"It's an all right book. I'm still not sure on why Woodlark thought I'd answer his questions about what you and I are up to, it seemed like it had something to do with him being from there."

"Hmm. I doubt he was surprised when you did not answer, for what it is worth, but it makes sense to me that he found it worth asking. Since I had already told him of my change in plans, and also acknowledged that it would be easy for me to say whatever I wanted, and that it was on me to provide more evidence of my new intentions. My course of action here has large ramifications for him, since he is among Valdemar's top leadership as a kingdom, and will need to decide whether to stand down preparations they have been making for an eventual war, or even whether to open diplomatic talks with me. Likely he needs to decide whether and how to explain any of this to the King, since I think so far he has shared only the dream's existence and not his conversations with me, so having more information to back this up is time-sensitive as well as important, and given our history he is disinclined to take anything I say on faith. - I have never actually lied to him, but I could have if I had chosen to, and we both know this." 

"He said he had lie detection magic!"

"Not in the shared dream, and we have never met in person. Until now I would not have risked it, since he has both the means and a strong motive to murder me instead of talking." 

"Oh. Why doesn't it work in the dream?"

"I am not sure, but Mindspeech and Thoughtsensing do not work either, probably because we are in fact hundreds of miles apart. We can appear to do simple magic in the dream, but cannot use it to actually harm one another." 

"Huh. I guess that's probably good in most ways?"

"If it had not been the case and he could have harmed me in the dream, I would certainly have tried to block it from happening. And then would have missed out on many years worth of valuable conversations." 

"Assuming you could block it, anyway... this isn't a normal thing, right?"

"No. I had never heard of something like it happening before. Shared ordinary dreams are a known phenomenon, but only between lifebonded people - a particular kind of soulbond that arises occasionally in this world - and not with Foresight." 

"People just... sometimes soulbond to each other?"

"Yes. The Companions do a different kind of deliberate soulbond. Lifebonds generally occur between two humans, or sometimes among other intelligent species, and are based on some kind of soul-compatibility, but form fully when the participants meet as adults and result in strong romantic attachment. I am fairly sure that lifebond-compatibility is one of the gods' schemes to accomplish Their aims indirectly." 

"Don't like that."

"I am not very fond of it myself. Oh, and as another grievance I have with the setup, people do not generally survive the death of a lifebonded partner."

Hopefully Vanyel's particular history there won't end up being relevant, since Leareth is very sure that Vanyel would be upset and angry if he told Promise about it. 

"Can people... avoid... this?"

"If they never meet their would-be lifebonded, the bond does not form, but there is also no known way to check if one has the potential for a lifebond, or who it would be with. I suppose it might be possible to notice very early on and immediately leave before the bond formed fully? Most people are not observant enough for that, I think." 

"Observant of what?"

"Of their own emotions and thoughts, I mean." 

"I mean what are the specific signs."

"Sudden, disproportionate infatuation and positive feelings, I think. I have not myself been lifebonded. - For what it is worth, I think it is unlikely the gods here could do it to you, since They never possessed your soul and never will - and even if They could, it would require fifteen years or so of lead-time for a compatible human They created to grow up." 

"It takes you that long? What a waste of everyone's time."

Leareth can't help but chuckle. "Right? It is very suboptimal. Companions grow up much faster, but they also retain memories from past incarnations as humans, so do not need as long to learn speech and such. I suppose fairies do not need to learn to talk." 

"We do not!"

"Are you also born already knowing relevant facts about Fairyland, such as which food is safe to eat and what rules govern the names and vassalage phenomenon?"

"Not born. And I don't know about the breeding kinds. But spontaneous, yes."