Venn notices, which puts her in the position of needing to figure her shit out. 

She is almost certain she wants to marry Blai. She loves hum a frankly unreasonable amount, and the way he looks at her, the way he holds her, the emotions in his voice when he said he didn't want her to leave forever... 

So why almost?  Where is that drop of hesitation coming from? She taps the strings of her lyre late into the night, trying to tease the answer out of her head.

Oh.

That's very reasonable, actually. And also very actionable. 

When she goes to see Blai in his office the next morning, she's got her lyre with her.

"Good morning." He blinks communicatively at the lyre.

She places it carefully on his desk. "I've had this lyre for twelve years," she says softly. "I had it made for me by a craftsman in Absalom, right before I left. It's important to me; it's a part of my life, and a part of my story."  

She traces a finger carefully along a piece of metal embedded into the front. The writing faded and foreign, but it looks like a badge of office. (Her father's, at least according to Mom. Venn wouldn't know - all she knows of him are the stories.)

...he inspects it in case it relevance will be made manifest if he squints at it.

She takes one of his hands and places it gently on the lyre. "Can I ask you to hold onto it for me? I think I need to go travelling, for a month or two, just along the Worldwound line. And I want you to have this piece of my life to hold onto, to remind you that I'm coming back to you." 

Oh.

Now?

...well, why not now. This is a fine time. If not now when. He was literally warned about this.

Is he supposed to keep it on his person at all times or does it work to leave it in his quarters when he's out.

...she was nervous about Chelish forts, does he need to more flexibly mobilize Guiu's whole squad for this until she gets as far as the Hellknights or even the forts past that -

He should say something but WHAT.

"You won't need it?" Congratulations that successfully sounded merely stupid instead of literally incapable of speech.

She pets his hand. "I have my voice, and my flute. ...I wasn't planning leaving today, I don't want to mess up our existing patrol schedules." They're planned out for the rest of the week.  "But I realized I need to do this last night, so I wanted to tell you now." 

He can just literally ask if she needs the squad instead of coming up with a random other stupid thing to say, why didn't he do that in the first place - "Do you need the squad released to accompany you and if so for how long?"

Venn shakes her head. "I'm third circle; I'll be fine on my own." 

She stands up, walks over to his side of his desk, and wraps her arms around him.

This part he knows how to do. He hugs her. "Am I meant to keep the lute on my person even when on patrol or no?"

Awwwwww. She loves him so much...

"You can keep it here, or in your bedroom, wherever makes the most sense to you. I don't have a specific request beyond wanting you to have it, so you know I'll be back." 

"If you mean to go around the entire line the obvious way to do that is to walk as far as the westernmost Chelish fort and then turn around, in which case I would see you again before you had gotten very far. Unless you intend to go through the Irrisen section."

"I would in fact love to see the Irrisen forts but tragically my understanding is that this is a terrible idea and that I would be firmly turned away if I tried." Or firmly turned into a toad. which would be worse!

And... yeah, getting a much shorter trial separation before the longer trip is probably a good idea. "Heading west first is smart, especially to get some healing over to the forts at end of the line." She thinks. "I'm scheduled to head west the day after tomorrow, right? Would it be okay if I kept going after? I should be able get to #2 in two days if I leave with the earliest patrol each time, and I can do a lot more healing in one day than a fort usually needs, now." (efficiency is important in his religion)

"It would mess with the existing schedules but not prohibitively."

"Thanks." She kisses his hair. "...I know I'm the one choosing to do this, but - I'm really going to miss you, while I'm out there." 

"I assume it is difficult to explain."

Squeeze. "I could try and explain it now, if you would strongly prefer that? But it'll be much easier for me and also I suspect much more useful for you if I just explain when I get back?" If he asks, she'll tell him, but - she's worried about leaving him actionlessly anxious for the weeks it takes her to travel the line and soothe the anxiety in her own heart.

"I don't see me having an explanation as decision-relevant to anything, let alone essential. ...when you get back after your entire trip or the first leg west?"