Queen Elspeth (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah why is she being interrogated in front of the LITERAL QUEEN) is sitting at the back, quietly listening. 

Herald-Mage Savil - who Shavri also finds kind of intimidating even though Van's tried very hard to convince her out of it - has been mostly leading the questioning, so far. She seems mostly exasperated about it. 

The Heralds have also clearly been running out of energy for formalities. Savil lowers herself into her chair with a grunt, then glances at the man across from her. "Jay, Truth Spell?" 

"On it." 

Herald Jaysen is also scary but mostly because Shavri knows that he was mean to Vanyel kind of a lot. 

Queen Elspeth lifts a hand, somehow instantly drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "First-stage only will do fine, for this." 

Shavri tries not to sag visibly in relief. She's been telling herself, over and over and over, that she isn't a criminal, she hasn't actually done anything illegal or morally wrong, she was asked to save someone's life and she tried her best and in the process learned a lot more about a possible threat to the Kingdom. 

Her internal reassurances are a lot less comforting than she would prefer, though. 

Nod. 

"So, I think where we left off, was - 'Leareth's' organization deciding to go to the Moon? Can you, er, back up a couple of steps and explain why, again?" 

Shavri's main recollection is that there were a lot of things happening very fast and all the people around her were clearly extremely busy and stressed, and also she STILL feels guilty about insisting that she had to go home rather than keep helping. 

"...Everyone was panicking about something, but they were mostly talking about it in private Mindspeech? I told them I wanted to go home. The - person who seemed to be in charge with Leareth too sick for it, Nayoki, was really obliging about it even though she was obviously so stressed. They got me a Gate. Julie wanted to tell me good luck and, er, to investigate 'penicillin' which is some sort of medical treatment their world has. And...I'm not even sure, somewhere in the middle of that I overheard them talking about taking Julie's ship to the Moon. Because - they were scared of what the Proto was doing? Or something? But I wasn't actually there when they were making the decision, I'd gone to take a break." 

Queen Elspeth's fingers tap on the arm of her chair as she listens, her expression thoughtful and distant. 

(Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah the Queen is PAYING ATTENTION to her -) 

Herald-Mage Savil strokes the tip of her nose.

"You think they were bringing the Proto with them, to the Moon?" 

"...Um, probably? I mean, that's - the obvious thing to do, right, I'm - not sure what had them spooked but probably it was something about the Proto getting stronger and harder to contain? I don't know, maybe it figured out how to infect people through the air, it was trying that at one point -" 

(Because she was STUPID and gave it DUMB instructions and maybe the world will get eaten and it'll be all her fault...) 

"Anyway, if that happened they'd want it to be isolated, right? And they had the ship, which was able to fly that far. Seems like it'd be a smart plan, to take it there." 

A very long pause. 

"Would they have taken Leareth with them," Savil says, tonelessly. 

"If they were worried about the Proto infecting everyone, probably? He was, er, very infected." 

Something hardens in Herald Jaysen's expression. He looks over, makes eye contact with Herald Keiran. 

She dips her chin, meeting his eyes in pleased, almost smug acknowledgment. 

For a (very stupid and pointless) fraction of a second, Shavri wants to hit them. Both of them. They're - what - they're gloating, that Leareth was infected, that he's dying - might be dead by now, his condition was so precarious.

She only learned afterward that he was gathering an army to conquer her homeland. That Vanyel, her closest friend - the father of her precious baby girl - was destined to die trying to stop him. 

...That, apparently, he's immortal and evil and ruthless and has no scruples and needs to be stopped. 

He was her patient. 

He talked to the Proto. Treated it - no, 'like a person' isn't right, it's clearly not a person, that's half the point - half the mistake that she herself was making, early on...

He wanted to talk to it, though. 

He wanted to find common ground. Wanted to build things with it.

He thought it was beautiful... 

Shavri doesn't know what to believe, anymore. 

"Is it going to eat the Moon and destroy the world." 

Shavri blinks at him for a moment. 

"...How would I know? I, um... I think Leareth figured out some things, about it - about what it was built for and all - but it's not like they were trying to keep me up to date, that wasn't my job, I was focused on keeping the two of them alive!"

Which she DID, damn it, and it feels like literally nobody has even tried to convey a single bit of appreciation for her efforts and cleverness on that front. 

After another very long pause,

"What was your impression of Leareth?" 

"I'm not sure I got a very good impression of him, since he was, er, dying of being eaten by alien goo the entire time!"

The Queen of Valdemar is still LOOKING at her. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Think. Focus. Thinkthinkthink. 

What would Randi have noticed, that she didn't at the time...

"Um, he was polite and respectful to his people and they seemed to think highly of him? He - likes math a lot? I think he was impressed that I, er, was the first one who figured out how to communicate with it with prime numbers." 

Which was thanks to Van. Who, apparently, has spent the last several years having intermittent dream conversations with Leareth. It shouldn't hurt, that he never told her - of course he didn't - but it stings anyway.