...They can play it safe by casting it in the evening tomorrow, after it's been a full 24 candlemarks times seven since the end of the last one. Honestly that's probably better for everyone maintaining a vaguely sensible sleep schedule anyway. Not that Blai or Seldan have a sensical sleep schedule, at this point, but for the Senior Circle Heralds. 

Seldan relays this to Shavri and then goes back to flopping. 

:Hey Brightstar. Hey everyone else. Can we get useful data from observing a summoning of an, uh, lantern archon? From Heaven? It's an afterlife. Alternatively, there isn't a Protection from Energy against 'air' or 'water' but we can get one against electricity or cold. If that's helpful.: 

The Elemental Plane of Water is in fact pretty fucking cold but Brightstar isn't planning to go swim around in it personally, they're not trying to get there, they're trying to find a mapping of "adjacent" elemental-plane-to-Void points to cut the total "distance" through the Void. They already know how to make artifacts that can survive a few candlemarks sitting in the Elemental Plane of Water and anchor a search-spell. 

Cold isn't an ontologically basic form of energy?????? In what magic system are fire, electricity, and cold the same kind of thing that the same spellform can protect against by swapping out a single variable?????? 

:- Hmm. Do you think it could help to get your imitation of the fire version down to something more energy-efficient if you can see the version that does cold and test it to destruction?: 

(They have a prototype talisman. It does something no Velgarth mage-talisman has ever done before, which is pretty cool, but it's also insanely inefficient on power drain. One of Leareth's people told Jisa that they could protect Brightstar for up to ten seconds of being in a room with a finger-wide Elemental Plane of Fire Gate, if they killed someone for the blood-magic to repower it each time. Jisa spent several seconds boggling in horror at the concept that this was something Leareth would even consider authorizing to slightly speed up a research project – it must be? or they wouldn't be telling her? – and concluded that he wouldn't hesitate if it were necessary but, like, almost certainly he would have a non-stupid solution to the efficiency problem in his back pocket. She...decided not to consider the question of whether it would be worth killing three people with blood-magic - and raising them later - in order to save the four resurrection diamonds it would take to get everyone else back if they take too long; she left it at "no, what the fuck".) 

....It might, actually, unless "cold" energy is some kind of ontologically basic magical phenomenon that doesn't exist in the material plane in Velgarth and they couldn't usefully test the spell by dropping Brightstar in freezing water or something. But if it's just, like...cold, the concept as they know it...then they can in fact get much more detailed analysis when watching tests than if they were testing to destruction with fire or levinbolts. 

Shavri wakes Blai a bit after midnight to hydrate and use his first channel, and to relay a question if he's coherent enough. :Jisa has questions about the Protection from Energy for 'cold', she says that's - not generally conceived of as a form of energy - and she wants to know if it's actually some magical phenomenon in Golarion or if it would protect Brightstar from normal freezing water or something and they can test it to destruction that way to see more of how it works and build a better talisman for Brightstar.: 

Oh if they think that's bad the same spell also works on acid and sonic damage. Protection from cold works fine on cold weather though it's only protecting against damage, not discomfort, so for normal weather conditions you would rather have an Endure and it's a lower circle anyway.

:No, they think it's very convenient because cold doesn't interfere with mage-sight.: Testing it to destruction with acid sounds like it would involve torturing Brightstar once it failed so she's not going to suggest that, and she's not sure what "sonic" damage is or how easy it would be to set up the test conditions. :They found it very strange that you could protect against cold with the same spellform as against fire, that isn't how we would do it, so they wanted to make sure they weren't just confused. They think solving the talisman will help speed the research along more than a second summons. ...If no one has an infection yet at dawn I'm inclined to say it's worth it, but you don't need to worry about it, I'm going to tell you exactly what to prepare when we get to that and I'll write up the list where Seldan can see it.: 

:Understood:

Shavri lets them sleep, except for the final channel about three candlemarks later. 

It's taking truly heroic quantities of Healer time and attention, but morning approaches and nobody has an infection that's made it past their skin or mucus membranes. 

At dawn - well, a handful of minutes before so she can make sure he's coherent and get him fluids first - she gives him the list and points Seldan at where it's written on the wall. Create Water, Virtue, Guidance, Stabilize, four Remove Sicknesses, four Lesser Restorations, one Nap Stack for tonight, one Protection from Energy for research purposes. 

Tea. Prayer. It's mostly just a lot of repetitions of "Iomedae I am told by someone who knows what she's doing that this is what's on for the day as part of the plan where the local situation winds up okay eventually".

Seldan is thinking that they're really lucky that one of the most talented Healers in a generation is also lifebonded to the King and relatedly has a lot of experience with strategy-level decisions. And with enduring day after day as she watches people she's responsible for slowly dying in agonizing pain and the only thing she can do is draw it out longer because that's worth it in expectation. She did it for years with Randi. He's so glad they managed to heal Randi before all of this happened. Shavri wouldn't be coping, otherwise. 

