"I can inquire about it as I pass through their forts! And convey letters for you, if there's any you haven't sent yet and want to." 

"I've sent them all, though sometimes it helps if someone asks after any mail that may have gotten stuck at some fort or other in between. ...I think I can't justify fort budget expenditures for books and all my personal funds were in paper so I've divested from them, alas."

Hmmm. "Looking for any books in particular?" 

"I don't know, I briefly had the idea that if you mean to ask around on my behalf I could ask you to bring a book budget and select some things based on whatever advice you get."

"Well, I can at least see if anyone has books they'd both recommend and donate," and also buy some with my wages. 

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome!" She stretches up to kiss him.

"So," she says after they stop making out for more than a moment, "as predicted, I don't yet have a useful explanation for the first reason I need to take my little trip. But - with the news - well, I would have traveled to the Wound for years, to get a chance to travel the line as the news of the closure was going around. This is the biggest thing to happen in my life, genuinely the stuff of legends, and there are so many songs to write and stories to collect and people to talk to and I'll get to do so much of it..." she's practically vibrating with excitement, her eyes shining. 

Holding a Vibrating With Excitement Venn is interesting! "I don't know that anyone at any of the forts will know more than we do about exactly how the archmages did it," he cautions, instead of leaning into how interesting that is.

She nods. "I know! But even if I could find out how they did do it, I bet songs people made up for drama would spread better anyways? And - with all due respect to the archmages" (which is a lot!!) "I'm more interested in singing about the tens of thousands of heroes who worked together to hold the line for one hundred years getting to celebrate the upcoming completion of the project they spent years on and risked their life for, and all the emotions that come with that." She squeezes him. 

"You make it sound as though we should be throwing a party but the supply is still erratic so I don't think I can do that."

She nods. "I don't think you should with the supply situation. I'm planning on doing a magic song for courage and morale before I leave, which most people enjoy, but - the Chelish forts, still strained by their country's upheaval at the hands of the same archmages who closed the Wound, were glad of the news but had little slack to celebrate properly is a part of the story of what happened here, and something like that will go into a verse of at least one of my songs, because it's worth people knowing and remembering." 

That doesn't rhyme. ...obviously that was not a finished lyric. "How many songs are we talking about here?" Maybe he can use this information to wildly guess how long she'll be gone. Actually he probably shouldn't do that because it's not like he will just put off worrying about her till his guess has elapsed.

"I can't even guess! I don't expect to finish most of the songs I'll want to sing about this while on my journey - I can write song fragments in my head while walking between forts and probably will get at least a few done that way, but mostly I'm going to spend my time at forts gathering information, taking notes, and providing my usual aid."

Some bards strongly believe that the best song about something is the one you write quickly enough for it to be topical, and it's not like Venn doesn't see the argument or ever rush a song for an occasion, but... It's often the case that half a day's work, spread out over a week, can be the difference between something that is fine but unmemorable and something that lodges itself into people's heads and worms its way into their hearts from there. And for something like this, she wants to write those.

(And also, there's some bits that'll be hard to work out without her lyre, and she's not taking it with her, not even for this.)

"Have you already got some?"

"I've got a verse and a half of one, and then a few random scraps! Would you like to hear?"

And if he does, she can sing for him, her fingers tapping against his back in accompaniment.

He would like to hear! He can't really sing himself but music is nice and it does seem abstractly incorrect that most of the songs he knows are Asmodean hymns, so he should replace them as briskly as is practical.

Somehow, all of the events of his life have led to him being a percussion instrument. That's strange.

If he makes this desire to know non-Asmodean music known, she'll do her best to teach him an Iomedaean song or two before she leaves with the next patrol! 

(She's delighted, and it very much shows in her body language. It's possible that singing-while-hugging is, at least in some respects, analogous to chess-while-hugging for Venn.)

Oh well as soon as he figures that out he will bump Learn Iomedaean Hymns up his priority list a bit.

Then Venn will have a fantastic couple of hours and Blai can learn a few Iomedaean Hymns.

Eventually, though, it's time to say goodbye. "It won't be too long," she murmurs, hugging him tightly, and something about the way she says it makes it clear that she's reassuring herself, too.

Too long for what.

Should he say that out loud. Signs point to no. He hugs her and puts his face on her hair instead.

(Before she comes back to him, of course.)

She strokes his hair gently, and wishes, not for the first or fiftieth time, that she could live the type of life she wants to live without ever needing to worry about hurting the people she loves.

But she's being careful and responsible, even if it's hard for them both, in the short term, because she wants to be very sure she'll be doing right by him, wants to be certain that she isn't following infatuation in a way that will hurt her until she snaps and then hurt him horribly like she did with because he deserves better than that.

"Take care, Blai." I love you.

"You too, Venn." I don't want you to go away forever.

And if she sheds a few tears after she leaves his office, well, nobody is there to see it.