What. 

...Okay, it would be baffling and absurd for someone to fake a message from Leareth, when no one except Taver even knows about their conversations. 

It's impressive and infuriating how Leareth somehow manages to guess the right answers to so many things even when Vanyel explicitly hasn't told him??? He can't think how Leareth could possibly have inferred that the Shadow-Lover sometimes (cryptically and frustratingly) answers his questions, or that he made a questionable decision once to shout at the Star-Eyed Goddess. But Leareth definitely isn't wrong that he has routes to learn more about what's happening here. He had even sort of been considering it. There's a Heartstone in Haven now, after all... 

For some reason Vanyel had been considering it as a thing to do after all the emergency meetings, when it was– it's not like there's ever a convenient time, is there. But it's - okay, he had considered that maybe the flying things were here to conquer Valdemar or something, or that their arrival might not be a good thing in some other way, but he hadn't really been thinking ahead on how to check that, except for waiting to see how this plays out, and Leareth has a point that by then it would probably be too late to stop. It's probably already too late to stop. 

- is this suggestion somehow a plot where he's playing precisely into Leareth's hands? Vanyel doesn't think that seems likely. He did wonder, briefly, if all of this was somehow Leareth's doing, but if Leareth could do something like this all along then Vanyel can't imagine why he bothered to carve a pass with blood-magic for his army to march through, or why he would have needed decades to plan. There's the obvious plot - that Leareth wants to know what's going on and hopes to convince Vanyel to take on the risky part - but, just like Leareth pointed out in the short letter, it's not like Vanyel has to tell Leareth whatever he learns. (Unless Leareth plans to immediately kidnap him or something? But in that case why not kidnap him now...) 

It's always been the case that trying to outthink Leareth would drive him insane. But he can try to ignore who sent this particular suggestion, and just think about whether it makes sense to try to ask a god what in all hells is happening... 

(Vanyel drops the letter, burns it in midair with a tightly focused burst of mage-energies, watches the ashes gently drift to land on the path. He has no idea if that's actually enough to stop the flying things from reading its contents, but he doesn't really want anyone else stumbling on it either and having awkward questions.) 

:Van, what are you -: 

:Er, can you have Kellan warn Savil that I'll be late to the meeting?: 

:Van, are you sure -: 

:The Star-Eyed Goddess was more frustrating. And I only know the one way of talking to the Shadow-Lover.: 

He should probably at least sit down for this. 

...He wasn't sure that would work, on several levels, but it turns out that one absolutely can use Healing to stop one's own heart, and also that the flying artifacts that apparently hate people dying cannot actually get to him before he finds himself in an empty white place where nothing hurts. 

(Ugh. He actually hadn't been dwelling at all, before, on the void in his mind that always hurts, but that isn't going to make it any less jarring to have to go back, and - this time he really doesn't have a choice -) 

And then he's lying on his back on the path. It must have been only seconds in the ordinary world, because Yfandes isn't actually there, yet, just reaching for his mind, close enough in rapport that he can sense her galloping over as fast as she can, and she seems to be halfway through a sentence.

:- are you like this, Van, seriously -:

There's a flying thing nearby but it's not entirely clear to Vanyel whether it was even needed. The Shadow-Lover was rather emphatic about sending him back. 

Vanyel remembers the entirety of his rather long conversation with the Shadow-Lover clearly. 

He has less clear memories of - 

"You’re a facet of a bigger god. I want to talk to Them." 

and falling into light - inside out and backwards - nowhere to stand - a pillar too bright to take in, opalescent, swirling - 

(He remembers almost a note of apology, and the sense that the god behind the Shadow-Lover’s persona was trying its best to be very gentle and very careful, and not yet especially good at it…)

He remembers the answer to his question. That part wasn’t ambiguous at all.

And then Yfandes is there, hooves skidding, immediately reaching down to nuzzle at Vanyel’s hair as he picks himself up.

:Are you all right - did it work - what did He say -:

:I’m alright: Vanyel feels almost dizzy - not physically, his body feels perfectly healthy, but in some deeper sense. :I - I think maybe everything’s going to be all right, now…: He isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or cry or something else entirely. 

