"...what could be wrong with him that a sorcerous healing wouldn't fix?"

Sunspring holds up a finger. She's moved on to Mindspeaking him, which also doesn't get a response; he doesn't even let her through his shields, which came back up and turtled tightly around his mind the instant he was conscious. He's not leaking anything, in terms of thoughts or emotions. 

Even her Mindhealing Sight is partially blocked, but she can see enough. The loaf of bread that's his mind is - taut, pulled half apart, twisted out of shape. She can See the bond that's under strain. Companion-bond, presumably, not that she's seen one before. 

The GIANT GAPING HOLE in the centre of his mind is really not helping with its overall stability. 

She switches to Mindspeech with Promise. :He is in enormous emotional distress of some kind. I think your sorcerous healing is not going to address that: 

"...okay," murmurs Promise. "Uh, good luck."

She goes back to her tree and back to sleep.

Sunspring spends a little while trying to get any kind of response from Woodlark.

He's still not letting her through his shields at all. Eventually he cracks his eyes open and mumbles something about can they please leave him ALONE. 

"I suppose it is the middle of the night and we ought let him get some sleep," Sunspring says to the Healers. 

They want to undress him, his clothes are filthy and damp from collapsing on the side of the road, but after that they can let him sleep. 

- there appears to be a letter shoved into the pocket of his tunic, does Sunspring want it? 

"Woodlark, is this for Leareth?" 

Murmur of assent. 

"Should I bring it to him so we know more of what is going on?" 

"Mmm." 

Sunspring will do that and let Woodlark rest, then. 

Leareth is at the other side of the compound in his shielded Work Room, considering if he should leave entirely. It sounds like that's probably an excessive level of caution, though? Since Woodlark still seems pretty incapacitated and has Healers supervising him in case that changes, and Leareth can be out of here in a couple of seconds if he needs to be. 

He accepts the letter from Sunspring, and opens it. 

It's scrawled out in terrible handwriting, wandering across the page, not exactly grammatical and with some actual misspellings as well as a lot of crossed-out words and second attempts. 

... 

To Leareth 

Should warn you got messy situation in Haven. Fight with Yfandes about you, gods. Said she had to leave, went to tell Rolan something don't know what. Not sure how King will react, could be very bad. 

(At this point, there are several lines worth of crossed-out attempts at phrasing something.)

Thought you should know, the Circle might stop me from sending further messages.

-Woodlark

...Well, that's not ideal. 

"If his Companion stormed out on him, that likely explains his level of distress," Leareth says to Sunspring, wearily. "I doubt we will succeed at learning more from him tonight." Sigh. "I will draft a letter to drop off in Haven with one of the messenger-birds. Not that I expect them to believe it, especially, but it seems worth the attempt. In the morning we can see if Woodlark is in better condition to speak, and maybe return himself to explain to them." 

Sunspring doesn't look very happy about any of this. She nods. 

Leareth drafts a letter which is fairly upfront and thorough, though efficient, cramming a summary of the situation into two pages. Vanyel is in the north and safe (it seems safe enough to use names here, the letter will be gone well before Promise is awake again, and the Heralds won't have any idea who 'Woodlark' is). Leareth is committed to not harming him and will not prevent him from leaving, but he's exhausted after Gating and is resting now. 

Leareth explains that he and Vanyel have been speaking in a lucid dream for about fourteen years; he suspects Vanyel hadn't shared that part, and that the Circle has just found out from Yfandes, but even if not, either way they ought to know. Leareth confirms that he was, originally, intending to invade Valdemar as part of a plan to fix problems in the world, which he isn't going to put in an insecure letter. (And which he possibly shouldn't tell any of the Heralds at all.) He wasn't very swayed by Vanyel's arguments that he ought not to, but that conditions have recently changed and he now has much better options and is standing down that plan entirely. He very briefly describes Promise's arrival from another world and powers, and the fact that she knows two gods' names and helped him hold Them off when they attacked in response to her learning Vkandis' name accidentally. Leareth adds that the Heralds should plan on choosing nicknames and getting in the habit of using those, in case they end up interacting with Promise. Vanyel is going by Woodlark here. 

He adds that he isn't expecting them to take his word here on faith, and had already been discussing plans with Vanyel to meet so Vanyel can question him under Truth Spell. He realizes it's on him to prove his claims, here, and is going to consider other more trustworthy information sources he can provide to them. They should consider contacting the Tayledras in k'Treva if they want to know more, though, since Promise volunteered to travel there and heal those wounded in the attack that the Star-Eyed ordered.

As a start, he confesses to having arranged the kidnapping of mage-gifted children, which he ceased doing a decade ago. He recently offered all of them the chance to leave his organization freely if they want to; none took him up on it, but in the morning he'll find out if any of them are willing to volunteer to travel to Valdemar and let the Heralds question them under Truth Spell about their experiences. 

Leareth rereads the letter draft a few times, and then writes out a clean copy of it on a new sheet of paper, and places it in an envelope to be sent. He should really think more about this, but probably he should first get more sleep. 

The letter is flown south and dropped off with a very confused falconhand at the Palace mews shortly before dawn. 

Promise is up the next day. Comes underground to ask after Woodlark.

Still asleep, or maybe pretending to be, it's hard to tell since his shields have been staying up even when he's sleeping. He had a rough night, though, the Healers think he was having nightmares, so he may well need the extra sleep. 

Sunspring updates Promise on the message Leareth sent last night. Leareth is elsewhere right now, interviewing previously-kidnapped-children who are now mages in his organization, trying to sort out whether any of them are willing to volunteer to return to Valdemar.

The two he's spoken to so far are worried they might somehow get instantly Chosen by Companions if they venture into their former kingdom, and they don't particularly want to be conscripted by Valdemar's government, Valdemar sounds so incompetent compared to here. 

"There's nothing you can do to not get picked? Wear a sign or something?"

"I have very little idea how Valdemar's system works. I think the Companions do not usually Choose adults, but it is hard to know for sure. Leareth suspects it is possible to refuse to be Chosen, and that the Valdemarans simply do not know this, and also being Chosen is prestigious so most children would not object." 

"But they don't want to go on the suspicion, which I suppose is reasonable enough."

"Yes, I agree. Hopefully we will find someone who willing to accept the risk and go anyway, since - it is not clear there are any good ways out of this mess. The Heralds must be so alarmed right now."