"I think so, though I expect it will be hard to convey and then may be disbelieving until we have proof of it." 

"Fair enough. Once you get underway in a couple weeks how long will it take?"

"Not long. A couple of days, perhaps." 

"Is it going to be another stay-up-all-night-no-interruptions project?"

"That would be the simplest way to do it, though I would not look forward to repeating the experience. It might be possible to stabilize an intermediate stage and then split it across two or three blocks." 

"I guess you'll have another of those in you in two or three weeks but it won't be pretty."

"No. It costs me days of recovery time even if I am not horribly burned at the same time." 

Pet pet. "But what the Shadowgod says once They can, uh, say things, plausibly affects everything else, so waiting a long time is expensive."

"I agree. I will try to work on a two or three part method with breaks, but I do not think it is worth delaying for that, so if I do not have it figured out when you judge me recovered enough, I ought probably go ahead and do it the unpleasant way." 

She nods. She pets him. She solicits additional magic lessons when he's absorbed all the Healing he can fuel today.

The next morning is the scheduled meeting. Leareth finds he can get out of bed and stand up without intolerable pain, though it's a little uncomfortable and he feels quite weak and out of shape after so many days bedridden, he's not sure he can manage walking very far. 

She'll help him, ask him where it hurts, work on those spots, stuff a large breakfast into him, and try again to get to the meeting.

Leareth would ask for a ride on Amshalan but he's pretty sure it'll hurt even worse on some currently-rather-tender body parts, so he toughs out the walk, taking a lot of breaks. It does feel great to be out of bed and moving, even if it's occasionally ouchy. 

Tantras is currently herding lords into a meeting-tent. There are folding chairs and some folding tables lined up into a makeshift conference table. It all looks very ramshackle and temporary and the lords are making faces about it. 

:If I'd seen the place in advance I'd have wanted to consider coming early and having you put up a nice-looking illusion or something, gosh: "Hello everybody."

She gets a chorus of greetings in return, some friendly, some a bit disgruntled.

They fall silent when Randi raises his hand. 

"All right, everyone. We're here for a debrief on recent events in Haven, which Belrun and Leareth will explain, and then we'll talk about our timeline moving forward and the transition of power." He nods, turns to glance at Belrun. 

"The Heartstone was originally installed as a source of power for the Web," she says. "In that capacity it's a lot like a node of the sort mages ordinarily tap for energy. However, Heartstones have another feature, which is that they also serve as a projection of the Star-Eyed Goddess's will and power into the environs of the physical object. This was probably not salient to begin with - it's not, in most situations, very overt - but recent events have highlighted a conflict between various gods and divine factions. Among other things, the Star-Eyed is heavily implicated in Leareth's murder shortly after I rejoined him from my last visit to Haven, had no evident qualms about setting a lot of Haven on fire when her ownership of the Heartstone was challenged, and based on that and other evidence I have secondhand but Leareth can relay more directly, I think we must understand Her as hostile to Valdemar's interests going forward especially insofar as those include annexing the north and forming an alliance with Leareth's people. Accordingly - and with some regrettable anti-divine-interference precautions that precluded advance warning, for which we apologize - Leareth's contingent undertook to detach the Heartstone from its god, and it's now a separate object which shouldn't offer Her any particular inroads, which is why things are no longer actively catching fire."

This gets her a variety of surprised, dubious, and impressed looks. 

"What sort of separate object?" one of the lords asks finally. 

:Is this the correct moment to explain the Shadowgod's role here, do you think?: Leareth asks Belrun. 

:Think so: "At the moment it's an independent power source, as I understand it - apply to someone who's been a mage more than a week for technical detail. However, due to recent contact with the god most ascendant over Valdemar, the one of whom the entity known as the Shadow-Lover is an aspect, we think it's advisable to convert it for Their use. This is meant primarily to have the effect of making it possible to talk to them comfortably and nonlethally."

This earns a lot of 'no idea what to think' looks. 

"We believe," Leareth adds, "that this god - we refer to Them as the Shadowgod, since They have not provided another name - is the one most closely connected with the Companions. Our previous communication with them was via the Groveborn. Rolan is in favour of gaining the capability to communicate with Them." 

...This gets more nods of, if not agreement, at least acknowledgement. 

"What does this mean for the defences that previously relied on the Web?" someone asks. 

Vanyel answers this one. "The Web still exists. We temporarily unhooked it during, to avoid damaging it, but were able to at least connect it as a power source afterward. It's not as clever as it was, since we kept the Heartstone container but haven't yet replaced it with a new 'intelligence'. We still have the vrondi, though. I believe Leareth has a number of ideas to share with us, in terms of wards to add."