No one looks too worried by her inexperience with horses. I'm sure it works, but I always walk, one woman offers, looking at the horse. They're just so big. Anyway, Rúmil says you have mind magic that can help with - things like this?

It can. I'm not fully trained. I have recorded information about the missing pieces, she pats her books, but I might not get anywhere.

Nonetheless. It's good to have something. And if you expect you'd need a few years to learn, or people to practice on, I'm sure she'll wait if we tell her we're training someone who may be able to aid her.

There were going to be more parts of my training where I practiced on people, but I was going to do it with someone standing by who was better at the subtle arts than me; without that safety net available I don't think it will help overall, especially if she's the only person who has this problem.

Understood. Is there anything else we can do to make your work easier?

...Um, is she, interested in getting better, generally? Or ambivalent about it? Sometimes depressed people prefer to stay that way as part of the disorder and that makes it really hard to work with, mostly for consent reasons.

...that depends how you present it and how you talk to her. I think she resents the demand she start being normal again and stop hurting and embarrassing her family, or anything phrased that way.

Okay, I think I can avoid couching it in those terms. Is there anything in particular she does respond better to?

She's in pain. She isn't able to focus on her projects. She'd like to be able to do that again.

Nod, nod. Bella did bring a notebook and a pen; she starts taking shorthand notes. Um, I know nobody here knows how to read, but if anybody ever learns, patient confidentiality extends not only to what I'm allowed to say but also to who's allowed to look at my notes.

They all look vaguely fascinated. All right. What about who's within hearing distance, do we all have to leave the forest for you to talk with her?

Well, I'll be talking like this, not out loud, because I don't speak your language; but no one should eavesdrop on the conversation. Miriel can tell you anything she wants later, the confidentiality is only about me and what I'm allowed to say - subtle arts work can get very personal and the idea is that my work on her thoughts should be as private as her thoughts and that privacy should be just as much hers to control.

They all look around and nod. That seems like a reasonable code of conduct.

I think so too or I would've had to pick a different field of study.

Do you swear to this code, when you join your field? Or is it enforced somehow?

My people don't have swearing to things in the same way yours do; the enforcement can't be absolute. But I did promise in the way we have. If I were found in violation of patient confidentiality I'd lose my license to practice and probably be punished beyond that too depending on exactly what happened.

I understand. All right. We can wake her up? She asks us to, when Fëanáro visits.

I should read a little more before we get started - I could give her the basic introduction but not an actual intake interview with what I've read now. How do you wake her when you do?

The same way you'd wake anyone who's sleeping. She doesn't sleep differently, just more.

Okay. So you can stay or go as you like while I read and then I can start. Although if someone wants to stay long enough to help introduce me so she doesn't wake up all by herself with a complete stranger that would be fine.

They confer among themselves, and then the woman who asked all the questions sits down. I'll stay. We'll try not to have a crowd around. That's in the past been unhelpful.

Excellent. I hope she'll wake up soon. Tell me more about these arts - can they be learned? How did you realize you had an aptitude?

You need some native aptitude for them to get anything useful out of training them, but even people like me who have a fair bit of that need to study and practice to go beyond some handful of natural talents. My only actual natural talent is shielding - other subtle artists find it hard to read me if I don't want to be read and I don't have to concentrate to have a high level of defense there. One of them noticed that when I was little, so that's how I found out; other people have more active talents and are noticed younger or more dramatically; some people don't do anything by accident and find out when they take a standardized test for it or interact with an acquaintance who's trained to notice.

Are you trained to notice? Do any of us have an aptitude?