that you turned up with a broken lifebond but I'm glad you wanted me back."

"I think I know what you mean. It - would have been better for my - for our - goals overall, if I had not returned with a broken lifebond, because of - what that would mean about how lifebonds behave in this edge case. But I am glad I was not in a position of - having to conclude that I could not afford to be lifebonded to you, because of the strategic considerations... I like you. I am not fond of the vulnerability that the lifebond gives both of us, but I like you very much." 

"I like you too." She leans on him.

He puts an arm around her while he casts an excessive number of wards and protective spells on the room (this is probably unnecessary given that there are a dozen of his best-trained mages acting as guards, but it helps him feel like he can relax at all.) Then he tugs her over to the bed. 

She giggles and follows where he tugs. :In fact, I love you:

:How convenient, since I love you too!: 

Leareth does not quite relax fully, he's slightly on guard and trying to keep half an eye on the surroundings with mage-sight, but they can probably still have a pretty good time. 

She will settle for pretty good until they are home up north.

Her mom wants to take her to dinner and stare at Leareth's slightly different new face and bring the both of them to see a play while they are in town.

Leareth is pleased to oblige, but he's wary the entire time at dinner and during the play; it's not that apparent externally but it is through the lifebond. 

Belrun sticks very close to him and declines her mother's suggestion of staying another week.