I love how this is developing. Your portrayal of Staven is captivating, and I love his dynamic with Lendel. Savil's segment above, where she's fearing Staven drawing Lendel beyond her control...the character dynamics here are all amazing. That he bothers Gala too is really interesting. There's Savil's implication in canon that Staven could have been Chosen but there's a reason he wasn't...yeaaahhh. And Van's so upset. I wonder if they're going to find him crying. I love how intimidated he is by the whole situation - both by Stav as a person and as the part of Lendel's life he represents. His attempt to mediate between the two of them regarding the Leshara situation was REALLY interesting - that he represents a chance of balancing them out. Van is so out of his depth here and he's admitting that to himself, that he doesn't know Lendel as well as he thought he did... I'm really enjoying this, you're such a good character writer, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they're going to get down and dirty because right now it's looking like Vanyel would not be in a good place for that.