"I'm good."

"I am glad. Do feel free to tell me if you need anything else - supplies, more books to trade... And thank you for your help, in k'Treva. I did not in fact intend for you to run into Woodlark there, but it was fortuitous, I think, he may be off-balance but he seems far more inclined to take my recent claims seriously." 

"I have another trip's worth of books ready to trade but it wouldn't hurt to have more ready for the next time you want something from Fairyland to read. Also it might be a good use of book-copying effort to get me some books with names in them recopied without them, so I can have more context on things like what countries are."

"Of course, that is an excellent idea. You should have some older historical books, but more recent geopolitical context would be useful for you to have. And I will obtain more books to trade for your next trip." He stands. "Anything else?" 

"Would it be good if I had a regular time to do sorcery question-and-answers and demonstrations?"

"If you are willing, I think that would be highly valuable." 

"I don't have much going on that's time-sensitive, if interested parties want to agree on a time and tell me."

"I will inform the others." And Leareth heads off to do that, and arrange for more works of fiction to be obtained for Promise to trade, and for some recent historical treatises to be copied with all names redacted and replaced with nicknames. 

Promise teaches classes and gardens her glowing flowers into growing up a trellis-shaped pattern up one side of her tree trunk so it'll glow at night.

She gets a number of takers for her classes! All of the mages she de-aged remain very enthusiastic about sorcery, and seem to be making unusually quick progress as well, maybe because their age means they're the most experienced in general. 

As usual, she gets occasional visitors coming to check on her garden's progress, and they ooh and aah about the pretty glowing flowers and ask if she got them in Fairyland. 

She thinks probably mage-sight and other Othersenses are very useful for sorcery.

"No, I grabbed these in the Pelagirs, I thought they were nice looking and asked if I could have some."

Ooh! None of them have ever been to the Pelagirs, due to the thing where the Tayledras murder all outsiders, and they want to know what other interesting plants she saw there! 

These were definitely the most interesting ones but she can describe the others, sure.

The next morning there's still no reply yet from Vanyel, but Leareth brings her a copied recent treatise about Valdemar, with names redacted. The other countries' histories are still being copied, but Valdemar seemed like the highest priority here. 

It does appear to be relevant nowish! She will read the redacted treatise.

Valdemar was founded roughly eight hundred years ago by a man called Baron Valdemar (they haven't bothered to redact this name, since he's long dead and it's now the country name.) He was fleeing a corrupt empire in the east with several thousand of his barony's people, and went as far west as he could, right up to the then-border of the Pelagirs. He founded a city there and named it Haven. 

In his old age, the first King Valdemar worried about the country's stability; he was especially conscious that it might eventually slide into authoritarianism and corruption, like the empire he had escaped. He prayed to every god whose name he knew for a solution to this; since he was a powerful mage, it's suspected he also cast a spell. 

His prayer was answered by the appearance of the first Groveborn Companions, sentient magical horses who Chose and bonded to him, his son, and his herald, who became the first King's Own. Thereafter, when additional people were Chosen, they were referred to as Heralds. The miraculous arrival of the Companions also brought the Death Bell, which rings magically whenever a Herald dies. 

Important elements of Valdemar's founding philosophy and current policy: the kingdom does not invade and conquer other countries. It's been expanding steadily since the Founding, but mostly to the north and west as new land became habitable, and by the voluntary annexation of smaller landholdings that wanted in on the kingdom's competent governance and institutions. Also, Valdemar is the kingdom of 'no one true way'; unlike in neighbouring Karse, there's no official state religion, and half a dozen different gods are worshipped in various temple orders.

Valdemar's history has been mostly very internally stable, though with periods of trouble with border invasions and wars with its neighbours; Karse in particular, the southern neighbour, has gone through a couple of cycles of expansionism over the centuries. For the most part Valdemar has been on good terms with its southwestern neighbour Rethwellan, which is a major trade route. 

The next chapters go into more depth on Valdemar's legal system and institutions. 

This doesn't at all explain why Woodlark thought his being from a country implied obligations on her part but it's interesting anyway.

The rest of the book does not really enlighten her on this question. The closest it comes is some references to how diplomacy tends to work between countries. It's generally considered correct etiquette for countries to inform each other of their intentions, for example by keeping treaties updated and making formal war declarations if they're going to war. This point of etiquette is perhaps honoured more in the breach than the observance; Karse, for example, has hardly ever formally declared its wars before attacking.

There a chapter each on the Collegia in Valdemar. Pretty much all Gifted people are under the jurisdiction of one of them, as employees of the government; Healers at the Healers' Collegium, Bards at Bardic, and most other Gifted end up Chosen and trained as Heralds. Each Collegium has its own internal set of rules, and infractions with Gifts go to court within the relevant Collegium.

Heralds serve an especially wide variety of roles. At a given time most of them are out riding circuit, fighting off bandits and wild animals, investigating crimes, maintaining infrastructure, and providing an appeals court with Truth Spell. Valdemar also uses its Mindspeakers for rapid internal communication along the Mindspeech relay. The main trade roads are paved by magic, which makes long-distance transport of goods by wagon a lot easier than in Hardorn or Karse, which for the most part don't have paved roads. 

Promise goes looking for Nayoki.

She's teaching the basics of sorcery to some people, but right now they're just practicing so she's available. "Yes?" 

"I need to forget my name."

"Your own name?" Nayoki blinks. "I can probably do that but it seems risky. Why?" 

"Because knowing it is also risky. There seem to be far too many things flying around that could make me say it and I don't know if it counts as the same thing I'm immune to."

"What are you not sure counts as the thing you are immune to, sorry?" 

"There is such a thing as mental sorcery and it cannot be used to learn my name. I don't know what counts, if anything, in the scope of Gifts, for that immunity, but it seems likely that a lot of it is more like orders, which work on me normally."