"- What? I, um... Depends whether I can summon you back again later, I think? If not, then...that's a really huge thing to give up, right, and I'd...prefer not to unless I -" 

He trails off, grimacing. 

"- Unless I - thought you were about to do enough damage that even your powers couldn't repair it, I guess. I don't know what that'd look like." 

"I don't know if you can summon me back or not! I mean, I can tell you how you'd do it, but I don't know if it'd work, because apparently you can't normally summon daeva here."

Yfandes lifts her head again. :I'm not sure we actually know that? We didn't know summoning daeva was a thing at all, Jisa did it by accident: 

"...Could we test it? Try summoning someone else?"

"Yes but one thing that might go wrong is it might turn out you can't send them home again."

"You think that could happen? It feels...asymmetrical, or something, to be able to summon you but not un-summon you?" 

"Yes, I agree, but this situation's very weird, so I thought it bears mentioning. I can probably find a volunteer who'd be willing to stay forever, probably someone who wants to adopt a baby."

"Adopt a baby? Huh. I mean, I'm sure there's lots of war orphans, right now, if you think you know someone who wants to adopt children..." 

:Might not be actual babies, mostly, but if someone wanted to adopt a lot of five-year-olds -: 

"I think five year olds would be slightly less popular than babies but I'm sure there'd be takers. - Daeva can't have kids, which is very inconvenient for those who want them."

"Oh." 

Vanyel looks down at his hands. Picks at his thumbnail for a moment. 

(He can't stop thinking about Shavri's eyes, her tearstained cheeks when he found her hiding in an unused room at the House of Healing, a child's broken doll in her hands...)

"...That sounds - pretty tough. I, er, I - think we shouldn't rush into trying this, though. Probably makes sense to take some time and think about it first." 

"I can start reading up on the adoption interest groups and find candidates for in case."

"Sounds good. Er, do you want me to look ahead with Farsight and make sure we're headed the right way? Savil said she gave you a map but that it wasn't a very good one." 

"Sure. Also we can, like, look at the ground, if there are landmarks you'd recognize that way." The image of the ground pops up on the screen of the shuttle.

Recognizing landmarks from above turns out to be kind of hard! Vanyel squints at the screen. "- Right, I think I know that river, we want to go a little more east and north... Oh. Um, we won't be able to see the Vale itself from above. Or get in. It's magically protected. But I think I can get us nearby and we can land and I'll contact the scouts?" 

East and north it is. "Works for me."

Vanyel watches the screen, and scans ahead with Farsight. 

"Good, almost there - all right, that meadow should be a good place to touch down..." 

And he reaches out ahead with Mindspeech. 

:Moondance?: 

:Vanyel! Brother, what are you doin– how did you come here? I sensed no Gate: 

:Didn't Gate. It's a long story. Can you come meet us - here...?: He sends a mental image of the location where the shuttle is about to land. 

:Of course. I will be there as soon as I can: 

Cam opens the door so they can get out to meet the locals.

The first local to come out and meet them is a child who looks about nine or ten years old, leaping down from a man's shoulders and running towards them. 

"Uncle Van! UncleVanUncleVanUncleVan!" 

"Brightstar!" Vanyel grins despite himself, as he jogs past Cam to scoop up the child. "It's so good to see you - gods, you've gotten big! Oof - gods, go easy on me..." 

Moondance freezes on the spot, his eyes going saucer-wide as he stares at the shuttle. 

:- Vanyel. Wingbrother, what...?:

:Sorry, I know it's unexpected. This is Cam, my friend. He speaks Tayledras. He's, er, here to help - and he has some questions - you should talk to him: 

Vanyel glances back at Cam. "This is my friend Moondance. He's, um, the one who gets visions sometimes."