:Leareth -?: 

:…I don’t know. If he’s - if the letter was a plot or if he meant exactly what he wrote. The Shadow-Lover was a lot less chatty about him. I - we can trust the intelligence that the flying things speak for - it’s not a god exactly but it’s sort of like one, it traveled here from another world, or - I don’t know exactly, there’s another world and it’s from there but I’m not entirely clear how it got here. It’s - better at a lot of things, I think, the other world is better off and it wants to make the same here - 

- it’s a lot more powerful than Leareth is, for sure, I can see why he’d be alarmed—: 

A long, thoughtful pause.

:Van, if it’s that powerful - and we can trust it - then, I mean, couldn’t we ask it to check? What he really seems to be up to, I mean. It’s like he says, right, words are cheap and actions speak louder - how much could he hide from a god from another world, he can’t have seen it coming any more than we did -:

:Wouldn’t put it past him.: Vanyel pulls himself to his feet, leans briefly against Yfandes’ flank. :I - that’s a good idea, I think, might as well ask -:

And he’ll try to flag down the nearest flying thing, and drag his thoughts into slightly more order.

(This feels very awkward and he’s self-conscious about sounding scattered and unpolished, even though this is an absurd and stupid way to feel.)

(He should probably at some point get around to telling the other Heralds anything, but that also feels incredibly awkward and it’s hard to feel urgent about it when everything is going to be fine one way or another. Yfandes can just tell Taver what they just learned, maybe, and he can worry about the rest later. …at any other time he would worry about Leareth’s spy hanging around the palace grounds, but it’s not like he can cause any real trouble that way, not now…)

So. Uh. An immortal mage operating in the north who goes by Leareth and is - was? - planning to invade Valdemar at some point but claimed to be doing it to improve things for Valdemar’s people and might or might not be telling the truth about that or anything else - for context Vanyel seemed to be destined to fight him in the future, he has a Foresight dream about it and for some reason they were both in it and have been speaking regularly for about a decade - anyway, this mage sent a message asking him to ask one of the gods if the flying things are really trying to save everyone or lying about that. So he did. And apparently they’re not lying about that, and he’s so glad that they’re here. But he, uh, still has no idea whether Leareth was lying about his own goals? If not, then he probably has a lot of common ground with the not-god from another world, and if is lying about everything and is actually evil then, well, that also seems good for the not-god to be aware of, and Vanyel would kind of prefer to know so he can decide not to helpfully relay messages from gods that he got by slightly killing himself? 

Well, if he goes and says a thing like that then he's going to have a subtly harder time getting out of view of at least one flying thing at all times going forward.

"I don't know whether Leareth is evil. If he asks us to tell you, we can do that, but if he doesn't ask, it is not obviously your business if he is privately evil in a way that can no longer involve invading Valdemar," it says.

(Vanyel hadn't entirely meant to say that part out loud, oops, another thing to be embarrassed about.) 

"I, uh, right." Now he also feels sheepish about what he's definitely parsing as a gentle rebuke for, what, wanting to invade Leareth's privacy? Or infringe on his right to "be privately evil", whatever that's even supposed to mean. "I guess I mostly wanted you to know, I don't know how hard it is for you to know things. ...I don't know if it's useful for you to know that he's worried you might be secretly evil - he's really paranoid, it's not like he would necessarily believe it if you went and assured him you're not. I'm actually sort of confused why he would believe a god about it, I don't think he gets along with Them..." 

Separately from whether Valdemar is in danger of getting invaded, which obviously it isn't anymore, it - would, actually, apparently mean a lot to Vanyel to know, one way or another, whether Leareth was really an enemy or not this whole time. But that's not actually the same thing as it being his business. ...And he can just tell Leareth, actually, and say that the not-god is only willing to provide its character assessment of Leareth if Leareth gives his permission. If Leareth was telling the truth this whole time, then - Vanyel thinks it might be meaningful to him, too, for Vanyel to know that for sure. 

He clears his throat. "Do you - the not-god you're speaking for, I mean - have a name?" That apparently wasn't the sort of thing that the Shadow-Lover knew or was able to communicate to him, and it's just sort of awkward to keep calling it the 'not-god' in his thoughts. 

"It has many names in many languages. Nothing suitable to catch on in Valdemaran has yet been coined. 'Sing' should be pronounceable if you want a placeholder. It has a double meaning in its source language."

