There is no time for Cam to reply. 

Karis' body belongs to Vkandis, right now.

Karis' hand reaches for the dagger that she always wears on her belt, after months of terrifying travel in constant danger. 

Karis, a passenger in her own body, feels more peaceful than she's ever felt before. 

- what - 

For a moment she instinctively tries to resist. Vkandis what are you - I thought you wanted to talk, why -

It's too late for any of her hesitations, now. 

The dagger plunges into Vanyel's chest. 

"Cam! CamCamCam help she's killing Vanyel -" 

But Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashkevron is already collapsing in a heap on the floor, and it's too late for any recriminations, now. 

The soaring golden power vanishes, all of a sudden, and leaves Karis trembling - her hands covered in blood - 

And Cam is not on the other end of the call any longer.

Jisa whispers more words to Cam, begging for a reply that doesn't come, and then she just lies under the bed and whimpers - 

- for about eight seconds, and then she realizes that, if she were a hero in a ballad right now– well, the HEROIC and STUPID thing for her to do would've been to jump in front of Uncle Van, but she wasn't brave or fast enough and now she's too late - 

- and the sneaky cunning thing for her to do is RUN AWAY. 

Karis' mind is no longer radiating incredibly weird brightness, and Karis is collapsed beside Vanyel, whimpering as well. 

She seems pretty distracted. 

Jisa shoves the phone and various folded papers down the front of her dress, and then slips out past Karis, vaguely pushing with Empathy to make Karis even more sad so she won't think to look up. 

(This isn't hard, since Jisa herself is very very upset and sad and is already crying and just barely managing not to sob audibly.) 

She creeps out through the open door and then runs. 

Savil reaches the doorway barely ten seconds after Jisa vanishes into a random coincidentally-unlocked Herald's room. 

"Van? ...VAN?" 

:I need a Healer here RIGHT NOW!: 

What the shit hapOH yikes Vanyel has been stabbed. Poor Vanyel. Cam drops the model into his pinhole and sits at his kitchen table and frets.

Cam should probably have prioritized leaving more stashes of summoning instructions around. At least the people of Velgarth will in a few insect-generations no longer be subject to particular insect-borne illnesses but he really had more on the to-do list! The instructions are - still there, good, they still exist, hopefully they stay that way long enough - did Jisa just watch her uncle get stabbed, wow, poor kid -

....And Vanyel wakes up in a quiet white place, where nothing hurts.

After a moment he stands up. "Shadow-Lover." 

A head turns towards him. The face is (thematically) hidden in shadows. 

"I think you owe me an explanation. What." 

For a long moment, the robed avatar of a god looks at him, sapphire-bright eyes somehow still glinting from under unseen brows. 

"- Do I?" He takes a step forward, and his voice echoes oddly. "Do we?" 

....Huh, what? 

Vanyel is too off-balance - and angry, he can't fully feel the anger here but it's nonetheless distracting - to quite chase after that confusion. 

"....I guess I shouldn't ask for anything," he says flatly. "Since, you know, I'm just a powerless mortal pawn. And you speak for a god. But - well, if I'm not wrong, you and your, er, employer, had plans for me. Which I carried out. Even when it hurt." 

"...Well. I wasn't really expecting an answer, but - that's informative, I guess."

(Vanyel can think, here, in the place where nothing hurts. And it's not, quite, all fitting together yet, but...he can see a pattern, now. That he couldn't quite fit into his mind before.) 

(He's a pawn, he's always been a pawn - but that doesn't, actually, make him powerless. Does it? Just makes him an essential tool, one that the gods can't afford to lose...) 

"Do I have a choice to go back?" 

"....Yes. You have a choice." 

"What information do I need, to make that choice?" 

A long pause. 

...Then, a hint of sheepishness, or at least something close to it. "....Quite a lot of information is relevant, most likely. But - I cannot see it." 

Huh. 

"...Well. Can you at least tell me if Leareth is my enemy or not?" 

"....He made a vow on the stars, once." 

That is not the answer to his question, and Vanyel starts to snap something back, and then - stops himself.

Probably this is pretty close to the most informative a god can be.

"....Should I trust the Star-Eyed Goddess?" he asks instead.