:It has indeed not been but at least he didn't die this time:

:At least there's that: Vanyel muffles a yawn. :Sorry, I should maybe turn in for the night soon. I can get you updated lists of people tomorrow morning, and requisition supplies to be carted in. It'll be way easier once more mages are recovered and can Gate: 

:Thanks!: And once Van is gone, she scoots Leareth aside ohsogently and climbs in bed after him.

Sleepy mumble. :Mmloveyou...: 

:I love you too:

The next morning, various groups of Palace staff are converging from their own tent areas on the Heralds' instructions, as Vanyel hurriedly redoes his lists. Cartloads of building supplies are already being transported in. There are hopes that some of the stone blocks from the old Palace and walls can be salvaged, since digging quarries and hauling in new stone will be a huge production. 

Belrun scares up a borrowed set of Whites, for legibility purposes, and goes around introducing herself to people who are in charge of (formally or in-) various aspects of things and sussing out what they can do how fast and what more resources of various kinds would let them do. She sends somebody to apologize to all the displaced lords on her and Leareths' behalves and inform them that she's planning to raise capital for compensatory damages by selling Gifts, though of course it will take time for anyone whose house didn't just burn down and who has money to hear about that, so if any of the nearby nobility has always wanted a Gift and knows where their gold is they might want to tell her.

This is stunning and kind of unbelievable news, and by lunchtime she has a whole lineup of people wanting to find out one, if it's true, and two, can they get their specific Gift requests and how much does it cost. 

She has limited per-day capacity and is planning to, at least while on a scare-up-more-cash footing, auction slots off to the highest bidder (who can pass a short screening quiz under Truth Spell; most Gifts are super dangerous if misused). It should be noted that while she has a good track record and has done this to herself and her lifebonded both the long term results are not yet in, and also she hasn't tried working on people who already have potential for the relevant Gift, nor has she tried doing every kind of Gift there is.

Tantras wanders in on her while people are still discussing this. :Belrun, can we talk? Some of the other Heralds are, er, concerned about this plan to give Gifts to a lot of random people: 

:Do they want to consult on the screening quiz or is it something else?:

:I think they'd appreciate input on that, but - well, who's in charge of these new Gifted people after? Assuming they don't get Chosen, which, surely they can't all be. And a lot of them won't be Healers and Bards, or if they're adults they might not want to attend a Collegium anyway. What institution is going to catch them misusing Gifts and discipline them for it, is the main concern, I think: 

:I did write the quiz with that in mind but I'd be happy to have more pairs of eyes on it. What do you normally do when you have, say, Gifted immigrants?:

:Doesn't come up very often? Or, usually they get Chosen or they're a Healer or a Bard. I suppose before the new Web and vrondi, if a mage moved somewhere and kept to themselves we'd leave them alone: 

:Disclaimer for would-be mages includes a warning about the vrondi situation, all the versions except Healer and Bard warn that there is an elevated chance of being Chosen, and I do, like, have on there 'are you planning to do anything illegal and/or unethical with this Gift, what are you planning to do with it'. Uh, not in so many words, since people might not be aware that something they had in mind was unethical, but if you want the whole thing you should read it not have me read it to you:

:Yes, I'd like to have a look. Have you checked it against our usual standards of conduct for Heralds and the other Collegia?: 

:I have asked for copies of those but they haven't appeared yet, I wasn't going to go full speed ahead without having references on hand in case someone suddenly realized they didn't know if their plans were against the law or not:

Tantras seems reassured. :All right, makes sense, it sounds like you're taking all the reasonable steps here, which isn't surprising or anything: Slight frown. :I assume you're aware that this will cause some major shifts in the balance of power between Heralds and other political factions, in the longer run? It...probably makes sense, at this point, that we get as many Gifted people as possible and don't worry about keeping them all within the Heralds or other Collegia. Just, big change: 

:Yeah, there's going to be lots of that going around. I'm trying to compensate for all of their drawbacks with each other but it adds up to a lot. How would I go about calling a meeting to look over the disclaimers and quizzes?:

:Ask Amshalan to talk to the other Companions and arrange it? Seems easiest to me: 

:If I need to call a meeting that also involves lords and suchlike do you know how I do that?:

:- Honestly, I could give you the instructions for who to talk to and send messages to in the Palace ordinarily, but all of our routines are kind of chaos right now. You know what, why don't I just handle chasing them down once you have a time, and I'll figure out who's staying where: 

:Thank you! And I'll ask Amshalan about a Heralds-specifically meeting regarding my screening process:

She does this.

Amshalan will cheerfully arrange said meeting for that evening. People are pretty disorganized right now but the Heralds who want input can all be freed up for it. 

And she can pass around the sheets on which she's written her screening questions. She tried to keep them short, but they cover a lot of ground from a few different angles each. She requires few assurances from would-be Mindspeakers and lots and lots from would-be Mindhealers and there's a range in between. "I'm also planning to run the Mindhealer one by Melody if I can find her, I don't know if there's a Mindhealing-specific existing code of conduct or if they just coast on being rare."