Leareth is lying in a stone room, and nothing in particular is happening right now, and he is mostly succeeding at not having any thoughts. It's a fine moment. He is not, literally this second, being tortured. This is not useful at all for predicting what the next moment is going to be like, of course, or for whether 'quiet stone room' has any particular resemblance to reality, but Leareth has gotten pretty good at not being curious.
Angband Leareth still runs out of stamina for having people near him before Bella gets back. All he wants is to crawl back into bed and hide under the covers, which would probably give Vanyel a hint to leave but also seems really rude. However, he seems to be stuck on 'talking' again.
This is kind of a stupid thing to ask for help with, but: Bella can you tell me words to say if I want them to leave now.
Thank you. And after twenty seconds of repeatedly poking his brain from different angles about it, he manages to say it, not too ungracefully.
Vanyel blinks, as though a little surprised, but nods. "Of course. You seem to be doing really well, I'm glad." Going by his conversations with Maitimo about this, it's impressive that Leareth is having social interactions at all. "Hopefully I can visit again in not too long."
Local Leareth ushers him out, and they can wait in the hall for Bella and maybe do a little more catching up.
Oh good, now he can hide under the blankets, and be upset and scared in a very calm way.
She warns him when she's done tapping people that she'll be on her way soon and will need to stop the calm.
There’s some trepidation in his expression, but he’s got it well controlled. “Ready.”
And she brings him to his Haven, inside palace grounds, somewhere tucked away that is usually not crowded.
He Mindspeaks his Savil immediately.
"All right, she's coming to meet us. How many people do you need to tap? She can take you somewhere with that many people, although I should warn you that no one except the Senior Circle is actually briefed on what you're doing here and why."
Savil shows up within a couple of minutes. She looks not much different from the Savil who Bella knows; her hair is a little thinner in its bun, the weathered creases at the corner of her eyes are a touch deeper, and she moves more slowly, but that's it.
"Welcome. Thank you for coming." She hands Vanyel a bag of some sort, then tosses up an illusion over them. "All right, this way."
:Can you get us to my Arda from a memory I have of a place?: Vanyel asks her in Mindspeech. :Presumably the only places you know are in Valinor, and we can't go there:
Should work, and will now fail gracefully; where do you want to go?
He can offer her a memory of his shielded Work Room in Tol Eréssea, will that do?
If it's shielded it might hedge me out without being specifically intended to like Valinor does.
:Oh, good point: Right outside of it in the courtyard, then? :I think we'll want to go pretty much immediately when I get back from my, er, trip, although I don't know how long it'll take me:
Oh, is that Tol Eressëa? I've been to Tol Eressëa, though it's big enough that I'd still ideally drop you where you have in mind.
:It is! And, yes, it'd be ideal if I don't have to do a lot of wandering around with my package:
They steer into the central Palace wing, and seconds later to a meeting-room.
The Senior Circle has some of the same people Bella remembers, older, but also a lot of new faces. A girl who can't be more than seventeen stands up. "Bella, welcome! I'm King's Own Dara. Thank you so much for your help with this."
"I'm going now," Vanyel says, backing out. "See you soon." He'll Gate from the chapel nearby; since Yfandes is still back in Tol Eréssea, in his Arda, the threshold is plenty big enough.
"We probably don't have time for a lot of catching up but we can do introductions," Savil says. "Hmm, you probably know Tran, right? He was around in 792."