:I hate you: 

:What? We've got word from above that apparently Leareth is really sad and stressed, can you think of anything better for that than flinging Lady Treesa at him? She'll be all over it, too, she knows he and Van were friends: 

....Savil starts to form a snappy comeback about how oh are we all rounding it off to 'friends' now, but...actually, nevermind, that hurts way too much to face and suddenly it's not funny anymore. 

She pushes back her chair. Clears her throat, which is misbehaving for some reason. "I'd better, er, start getting ready." 

Melody has been having her own version of this fight with Gemma, the current unwilling dean of Healers' and her lifelong best friend. 

:- All right, look. I'm not– this isn't me stealing some Herald's unhealthy drive to be a self-sacrificing hero. I just - I can't - I need to not be in Haven, all right? It's too much, I just - if I have to talk to one more person who's grieving someone I used to sit with at lunch sometimes then I might explode. I need to be somewhere else. Which isn't here. This is me being selfish, right now, and I'm telling you that I need this: 

Brightstar doesn't even ask. He just starts packing his (very few) possessions. 

:Are you sure you want to come with me?: he asks his sister. :They asked for mages: 

:Apparently the world that lady came from does not even have Mindspeech! I can talk to animals. It might be useful: She punches him lightly in the arm. :And someone needs to darn your robes when you rip them like the big oaf you are: 

Shavri goes to Dara's office. Late at night, so she won't run into anyone in the hallway. 

"Yfandes and I are going." 

She's so tired. 

"Sure. No one's about to stop you." 

"- Huh. Really? I - thought I'd have to argue with you. Didn't you have a fight with Savil about it." 

Sigh. Dara lays her hands flat on the desktop. Mostly so Shavri won't see that she's shaking. Probably it's just because she drank too much chava again. 

"I care about you and I want you to be all right and I - I don't like the idea of sending you on a suicide mission that - that's almost certainly not even going to work, right, if he could murder trillions of people by snapping his fingers... But it's not my call to make. And you've, you've more than paid any debts you owed to Valdemar, I - you - I don't have the right to ask anything of you." 

Oh no she's going to have to stop there because it'll just be embarrassing if she starts crying. 

Shavri blinks away her own betraying tears. 

"Thank you. I - Dara - I, just..."

She swallows. "Take care of Valdemar for us." 

"I will. I'll try." She gulps a little. "Can you - try to keep an eye out for Leareth? Seems like someone in his organization thought it was worth passing along to us that he's sad." 

"Aren't we all." 

"...I think it might - actually be harder, for him? In some ways? I mean, he's...used to being powerful, right. He's used to - having spies all over the entire world, knowing everything that happens, having fingers in everyone else's pies, and then this - just came out of nowhere..." 

"I did wonder. He must've been terrified, and he's - probably not used to that. Not like we are." 

"Mmm." 

Dara closes her eyes, briefly, because she's having some sort of stupid emotion again. It's such a stupid emotion, it doesn't even deserve a name. 

"Well. Good luck and godspeed and get some delicious vengeance for me, all right?" 

That earns her a tired smile. "I'll wrap some up in wax-paper and bring it home for you while it's still warm." 

"Aww. As long as it's not literally Thanos' head on a platter. He's too gross to eat." 

"Take care, Dara." 

She leaves. 

Perfect. It's late enough that probably no one else will bother her, so Dara can lock the door and then cry into her wine because she is so incredibly not enough of a grownup for this. 

Leareth works on their plans. Reviews the list of personnel to include. He helps his artificers and mages on the design for their airtight space travel capsule. Unfortunately he forgot to ask how long they would need to be able to breathe for inside it, but fortunately he has some old treatises from when he was an alchemy scholar 650 years ago, and it's not that much extra work to include some specific raw materials and then teach a dozen of his mages how to cast the spell that breaks down said materials and releases the breathable substance in air.

Air-of-life, Herald-Mage Sandra of Valdemar called it, when they separately made a similar discovery recently, but Herald-Mage Sandra is not available for this mission. 

In his free time, which exists, Leareth attempts some processing. He really does try. It's - still unclear how to do that, though? He's very, very, very angry, but he's also very sure he won't lose his temper and stupidly attack Thanos singlehanded if the opportunity arises. 

He wants Vanyel back. He wants to yell at reality that it made a stupid mistake, there - that, sure, whatever, Thanos had declared that half of all people had to die, but it should have picked someone else. Killing Vanyel was just inefficient and dumb and a bad plan. 

Leareth is aware that going on angry tirades at reality is never a helpful strategy, and he still can't seem to stop doing it. 

He is...sort of...sleeping better? He can usually fall asleep, at least, with only the sort of mild sedatives that are reasonably safe to use long-term. He's not sleeping through the night, but who is, right now? 

In addition to the stupid Cataclysm nightmares, he keeps dreaming about Vanyel. In the pass, just like the Foresight dream, and then his mind replays over and over and over the moment that he watched Vanyel dissolve in front of him. He doesn't know what the POINT is of reliving this several hundred times is, but whatever, maybe the part of his mind that produces dreams knows something here that he doesn't. 

Nayoki isn't not worried, but Leareth does seem to be keeping it together, maybe a little better than before? Not worse, at least. 

The preparations take a week. 

In the end, they have thirty-two Gifted volunteers, counting both Leareth's people and Valdemar's.

(Valdemar requested two spots for Companions despite only one Herald being on the list, which is odd, but Nayoki was handling that and didn't see the point in flagging it for Leareth's attention.) 

The capsule has forty spots. Well, thirty-eight, the Companions need double. Leareth intends to ask Captain Marvel about the wisdom of bringing noncombatant support staff - well, un-Gifted, technically several of the volunteers aren't per se combat experienced. Though Leareth is personally familiar with the various ways that both Healing and Mindhealing can be used offensively... 

There is discussion on where to stage. 

Dara feels that 'being cautious about trusting Leareth' is really stupid, given all the many many givens, and obviously Leareth should just come to Haven with his people if that's simplest. 

Sure. The capsule is fairly transportable; it needs a big Gate, but not infeasibly big. 

They relocate to Haven. Leareth sits inside the capsule; he is not especially interested in talking to the Heralds right now. 

He uses the pager, and calls Captain Marvel, and waits.