(Vanyel also isn't keeping perfect track of the time, but Blai's Endure Elements is going to run out while he's making his way over.) 

This would be completely inadequate security if Blai still channeled negative, but he does not. He goes over the sitrep again in case Vanyel didn't catch it all the first time. Also Vanyel should in fact totally hurt him if that's the best way to get him somewhere appropriate safely, Blai has been knocked unconscious before and it's fine if you get healed afterwards.

- also now he's very cold! Which, again, not a problem, positive energy works on frostbite, but, like, if that's operationally relevant, he's not Endure Elements'd anymore.

What in the world is 'channeling negative', that did not come up at all before, what does that even mean– nevermind, Blai is very clearly thinking that he can't do it even if the "anymore" is confusing and Vanyel has additional questions. 

Vanyel doesn't actually have a great way to Heal Blai from knocking him out with Mindspeech - his Healing Gift is very weak and Healing in general isn't very good for backlash - and he's pretty unsure on his calibration of how hard he would have to hit him, he probably wouldn't kill Blai by accident if he overdoes it but he might, like, hit him hard enough that he's out for candlemarks and doesn't clearly remember the last day when he wakes up. Also it'll give him backlash in his Mindspeech channels which would be inconvenient for later conversations. He could knock Blai out with Healing - with a lot of effort - but only if he gets close enough to touch him, and at that point he can just check if there's a compulsion problem.  

He will hope this is the right amount of paranoid, and approach the rest of the way very slowly and very shielded in case "Vanyel gets within five feet of him" was the trigger condition for a compulsion. 

Doesn't seem to be.

The messenger is dressed for the weather and is not as unpleasantly cold as Blai but this is very stressful. Also there's a stick or something digging into her side, and her nose is itching and she can't reach to scratch it. None of that is very important but it's distracting. She's trying very hard to stay calm and keep her thoughts on the message rather than pointless side tangents though she's wondering if Vanyel is in fact very attractive, the songs about him make it sound that way 

Once he's within a few feet, it doesn't take very long for Vanyel to be sure that there are no compulsions on either of them. 

He wouldn't be able to see Mindhealing, but Vanyel does know rather a lot about how Mindhealing works, and he doesn't think you could do Mindhealing that was invisible and had no effect until a particular trigger was met, and then suddenly had an effect as drastic as "forcing Blai to go against his entire personality and try to kill Vanyel." It's not a spell that can be set to go off under particular conditions; it's a direct modification of someone's patterns of thought. Mindhealing could alter how Blai feels about Leareth, but he's not exactly giving off the impression of new sympathy toward Leareth. It's conceivable he could have false memories of the last few candlemarks, it's - still something Vanyel should check before he believes anything Blai reports (and the same goes for the messenger) - but the risk profile is different. 

:You're clear: he tells Blai. :...Of compulsions done with mage-gift, at least. There's another Gift I wouldn't be able to detect directly because I don't have it. - did anything they did to you feel like the room was melting?: 

:A little bit. It seemed at the time like its principal consequence was that I could move afterwards but you would know more than I about whether it's likely that's all that was happening.:

Shit that definitely sounds like Leareth does have a Mindhealer. 

:When did you stop being able to move, before that? What did that feel like?: If Blai's memory of it sounds like a set-command then he's almost certain it was a Mindhealer, but also they could just have been taking off the set-command. 

:That was during the kidnapping itself when I was preparing to try to fight them off. Like someone shouting at me loud enough that it would have been deafening if there'd been sound involved.:

:...Right, that was a set-command. That's a Mindhealer thing, not a spell. It's fast and more thorough than a compulsion and - Mindhealers are very rare but obviously Leareth has one. They could have done other things and then made it so you can't remember when they were doing it. I think it's very unlikely they could have made a change that's hidden now but will surprise us later - like, I don't think Mindhealing would let them send you back with a hidden command to hurt me if certain conditions are hit, or, I don't know, assassinate our King if we bring you back to Haven, or something. But they could probably make you remember things that didn't actually happen, or forget things that did happen, and Mindhealing can definitely make you, er, think differently about a situation than you would have before. I - probably need someone who has the Gift and can Look directly before I can be sure if they left any changes.: 

:Of course you should take whatever precautions are appropriate.: He is presently agnostic about whether him being very cold is one of those. Stranger things have happened.

This is awful, Vanyel simultaneously feels like he's not being nearly paranoid enough and ALSO like he's being a horrible person to Blai, who is after all the one who just got kidnapped and probably had a terrible time even if Leareth didn't, like, actually torture him. 

:I want to keep the paralysis-spell up for a while longer and, er, I'm going to ask you to go through what you remember and read your mind while you do, I can't directly see Mindhealing but I could see if you have - gaps, or non-sequiturs in your memory of what happened that you're not able to notice yourself, or anything weird like that. If I don't see anything weird then - I don't think we know if we can trust what you remember to be true, but I would feel more sure that you're - safe for me to be around until someone with Mindhealing-Sight can check.: 

He still feels terrible but he can at least put up a weather-barrier and put his cloak over Blai while the air is warming up around them. 

(He's definitely ending up ignoring Leareth's messenger because everything he could possibly say feels incredibly awkward.) 

