"I...guess there'd only be pigs if people wanted them as pets, like cats and dogs," Jisa says slowly. "Or wild ones, and then they might not have enough food to eat or might get eaten by wolves." 

"Right. People breed pigs on purpose, right now, and they'd stop if they couldn't eat them. I'm not saying that therefore for the sake of the pig species we have to eat them, but I am saying it's complicated."

"Mmm. I guess a lot of things are complicated." 

"Yep, lots of things are. But maybe when you're grown up you can get Animal Mindspeech too if you want and find out what we can do that will help animals without complicating things too badly."

Jisa lights up. "I would really like that!" 

"I thought you might."

"Maybe I can find out if some other people who are old enough want to be Animal Mindspeakers now," Jisa offers. "So someone will look after the animals until I'm big enough to do it. If I find people and they have money for it, would you give them Animal Mindspeech?" 

"I haven't done that one before and will need an example handy the first few times."

"Oh right." Sigh. "I guess I can't get Featherfire to come, Mama says we're not friends with the Tayledras anymore because the Star-Eyed Goddess is a fathead. I'm sad about that, she's really nice and I miss her." 

"I'm sorry. Maybe we can set something up to exchange letters safely or something."

"That would be nice." Jisa bobs her head. "Thank you. I'm happy you're going to be Queen, then my papa won't be so busy and sad all the time, and I think you're pretty good even if you do experiments on mice." 

"Thank you."

Jisa grins and waves at Leareth and then skips out. 

"I think I will like her a great deal when she is grown up," Leareth says, once Jisa is gone. "She is very very young, though. - Wait, is she the same tiny Mindhealer who poked you last year?" 

"That's the one."

"Does she seem more mature this time?" 

"Yes, I think so. Perhaps she'll be positively wise in adulthood."

"She is - what, nine, ten? I was probably awful at that age, and my reputation is saved only by the fact that nobody including myself remembers it." 

"Oh dear. I was delightful, ask anyone you like."

"I am sure you were." Leareth kisses her. It goes much better when moving doesn't hurt so much. 

Kiss! Then she wants to learn how to recharge artifacts.

Leareth will cheerfully give her lessons on magic. He's probably the best person in the world to get them from. 

Yes he is. Both by virtue of being two thousand years old and by the fact that it can double as date night.

The next couple of weeks are mostly uneventful. Leareth recovers steadily. News of Belrun's ability to give out Gifts spreads, and that, along with news of rebuilding, gets many of the people who fled Haven to trickle back in. People in the less-damaged neighbourhoods are fixing up their houses and shops; a number of shopkeepers and merchants show up asking if they're entitled to reparations as well. 

The most popular Gift is Mindspeech, followed by Healing, then mage-gift, which is apparently both prestigious and intimidating/a little scary, plus of course the vrondi issue. A Gift is now going for about the same price as a young well-bred and trained horse.

Word on diplomatic relations with Queen Karis in Karse is 'confused', but it doesn't seem like she wants a war right now. Leareth's northern facilities are being repaired without any interference from gryphons. Iftel hasn't sent any communications whatsoever to Valdemar; Randi says he'll leave it up to Leareth and Belrun whether to complain to them or something, since it wasn't actually Randi's kingdom that came under attack.

A week in, Gates are once again available up north, and Leareth receives a message; do they want Dara Gated back to Haven? 

Yes, it'd be good to have her around and she's probably stir-crazy up there.