A week from now works for her and yes they should talk about other stuff too.

Perfect, that should be enough time to finish up all his current work in Haven.

His reply adds that Jisa has found out about Belrun and is clamouring to be allowed to move north and help her get ready to be Queen. Vanyel has tried to explain that the kind of 'getting ready' Belrun is doing isn't really something Jisa can help with, but she's extremely enthusiastic. She wants to know if she can at least help design Belrun a wedding dress, since the nobles want her and Leareth to have a proper formal state wedding as part of finalizing the alliance. 

Belrun does not really want Jisa to visit but will consider her non-binding input on wedding dresses. "I don't care what I wear within reason," she explains to Leareth, "but I think Jisa's not old enough to remain firmly within reason... I'm assuming there's no particular obstacle to getting married, I've been assuming that on top of a lifebond that's basically nothing."

"I am not already married or anything. I see no obstacle to it." He smiles at her. "Any opinion on what I ought to wear? I feel somewhat left out that Jisa did not wish to have input there as well." 

"Maybe she has a lot of practice imagining fancy dresses for herself and has not yet added anyone in menswear to the fantasy. I don't care about what you wear any more than I care about what I wear, though. Less, I don't have to move around in it."

"Fair enough. I probably do not want to wear a fancy dress, especially not one designed by a nine-year-old." 

"It'd be silly. I'll tell my parents what's up and we can get opinions out of Rana."

"That is a good idea! An advantage of parents. Do you think your mother will be pleased about your having a very elaborate state wedding, or think it is silly?" 

"I think she'll be delighted."

"Aww. I am glad that somebody will. I..." He trails off. "This - is the first time I have ever found myself wishing to have parents, so that they could be here for this. - living parents, I mean, I had a mother once - presumably a father but I do not remember him at all, I only remember my mother because of her death..." 

Hug.

Hug. 

In between their other work, they can start planning some of the wedding, which isn't going to be for months anyway. 

What are the parameters for state weddings please?

There's a standard ceremony, which Randi makes sure is sent to them. The expectation is that the formal ceremony be done in one of the temples, usually Kernos. When Karis was married there were two ceremonies, one of them the standard Karsite one in a temple to Vkandis. There's some flexibility here, though, as long as they make it fit the general spirit of 'very formal and official'. 

"Shadowgod doesn't have temples. I guess we could go with Astera?"

"I would be comfortable with that." 

Then they can notify the relevant temple to be ready for hosting a state wedding. Who are the obligatory invites?

It depends for what part! The official marriage rites in the temple have a standard invite list, important Heralds and some of the nobles in key positions; they're also expected to then host a public party which anyone can come to. 

Leareth, and his security team, are not enthused about this part at ALL.

Yeah, how firm is the "anyone" requirement, can they at least screen them with a quick Truth Spell before they come in.

Savil has sent along a writeup of the security they had for Karis; they did a parade through Haven and didn't turn anyone away from watching it, but they did have thousands of Guards maintaining cordons within the city, requiring anyone crossing them to be searched for weapons. Both Randi and Karis' elite personal guards marched on either side of the parade float and kept anyone from getting too close, and all of Valdemar's (few) Herald-Mages around in person for it were on alert and watching the Web. They didn't have enough Heralds around in Haven to provide Truth Spells for literally everyone, but now that Karse is fully pacified, it's possible they could. 

Why is it only Heralds (/Chosen) can do those anyway?

(Savil's packet of information is not helpful on this point.) 

Leareth isn't sure! His understanding of the Truth Spell, designed by a Herald recently, is that it's a very degenerate version of an elemental summoning, sufficiently modified that it can be cast by anyone with even a trickle of any Gift - though he suspects the very weakly Gifted Heralds who can nonetheless cast a first-level Truth Spell are being boosted by their Companions. It's a brilliant invention, really. 

The thing about elemental summonings is that they're voluntary, and the elementals serving a particular purpose once they show up is also voluntary. Leareth suspects it works for all Heralds because the vrondi in a sense can't tell them apart, and so all Heralds benefit from the expectation of goodwill and a gift of mage-energy in exchange for a simple service. 

"Could you make artifacts that would feed them - especially just the amount for the first stage - so that the ability could be decoupled some from the limited Herald supply?"

"If the Heralds are on board with it, that would be the simplest way. I could likely also re-design a version of it from scratch, using some sort of artifact for recognition, but re-establishing the expectation of showing up with the vrondi would be duplicating some work here. I have not created such a spell in the past because - well, honestly, because I can replicate the needed truth-sensing with mindreading or compulsions, but Truth Spell is less invasive, at least the first-level version, so I am sure you would prefer it."