The messenger has no idea what Vanyel is doing, he's probably communicating in Mindspeech. It makes sense for him to be focusing on whether his ally is all right, or alternatively checking if the person who has actual magic is compulsioned to attack him. She can be patient. 

Also he's so pretty that's not even fair. 

So Blai thinks through his perspective on the kidnapping and subsequent interrogation. It does have gaps but they were because of how he approached his Law-puzzle, insofar as he can remember it, he suspected mindreading and did not want kidnapping to be a helpful approach, the enchantments were like so but not that hard to be unhelpful around, possibly they would have been refined over time if they'd worked on him longer. He was not physically harmed though for a while they weren't letting him cast spells; they probably didn't even mean for that to be Illegible Torture particularly.

It's a little hard to distinguish suspicious weirdness in Blai's thoughts from...the fact that Blai is kind of a weird person in general...but Vanyel already knew that and he thinks all of that makes sense and is a characteristic way for Blai to have behaved in that situation. 

He feels awful about illegibly torturing Blai some more by not letting him cast spells!!! Blai is being so accommodating about all of this!! None of this was his fault and he didn't owe Valdemar anything and it would be so reasonable of him to be mad at Vanyel because this happened. 

:I'm going to take off the paralysis-spell: he tells Blai. :Though, er, I'm going to be kind of jumpy and I would appreciate it if you warned me before using any magic.: 

And he takes apart the spell. Blai can move now; also it's now quite warm inside the weather-barrier. 

:I'm really sorry we involved you in a way that got you kidnapped by Leareth: Vanyel rubs the back of his neck unhappily. :Also I'm still confused by - the sequence of decisions here - Leareth claims he thought you were somehow responsible for k'Treva being destroyed, according to a letter he dropped off at the same time he snatched you - but it seems like something he would only do if he was fine with setting off the war...: 

:May I cast Guidance. You've seen me do it before and it will look the same every time unless for whatever reason I need to use my other hand in which case it's mirrored.:

Vanyel has indeed seen Blai cast it before, kind of a lot of times. He still tenses slightly, but - :Of course.: 

Guidance. Twice; he spends the first one immediately thinking about the intel situation and keeps the second. :He did seem - from my possibly manipulated recollection - to think that I or possibly Iomedae might have destroyed k'Treva, and I did not mean to directly answer this curiosity but he may have learned that we didn't anyway. If he did not do it, it does seem, like I remember observing to Savil, that it would be a possible move to have you at Leareth's throat, though I don't know who could have done it or would have wanted to.:

:He could probably have learned by mindreading you that you didn't do it, even if you were being uncooperative and not thinking 'I didn't do it', just - because if you had done it on your goddess' orders, or knew your goddess was going to do it, you would be - thinking about it differently.: 

Vanyel absently picks up a random stick and starts shredding it into pieces. :Also I - from his initial letter it seems like he didn't realize you were from another world? He was speculating that you could be a priest of Anathei - who I guess is known to do big Healing miracles that could look like what you did in public, and his spies hadn't actually seen any of your other magic - and, I mean, if he guessed from mindreading you that you were from another world, which it really seems like he should have been able to even if you were being unhelpful, then - I guess he would have less reason to assume that you were specifically here to cause a war...: 

He closes his eyes. :Jisa - one of the Heralds, sorry, you haven't met her - brought up a horrible idea. We know the monster came out of the Pelagirs. The Star-Eyed Goddess could probably have done both, and - She definitely wants me to fight Leareth, She may have been involved in setting it up so that I would have the power to fight him in the first place: an echo of bitterness in the Mindspeech overtones, :- the part I couldn't believe was that She would kill several hundred of Her own people for it...: 

But it only makes sense for Leareth to send Blai back if he doesn't want a war (or if it's a trap, but he hasn't seen what the trap could be yet), and it only make sense for Leareth to be trying to avoid a war if he wasn't trying to set one off in the first place. 

:Sarenrae smote a city once.:

Well that's disturbing. 

:I don't think our world has evil gods though. ...Well, unless you're asking Leareth.: 

:She's not Evil. Sarenrae is Neutral Good. She had a compelling reason and also every time you mention it around one of Her people they look like they're reciting something they've said a million times and tell you it was a mistake and She like everyone else can repent of her mistakes.:

Vanyel is looking incredibly disturbed right now. 

:I mean. I guess you could say the Star-Eyed could have a compelling reason. If, if Leareth is, if Leareth winning would be - worse than that - but it's not: a stumble in his Mindspeech, :why would it be necessary? We were on track to go to war anyway! It was a really long shot that we could find a better alternative...: 

:Oh, I have no idea, this is very much speculation, but you don't have to be specifically postulating the Star-Eyed as Evil to consider Her a candidate. Presumably if they were all Her people She'd know what afterlife they were headed for anyway?:

That's - a confusing thing to say. 

:I mean, some of Her people become spirit guides: though it's deeply unclear how much they're still themselves, :but as far as I can tell the stories about - gods having afterlives for their followers where your spirit keeps living - for any of the gods - are...mostly not true.: Pause. :Does it work differently in your world?: