:Much as I love you, no you are not:

And she goes about her day including bringing lunch to Leareth.

Leareth, when she checks, is free of any sign of flu! 

For this achievement he will be KISSED.

Awwww this is GREAT. 

They should also actually eat lunch before getting too distracted but then he will be kissed MORE.

Eventually he should ask her to check Vanyel too and find out whether the two of them can meet to talk about Heartstone-wrangling, but Leareth is not in any rush to interrupt the kissing for that. :I missed this - I love you so much...: 

She agrees emphatically with this entire sentiment.

"I have some contingency-plans drawn up for moving my forces if Iftel attacks, in case that happens soon," he says, eventually, when they finally pause in the kissing. "Also I think that we - well, Valdemar - should impose tighter border controls. The Guard deployments on that border are shockingly minimal, I think partly because those posts were stripped bare to free up soldiers for the war with Karse, and were never re-staffed properly." 

"Just with Iftel and Karse or in general? I think if we know that our relatively friendly local god also covers Rethwellan and I have a good excuse to be partial to Rethwellan it would be wise to try to shore up that alliance as much as possible, along with any others that will be relatively likely to survive divine assault."

"That is a good idea. I am still worried about Karse, and simultaneous attacks, but the Karsite border at least is well-patrolled and Valdemar is still somewhat wary after the war. And, of course, Karse is not inherently forgettable as Iftel is." 

"Right. Uh, also I had the thought that -" :You're probably not planning to build a god just as inscrutable and frustrating as the normal ones only with better values, right? It's going to be able to communicate?:

:Yes, of course. It - will not be as clear to communicate with as a person, the nature of the gods' Foresight perception means They think in fundamentally non-human terms and there is still a gulf, there. But I have plans to create a god with an aspect resembling the Shadow-Lover, except general-purpose enough to speak to anyone about any question, and do much of the translation back and forth between the godconcepts and human concepts: 

:So I was wondering if you could do that part by itself and stick it on the Shadowgod if it holds still for it:

:Oh: Leareth goes very still. :It - would make me nervous. I would need to interact very closely with a god whose goals and motives I understand very little. That being said, I think it is very unlikely to make the situation any worse; even holding constant the Shadowgod's values, giving Them more avenues of coordination will likely reduce the - unintended consequences of Their plans: 

:How much power would that part alone need, and do you think - independently of whether it's enough for this or whether this is a good idea at all - you can swipe the Heartstone safely?:

:...I am not sure. It will depend on some information I need from Vanyel. But - I suspect I could do it with some but very low risk, if I had Vanyel's cooperation, since he made it and is keyed to it on a deep level: 

:So, I think we can spin this suggestion without revealing the whole shebang, though it does drop clues - you've been fighting the gods for thousands of years, having ever thought about how to talk to them isn't that weird, and we have new information both to the effect that Vanyel's talked to the Shadow-Lover before and that the Shadowgod is tentatively friendly that could be prompting the line of thought without having to explain everything about all your reams of research right away:

:That makes sense. ...I still think we should tell Vanyel the entire plan, if we can obtain agreement from the King for him to keep it secret: 

:Yeah. I'd completely forgotten about that, honestly, it kind of fell by the wayside: She makes a note. :Randi hasn't been sick, so if it's been put to him at all he's had time to think, but maybe Vanyel didn't pass it on - Amshalan, do you know -: She lobs the question at Amshalan.

:Just a minute, asking Sondra: Pause. :Randi's for it. I think getting it run by the rest of the Senior Circle is what fell by the wayside, but we can address that now: 

:Randi's in favor, rest of the Senior Circle got delayed but can happen soon:

:Oh. Good. One thing is going more right than I expected: 

"Mm-hm." Smooch.

Leareth will prioritize smooching over planning for a little while. 

"You could check Vanyel for flu today," he says eventually. "Then if Randi approves it with the other Heralds, we could work on it right away." 

"Good idea." She will run this by Amshalan and presuming Yfandes is okay with it swings by Vanyel and Savil's room.