"The really stupid part is that I didn't have to die. I could have--should have--stayed in Valinor until I could figure out a way to use magic to get across the Sea safely."

"...Valinor and, and urgency don't mix well."

"And instead I--I don't know that my husband didn't die of grief, when he found out, if he did I did that to him."

"Again unsure if I'm wearing my therapist hat."

"I don't know either. I'm just--saying things."

"Okay."

"I have a lot of feelings and not a lot of people to talk about them with."

"I can be a listening ear without having to give you an entire intake interview if that's what you want."

"I don't mind being therapized, either. I just--don't know which one I want right now."

"Well, let me know when you pick. Although my style of therapy will probably be very different from one developed in a context of no subtle arts."

"Yeah."

"I think I'd like to try the therapy."

"Okay. What's therapy like as you're familiar with it?"

"...Therapist asks questions, patient answers them, therapist gives helpful advice? I've never been to my kind of therapy, they'd want to convince me I had been hallucinating my past life."

"What, first thing? Even if you were delusional one doesn't start contradicting everything."

"Probably not first thing but I feel like it would be less productive if I went in expecting that they were going to."

"Yeah. Well, stroke of luck, you ran into me. What is it you'd hope to get out of therapy?"

"I don't know. Being less messed-up?"

"What do you mean by messed up?"

"I hurt a lot of the time and I have a hard time believing that anything I come to be fond of isn't going to be ripped away as soon as I'm secure in it."

"Okay. I will always check before doing anything not read-only with your mind and I am professionally obliged not to disclose anything I do read to anyone else without your express and specific permission. There's an exception for things involving oaths but you're a human so it's not relevant. I'll have a better sense of what's salient to your goals and in what ways with more sensitive readings, but how much and how often I read is totally up to you and you can ask me to stay away from certain things without having to explain what they are, I have a way to place signposts at things you concentrate on that doesn't reveal the contents to me. How would you prefer to be read?"

"...I'd prefer that you stay away from the sex stuff."

"That I shouldn't even need to signpost to avoid," Bella assures her. "Anything else?"

"Can't think of anything off the top of my head."

"Is there anything you would prefer I not explicitly acknowledge reading if I find it?"

"...Probably, but I'm not immediately sure what."