:Taver? Hurt him how?: 

:There was a bridge and he broke it: 

:I don't– Nevermind. Coming. Just hang on: 

Her daughter isn't making any sense, but judging by her mindvoice she's not hurt, just scared. Shavri focuses on running as fast as she can. 

Taver's parting words were for Tantras alone. All Yfandes saw was him turning and walking away. 

And the bond ripped away. She's not a Mindhealer, but Companions can see things in their own way. 

It comes together in a flash of insight, and she immediately wishes she could unthink it, because what was formerly a dull ache is now agony. She knew something was wrong. They all did. And now she knows what the unimaginably bad thing that she's so afraid of is. 

For a long time she doesn't dare move, because the strain is so intense, it feels like she's being torn apart from the inside, and she knows what it means, now, she knows what's at stake here, and nonono he's hers but she can't ever unsee Taver turning and walking away... 

It takes an embarrassingly long time to pull herself together even a little. 

:Delian?: Her flank shudders. :Delian, you thought - something bad - we know what: 

He doesn't answer right away. 

:Well?: Yfandes noses at his neck. :What are you waiting for?: 

He's waiting for his mind to stop trying to tear itself in half, is what. 

But Yfandes has a point. 

One step. Another. Approaching Tantras feels oddly as though he's fighting a strong headwind, each step costing far more effort than it should. And he's having some kind of bizarre double vision. The man sprawled on the ground is both his Chosen, hishishis, and also an unrecognizable stranger filling him with unease. 

But he knows which of those is who he wants to be. 

Another step. 

Shavri reaches Tantras first, at a dead sprint, and drops to her knees. 

"Tran. Tran, hey, look at me - talk to me - are you all right–" 

He's not responding. And he's physically unhurt and in perfect health, but something is wrong. 

Shavri's obvious worry, and her failed attempts to rouse Tantras, is the final goad that Delian needs. For a moment his head is ringing, he's dizzy and disoriented, but it's as though the doubled world just snapped back into alignment. And everything feels so simple. How could he ever have been confused? 

He crosses the remaining four or five paces, kneels at Tran's side, nosing softly at his cheek. :Tran, love, it's me. I'm here. Everything's all right. I'm not going anywhere, I promise. Ever again. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but I'm here now. My Chosen: 

He drifts, submerged deep below the darkness behind his eyelids. 

...A familiar mindvoice. A presence, bright blue-silver, warmth, love. Not Taver. Taver's mind never felt that close to human. 

But he made a mistake and he isn't a Herald anymore. 

:No. Just...leave me...don't deserve you...: 

This gets a second or two of incomprehension, and then a hard mental slap that leaves Tran's head spinning. 

:You goddamned idiot. No. You didn't do anything wrong. Taver did. Gods, I want to kick him across the river!: 

What. 

Delian sighs, and settles his muzzle against Tran's chest. :You're in shock. It's all right to sleep. I'll stay: 

And after all the unspoken rules he's broken already today, it's a simple matter to lift his head and address Healer Shavri directly. 

:Taver repudiated him. I think it did a lot of damage. He needs a Mindhealer: 

:Taver did WHAT: 

Jisa is finally flailing her way loose of the thorns. She backs out from behind the rosebush and runs over. :Mama I told you. There was a bridge and Taver broke it. They were having a stupid fight about Karis and Vkandis. Taver was a STUPID IDIOT and wanted to send Cam away. But he's wrong and bad: 

There...is probably some sensible response to this, but Shavri is drawing a blank. 

She lets her breath out in a gust. "Well, let's get him to the House of Healing, I guess. Tran, hey - can you ride, do you think...?" She waits a few beats. "I guess not. It's all right, we can carry you, just need to get some more hands over here." 

She should tell Vanyel. 

The situation is a mess and Vanyel deserves to know - not to mention how Yfandes keeps feeling as though she's missing something big, and she doesn't know what, but her Chosen has always been so good at thinking outside the box... 

...and, at the same time, she can't. 

It shouldn't be so hard. She caught a glimpse of what Delian did, and she knows, deep inside, that she only has to take one step further, but she's scared. She's so scared. 

It's going to hurt... 

He never wanted it to end this way. 

Taver, the immortal, never-human Groveborn Companion of Valdemar, walks with his head down. Taver, who seven centuries ago met a man who now calls himself Leareth. Taver, whose mind is forever half outside the world, in a blue place strung with silver, seeing past and future all at once. 

He loved Tantras. He always loves them, his Chosen, and in the end he always loses them. But never like this. Not until now. 

The blue place is chaotic. It's hard to make out anything at all, let alone answers to his most burning questions. 

But he knows one thing: all of this started when a strange winged immortal calling himself Cam arrived in Haven. 

Cam does, genuinely, seem to be striving to do good. To be good. Taver respects what he's seen of him. And so far, Valdemar has gotten many benefits and little harm. 

But that could change. If they hadn't gotten Vanyel back - and it might have been a question of Shavri getting there ten seconds earlier or later - then it would be very hard to say if a miraculous wall and food for starving mouths outweighed the loss of their most powerful mage. 

And destined hero. 

Cam is talking to Leareth. Which on the one hand, could help Valdemar's cause, but at the same time, it's dangerous. 

In the end, Taver can only see one path open to him. It's an awful path, but the other option, of directly opposing Vkandis Sunlord's will, is madness. 

He steps into the Grove. 

Most Companions can't Mindspeak more than a few hundred miles. But Taver is Groveborn, and right now standing at the source of his power, the Web all around him. 

Kilchas' Rohan just needs to be within a few thousand miles, and just for a few seconds... 

Rohan is, in fact, in range! Cam's space station is in roughly-geostationary orbit, not directly above Valdemar but in the general region, and less than 300 miles above the surface, for a total distance of around 600 miles. This would be impossible for most human Mindspeakers and most normal Companions; it would be a stretch even for Vanyel in top condition, and not sustainable for long if he could manage the distance at all. But Taver can do it. For a minute or two, which is more than he'd expected to have. 

Rohan is also incredibly startled to be interrupted. :Taver? What is it - gods, is someone dead...?: 

:No: 

After a pause, :- not yet. But I fear we are in danger. Not from Cam directly, but from his presence in this world, and other effects of it: 

Confusion, disbelief. :Cam? He's being so careful!: 

:Indeed. But, tell me - what do you see in the blue place?: 

A pause. 

:...It's all murky. It's been that way for days though: 

:You know that I see further. Rohan, listen to me - do you trust me? I do not have very much time, and there is a great deal at stake here: 

Something is wrong, something is horribly and irrevocably broken inside him, but Taver blocks it out. For now, his mindvoice is rock-steady again. The herd needs that much from him. 

Rohan lifts his head to glance over at Kilchas, still captivated by images of stars, a snack provided by Cam but already forgotten at his elbow. 

:All right, I'm listening. Spit it out: 

:....I see chaos, in the future. Good or bad, I cannot tell. But - change, either way. I believe that Cam is a good man and means well. And yet, even changes for the better can accidentally break many things, and he is an outsider to our world and its peoples: