"- Oh, I am sorry, I did not even think of offering that. I suppose I mostly think of my cleric spells as ways to have more magic, not healing per se." 

"I was guarding them very jealously because I thought I could maybe save myself or Ma'ar, once, but we had all of history ahead of us and I'd regret using them for something as trivial as this - but now I can be as trivial as I want."

And she looks up at him and kisses him.

He kisses her back, and - there's so much more that they need to talk about, but - not now, the future may be full of a thousand thousand worlds full of maybe-time-sensitive situations, but they still have time, and now can be the time for catching up in ways that have nothing to do with words. 

Eventually Carissa will feel that they had better go make sure Ma'ar is settling in well and let Leareth spend some relaxed time with his baby but she won't actually decide that for a while.

There are a thousand thousand worlds that need to be saved and, nonetheless, they have time for the things that they, as specific people, need right now. This is the way that Leareth has learned to think about it, over two thousand years. 

After he's very thoroughly caught up with Carissa, there are other things to do. He checks in with Nayoki about planning the announcement for the birth of his heir and the naming ceremony, and checks with Vanyel how Ma'ar is doing - currently asleep in his new bedroom, it turns out, and Dierne Aspexia Iomedae has been set up with a wet nurse and is one week old and approximately indifferent to which grownup is feeding her - and then they can get some sleep. 

In the morning he snuggles and kisses Carissa some more, and then reluctantly disentangles himself, he has responsibilities to catch up on, and apparently Vanyel is having breakfast with Ma'ar right now. 

She'll get breakfast with them too.

Ma'ar is eating oatmeal while Vanyel tells him (carefully redacted) stories from the Karsite war in Velgarth. 

She will just sit quietly and listen.

After a bit, Vanyel smiles at Ma'ar and excuses himself to go get caught up on his work. 

Ma'ar shuffles over and hugs her. "I like him," he says cheerfully. "He's nice." 

"Vanyel? Yes, he's very sweet. And he seems - happier, which I'm glad of. We should get you a fancier headband, I don't know where Aroden keeps them but he can beat anything I do without even trying..."

"That makes sense, if Aroden was a god before. ...Was Vanyel sad before?" 

"Yes. He has a lifebond and the lifebonded person died. Did you run into that in the Tower? It's rare."

"I - heard of it, I don't know much. Is it...very bad...when someone's lifebonded person dies?" 

"Yeah. I don't really get it either but apparently they usually die of it."

"Oh. ...Well, I'm glad he didn't die. I like him. He seems - very clever. Like he...gets, how things are hard, and - why they need to be fixed..." Ma'ar is suddenly feeling like his vocabulary doesn't contain half of the words he would want, to say things about how Vanyel is. 

"Yes. He and Leareth have known each other a long time and Leareth has explained lots to him, but some of it is just - the way he is, I think."

"Huh." Ma'ar looks thoughtful. "He's not scary at all, though. Even though he's way more magically powerful than Leareth. I don't really get why he doesn't feel scarier." 

"Probably because he's awfully Good? Leareth's - not. I'm not. Vanyel is. And not like Urtho where he's never really thought about what that means and what experiencing the other end of it is -"

"Do you understand how - why - he ended up like that? ...Would Urtho have been that way, if he had - experienced the other end of it...?" 

"...I don't know. Maybe. I think some people, nothing can make them like that, and some people will fight really hard to end up there no matter what. But lots of people it depends on noticing the right things at the right time."

"Hmm. Would Vanyel have - ended up that way no matter what, d'you think, or was it things happening at the right time? ...Is it bad– would it be better, if - if I were Good, if Leareth were...?" Ma'ar is not at all sure if any of these are coherent questions, let alone the right ones. 

" - I think Leareth might end up Good, now, here, where there's more Good to cooperate with and - Good's stabler when you know less of what's going on, and apparently none of us know much of what's going on, these days - thousands and thousands of worlds -

- I don't think being Good would've made things better in Velgarth way back when. Iomedae might be the person to ask about that though."

"Mmm. I...might ask Her then. I - should go think about what I want to ask."

He hugs her again, and then slips away. 

She goes to check on Dierne. Who'll probably be going by Aspexia, here.