"They did, yeah, they were very hospitable. I got to heal some people."

"Oh, good! And was it productive, diplomatically I mean? I don't know that many details about why they wanted you to come down, but things were a bit tense, no?" 

"I think it was productive but I'm not sure it was efficient."

"Mmm. Honestly I think meetings often aren't, most people are bad at them. Leareth is good at efficient meetings but I think there's a skill there. Also, I mean, they're probably really confused and overwhelmed about the whole thing? So might not have a clear agenda yet." 

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Are you going to go back later?" 

"Tomorrow, probably."

"Well, good luck! I hope it's, er, more efficient." 

"Thank you."

Sapphire hangs out with her until the raspberries are all gone and the sun is down, then gets up and stretches. "Sleep well." 

"You too."

In the morning Promise eats breakfast and packs lunch and is all set to go south again.

Woodlark doesn't emerge to see her off, but Leareth does come out from the library. "Ready to go?" 

"Yup. And I have the letter."

"I hope it goes well." And Leareth calls over one of the mages to Gate her back to the northern border Guard-post. 

General comes out to meet her again. "Back to Haven?" 

"Yes, thank you."

"You're welcome!" 

Again, this requires a message being sent down the Mindspeech relay so that Wingsister can do a Gate from Haven. General comes back to wait with Promise once she's passed on said message, and makes conversation. She wants to know if Fairyland has war, and if so what that's like? It's of interest to her because she's a military commander in Valdemar. 

"Fairyland has conflict. I wouldn't generally describe it as war. It's all about who can envassal whom first. Property damage and injuries are mostly incidental on the way to that goal."

"Are strategy and tactics concepts that make sense, there? I mean, are there kinds of approach that work better for, er, envassalling people faster than your enemies can, or whatever?" 

"Well, there's always torture."

"- Gods. I...guess...that'd make sense in that context. Gah. I - never thought about how glad I am that torture is almost never the best tactical move in wars here. I mean, at least not if you've got Thoughtsensers or Truth Spell. Which I guess fairies don't have." General looks so unhappy about this. 

"Right. But we can tell if a name is real."

"Right." General falls silent, unable to think of anything else to say. (She desperately wants to ask for updates on her brother, but for infosec reasons they're avoiding revealing that she has any relation with Woodlark.) 

And a while later the Gate goes up and Wingsister waves to Promise. 

Promise flutters through. "I have a letter from Woodlark," she says, depocketing it.