They glance at each other. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Asmodeus grants me healing miracles, should that turn out to be necessary once the situation is resolved."

"That is excellent to know, thank you. We will keep you apprised." And since there's nothing else to do while they wait, "- How do Healing miracles work, by the way? Moondance would be very interested." 

"Our Healing magic seems very different from the local kind - though more like the few accounts we've heard of your miracles. It generally repairs an injury wholly, all at once, and if done immediately leaves no physical sign that the person was wounded."

Starwind is about to answer when Vanyel's mindvoice slams into his shields again. 

:They have Jisa: 

:What: 

:WHAT: 

:I'm questioning the Healing-trainee now: 

Vanyel sounds out of breath even in Mindspeech, which is impressive. 

After a beat, :- she says Jisa came in, said Melody sent her - Melody says she absolutely did not - they, Jisa told her it was all right to take a break - the trainee left her alone with both prisoners - she says it can't have been more than ten minutes total and Jisa was fine two minutes before the Gate -: 

:She's not a mage. She wouldn't've known - damn it, someone must've gotten to Jisa. Leareth's people or the Chelish diplomats, I don't even know which–: 

:We need to Truth Spell them: 

Pause.

:...That is going to be so awkward: 

:I thought you had a Herald on duty. To read Carissa: 

:- There - might have been an oversight: 

:What do you mean?: 

:The wizard was apparently having some - very uncomfortable thoughts about, er, sex. I think the poor girl we had on rotation didn't feel she could handle it. I - it's my fault - I said I was sure the wards would trigger and give us some warning -: 

:I mean, they did! We just weren't counting on - on someone forcing Jisa to undo Melody's work? That has to be what happened, right: 

:What do we do: 

Everyone is waiting-expectantly at HIM, which Vanyel feels is incredibly unfair. 

:- Savil, Starwind - you have that spell, right, for watching events shortly in the past? We can try that. And I can have a go in the Web, see if I can figure out where the other end of the Gate went - gods, how did Leareth Gate at all even without the set-commands, wasn't he still in pretty bad shape: 

:I am not sure!: Moondance sounds surprisingly stricken about it. :I - I would have feared it might kill him, attempting a Gate far enough to leave Valdemar: 

:- Carissa could give him orders, on the compulsion. She could've forced him to Gate. Even if it killed him: 

Vanyel finds he is suddenly surprisingly furious about that possibility. 

:Well, lucky for him he just steals another body and comes back. It'd buy us some breathing room, at least: 

:Right. We need to question the envoys - why don't I send Tran over in person, Starwind had better stay in the meantime just in case they try to run. ...And I'll grab Melody, we know Mindhealing can reliably incapacitate their spellcasters: 

Melody is going to hate that so much. 

Vanyel doesn't stick around for the argument. He's done all he can here, for now.

He flees back to the Web-room for some almost-certainly-fruitless attempts at tracking where the other end of Leareth's Gate landed. Leareth isn't an idiot - he must have precautions against that. 

And, after fifteen more mildly awkward minutes of Starwind guarding the diplomats and making tense small talk while Herald Tantras is briefed, he treks over to the guest accommodations, accompanied by Savil and (discreetly, at a distance) Melody. 

- and, creeping through the dusk after them, a small Bardic trainee.

Stef is starting to feel extremely nervous and antsy! He has no idea what's happening, but he should have heard back from Jisa by now, and there's definitely a commotion going on at Healers'. Did she get caught? If they Truth Spell her then she'll confess everything and she's the King's daughter and can't get into any really bad trouble but that's not true of Stef... 

He had better not let himself be found, then. And in the meantime he'd really like to figure out more of what's going on.