Katri blinks at him. :...I'm curious but I feel like I should think of a difficult thing to try doing to test it properly? Also that's another thing I don't know if any of our magic could do even in principle. Maybe Mindhealing but I think it'd have to be - specific, the Mindhealer would have to know someone and what they usually got stuck on, there's not a Mindhealing technique you can just toss at anyone that does that.: 

She considers it. :I guess I could ask my Companion to give me a math problem and try solving it, or something? How long does it last?: 

:Just a minute if you don't use it, but it can work on things that take longer than that.:

Why??? That's even weirder! It would make sense if it only worked once, you can set spells with a trigger to fire, and it would make sense if it only lasted a fixed duration, but it's bizarre for it to be triggered by a certain action but the trigger exists for less time than the rest of the spell does! 

Katri is game to try it, though, and then receive instructions from her Companion for the sort of slightly complicated math problem where she tends to always get herself confused, and see if the spell helps? 

Guidance!

There's a subtle feeling to it, an affordance to be just slightly better at - something. It would be pretty easy to spend by accident but since she's paying attention she can apply it to the math problem.

It's pretty subtle - it doesn't make it effortless, it doesn't really make Katri feel like she's suddenly better at math - but she does feel a little sharper than usual, a little more like her intuitions are working rather than just getting her turned in circles. It's not gamechanging or anything, but she can definitely imagine ending up using it all the time if it were a motion she had right there and could do unlimited times. 

She solves the math problem, and grins briefly. :That's neat! Do you use it often?: 

:Usually hundreds of times per day.:

:Wow. That must be really useful.: Katri isn't sure she would want to use it that many times, but - dozens for sure. And probably it would be even more tempting if she didn't already have the option right there of just wordlessly asking her Companion for help or advice. :...Do rulers and people who make a lot of important decisions get someone with god-magic to follow them around and cast it for them hundreds of times a day? I feel like maybe politics would go better if we had that here.: 

:There's more powerful magic available for people at that level of wealth and power! I guess a lot of it would cooperate with Guidance, but I don't actually know of it being a commonplace to have a cleric follow a king around and tap them with Guidance constantly.:

:I guess if there's more powerful magic then probably some of it would be more convenient.: Katri is pretty curious about the more powerful magic now! But it's probably not relevant right now, if Blai doesn't have it anyway. :What does Virtue do?: 

:It's a bit of a misnomer, it just makes them a trifle healthier for a minute even if they weren't injured before.:

:That is confusingly named! What sort of healthier? Does it make someone old more like a young person, or make them stronger or fitter, or...? If someone is injured, do the injuries heal a bit and then come back after a minute?: 

:Virtue in particular doesn't heal injuries and definitely doesn't restore youth or increase strength. It increases - robustness? A little bit, and temporarily. I'd mostly want it if I were going to do something that would definitely hurt me, like if I were going to have to - charge into a burning building, it would be plausibly worth the moment to cast a Virtue if I didn't have something more specialized for fire prepared.:

:Huh, if it makes you a bit harder to injure that does seem useful even if it's temporary! We don't have anything like–: 

And then Katri cuts off abruptly, her shoulders tensing, because she's just been interrupted by a sudden wordless mental burst of alarm from her Companion. 

:What's wrong?:

:I don't know - something is wrong at the Ice Festival - my Companion thinks we're safe here, we should stay put for the moment - 

- some kind of attack, there's - a monster, came from under the ice -: 

:May I help? Or would I be in the way -:

:I don't know -:

Focus. Is she a Herald or now. :Do you have any magic right now that would be useful for fighting a monster?: 

(Half a mile off, Vanyel is asking himself the same question, while clinging bareback to Yfandes as they rush toward the scene -) 

Savil is drawing on Vanyel's energy to weave a shield, trying to stabilize the ice under the Queen and her daughter's feet as they run toward the bank, but it's too late - 

- ice shattering, a flash of sinewy black flesh and eyes like yellow globes over a too-long jaw - 

:Yes. And the mace.: He's up now and has it in his hand. He casts a Guidance on himself.

:Then let's go.: Katri is already at the door of the guest-room. It's going to take them at least five minutes to get there anyway, which is plenty of time to turn around and take shelter if someone tells her to absolutely not bring Blai near the scene.

(For example, because the monster could have been sent by Leareth to go after him - but that doesn't make sense, she's pretty sure Leareth would want to capture the man alive, in which case he could have sent a mage to the guest rooms instead -) 

- one of the guards braces to throw Arven toward the shore, but he's a fraction of a second too slow - and dies for it, as the creature's tail whips up from the star-shaped hole in the ice and severs his head from his shoulders in a single swipe -

- and that's it, the monster's jaws close on Arven's ankle and the dark water closes over her head and she's gone. 

:I'm going in: Savil sends to Vanyel, and dives after her. 

Vanyel is also coming to the conclusion that this doesn't make any sense as a Leareth plot targeting Select Blai. For one thing, even Leareth surely couldn't have arranged it this fast, he has spies but Vanyel would have expected it to take several days for him to learn of their visitor.

But Leareth could have known days ago that the Queen and her daughter would be here, and it definitely looks like the monster is after them. 

And even if he can't get there fast enough to help in a fight, Select Blai also has Healing - 

:Katri: he sends. :Get here as fast as you can.: 

One he has a sense of direction from Katri he's running flat-out.

The direction is mostly back the way they came, anyway. Blai is faster than Katri, and is already fifty yards ahead of her by the time her Companion catches up and pauses for just barely long enough for Katri to pull herself onto his back.

- and then, to Katri's surprise, he pauses again when they catch up with Blai a few seconds later. :Get on: he sends, addressing both of them.