"I agree." 

Tran frowns unhappily, but doesn't actively raise any disagreement. 

"Van?" 

Vanyel's current feeling is mainly that he wants the entire world to GO AWAY and LEAVE HIM ALONE. 

"I think that's right," he says dully. "Er, I'm not feeling very up for writing an explanation to Cam, though - can one of you...?" 

"Of course, ke'chara." Savil reaches over to squeeze his shoulder. "I'm so sorry we had to ask this of you. Why don't you go have a lie-down, and we'll bring Cam up to speed and ask him to fill us in on what he's been learning?" 

Vanyel nods and, with relief, totters off to his bed. 

The next time Cam checks his mail, he has a letter from the Heralds, signed by Tantras. They think he should know some important backstory here!

Vanyel has Foresight and, starting just over a decade ago, had a recurring Foresight dream about an evil mage in the north! A man who calls himself 'Leareth', gathering an army and marching on Valdemar!

In the dream - the timing of which is only vaguely hinted at, by the fact that dream-Vanyel's hair is almost entirely white from the use of node-magic - he takes his army through a pass carved through the mountains with blood-magic. They don't know the exact location of the pass, and haven't had the resources to send an expedition to find it, but Vanyel has been able to Farsee it from the northern border, and confirmed it exists. Over the years there's also been evidence that Leareth was kidnapping Gifted children from rural Valdemar, and that he's hired bandits and foreign mages to assassinate Heralds, Herald-Mages in particular. They think he supplied some of these groups with magical artifacts for protection.

They don't know any more than that, and the existence of the Foresight dream has been a very tightly-held state secret; they didn't want Leareth to find out that the Heralds are forewarned of his planned invasion. But it seems like Cam's presence changes quite a lot. Tran apologizes for not sharing this intelligence with Cam sooner. Hopefully the background is helpful for him?

The Heralds would also deeply appreciate if Cam could share anything else that he's learned about Leareth, since - given what they know of Leareth's plans - this is very relevant to Valdemar's future. 

Cam sends them a reply recommending that Vanyel teach everybody else what was in his summoning packet as a just-in-case. He says he has been spying on Leareth's notes but they're very cryptic and he doesn't know much Valdemar doesn't, yet, except things like where he is, which would only be especially useful if he wanted to blow the place up, which at this time he does not, since reportedly he's an immortal bodysnatcher and this would be basically just a setback.

He's a WHAT??!!

(Taver, in the back of Tran's mind, seems oddly unsurprised by this bizarre revelation. Tran is too distracted to properly notice or be confused by this fact.) 

Getting the summoning instructions is a good idea. Savil is dispatched to Vanyel's room to do that. 

She's not the first one to arrive there! Nobody told Jisa that her Uncle Van was back, but she's very good at noticing things. Uncle Van doesn't feel well after he does Gates and is going to need snuggles, which Jisa will eagerly provide! 

Vanyel is in bed when she knocks, his door locked, but his Thoughtsensing informs him who's there - with only a minor stabbing pain in his forehead - and he manages to drag himself up and stumble over to let her in. "Heya, pet." 

"I missed you, Uncle Van." Jisa keeps her voice considerately quiet even though she's VERY VERY happy and excited to see him. "Can we snuggle? And I'll tell you about the book I read?" 

"Mmm. Sure." Processing words is hard right now and Vanyel mostly isn't trying to. 

Jisa snuggles with her Uncle Van for a few minutes while recounting the book of ballads she just read. She can tell he's not listening that much, which is a bit upsetting, only nagging him about it is a bad idea because he has a headache and he's...sad? He probably doesn't want Jisa to know that he's sad, but her Empathy is very sensitive and he's not shielding as well as usual. 

He's also very tired, and he clearly needs to rest, and - ooh! There's a PACKAGE on the floor beside his bed! It doesn't look like anything Jisa's seen before and she's sososososo curious! 

A little nudge with her Empathy - Jisa doesn't have all that good control yet but she's been practicing - and Vanyel dozes off. 

Very very quietly, Jisa shuffles down to the floor and retrieves the PACKAGE and opens it to have a look. 

Oooooooh! Diagrams of circles like the demon ward that she did wrong and made it accidentally do the opposite of keeping demons out! Neat! 

No one has been TELLING Jisa anything, but she can tell that all of her grownups have been very stressed, and probably something important and scary is happening? She thinks it maybe has to do with Princess Karis who just got here. Karis is also very sad. Jisa can tell. Jisa doesn't know if Karis being sad is related to the Problem her grownups are all scared about, though. 

She starts reading the instructions that Cam left for Vanyel. 

Savil is about to reach Vanyel's room when she feels the Web-alarm blaring in the back of her mind. It's not in Haven, it seems to be - southeast? Which means probably not Leareth but who knows. 

Gods. What horrible timing. 

:Jay?: she reaches out. :Can you take this one?: 

:- Huh? Sorry, busy covering an audience for Tran - do you know what he ran out in a hurry for...?: 

Randi hasn't made a final call on briefing the rest of the Senior Circle yet. :Er, sorry, I can tell you after - in a bit of a hurry now. Have you seen Kilchas or Sandra?: 

:Not in a while, sorry, I think maybe they had mage-work today? Anyway I have to go: He drops the link with her. 

A quick attempt to find either of them with Mindspeech turns up nothing. Probably they're in one of the Work Rooms. 

Goddamnit. 

Someone needs to at least see what the alarm is. Vanyel can do that from anywhere, but she's not about to ask him to do any serious casting right now, not when he just crossed a Gate. Savil herself isn't as comfortable with distance-work and needs to be in the Web-focus room for it. 

She switches direction, breaks into a jog. 

:Tran? Sorry, Web-alarm, I've got to go see - can you go learn the summoning instructions from Van instead -?: 

:Sure, in a minute: 

Meanwhile: 

Leareth's spy-network is on high alert everywhere, now, and so he hears almost instantly about the newest set of food drops. 

...He was reluctant to start this conversation, because - in the scenario where the strange new Power is humanlike in their reasoning, as opposed to operating on semi-omniscient Foresight - it's sure to come across as suspicious and self-serving. But at this point it seems irresponsible to keep holding off. 

He dictates another message, which is transmitted by careful directional Mindspeech, transcribed by his agent on-site, and Fetched into Cam's mailbox. 

--- 

Dear unknown Power,

I realize that you have little reason to take what I say at face value, but: I must warn you that your current actions are likely to attract the attention, and opposition, of our local gods. I have faced attempted murder many times, when I tried similar schemes, including being set on fire twice by Vkandis. 

I would strongly advise that you slow down at this time. If you are interested in hearing more context, I will share what I know with you. 

Knock yourself out Cam replies cheerily.

Leareth gets to work on a very long message.