:Careful, Chosen.: 

....Vanyel takes a deep breath. 

:Kilchas, I wish I didn't have to ask this of you. I'll - it's in range for the communication-spell, I'll check with you after a minute and get you out if I can.: 

Though, of course, if Leareth wants to try to attack he could do it in well under a minute - but then why would Leareth have bothered sending a letter at all - 

:Van.: 

He's busy. 

:What.: 

:Web-alarm in the north. From Tamara, she was closest, but she can't get there on her own.: 

.....A sinking feeling. That's - almost certainly Leareth. 

- Who can, apparently, Gate to Haven directly. Vanyel was kind of ignoring the implications of that, wasn't he.

How much does it actually matter. 

:....If it was Leareth, I don't know what his intentions were. He - er, he apparently just dropped some messages here - I haven't had a chance to check the message-drop location, Kilchas woke me - he might have tried to scry for Iomedae and Gate a letter over to her directly -: 

Dara got only the sketchiest of reports from Treven on - what even happened with Iomedae - and it's the middle of the night and she's so tired. Vanyel is pretty clearly not that okay. No one else is very okay either. 

Also. Aaaaaaaaah? 

:Leareth can Gate directly to Haven?: 

:Or someone who works for him can. I don't know.: Vanyel really doesn't feel like this is either surprising at all or the main point. :I agree it's alarming, and - that it's alarming if he found Iomedae. But - we already know he's absurdly good at - things like that - and we don't know what his intentions were. ...I'm going to scry her and check.: 

If Leareth has kidnapped her, he doesn't finish. He won't be surprised. He might be....a little disappointed...and he's not actually sure why, it's hardly a worse violation than all the others Leareth has committed. 

Is Iomedae in fact still in the Waystation? 

Yep. Pacing with a note she can't read.

:- Well, he hasn't kidnapped her. Might've - sent a letter - it looks like she's holding one? ...I guess he wouldn't know she can't read our language, or - I mean, it's sort of obvious given how she comes from another world, but - he probably knows we'd be more alarmed if he sent a Mindspeaker in person...: 

:....It feels like it's got to be a trap.: 

:Does it? 

- I don't know. I'm - confused what the trap would be aiming at? If - all the recent attacks, were his doing, he's presumably got his army lined up to invade one way or another. And trying to trick us into sending a Herald in person - just - how much does that really cost us, on top of - everything else...?: 

(And it's not like Kilchas can fight. ...Vanyel thinks this very quietly, in the back of his mind, and there's a faint flinch when he notices it. But it's not like Kilchas doesn't know. And - he wants to go -) 

:You're still the one doing the Gate.: 

The implication being, presumably, that Leareth could be aiming to assassinate Vanyel via blasting his Gate.

:I mean, if he really wanted me dead, I'm sure he could've arranged that already.: 

And the Shadow-Lover always sends him back, and has done so from worse injuries than a briefly-held Gate blasted. But it would still probably be unreasonable to put too much faith on that. 

:I'll– I can Gate Kilchas to half a mile away - there's a barn I remember, he can walk from there.: 

...He doesn't like it. It - why not - it feels like it leaves too much open to chance, too much opportunity for something he didn't even see coming to go wrong. 

He doesn't see a better option, right now. 

Dara is pretty sure this is going to be an enormous disaster. ...She isn't actually sure what, specifically, she expects to go wrong. But Rolan is being deeply alarmed in the back of her mind and everything is terrible and lately it's felt impossible for any plan to not end up being a disaster. 

...That's probably not actually a reason not to try. 

(- Kilchas can't fight. Dara is embarrassed about that thought but it's not false.) 

She takes a deep breath. :All right. Fine. But - hurry. And be careful.: 

It feels, on a deep level, like this is going to go badly. 

...does Yfandes trust that feeling?

She knows - she's known for a while - that she was created, or reincarnated, to serve the gods.

She– to the extent she can think about it directly (which isn't perfect, but it's only ordinary flinches, not an immutable barrier in her mind) not sure how far she trusts the gods, here. ...Or in general. 

If she tries to step outside of all of that, and just consider the facts that she knows...

...it's not that it feels unlikely that it's a trap. That question feels hard to assess.

But it - feels unlikely that it's an entirely new kind of threat. Vanyel has been dealing with situations hostile to him for a long time. 

(And he's not wrong, that the Shadow-Lover will send him back.) 

She's not going to raise any objections. :I'm with you, Chosen.: 

:Kilchas. Are you sure you're up for this?: 

Well. No. Especially not if it involves trudging across half a mile of forest. He's not so good at that, these days. 

- though he doesn't actually have to walk anywhere, necessarily, he could in theory sit right down on his bottom and Mindspeak Iomedae with the contents of the letter, right? 

:- We should go somewhere my Rohan can come across with me. But I'm willing to go.: 

They can step outside and Vanyel will find the nearest Companion-sized archway to raise a Gate on, sure. 

:...Kilchas, are you sure about this? Really?:

Who's ever been sure of anything. 

:I want to meet her.: 

And, once the Gate is up and Rohan is at his side, he'll step across and reach out with Mindspeech - apparently Iomedae's mind is well-shielded but in a memorable way, Vanyel said, which isn't the most useful thing to go on but he'll try. 

She's there. Still pacing, and thinking to herself that she should carry a Scholar's Ring.