"Yeah, they probably are."

"And I guess there's no way to send a message, since you don't even know what happened?" Frown. "Wonder if we could do it with magic, somehow. We've got spells for communicating. Hells, I wonder if you could Gate there, if you knew how." 

"- that would be a lot faster than building Sing from scratch here!"

Sigh. "I wouldn't know how. I'm not the one you'd want to be working on that, anyway, my control isn't great. Never has been, and the war didn't improve matters. You could ask Savil." 

"Where would I find her?"

"Hmm, let me check with my Companion." Pause. "She's having supper with Vanyel in her suite, says it's a fine time to talk with you. Want me to walk you over there?" 

"Yes please!"

Kilchas cheerfully walks her over to a different wing of the Heralds' living quarters, and up to a door. He knocks. 

"Hmm? It's unlocked, come on in." 

Kilchas pushes the door open. "Sure. Handing off Tarinda on you so she can ask about potential Gate research." 

Vanyel waves to her. 

Wave! "He was saying it might be possible to just Gate to my world and then Sing could come over right away."

"Huh." Savil frowns. "I don't know. If your world doesn't have magic then I'm not sure magic would even work there. And the only way I know to Gate is to a place I've personally been before - I guess you've been there, but you're not a mage..." 

"Reading my mind won't do it? Or drawings?"

"Oh. Hmm. Reading your mind might, I'd never thought of that - I can test it, actually. Van, let's think of a place you've been to and I haven't." 

Vanyel rolls his eyes a little. "That's going to be hard. You had a lot more decades of circuit than me." 

"Well, let's have a look at the map." 

She gets one out and spreads it on their tiny table, moving empty supper plates out of the way. 

"Thank you!"

It takes a while, at least to find a place that's not all the way out on the Karsite border (Savil would prefer not to exhaust herself with a test Gate), but they eventually discover a village thirty miles downriver that Vanyel has been to and Savil definitely hasn't, since it didn't exist yet in the era when she was actually riding circuit regularly. 

She's happy to try a Gate from her doorway to the doorway of a shed that Vanyel remembers. 

Vanyel holds the memory as clearly in mind as he can, and slips into rapport with her. 

And Savil tries very hard to memorize it, and then pulls her mind back so she can focus fully on the Gate itself. She stares at her doorway. 

The glow appears, she builds the threshold. And then it takes longer than usual for the second half to happen; she's holding the destination in mind but maybe not clearly enough, she tries harder–

–and the Gate snaps up, looking out on a very soggy meadow. 

(Vanyel is taking slow deep breaths and trying very hard to stay relaxed and it only hurts a little bit.) 

She takes it down immediately. "Well. I guess that works." 

"Vanyel? Are you okay?"

He offers her a sheepish smile. Rubs his forehead. "I - have a bit of a problem with Gates. Er, had, mostly, we figured out what was causing it and I worked a lot on fixing it, but getting hurt as badly as I did was a setback."