:Well, I was right there. You're welcome: 

:Why is it you guys do the mysteriousness thing?:

:You know, I'm not entirely sure! I think some of it is just tradition, some of it's the Groveborn's instructions, and some is Foresight feelings. There are also some elements of just saving ourselves work. We have a lot of useful abilities, like Mindspeaking to un-Gifted people, but I for one would rather not get used to relay messages to people's mothers for them: 

:Would that otherwise come up a lot?:

:I have no idea! But I bet if we made a habit of just talking to everyone like we were ordinary humans, we'd end up wanting to be helpful, and then getting into a habit of it, and then being very busy: 

:You don't like being busy?:

:I don't think I'd mind, actually! Just - it's sort of important that we keep some slack for the places where it matters, right? There's always something that needs doing, and if you don't have checks and balances on it then helpful people get eaten: A motion weirdly like a horse equivalent of a shrug. :I don't know. I haven't actually thought about this in so much depth before, but - it's pretty interesting: 

:It is. Why the - caginess method of setting limits in particular, though?:

:I'm not sure. It does mean that with our Heralds in particular we can sometimes pull out useful abilities in a real emergency, without them - getting in the habit of counting on them all the time, I guess: 

:I guess if they're really bad at budgeting and you can't trust them to take it seriously if you tell them otherwise, but this casts some serious doubt on the competence of the typical Herald:

:Most Heralds are decently competent at most things, I think, but - tend to be a certain shape of person. People who want to try very hard to save everyone even when they cannot reasonably do so given their limited resources. I guess we often Choose people who care a lot, and then - have to guide that caring and trying in the most useful direction. Most Heralds are pretty good about it most of the time, though, I think: Her mindvoice gets weirdly hesitant. :I don't know that the mysteriousness is - totally necessary, for that: 

:I'd thought that the, uh, choosiness, had to be at least somewhat exaggerated - you do rather snap up every single mage and most of the other major Gifted and I don't think that correlates with any specific personality trait -:

:I'm not sure: Amshalan seems slightly uneasy again. 

:Maybe gods can decide whether a given person's Gifts awaken or not, that'd probably filter enough:

:Maybe. Though it'd be polite of them to give us more mages in that case: 

:Can you ask, or do they not have a feedback mechanism like that?:

:...Certainly not that I know of. It's possible the Groveborn has that but...I'd bet against it: 

:Huh. Why's that?:

:Why isn't there or why would I bet against it?: 

:Either, really, but I'm more expectant of an answer about the latter:

:I guess just a sense that things would end up looking different if it were set up that way? But I haven't actually asked Rolan: 

:I am suddenly so curious about his, uh, management style:

:I actually don't know Rolan that well! He's only been the Groveborn for a year. I think he's more hands-on than Taver, who was around before, but since I haven't Chosen yet I haven't had as much contact with him. He gives us advice without us asking specifically. Taver didn't do that, you had to go to him: 

:What kind of advice?:

:How to be supportive to our Chosen in various situations, mostly. Rolan likes to stay in the loop on how the Heralds are doing and what they're up to more than Taver did, I think. Oh, also the Groveborn generally keeps us updated on various political events in Valdemar, just so all the Companions have context on things as they come up: