"I promise I won't do anything heroic and dumb." 

<Starwind. I'm meeting at the location you named - is someone going to be there?>

<I will be. Five minutes> 

Then Vanyel will take five minutes to catch his breath. He's taking his endurance artifact too; he'll need it if he ends up in a fight.

When the five minutes have dripped past, he hugs Stef a final time, nods to Fëanáro, takes a deep breath, draws in all the power he can, and casts an inter-world Gate from the doorway of his Work Room to a lonely patch of forest a world away. As usual, he can't see the other side, only a milky film. Annoying, but he has to cross and hope that if he walks into an ambush he has time to leap back. 

:An hour: he sends again, and steps across into Velgarth. 

"Wingbrother." Starwind is in fact there, along with half a dozen other scouts. Moondance isn't present, maybe because he's a Healing-Adept, with a more direct link to the Goddess. 

Vanyel doesn't move closer. "It's really, really good to see you. I wish - Savil..." His voices cracks, and he has to take a deep breath and blink hard and remind himself that they have a time limit. 

"I know. I am so, so sorry." Starwind bows his head for a moment, then points. "He is that way." 

So Vanyel taps a node briefly to renew his reserves, and then stretches out with Thoughtsensing, looking for Maitimo. 

- Vanyel?

Vanyel is keeping his senses blocked from osanwë, and his shields as tight as he can, and - trying not to rejoice too much, but that feels like Maitimo, and Fëanáro's right, it would be nearly impossible for an imposter to replicate osanwë and at this range. 

:I can't come to you: he sends. :Or tell you anything. I hope you understand. But - are you all right? They said you were injured: 

I'll live. Leareth - did a Final Strike, to get me out. And also Sandra and Keiran but they didn't make it. I don't think many people did, I'm so sorry. Vkandis is working with a Maia of Melkor. Sauron. Leareth didn't have time to tell me much of anything about him. Under the circumstances I'm sure he'd be fine with it if you read his notes. 

:What– Oh, right. Leareth would've met him: Presumably in some extremely horrifying context that Vanyel really would prefer not to know the details of, but. :Notes back in Arda, you mean?: 

Yes. I'm sorry, it'll probably suck, but there might be something important in there and Leareth might not remember. Maybe have Larya do it and send you a summary. - also you shouldn't be in Valdemar, don't tell me if you are, but they've got all kinds of forms of surveillance up within the borders now, I think. Shouldn't have been able to find me and they kept being able to find me. - and maybe don't go to K'Treva either, we think the Star-Eyed isn't uncomplicatedly on board but we don't think she's uncomplicatedly opposed either. - why don't we not converse for one minute so that if you need to relocate you can do that without me having the information that you needed to relocate.

Huh. :All right: He drops the connection. Nods to Starwind with a curt smile. Waits exactly a minute. :Still there?: Osanwë isn't directional, Maitimo shouldn't be able to tell that he hasn't moved. 

Yeah. - most of this is probably out of date but don't cut me off if you know better - Leareth and I were on a day trip in the mountains up north. They attacked right after we got back. Lots of gryphons. Karis didn't know anything about it but her Suncat was gone. Leareth was tired, he'd just Gated. He is planning to come and find us as soon as he can but it'll take a while, he will be a teenager and might not remember much and will have to work his way back from his supply caches. And the Enemy's probably looking for him. His army might still work with you, I'd think, but I haven't met anyone I can send you an impression to work off. 

They were aiming to destroy the Gate. I don't know if it was just a practical thing because if we'd made it to the Gate we could've made it to you or if it was the whole point. We were speculating maybe Vkandis took issue with the world getting better, the way the gods take issue every time Leareth tries to make things better, but we didn't have much time to speculate. 

And to someone else - is that enough to triangulate?

Yes. Just keep him there.

Savil is dead. I'm very sorry. She was - very impressive - I can send it, if you want, but maybe not right now.

:No, not right now, but - thank you...: Vanyel blinks away tears, now is not the time. Maitimo sounds like himself. He doesn't sound like someone under the number of compulsions it would take to make him act against them. Everything he's said so far fits, except that Vanyel doesn't specifically know anything about surveillance in Haven - but the Web was possible, Vkandis might have an alternative. 

He wants to say that Karis and Dara and Katha got out alive, but he can't afford even that much. I'm sorry, he thinks behind the privacy of his shields. :I want to ask you some more questions: He has a series he can go through, poke further at the compulsion question - Maitimo is smart, he would notice a compulsion making him act uncharacteristically even if it was subtly done, and Vanyel bets he could find ways to sneak around it.

He can go through the questions. He does not seem like someone who is desperately trying to get a different message out the sides of the main message. 

Really what you should do is get a Mindhealer out to look, though. Gods might be able to be more subtle than mages. - I guess it might be safe to just fish me back and have Jisa look, we shouldn't assume the Enemy isn't reading me and we shouldn't assume my advice is good advice but I am not actually dangerous to be around. - don't decide that now, go discuss it with some people. I am not going to die on you. I might offend our allies by finding their hideout ugly, I guess. 

Vanyel is very tentatively starting to feel - relieved, even hopeful. :Maitimo, I can't tell you now if that's something we could consider. And - please tell the Tayledras anything you need, including for things to be prettier, if that means you can recover faster from your injuries or something. They won't be offended: He swallows. :I'm really, really glad you made it out alive. And I'm sorry about Leareth. I know he's not gone-gone, but - still: 

He was hoping to never have to do it again. Sigh. We'll figure things out. You'll figure things out, I'll work on stitching these bones back up.

:We will: It hasn’t been an hour yet but there’s no point lingering now that he’s asked all the useful questions and gotten answers. Still, he doesn’t want to go just yet. He can’t think of anything concretely reassuring that he can safely tell Maitimo, but- :It’s going to be all right:

I hope you're right about that. I have some things I'd like to convey to people back in Vinyamar, but, uh, probably use your judgment about whether to actually convey it -

And then the connection breaks because Vanyel is no longer a Mindspeaker. 

Also? Gryphons.

Vanyel isn't much good in a fight without magic, but he's with half a dozen Tayledras scouts, four of them aren't mages and even the mages among them are skilled in non-magical combat. They circle up around him, bows come out, arrows fly at the gryphons, spears and daggers are at the ready for hand-to-hand fighting if the enemies get closer. 

And suddenly it is impossible to see anything.