Janos spends those forty-five minutes suppressing pain as best he can and trying to calculate what he can learn about Valdemar from details of dress, wall hangings, the characters he can see upside-down in the book when the novice tilts it forwards, and anything he can see from the window outside. He has thus far deduced that it is snowing, that Valdemar is resource-poor and either magic-rich or has good preexisting reason to believe he is extremely valuable to them, and also that his tricks for suppressing pain work much better when he hasn't just teleported a thousand miles after being stabbed in the chest.

He appreciates the translation! He wishes Gemma to know that he is grateful for her care. He will try some broth. 

(Hopefully it isn't drugged.)

It's pretty good broth. (It's not, in fact, drugged, though she considered it, less for anything to do with the Kingdom's strategic priorities and more because this guy clearly needs painkillers and is being stubborn about it, he's as bad as Vanyel.) 

Gemma gives him a quick update on his condition, through her translator. His wound is at best half-Healed and he should expect it to hurt a lot, and also pay attention to his body's limits to avoid worsening the damage. He should absolutely not be getting out of bed yet; if he needs to relieve himself, the trainee will get him a bedpan. His body wasn't able to tolerate as much magical Healing as it would have if he hadn't also thrown around a massive amount of magic (she says, with definite disapproval), so he's going to be recovering the slow way for the next day or two. He lost a lot of blood and needs to drink as much as he can manage, tonight, he can have real food in the morning. 

Also one of the King's advisors wants to speak with him now, if he's ready for that? 

(That was a massive amount of magic, wasn't it?)

He does not say that. (He does update downwards his estimation of their average Mage-strength and up his estimation of their average Healing competence, though.)

He also nods very politely, explain through the translator that he understands, wholly intends to follow her advice, that he doesn't think he needs to relieve himself yet, and that he will be pleased to speak with one of the King's advisors.

(What's he going to do, say no?)

Gemma leaves him alone for a few minutes, long enough to get through most of his broth, and then the older woman in the white uniform is back. 

And, behind her, a slender young man, being carried by a tall, muscular man wearing the same green robes as Gemma, so presumably another Healer. The young man is wearing a sleeping-robe and a blanket wrapped around himself, not a uniform. He looks pale and haggard, with pain-lines around his mouth, but other than that he's strikingly handsome, with piercing silver-grey eyes. His jet-black hair is revealingly streaked through with white. He looks about twenty-five. 

The Healer gently deposits him in a chair with an extra cushion, and he thanks him in the local tongue, and then looks at Janos. 

"My name is Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashkevron," he says, in really quite good Hardornen. "- How well do you speak this language, by the way? I'm a strong enough Mindspeaker to use that with you, if that would be easier." 

Injured, almost certainly. (If it was a long-term condition, he'd be dressed.). Around Janos's age, maybe a little older. A Royal Advisor, she said, and an Adept - more of his hair is silver than Janos's is.

(Why would one of the king's advisors be injured? Obvious guesses: They're lying to him, he's a top general advising on army matters while he recovers, he's their head advisor on magic and the war is desperate enough they need every Adept, it's a total coincidence and he just fell down the stairs recently, and they have a *lot* of advisors.)

"Well enough to understand," he says, his accent still thick, "but for clarity's sake, Mindspeech is likely to be best." Also harder to spy on, though whether that would matter depends on their medical security.

:All right: Vanyel is also a little worried about security. The House of Healing is nearly as thoroughly shielded as the core Palace meeting rooms, but they really don't know how important this man was, or who might be looking for him now, or what unknown capabilities his hypothetical pursuers might have. 

Savil, unasked, casts a first-stage Truth Spell, which should again be unnoticeable to Janos. 

:First of all, I'm sorry, this might've been covered but if so I missed it - what's your name and title?: 

:My name is Janos, and I am Count of Avannar and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Thirteenth Horse, presently without duties, and an Imperial Kinsman in the third degree.: If they're reading his mind, they can tell he's mildly annoyed about the presently without duties, though he's trying to make his face seem polite and attentive without giving anything today. :May I ask - both you and your -: relative? :- fellow mage claim the rank of Herald-Mage? May I ask what this title means, in Valdemar?:

So Savil's sense was accurate, and the man has never heard of Heralds. 

:For a quick summary: Heralds are Chosen to safeguard Valdemar. We're involved in border defense, internal peacekeeping, the Court system, and quite a lot of day to day governance. Most Heralds are Gifted, but not all are mages. For the most part, we treat any Herald as equal in rank to the rest, though there are a few specifically appointed roles in the Senior Circle. ...The full background takes longer to explain, and I think I'll come back to it:

He tilts his head to the side a little, looking thoughtfully at Janos. :I am curious what you know about Valdemar's history and founding. It's pretty relevant to what Heralds are: 

The - royal faction, then, the trained elite whose power balances the hereditary nobles, that's the obvious guess. (Don't leap too far ahead, Janos, don't leap too far ahead; just because that's the obvious theory doesn't mean it's true.) Most are Gifted - well, yes, those are the people you'd want to recruit for that; the nobles have had centuries to breed for magic, you'll need something to balance them, there.

