"Well, as they say, cheating is strategy." Leareth looks so pleased with her, and with himself, about it. Belrun should get kissed for successfully giving herself a stronger mage-gift than his own. 

Eeeeee!

Rebuilding and wedding planning continue apace. Leareth talks to the Shadowgod several times, and determines that he'll check the Shadowgod's Foresight in depth the night before, and if it looks like anything bad might happen then they're cancelling the coronation parade. 

Speaking of conversations to have with the Shadowgod is the data on how Companions feel about the educational potential of mind control in?

Kind of indecisive on it. 

Dara, however, is arguing hard to Rolan that if they want some sort of crisis-of-faith rite of passage it should be literally anything else. She has him most of the way convinced on this point. 

Belrun can, she supposes, always have more than one conversation with the Shadowgod. :Hey You: she says. :I've been asking the Companions how they feel about your idea that they're learning something important by getting jailbroken. They're on the fence, but I'm wondering if your analysis factors in mind control being undesirable in general:

Belrun. The voice is a little less creepily intrusive-feeling this time, more like a normal mindvoice.

The Shadowgod-avatar pauses, sorting through words. Perhaps not. Can you explain why mind-control is undesirable from a human perspective?

:Well. The things that makes humans different from each other - I've seen some evidence you have an interest in the variety and whatnot of the population - is how our individual minds work, and that being influenced by outside forces and motives tends to be destructive to the integrity of the mind in question. I'm unusually strongly opinionated on this - I don't know if that would have showed up in, say, how thoroughly distracted I had to be to let the lifebond sink in till it was stuck irreversibly - so I don't plan to suggest that nobody should ever get my least favorite Gifts again, but putting on mind control on baby Companions - who have preexisting continuity as much-less-mind-controlled humans, even - seems not like a strong case for an exception:

Interesting. I will take that perspective into consideration. Thank you, Belrun.

:You're welcome.

- uh, also, taking off mind control can be just as bad as putting it on, I don't want you to do anything about the lifebond now even if you can:

I was not going to. The path to a safe and thriving future is wider, for Valdemar, if you and Leareth are lifebonded.

:Okay. But in the future you might want to consider an opt-in or at least opt-out system for consenting to lifebonds:

Do you have any suggestions as to how that might be implemented? Lifebond compatibility is a fact about the soul, not the body, and so is already the case before someone is born.

:Really? I thought you had to do something besides put people near each other and that compatibility limited who you could do it with but that something extra was in fact done. I guess you could warn people who have potential lifebonds around?:

Pause. Concept-shifting. There is something extra but - not a direct god intervention at a particular moment in time. Anyway, warning anyone relevant in Haven by using the avatar for Mindspeech is feasible, and later on perhaps it will be possible for the rest of Valdemar as well.

:What sort of thing would make it work for the rest of Valdemar?:

There is a straightforward modification Leareth could make, in a few months once the initial avatar setup is fully stabilized, that would tie it more deeply to the Web and thus extend range over all of Valdemar. I can provide direction to him if needed.

:Good to know, thank you:

You are welcome. Is there anything else you need at this time?

:Will you be able to consult on expanding my Gift-implantation project to Companions safely?:

I am not sure I can provide instruction that is useful to a human, here. Pause, the sense of something-in-translation again. The Foresight footprint for this plan is not concerning.

:What kind of bounds does that put on it - does that mean I don't accidentally kill anybody, that I don't make any mistakes even fixable ones, that if I start the Companions get doomy feelings and I back off -:

If you continue to exert the same level of care that you do with humans, you will certainly not kill anyone. Companions are difficult to kill. I cannot confirm you will not make any mistakes. I do not expect doomy feelings, at least not Foresight-originated ones.

:Okay, thank you: