"It is cute, yeah! So anyway I don't have a good idea of whether Sing'll talk to you or not, Leareth, but either way if I were you I'd be considering hobbies. There's lots of stuff in my world you'll never have heard of, you could come over probably."

Leareth nods, but it seems like his mind maybe isn't entirely on the conversation. 

Maybe he just needs a good think. After dinner Tarinda's going to go cartwheel ridiculously around in the grass some more before bed.

Vanyel joins her for a bit, attempting ridiculous cartwheels and mostly falling over. It's a nice thought, that now - well, not yet, but soon - he might have time to learn how to do cartwheels, even though it doesn't matter at all, just because he wants to. 

After a few minutes he goes to join Savil for a drink and catch-up in her quarters. They talk about what the future might hold, dreamily. 

Leareth goes to his room and stares out the window some more. 

He keeps feeling upset, which is confusing and frustrating, and normal he would decide it was unhelpful and try to dissolve it, but - it's not like he needs to be at maximum effectiveness right now. He - maybe doesn't need to be ever again. 

Has he ever, in his life, had a retirement plan? 

He expected to win. Someday, eventually, because he knew he wasn't ever going to just give up, and he could see paths to it, even though they were very hard to follow, with awful costs. He knew the time would come when he was finished. What was he expecting? 

Leareth hadn't expected to feel so deeply sad, and tired, and - lonely?

And the dull sense that so much of his life was pointless, in the end. Choices he'd deemed worth it in expectation, at the time, but - he's not trying to predict the future, anymore, the future is here. And there are so many detours along the path he took - no, don't hide between that, so many people he murdered and harmed and mind-controlled - and none of that mattered. All that mattered, in the end, was that he could offer Tarinda resources and invent a novel form of Gate.

...some part of him wonders, quietly, if someone shaped like him even fits into Sing's world. What is he, what is a Leareth, except for someone who will work relentlessly no matter the cost until everything is fixed? Now what? 

That night, people stop dying. Little robots find everyone. Everywhere. They distribute painless little stabs without permission to everyone at risk and whoever happens to be nearby. It's clumsy because elegance would trade off at all with speed, but once no one is dying, it's time to resume being elegant.

The next thing the people of Haven notice is a Gate opening right beside Tarinda while she's taking a turn around the Palace grounds. Music pours through, loud enough to be heard in all the important places.

So does a blonde girl. "Tarinda!!!!"

"CORY! Cory Cory Cory -"

Huh. Gate. He might as well go see what's going on. 

Gate, and also amazing music! Vanyel grabs Savil by the hand and tugs her to go see what's happening. 

Ooh! That sounds intriguing. Also there are rumours flying everywhere about what's just happened, and Stef intends to be on top of all of them. 

"Hi guys!" says Tarinda. She has Cory in a bridal carry and kisses her all over her face between sentences. "Apparently Sing's let on about the news enough that they're already having a party! Who wants to come?"

Stef is so in, he's going to drag Medren along too because Medren doesn't get out enough. 

Tarinda with Cory is adorable, Vanyel would go just to see them being reunited - even if it kind of hurts, but he's used to it kind of hurting to see people being happy together, he's good at ignoring it. Also MUSIC. 

Lissa is all over seeing another world! 

Dara feels like really she has a duty to go, as King's Own and representative of Valdemar - she is totally not just going because it sounds amazing and there might be people to flirt with... 

What's he going to do, not go? 

Tarinda traipses through the Gate onto Mars with Cory in arms, sets her down, and whirls her into the dance that's apparently ongoing. The party is busy and happy and has about fifty Martians in attendance, and they all think the visitors are fascinating and exotic and to be congratulated for their part in the Singing. It's in a ballroom in what it transpires is Tarinda's castle, a crystal-veined beauty staffed by little silver dragons. There are snacks and one of Tarinda's combat dance friends to offer to teach Dara the steps of the dance they're doing and a view of the stunning Martian landscape all aflower out the window.

Stef immediately forges forth to meet as many people as possible! He feels a bit out of his depth, he's not sure what counts as good manners here, but he's not going to let that stop him! 

This is gorgeous and also really overwhelming. Vanyel drifts over to a spot near the snacks table and just watches the crowd for a minute, smiling to himself at Dara's quick learning on the dance steps. 

One of the Martians spins over to Vanyel. "Vanyel, right? I want to hear that song about snowfall without Tarinda's accent, will you -"

Oh, a non-awkward conversation starter, Vanyel will eagerly jump on that! "Of course. Er, I didn't think to bring my lute or anything–"

"They want you to do a song? Here, you can borrow mine." Stef pops out of nowhere, swinging his lute-case down and handing the instrument over. 

"Thank you." Vanyel has been kind of avoiding Bard Stefen for a while after their agonizingly awkward first meeting post return from the Plains, where his stupid brain decided to get stuck on staring at the young man and blushing for ages - Stef is sixteen, damn it, he doesn't know what's wrong with him, but anyway he can do his best to be courteous and normal and not act like a lecher in front of all the Martians. 

He strums, checking that it's tuned - it is, perfectly - and starts to sing. 

Soon he has a little audience and the dance steps have changed to match the beat. Cory is in the audience. "You can ask the dragons if you want stuff like lutes," she says between songs. "They might take a couple minutes if you surprise them. I haven't managed to surprise them in months now but you probably still can."