Vanyel squares his shoulders. :I'd like it if you tried it: He seems nervous but determined. 

Okay, this won't take too long. Can you think about the place for me so I can locate it in your mind?

Vanyel nods, wearing the sort of expression that someone might if they both hated spiders and were trying to remove one from their house with a cup and paper without actually looking at it more closely than from the corner of their eye. 

That's enough, you can let your mind wander now.

There you go.

"Huh!" Vanyel sits back, rubs his eyes, and then stares at her, impressed. "That doesn't feel like anything! Or, I mean, it doesn't feel like I'm being yanked on a detour, it just is different. That's really neat." He closes his eyes for a bit, thinking. "...All right, it's kind of really weird too, but I don't think I mind, or at least I mind it less. I'll wait and see." He tries to hide a yawn behind a fold of blanket. 

Tired? We can pick up another time.

"Sorry." He's sheepish again. "I got about two candlemarks of sleep last night for, um, reasons. Maybe I should try to take a nap. I'm terrible at sleeping in the daytime but I'm...not sure I can do anything else today." 

I can put you to sleep, if you want me to, that's very safe. I'm sure you're aware that humans need more sleep than that.

"I know! I normally get more sleep than that!" He drags a hand over his face. "That would be nice if you could help. It's really stupid how it's worse trying to fall asleep if I'm this tired." 

That sounds really frustrating! I don't know how to fix it, I didn't have a book on sleep issues, but I can put you to sleep whenever no problem. Say when.

"...I should probably be in my bed." He scrambles off the desk again and crosses to the bedroom, flomping down and pulling the sheet half over himself. "Er, now's good – oh, um, and thank you. For everything today, not just this." 

You're welcome. Sleep well.

And he's out. She shows herself out of the room.

She finds another of the pages in blue outside her door. "Are you available, ma'am? Herald Tantras said he wanted to meet with you to make sure you know, er–" he uncrumples and glances at a note, "–Valdemaran laws? Are you from somewhere else? Oh and also he wanted to know if you'd had lunch yet." 

She's picked up just enough of the local language to say, "Yes, and no."

"Good, come with me, and I'll go to the kitchens and bring you a meal." 

Somewhat awkwardly, they go right back to the wing that she just left, and the youngster knocks on a door three down from Vanyel's. Tran answers it inside of ten seconds. "Oh, good! I wasn't sure when Lance would keep you busy until. He said you wanted to make sure you understood our laws? That's awfully responsible of you." 

I don't want to get into any trouble and I can't read the language here yet so I can't just look them up.

"Oh, right, that makes sense. Well, have a seat." 

Tran does read her off some things from a book that he digs out of his desk drawer, but he also just sits back and talks. Roughly, Valdemar has a single, supposedly universal and quite bare-bones criminal justice system, and at least a dozen semi-overlapping civil justice systems which even Tran seems confused about sometimes. Each major town or landholding is responsible for running its own court and trying criminal cases, but going off a single book of written laws, which if necessary is updated by the Heralds. The crimes that will get you tried here are roughly: murder, violent assault or rape, highway robbery or armed burglary, kidnapping, attempted ransom or blackmail, the killing of livestock belonging to someone else, impersonating a Healer, Bard, or Herald, or a poorly defined category of 'treason against the Crown' – which has an exception whereby it can be transferred to a sealed, secret court in Haven even if the crime takes place elsewhere. 

The crimes are otherwise pretty clearly defined but the punishments are discretionary, though with suggestions, and only murder or treason are meant to be punishable by death. Confusingly, 'capital punishment' also refers to exile, which is by far more common. Anyone who dislikes the verdict or the punishment selected by a local court can escalate the matter by requesting the case be revisited by the next Herald on circuit, or, if they feel like a journey for some reason, take the matter to Haven themselves and bring it in front of the King or Queen. This usually involves a Truth Spell, which (in theory) makes it rare for guilty party to request this in hopes of landing a verdict more to their taste. Concealing a crime of any kind is also its own crime, and traditionally is considered to merit a worse punishment. 

Other crimes – including non-violent theft of, apparently, arbitrary sums of money or value of goods, disputes over landowning, succession or parentage of children, misrepresentation of livestock or trade goods and various other types of con, et cetera – are dealt with in their local jurisdiction. This can be a particular noble's landholding, municipality, trade guild, or one of the Collegia. The Healers and Bards have their own legal codes, involving misuse of Gifts, and any related crime is tried internally unless it meets the standards for criminal law, in which case there's sometimes an awkward dual court convened or it can be negotiated to go to one or another. The Heralds also have their own policies here, and technically a private Herald's Court can be convened to bring to trial matters that involve the major misuse of other Gifts, but according to Tran, 'it almost never comes up in practice'. Again, civil matters can be escalated to a Herald's attention or even brought in front of the King, but this is somewhat discouraged since the Heralds are busy, and they won't tend to put a lot of thought into the revised verdict. 

(At some point in the middle of this all, bread and cheese and soup arrive.) 

Tran frowns at Bella for a while before admitting he doesn't know which civil law jurisdiction she would fall under. "Healers', I guess?" he suggests finally. "But, I mean, probably you should talk to them first or something because I don't know what their protocols are on Gifts and ethics."  

Well, it's reassuring to know that they have some. Do you know who I'd talk to specifically?

"Hmm. Aber, I think? I can walk you over if you're not doing anything after this." 

I have nothing on.

"Let's go, then." Tran stands. "Settling in all right otherwise?" 

Vanyel wakes up with a start to late afternoon sunlight. His head feels gluey and his mouth is parched, but that was a lot more sleep than he expected to get in the middle of the day, and it wasn't even one of the really bad nightmares that woke him.

He gets up, pours himself water and gulps all of it, and then puts his boots on and goes outside and breaks into a jog until he reaches the famili– the weirdly not-familiar path, and the still-maintained garden, and the obviously modified Work Room door. It's locked and he doesn't have the key, but it's not a complicated lock, it's meant to keep people from wandering in by accident not to keep out determined burglars, and he's friends with Donni and has Fetching. He has it open within a minute or two, and sends a mage-light inside to light the bare stone interior. 

Nothing in particular happens. 

:'Fandes?: he sends. :Want to practice something in here?: He doesn't even know what. Anything will do. He just wants to prove to himself that he can. 

Pretty well considering, yep.

"Well, you just let me know if there's anything I can do." 

It's a somewhat longer walk this time, and goes along a very picturesque river for a while, to another building with an older-looking stone section and some newer wooden additions. They go through a courtyard, past a screened-in herb garden, to a sort of central area with a skylight, a large curved desk and corridors leading off.

Aber, who looks up when his name is called, is a tall, cadaverous man in his sixties at least, wearing dark green robes. "Good afternoon," he says politely. "Herald Tantras. And who are you?" 

Tran glances at Bella expectantly. 

I'm Bella. I don't speak the language so I'm using telepathy for now but I only read what people are trying to send me.