"Oh, does the announcement need to be made for the legalities to be cleared up?"

"A dozen people need to sign off for the legalities to be cleared up, and a sensationalist secret known to a dozen people outside our family ought to be assumed to not be a secret very long after that."

"Well, given that the anecdote about your youngest brothers saying your-brother-the-King talked people out of their souls and keeping them somewhere cozy and well-lit and singing to them and Imliss agreeing after she had known him for a while actually happened, I'm a little surprised, but in general that makes sense."

"I mean, could Nelyo just wave his hand and make it true? Yes, but we don't know if your daughters are the only people, if there's a way to cause this to happen, if there are others who didn't have the magic and just dismissed the dreams..."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"So, all nice and orderly, even if that means some needless waiting."

"Alright. This all sounds fine to me, but I shouldn't do anything about it until the others get home and we've had a chance to talk about it. Can I get you anything in the meantime? A snack, a beverage, an effusively complimentary book someone wrote on your music?"

"Any of those sound lovely!"

She acquires all three of these things. "You know, as a librarian it's really surreal to me to have a daughter who in a past life introduced the printing press to this universe."

"I can imagine. It was lovely, tremendously helpful in the war."

"I'm sure she'll be glad to hear that."

"Should I give you some space to process all this?"

"I'll be fine. I'm not less able to process with you around, and I'm sure Imliss will be glad to see you when she gets back."

"When's that?"

"She didn't say. Probably at least half an hour from now."

"I will be happy to wait."

And he seats himself and closes his eyes.

Okay.

She's not going to actively start packing up the house to move without talking to her family, but she can tidy things to make them more packable later and cook with perishables and sit down opposite him with an old favorite book.

And eventually there are the sounds of feet outside and then the door opens and a familiar voice calls, "Mom, I'm--" before she sees him and cuts off.

"Hi. Long time, no see, hmm?"

"Oh, good, Idaia got in to see you guys without ending up on the news, I wasn't sure she was going to manage that," she says, and then walks over and hugs him.

"Osanwë still works fine. She interrupted the King in an important meeting, though I don't think he told her that." Hugs.

"Given that if she had any way of telling if it was a convenient time to be interrupted she wouldn't have needed to get his attention in the first place because she would have to already have had it I don't think she's going to feel especially guilty over that one.

I missed you guys kind of a lot."

"Likewise. How -"

"I don't know! We thought we were just having weird dreams until less than a week ago!"

"Must have been quite a week. Anyway, Idaia's well, I was asked to come by to work out with the rest of your family how and when we want the news to break."