Yfandes has no objections! She says Vanyel seems to be over all of his symptoms except for lingering fatigue, but he does tend to wear himself out and might have been worn down going into this. 

"Hi Van." Check.

Vanyel is clear of flu! 

He's also a little bit dehydrated and clearly hasn't been eating enough protein in the last few days. 

She prescribes him chicken for dinner and drinking more water but says it's safe for him to be out and about. How's Savil?

Savil, without Vanyel's benefits of youth and a minor Healing-Gift, still hasn't cleared the flu from her body, though she's definitely on the mend. 

Belrun reports this to her. She circulates to declare more people flu-free and okay to mingle.

About half of the sick Heralds are flu-free. None of the lords are. 

That's concerning but not especially suspicious because they're older. She tells Leareth anyway. Goes on her housecalls.

The villagers are all recovering well and seem cheerful. 

Good, good.

The rest of that day passes uneventfully. Patients are doing well enough now that the Healers have periods without much to do and are sitting around gossiping in the infirmary. Gemma says this is an excellent sign but also she's not going to jinx it by sending any of Leareth's Healers back. 

Amshalan pokes her toward the evening, her mindvoice almost bouncy. :The Senior Circle approved it! You and Leareth can tell Van everything. Um, he says he wants to tell Yfandes but she can keep a secret from everyone else including Rolan: 

:That was in fact going to be my next question, yeah, I think Yfandes if it's really just her is fine. Does he want to come to us or should we go to him?:

:He can come to you, he says his room is messy: 

:As good a reason as any: And she tells Leareth and makes sure they're both presentable.

Vanyel turns up looking intrigued and a little nervous. "So, I've been authorized to know the secret plan...?" 

Leareth takes a deep breath, and reaches out to squeeze Belrun's hand. "First, a disclaimer. I - am not unaware that my original plan - which I hope to find alternatives to - is appalling and monstrous." 

"Um." 

"I was - am - planning to build a new god, with more suitable goals and properties than the current ones." 

Vanyel blinks a few times. 

"I - wow - I really should have been able to guess that. It fits perfectly, given, um, everything." His eyes narrow. "What's the horrible part?" 

"Making a god is a massive undertaking and requires vast quantities of power. The original plan for a power source was blood-magic. Ten million lives worth." 

"I would like to figure out how to metaphorically blow up the moon," she murmurs. "There are potentially promising avenues. But it's not a project of a scope where you can wait on step one till you're positive all other possibilities are exhausted. Getting that many people all in one place will take a while - the more of them above the ten million mark we can manage, the better, if we can clear it by enough it can be selective, there'll be more to carry on with afterwards. And powering this plan in some way is all we've got on not having another Cataclysm about as bad as the first, which would certainly kill more people than that."

"I...guess...that makes sense." Shiver. "No wonder you didn't want to tell all the Heralds and Council about this! There would be so much screaming." 

"It's a very bad plan. Current alternatives include just doing a chunk of it - the part that was supposed to make the new god more able to communicate with people than the existing ones are - and sticking that to the Shadowgod, since it's tentatively friendly - and also possibly figuring out how to turn arbitrary people into mages, which, uh, at least scales down the murder even if we don't find out a way to make it not a murder situation."