"Huh. All right. ....Thank you." Vanyel means it a lot more than just answering his question. 

And - since apparently no one is yet demanding that he answer their awkward questions - he's going to go tuck himself in a corner and draft a message to Leareth. (Hopefully he can find the spy again with Thoughtsensing? The alternative is waiting for tonight - the dream probably will come, this is new information if anything is, but that's not for candlemarks - or else asking if the flying things can deliver letters, which seems like it wouldn't be hard for them if they didn't mind it but still feels like rudely imposing.) 

(He'll be able to find the spy easily; the man has orders to stay nearby rather than immediately fleeing the city, which might put him in danger from the Heralds but Leareth was fully aware that Vanyel wouldn't have any other convenient channels to pass a message back, and it would be kind of pointless to ask him for information without giving him any way to provide it. 

The spy isn't shielding his surface thoughts, which means that if Vanyel wants he'll be able to pick up that the man is very nervous but resolutely sticking to the plan, because something this big is definitely worth dying for, not that it's exactly likely that the Heralds of Valdemar are going to stick him in a dungeon and execute him for it but still.) 

(Vanyel isn't going to read his thoughts for no reason! That doesn't seem necessary given that he doesn't have to worry about anything bad happening, and so it would just be rude. All he needs to do is find the man so he can hand off a letter!) 

Leareth,

You were right that I've spoken to gods before. I was able to speak to the Shadow-Lover, and the god that it's an avatar of. I'm not actually sure why you would find this convincing, or believe me in the first place, but the Shadow-Lover's god is convinced that the being – I don't know what you know about it, but it's a constructed powerful intelligence from another world, where they call it ‘Sing’ in their language – is operating in good faith. It’s starting out by making sure no one dies, and I guess it will go from there to fix all the other problems.

I think that if you were telling the truth about what you care about, then this is good news for you as well. It makes sense that you wanted to check. It would be terrifying if ‘Sing’ didn’t want good things for the world.

I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to send this message, since I haven’t had a way to check if you were lying about your intentions. So I asked ‘Sing’. It very politely told me it was none of my business if you wanted to be privately evil; I guess it’s obviously not going to let you invade Valdemar, and doesn’t care what you get up to if it’s not hurting anyone? But I think I do care what you were really trying to do, before, and why. ‘Sing’ said it could tell me if you asked. 

Vanyel reads over the draft, considers rewriting it chest to make it sound more - he’s not even sure what? More careful, more precisely worded, more the way he normally tries to match the way Leareth has always spoken to him.

It doesn’t really matter, though, and he’s tired. He’ll add a few more paragraphs of detail on what he was able to get from the Shadow-Lover, and the fragments he remembers from after he decided that the avatar of death wasn’t a direct enough source. Leareth might be able to infer a lot more from it than he can.

And he signs his name, and goes to deliver it to the agent of a man he’s spent nearly half his life expecting to die fighting. It’s weirdly disorienting, not having that path in front of him anymore. 

All told, counting the time to deliver the messages in both directions, it’s been nearly forty minutes. A little over a candlemark in total since the flying things appeared. 

Leareth is calm and focused and - not actually incredibly okay, he’s aware that he’s pushing himself hard with a lot more internal coercion than he usually employs and there’s going to be a reckoning later - but, for the most part, his mind is clear. 

There are a lot more reports to sift through. (Or, well, other people have done the sifting, Leareth only has time for high-level summaries.) So far, none of the observations are in conflict with the artificial intelligence intending exactly what it claims to be. It’s just the scope and capability level on display that’s terrifying. 

Leareth is studying some Eastern Empire-sourced (well, stolen; he had to do the Gate and snatch himself because the Empire’s precautions are very very good) components from a dismantled flying thing. Naively targeting a Gate didn’t work, maybe because there are thousands if not millions of the things much closer to home, probably also because it’s straightforwardly out of range and, if it’s in another plane, would need some kind of clever routing to reach. But magical research is grounding. He thinks he could maybe get somewhere in another day, and he probably won’t have a day but it’s worth planning for the scenario where his decisions right now have any hope of mattering.

There’s a letter. Apparently. From Vanyel.