...Vanyel woke up this morning with very little sensation in his hands except for a constant horrible burning (Shavri thinks it's some kind of progressive nerve damage that the channels and healing spells can't quite keep up with) and while he still feels stronger than two days ago, he can't actually manage to cast Guidance and he suspects that means he won't be able to cast anything today. 

Sorry, Shelyn. He's trying, he's really really trying, just, maybe, She should have picked someone who wasn't going to die in a few days. 

(Not that he wants Her to take it back. For one thing Shavri can still use the channels as long as he can be woken at all, and also it's...nice...to feel Her presence at dawn. It's not the same as having Yfandes or not being in pain or having the situation be in any way even slightly okay, but it still makes him feel less alone.) 

Blai can cast Guidance on him?

:...Does that help if the problem is physical and in my hands? With casting, I mean, I - I would appreciate it anyway because it's - I keep having intrusive thoughts about wanting to die and it's really not productive -: It's got to be more habit than anything, Vanyel thinks, he mostly stopped having that problem after Stef but the grooves in his mind are there. 

...Wait has Vanyel mentioned that to anyone else or is this literally the first time he thought to tell anyone? Isn't this a really central example of a Mindhealer problem, as opposed to the completely insane things the Heralds have apparently started using Mindhealing for since his time. There's definitely a Mindhealer in Haven, unless they sent her to Iftel or something since he was last capable of paying any attention to anything. 

:Vanyel, have you told Shavri about that?: 

Obviously not and now he really regrets letting it slip to them!!!!! 

...Probably Shelyn is in favor of having friends who care about you try to help you even when you're making it obnoxious for them. Sorry, Shelyn. He will try not to be obnoxious. 

:No, because it was manageable when I could cast Guidance anytime I wanted. I...guess...I should find out if Melody can come see me. I can tell Shavri, I don't need you to relay it.: 

:A Guidance can be spent to steady your hands:

...It seems kind of silly to ask Blai to cast Guidance on him so he can...cast Guidance on himself...and he realistically wouldn't be doing anything more useful with his spells, staying alert enough to recast Virtue every minute is way too hard today, but despite his miserably distracted and incoherent prayer today he thinks he successfully managed to get his ten-minute Remove Sickness for the day and will maybe at some point poke Blai to cast Guidance on him and see if he can manage to use that. Right now that sounds harder than just going to sleep again while still nauseous. 

No, he's got to stay awake long enough for Blai to cast the Lesser Restorations so he can do his first channel of the day, that's the schedule. 

(It's a concerning sign that Vanyel seems to have gone from 'uncomfortable enough that it wakes him up' to 'literally so sleepy that falling asleep sounds better than Remove Sickness', but it's not surprising.) 

And after that Shavri has Blai's food, because now is probably still the best time for it. Well, "food". He's getting broth today, with all the solid matter carefully strained out of it, and apple juice. Shavri knows the Remove Sickness makes eating solid food feel doable but it doesn't, actually, give his body the ability to use it. 

He will accept this without complaint. He drinks it fast so it will have as much time as possible to get where it's going before he's inclined to throw up again.

And then it's more of the same. Hours and hours of it.

Seldan snuggles his Herald and fantasizes about the Nap Stack tonight and having as much as a few entire candlemarks afterward when he can form more than one thought in a row. 

....Shavri's going to be waking them up a lot more often for the four candlemarks or so before the planned Nap Stack start time. Sorry. It's just that she's been tolerating them - the human patients, that is - getting a little dehydrated in between the daily Remove Sicknesses, because at this point their options are realistically 'drink a tiny bit at a time' or 'try to drink more than that and throw up', and being woken every ten minutes around the clock is bad for people too. But she would really like to be able to leave them in the Nap Stack for as long as possible, maybe the entire duration of the spell if they're benefiting from it, and if they're dehydrated going into it then even if she doesn't end up having to pull them out partway through before it's medically dangerous, coming out of it will be really, really unpleasant, and difficult to catch up from.

So being hassled every five minutes it is. It's only for a few candlemarks and then they get to sleep for what's going to feel like such a lovely incredible long time. (Shavri is jealous. She's not exhausted, she's been responsibly spending eight candlemarks in bed each night, but she's not sleeping well.) 

(Seldan is actually doing significantly better on this front - if he drinks more at once than is really wise, he can't throw up and is just in spectacularly agonizing pain for a while, but he checked and Shavri said it wasn't actually harming him and definitely wasn't going to burst anything in his insides, so he's been doing that. But he's not going to sleep through Blai being woken every five minutes anyway, so he might as well try Staying Hydrated, This Time Without Horrible Stomach Pain.)