Vanyel nods, looking relieved. Then takes a deep breath, straightening his back. 

:I, er, did want to say something to both of you. I...did a bad job, yesterday, of - of being grateful. But you really deserve a lot more thanks than I gave you: 

:I'd tell you to pay it forwards, but I get the impression that you have already paid rather a lot forwards and Backwards still owes you a thing or two.:

Embarrassed chuckle. :I - guess you could say that. Anyway, I - oh, before I forget, I did want to tell you some things before you leave, do you know when that is? I, er, ‘Fandes informed me I’m not needed for the Gate:

It's good, and a good sign, that there isn't going to be an argument about that.  :Not sure when.  Maybe Lissa knows?  And - if it's all right, and it won't be a strain on yourself or expose you to things you should stay away from - I was thinking that Thellimelody should take a look at what happens to you when a Gate is nearby.  Maximum distance that still produces the ouch, not minimum distance you can handle, modulo that Thellim and Melody will have to be in range to go through the Gate itself afterwards... how long can they stay open?:

Vanyel if anything seems relieved by this question. :Right, of course, that’s a good idea to check. Savil can hold it five minutes if you need it, although, er, she won’t be happy about it. I...can feel a Gate from miles away, but if I’m a quarter-mile away and shielded then it shouldn’t mess me up too badly:

:Can Thellimelody look inside you from that range, if we're standing near the Gate ready to go through?:  It's hopefully clear from the tone of this Mindspeech and the way Thellim looks around that either Vanyel or Melody is allowed to answer this.

(Vanyel has no idea, and waits.)

:I doubt it? Rather, I can probably hold a concert held with you from that range, my Mindspeech is up to that, but my Mindhealing Sight gets blurry if I’m any further than across the room: Her lips twitch. :I’ve hardly had much reason to Look at patients from blocks away, so I never practiced:

:So it sounds like we could all be inside a shield, but that we'd still have to be near the Gate if we wanted to actually go through it.  How much risk or pain or damage does that expose you to, Vanyel?  My instinct is that you should not be doing things that poke your mind too much, right now; I imagine it as possibly still recovering.:

Vanyel frowns for a moment, then brightens. :There should be a Work Room somewhere in town, for mages deployed here to practice and keep in form. It won’t be up to the standards of what we have in Haven, but if the Gate’s near there, I think I still wouldn’t feel it too much? It’d be like being two miles off: 

:Sounds like a solution!  Except you should not take my word on that for the next candlemark because I am currently Surprise Drugged.  Ah, you said you had something to tell me before you forgot?:  If she was less Surprised Drugged, Thellim might have thought of that earlier, before she changed the subject instead of giving Vanyel a chance to talk.

:It seems good to me too: Melody adds. :Though I ought to make sure it gets passed down the relay where we want the Gate— no, Vanyel, don’t worry about it, I’ll just track down the nearest Herald to Mindspeak:

Vanyel nods, distantly. :Er, right, I’m trying to remember... Books, that was it. I - um, last night I - remembered, that the Eastern Empire is supposedly a lot richer than us and could afford to buy thousands of books, though they’re far away and, um, might be complicated to trade with:

(He really hopes Thellim didn’t notice his awkward pauses when the topic felt uncomfortably close to ‘everything about Leareth.’ There’s no possible way she can guess what he’s hiding, though, right - it’s too bizarre, an immortal destined enemy and a shared dream in a frozen pass with an army marching on his country...)

:Oh, right, and I was wondering - Randi was talking about wanting to set up more schools in Valdemar, it was hard for the Guard to recruit officers when so many commonfolk aren’t literate. And, er, your world has schools - I’m curious what sorts of books you had, and - if you remember them well enough to write your own version for Valdemar to use...?:

:Oh, right!  I should totally write a book of all the absolute ridiculously fundamental basics of how to think and do science and engineering and build a real economy!  I know so much more on the margins that I should hardly have to work at all to make it better than anything that already exists!  I'm starting to get the impression that there may not necessarily exist a huge existing market for the material, but we don't have to stake the whole plan on that, we find a book they do already want to buy, print a thousand copies of that, and then print a thousand copies of my book and hand them out all over the world!  Maybe people here do just need to know what a multiagent-optimal outcome is and then they can just go do that.  And they'll pay more attention if I also describe printing, steelmaking, sanitation, electricity, refrigeration, agriculture, and combustion engines in the same book!:

Thellim is currently operating on 10% more enthusiasm and 20% less impulse control, or she might have considered for longer whether this was, in fact, a good idea; and whether it would maybe have a large number of consequences.  She would, perhaps, have arrived at the same conclusion in the end; but she would not have made the decision that quickly.

