"Has this come up before in previous generations?"

"I mean, I assume so? Usually the monarch has a lot more children, though. We've had a string of a lot of bad luck, here, with Darvi dying in a stupid accident - Leareth, it was so convenient I suspected you of engineering it somehow, for a while - and then also Randi being ill, and - other things..." A brief hesitation, as though he's catching himself on something he oughtn't say.

"Unlucky enough that I am rather suspicious of it, in fact." 

"Yeah, that is a weird run of luck. Any joy on Rolan asking his boss?"

"He is at this point not categorically opposed to it. He seems to think the current situation isn't urgent enough, though, and is leaving us to figure it out on our own." 

"Will it be urgent enough when Randi dies?" she mutters.

"I really don't understand what policy he's running here, so..." Shrug. 

"If you're choosing a random Herald anyway and want to be peacefully annexed and there's some way to work around the inconvenience of me not wanting to be within suspicious coincidence distance of a Heartstone, I guess you can tell them I'm game, but that's a bunch of ifs."

"Oh. Hmm. You're right, that's a lot of ifs, but - not many people are all that game for the job, I think. I'm certainly not, having watched Randi do it." 

"I don't know why it doesn't appeal more!"

"Because it's exhausting and you have to talk to people constantly and everyone's always paying attention to you and also it's your call whether to send lots of soldiers to get murdered horribly. Er, I guess that last part is specific to wartime, but that's been two-thirds of Randi's reign, so." 

"It seems possible that he needs to delegate more."

"I've been told that he delegates better than Elspeth. But I think she was also one of those people who had an inhuman amount of energy and could just work fourteen candlemarks a day her entire life. Randi - is slowly dying of a mysterious illness." 

"The job holds some appeal to me," Leareth says with a slight smile, "though of course you are not going to offer it to me. And, yes, it helps that I am very confident in my ability to delegate and not constantly be inundated in routine decisions. Also it is possible I mind talking to strangers less than you do." 

From Vanyel's expression, this is both unsurprising to him and very alien.

"I probably work about fourteen hours a day if you're a little flexible with the definition and stuff like reading counts! I don't have to do my own chores because Leareth's got people, I am informed monarchs also have chores people, so it's like, eight hours to sleep, I can work while I eat, that leaves two hours for miscellany with no work-related justification."

"Honestly, so do I. It's a lot more sustainable for me when at least half of what I'm doing is interesting magic. Ideally more than half. I would love if I never ever had to attend a Council meeting or sit in on one of Randi's audiences again." 

"Mine's mostly Gift-y research too, but it feels more like I generally like to be busy than like it's got to be that in particular."

"I still feel like maybe you need to have sat through one of our Council meetings before deciding you wouldn't mind the work, but - to each their own, I guess, it's good if some people actually want to do this." 

"If they're having any Council meetings not near a Heartstone and want to invite me..."

"I'll keep it in mind. It probably makes sense to introduce you to the Council - and Leareth, ideally - at some point." 

"I would consider it, if it were happening well outside of Haven," Leareth says. "I would, of course, feel most comfortable if it were in the north, but I do not expect your Council to agree to that. Anyway. We wished to ask you about something else." 

"Hmm?" 

"There are some details of the - what Belrun has been calling 'blowing up the moon' as a stand-in. There are some discussion points that will be difficult to cover without explaining said details. I would prefer not to remain stuck here forever, but also anticipate that a conversation with all of the Heralds would not be productive. It feels much more feasible to explain to you alone. I wished to float this to you and find out if you would be comfortable with it, and if you expect your King and the Senior Circle to agree to it." 

He glances at Belrun, in case she has anything to add. 

"Confidentially," she clarifies. "This isn't just 'it would wind up with a bunch of headless chickens running around to explain to the whole bunch', though it would at that. Ideally you'd have advance permission from Randi and anyone else you need permission from to keep secrets from them. This doesn't strictly put them in a worse position - they can talk hypotheticals with you, you can represent their interests, the alternative is just not telling anyone on your end - but it would probably be uncomfortable. Though I do separately think that we should generate a lot more fake examples like blowing up the moon and include some that brush closer to reality than does 'blow up the moon' and float them to a wider audience to test the waters."