"Raspberries! My bush of them isn't ready yet." She's collecting raspberries off her bush, but then she burns it to the ground and plants the berries over again.

Sapphire will cheerfully bring her up a plate of raspberries and feed them to her! Especially if it's in exchange for sampling some of the many-plant-salad from her garden.

Sure, she can have some of the rest of Promise's dinner. Tonight it's not salad though, she has quick-roasted some roots with sorcery.

Ooooh something new to taste! Sapphire is very excited. 

"How did your trip down go?" she asks to make conversation, while they watch the sunset and eat. "Did they let you plant a tree and everything down there?" 

"They did, yeah, they were very hospitable. I got to heal some people."

"Oh, good! And was it productive, diplomatically I mean? I don't know that many details about why they wanted you to come down, but things were a bit tense, no?" 

"I think it was productive but I'm not sure it was efficient."

"Mmm. Honestly I think meetings often aren't, most people are bad at them. Leareth is good at efficient meetings but I think there's a skill there. Also, I mean, they're probably really confused and overwhelmed about the whole thing? So might not have a clear agenda yet." 

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Are you going to go back later?" 

"Tomorrow, probably."

"Well, good luck! I hope it's, er, more efficient." 

"Thank you."

Sapphire hangs out with her until the raspberries are all gone and the sun is down, then gets up and stretches. "Sleep well." 

"You too."

In the morning Promise eats breakfast and packs lunch and is all set to go south again.

Woodlark doesn't emerge to see her off, but Leareth does come out from the library. "Ready to go?" 

"Yup. And I have the letter."

"I hope it goes well." And Leareth calls over one of the mages to Gate her back to the northern border Guard-post. 

General comes out to meet her again. "Back to Haven?" 

"Yes, thank you."

"You're welcome!" 

Again, this requires a message being sent down the Mindspeech relay so that Wingsister can do a Gate from Haven. General comes back to wait with Promise once she's passed on said message, and makes conversation. She wants to know if Fairyland has war, and if so what that's like? It's of interest to her because she's a military commander in Valdemar. 

"Fairyland has conflict. I wouldn't generally describe it as war. It's all about who can envassal whom first. Property damage and injuries are mostly incidental on the way to that goal."

"Are strategy and tactics concepts that make sense, there? I mean, are there kinds of approach that work better for, er, envassalling people faster than your enemies can, or whatever?" 

"Well, there's always torture."

"- Gods. I...guess...that'd make sense in that context. Gah. I - never thought about how glad I am that torture is almost never the best tactical move in wars here. I mean, at least not if you've got Thoughtsensers or Truth Spell. Which I guess fairies don't have." General looks so unhappy about this.