Especially if she'd remembered that she was on drugs at the time.

Of such moments is history made.

Elsewhere, a long way off: 

A woman in brown robes, riding in the rearguard behind a merchant caravan on a dusty road in Ruvan, suddenly lets go of her reins as she slumps in the saddle, eyes rolling back. Her horse, a Shin'a'in-bred mare with the expected intelligence, immediately stops moving. The caravan pulls ahead, oblivious.

A sword hangs at the woman's belt. 

Somewhere, a dusty mental voice groans. :By the Twain, what is it this time: 

And a thousand miles north: 

The priest is already on his knees in prayer, which is convenient and means he doesn't have nearly as far to fall.

Less than a candlemark later, the gryphon leadership of Iftel is summoned to an emergency meeting. 

At about the same latitude, but far, far to the west, a man who seconds ago was deep in trance, focused on mage-work, is startled to full awareness, suddenly slumps to the floor. 

- then scrambles up, seconds later, his eyes wide and unfocused and terrified. 

"I - I - I have to, I saw - Vanyel..." 

Thellim maintains a tight focus on the subject, in the quiet of the Work Room.  Going by the semistandardized candle that passes for timekeeping here, it's almost noon, almost time for the Gate to open.

Once it does, they will have a very short amount of time in which to work.

That being the case, the key to doing this as slightly less Manic Science, despite the ridiculous time bound, has been preparation.

Vanyel is busy trying very hard not to be distracted by how ridiculous and self-conscious about it he feels. 

Earlier, well before the Gate-time, he practiced tapping a node, drawing anything from a trickle to a rush of energy into his reserves. Which are now full to bursting, and he's feeding a delicate stream into the mage-light hovering just above their heads. 

Melody is focused just as intently as Thellim, her curiosity and anticipation - and faint worry that they're trying something completely unreasonable - set aside for the moment. 

Continue monitoring.  Continue accumulating data.  Establish the bounds of ordinary variation during the monitoring period.

Thellim has already verified, earlier, that the kind of instruction she is trying to give to Melody's Mindhealing Gift, appears to actually work on simpler and more understandable problems.

Thellim is going to need a rest when this is over.  The price of having a somewhat more clever plan, with more preparation work, is that the plan required her to work earlier.  She's going to run through the Gate and then sit down and possibly have her first-ever reaction-headache, which she cannot afford to have right now because coming up very soon is the important part.

They are doing slightly less Manic Science this time.  It is still very Maniacal.

Several hundred miles away, Herald-Mage Savil Ashkevron sighs, and rolls her shoulders a little to loosen them, and then raises her hands, and starts laying down the threshold for a Gate on the big bronze doors of the Heralds' temple to Kernos. 

She's not delighted about having to do this - or about being given such specific instructions for where - but she does adequately remember the doors of the repurposed-stable now turned into the quartermaster's supply-rooms and also containing a hastily-built Work Room. 

Even through all the shields, plus his own personal shielding, Vanyel feels it the instant the Gate comes up on the Horn side. The pain isn't agonizing but it's notably there, and he jumps a little, grimacing despite himself

:Now!: he alerts Thellimelody, like they discussed, though his visible reaction is probably enough warning already. 

He's tempted to tell them to hurry, he can imagine all too clearly Savil's distress and exhaustion if they make her wait, but it's not like he hasn't said that already, and if he says it again Melody will just tell him off– well, no, she'll gently remind him that Savil would probably agree it was worth it, which is true and yet doesn't make it any less guilt-inducing -