:I know there used to be a Duchy of Valdemar in the Empire, that during one of the empire's worst internal crises it dropped off the map, and that Hardorn's western neighbor shares a name with it. That's all I know.:

Well, also and that he's in the western neighbor, apparently.

He smiles, a little. :That would explain how King Valdemar got away with it. Though he would've been Baron Valdemar at the time: Interesting, that Janos is saying Valdemar was a duchy, but the oldest records definitely have their founding father down as a Baron. :Our histories say that he feared for the safety of his people, and managed to flee with approximately the entire population of his holding. We think it must have been over ten thousand people. There were more by the time they settled, but I think they travelled further west, for a while, and probably collected more locals along the way:  

All right, that's got to be bullshit. He's a Gate-mage, well-trained, he supposes you could raise a Gate-arch on one of the canals to the wrong river then feed ten thousand people through that way, but you couldn't pass eastern Hardorn that way, you'd pass out if you tried to hold it that long. Maybe if he had a few dozen trained Gate-mages, they could do it in shifts? But Janos only made it this far by Farsight; absent that, the Valdemarans would need to have need to have scouted ahead in advance, through hostile territory, with the emperor out for their blood -

Well. Founding myths. :That's compatible with our records: (If the Vrondi-halo disappears for tactful evasions, he's now de-haloed.) Cestil III was... not a normal emperor. He was a walking disaster, in fact. In recent centuries - a lord might fear imperial disfavor, but he'd have little reason to expect it to actually endanger his subjects. He supposed the Emperor might be more annoyed than usual if someone he was offended at bribed the census-takers, and that this would lead to slightly higher taxation for subjects of lords the Emperor was disappointed in? But - you don't set taxes to annoy people, you set taxes to maximize your preferred point on the revenue/economic growth tradeoff curve. If you were taking your anger out on taxpayers instead of your enemies, you were doing a bad job, and His Imperial Majesty does not do bad jobs.

These comments aside, he'll wait for Vanyel to finish his story.

The Truth Spell lets tactful evasions past, but despite Janos having a very good poker face, Vanyel is pretty sure that something about that surprised him. He's used to Leareth, and spending every moment trying to read as much as he can from the tiniest expressions. Oh, and he's also a receptive Empath, and definitely making use of that. 

:I'll tell the rest later, it's complicated: More to the point, knowing what he does about the Eastern Empire, he suspects Janos will react...strongly. And in what direction, he's not sure yet. He feels a lot better about having that conversation LATER, once the damned compulsions are dealt with.

:The gist is that King Valdemar figured out a system of governance that would be stable for a long time, and it worked. For now, I'd like to hear more about exactly what kind of politics trouble you got yourself into? Bad enough to get yourself stabbed, I can see. An assassin?: He tugs down his blanket and pulls open the neck of his gown to show his own bandages. :You're in good company, though mine was more war than politics, I was down at the Border until yesterday: 

(It's a bit of a gamble, saying that much, but it's a calculated one. Vanyel wants to establish some kind of friendly rapport with this man, a fellow Adept, maybe also a fellow military leader.) 

Okay, that, again, has got to be provincials with no idea what they're doing overstating their accomplishments. If they had a system of government that worked better than the Empire's, they would have gotten economically ahead of it these past eight hundred years and probably also conquered Hardorn. He's not some kind of sage, but if Valdemar had solved the government problem, it would be rich enough to have better curtains.

Yeah, probably they're just using some kind of tweaked feudal monarchy that only has three times as many civil wars as the empire, instead of four times as many.

:I'd like to know more about where I've landed, when you can:

He's not going to push it. :Two new servants went through the usual vetting procedures, then tried to stab me. Don't know who sent them, but it was probably the same one who had my personal healer reassigned a week ago. This is the Karsite border?:

:I'm sorry to hear that. Glad you made it out alive, and - congratulations, that was some impressive Gating to pull off after you were nearly assassinated: He ducks his head. :The Karsite border, yes. That's our only war zone - and the first war we've had at all in nearly a century: Sigh. :I don't mind the excuse to spend some time back here, honestly. I'd much rather teach students and do magical research and advise the King on our education policy than set lots of people on fire. Have you fought in any wars before? You might understand: 

(He thinks it's plausible. From what he's read, and heard from Leareth, the Empire is very expansionist, and constantly invading and trying to gobble up neighboring small kingdoms - or fending off invasions from disgruntled neighbors.) 

:Thank you:

:And thank you:

(Also, first war in a century, was this some kind of once-in-our-history-golden age, or - whatever these people are doing, he needs to know what's up with their system of government, and he needs to know it now.)

(And, half-on-automatic...)  :I understand: He understands the difference, at least - though he prefers campaign to court. Better friends, less danger, much more rational... :I was a staff officer for General Kordas during his northern campaigns:, and there's pride in that, :though there wasn't much throwing fireballs - we had a year and a half of raising Gates and building roads in a frozen wasteland before the Helpershi yielded, and another three months of making sure they didn't starve or rebel before the Emperor summoned us home: And Ceyvan had won the only field battle they'd fought, too, outmaneuvered them thoroughly enough the main army hadn't had much to do but manage the pursuit, and all the rest of the fighting had been - skirmishes, ambushes, nighttime raids... not much practice, for a man on the command track. Then, half-lightly - :So, what's the secret to a century of peace?: