Blue halo! 

"I see it!"

"Oh. Good." He sounds unenthused about it. 

"Something wrong?"

He blinks at her, then waves a hand vaguely. "Nothing that wasn't already wrong this whole time." 

"Okay, well, I can go find somebody with mage-sight whenever you know what you want to say."

"I, er, might need some time to think about that, I - hard to focus right now, I can't remember what the point of this was. Maybe I need to sleep." 

"Okay. Have a nice nap."

She lets herself out.

Leareth finds her a little while later and asks for an update. 

Which she can supply. She has some brief notes so she can hit all the major points.

"All right. So the current plan is that Vanyel will say some things under his own Truth Spell to you, which I can confirm with mage-sight, and then you would be able to confirm this under Truth Spell later to the Heralds?" Frown. "It is definitely evidence for them, but might not be conclusive, since I could still be lying about my mage-sight results. I suppose Vanyel could Truth Spell me as well, but that would still be fakeable if both of us were in on it. Which is something the Heralds might in fact be concerned about, given the givens." Sigh. "It is probably still worth doing." 

"Yeah. It seems silly but whatever he's so afraid of having happen if he goes back clearly looms very large. I guess if the Heralds are likely to be worried about you and Woodlark collaborating I could order Sunspring to check for me? And then I'd be able to personally guarantee it."

"We can do that. This - still feels like a suboptimal workaround we are trying instead of solving whatever makes Woodlark feel uncomfortable going back? But I model most of his issue as being that he is very depressed and so doing anything seems overwhelming and hard, which is difficult to address." 

"Doing anything including explaining the problem so I can understand it, yeah. Wish I knew where his Companion was."

"Would there be any way of using knowing her name to find her? If Woodlark were willing to share it, I mean, but he could reassure himself of your friendly intent with Truth Spell." 

"No, if that were doable I'd be much more concerned about Thorn!"

Sigh. "That makes sense. Well, we can try this strategy for now. And I am considering whether I ought just take the leap and suggest meeting with whichever Herald they are willing to volunteer to send north and do a Truth Spell. I am much less uncomfortable about meeting someone who does not have Woodlark's absurd power - a Herald with only weak Mindspeech would not have much ability to threaten me, and I would be comfortable just doing the meeting without your needing to know their name, I just did not expect the Heralds to be willing to take that risk." 

"Should I still expect to attend such a meeting?"

"...Hmm. I am not sure and need to think through all the considerations. It - would offer a way for me to respond if it turned out to somehow be a trap, because I could then try to very quickly get the Herald's name? But I think it is unlikely to be a trap, and also without Woodlark it is unclear if Valdemar has enough resources to inconvenience me even if they try. Probably it would be fine for you not to come." 

Nod nod.

"All right. I am going to write a letter to Valdemar asking about the plan where I meet a Herald with minimal Gifts, so that I can undergo Truth Spell. In which case I can also verify Woodlark's story at the same time. I expect they will not come to a consensus on it and reply before tomorrow anyway, so we can give Woodlark time to decide what he wishes to say." Sigh. "Thank you for trying to talk to him about it." 

"You're welcome."

"Is there anything else we ought discuss right now?" 

"I don't think so."

Leareth nods to her and heads off to write his letter.