Jisa wrinkles her nose. :I don't get why They'd do that. Seems stupid: 

:I don't think much of the decision either but things here do not look more advanced than back home:

Jisa nods. Sighs. 

Melody sits back. :Sorry that took a while. You're all clear: 

:Thanks:

Neither of them speaks for a while. 

:...I should go catch up Treven and Dara: Jisa says eventually. :I think that's everything I needed to ask you urgently, you can go rest if you want, it's late - er, unless there's anything else you think we should know -: 

:I think we've covered the important stuff:

Jisa nods. :I'll walk you to your room, then. And I already asked Sandra to put more shields on it. Just in case: She offers Azabel her arm again. 

:That's thoughtful of you: though she was not abducted in her room.

Jisa keeps a watchful eye on their surroundings as they troop back through the clear cold night to the guest wing. Yawning, she deposits Azabel at her door. :Goodnight: 

:Goodnight:

Aza doesn't go to sleep right away; she brings up a mage-light, very close to her notebook and very small because she made an artifact and did a Gate today, and writes.

Ma'ar is her friend (and her boyfriend, but that's less important, new and fragile and not the core of their history). Leareth is basically a different person. Most people are very different from who they were in childhood; some of them keep the same friends, but that's based on shared history she does not, in fact, have with Leareth. She should not even try to be friends with him probably, he's architected around not needing it and kidnapping aside doesn't seem to have the time or want to make any. He's a gyroscopic island and she probably cannot get him to stop murdering with the power of friendship.

Her real Ma'ar, and her Urtho, might be coming to rescue her pretty much any minute. She should probably be working on how to present the situation to them - future evil-but-honorable-as-far-as-that-goes version of Ma'ar, extremely dubious past decisions on Urtho's part - she sketches out various orders of operation for the summary depending on how they arrive, how she hears about it.

Then she goes to bed.

The next morning starts out uneventful. Dara does Mindtouch Azabel around breakfast-time, asking if she would like someone to walk her over from the guest wing to the dining hall 'just in case'. 

:I don't think Leareth is going to kidnap me again. Is there anyone else around who might want to kidnap me?:

:Not that I know of specifically, but I didn't expect Leareth was going to either! If you're not worried that's fine though: She sounds relieved, and very busy. 

So Aza walks to breakfast solo.

Dara is at the dining hall, deep in conversation with Keiran, but she waves to Azabel. :Sleep all right?: 

:I slept fine, thank you. How are things?:

:- Not much to report. We tried to contact Vanyel but couldn't find him, even Rolan couldn't reach Yfandes. We might Gate him up to the Border to try from there, though, in case the problem is just range. And we weren't expecting him to be contactable, it's just - it'd be good if we could pass on the news to him too: 

:What else would it be besides range?:

:If he were behind shields, maybe. Or unconscious: A pause. :We know he's not dead, at least: 

:How?:

:There's a magic bell in Haven that rings whenever a Herald dies, I think it works through the Web. It hasn't rung: 

:How do you tell who it is? Just process of elimination?:

:Used to be that, or waiting to hear on the Mindspeech relay. But ever since Van built the new Web, added the Heartstone, we all just...know. Right away: 

:Ugh, being near a Heartstone makes me kind of nervous even though I assume they don't normally blow up: