I THINK THAT HE SHOULD MAKE A FULL RECOVERY. 

"That's, um, that's good, I'm really glad, but...we're not...married... Why - do you think that...?" His face is crimson why is this happening to him. 

YOU ARE MARRIED, Lórien says. IT IS VERY OBVIOUS. I DO NOT KNOW HOW YOU ARE MARRIED BUT YOUR CREATOR MAY HAVE DIFFERENT INTENTIONS THAN THE CREATOR OF OUR WORLD, WHO WOULD NOT HAVE ARRANGED FOR THIS.

This is the point at which Stef groans and opens his eyes. "I - wha...?" 

He realizes that he's in Vanyel's arms. Squirms around. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in– where are we?" 

Vanyel sits down heavily. Holds Stef against his chest. "Lórien's garden. You were being foolhardy and bothered some Quendi and they hit you, so I Gated you here."

He hesitates. Swallows. It is really very obvious once he gets over being an idiot about everything. "Also we're. Um. We're..." 

"We're what?" 

"Apparently lifebonded." Vanyel cannot actually help smiling at this. "This makes the least sense of anything that's ever happened to me, and some very weird things have happened to me including, well, everything about Arda and the war here. But. There it is. We're lifebonded." 

"What?" 

A thousand miles away the Gate comes down and Shavri covers her face with both hands. :Goddamnit. Maitimo, Lórien won't actually let him break his fool neck, right?: 

He won't. It is possible that once the Valar confer on it they'll ban all humans from the continent or something but in the meantime they're not going to let anything happen to them in Lórien. I'm - he knew back in Tol Eressëa, that something was wrong - that's not normal, is it -

:What? Really? I - huh - no, I don't...: Her eyes widened. :No, that isn't possible:

I don't think it was random luck, he hasn't gotten wrongly worried before.

:No, I don't think so either. He can be an idiot, like you just noticed, but he's not – he doesn't chase random hunches. I...am having a thought that is probably completely wrong and crazy, but. That sort of thing can happen when people are lifebonded. It's happened with Randi and I. Only, I've never heard of someone getting lifebonded twice, and, well...: 

Then again it's not like they would know, right, people generally wouldn't survive losing their first partner. 

He told me about Tylendel. Does being lifebonded cause - what we just saw?

:That bizarre and inexplicable level of panic and overprotectiveness about Stef being hurt? Honestly, yes. But they weren't–: 

She brings a hand to her forehead. :Right. They kissed at the event in Vinyamar, didn't they, Dara warned me there might be drama about it although it seemed to have died down fine... Though I'd got the impression that was Stef's idea and he's, er, very himself. And Van is famous and attractive and he'd– Anyway. Do you have any idea whether Vanyel was attracted to Stef back? I hadn't noticed anything, but...: 

Yes. I told him not to - and he seemed to agree that he shouldn't - but yes, he was.

:Right. He would've thought, well, Stef is very young and he would've thought it was unethical to do anything with him even if they both wanted it. Gods, I'm not sure if he'll be delighted or horrified about the lifebond part coming in and not giving him a choice: 

I think I expect it'll be good for him.

:Oh, I mean, I agree. I'm just not sure how long he'll be an idiot about it first:

"Prince Nelyafinwë?" Savil is finally forging out to meet them, trailing Starwind and Moondance. "What's going on - where's Van...?" 

"He just Gated into Valinor with Stef. Well, over Valinor. Figured out that their block on Gates stopped working about a quarter of a mile up in the air."

"What?" She freezes. "You mean to tell me that Van just - Gated up a quarter mile in the air and jumped? With Stef who is injured? What in all hells did he think he was playing at?" 

"Lórien will catch him but it was still very uncharacteristically stupid!"

"It was very stupid! I don't know about 'uncharacteristically', Van can be - kind of reckless, surprised you didn't see him at it in the war. Honestly if he knew a god was going to catch him it's not the stupidest thing he's ever done, just – why?" 

Shavri is staring down at her feet.