"Well, if he also wants to be Yeerked that would do it."

"Then I can ask him about that, and in the meantime I'd still like to spend some time at a crystal ball reading about the Internet, and then maybe see a subtle artist before I go home."

"You may use one of the public ballrooms here and you'll be pinged on it if anyone has an appointment slot for you."

"Thanks," he says cheerfully. "Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you."

"Of course; likewise."

"Lovely meeting you. Point me at a public ballroom and I'll get out of your way."

She drops him off in one.

He settles in and starts reading. Rather than waste time on food or sleep - particularly given how unpleasant sleep is likely to be - he wraps himself in his healing aura. Hopefully the soft golden glow isn't too distracting. He keeps an eye on the time; if it takes more than a day and a half for a subtle artist to have an appointment slot free, he'll go home.

Well, there are a couple with free spots in the next few days but they charge money.

The subtle artists who don't charge money were disproportionately tapped to not-charge-money in Shadow before Midnight left them stranded on an unhabited continent of Vanda Nossëo, so they are perhaps understandably inclined to turn him down.

He's pretty sure he can talk one of them into it if he can get one of them to talk to him at all - is he preceded by Independence-related warnings wherever he goes, or something? He didn't even exist when that happened.

He does seem to be preceded by Independence-related warnings; one of them has sent him an a-mail suggesting that patient/therapist rapport would be better served by a subtle artist with no preexisting interaction with Midnight.

Yes, I agree. Can you suggest someone?

He's got great things to say about one of the ones who works for money.

Unfortunately, I don't have any money right now, and I would really like to get started on solving my problem quickly because an unforeseen magic interaction left me having looping trauma flashbacks for twenty-four hours straight and I would strongly prefer not to give that a chance to happen again. Can you recommend anyone else?

The subtle artist feels for him but isn't sure why he's expecting to find free service in a foreign country one of his allies recently aggressed against on short notice?

There's a different set of cultural assumptions surrounding healing in Nuime. And I arguably didn't exist at the time, but that's kind of a long story and I'll understand if you don't want me taking up any more of your time. Thanks anyway.

(Anyone else interested in talking to him or passing him along to someone who will...?)

One of them knows a recent evacuee who isn't settled in and advertising yet but might take Taliar early.

He thanks them very sincerely for the referral, and contacts the indicated person.

If Taliar just wants simple intervention done on something, sure, if he wants a whole course of talk therapy this guy is not ready to commit to that.

A whole course of talk therapy probably isn't necessary; what are the available options for 'I sometimes have trauma flashbacks and I would like to not have them anymore'? He could do without the nightmares too, but it's the flashbacks that are significantly affecting quality of life.

Taliar should come to the subtle artist's house to talk about this.

He can do that. Here he is.

And the subtle artist invites him in and explains how nightmares can be blocked by topic or affect temporarily while waiting for the patient to learn lucid dreaming and how flashbacks can be treated by going over the relevant memory with the affect removed.

Okay, cool. Can he just temporarily not dream about anything that happened in Atialemain, annnnd if blunting the flashbacks is going to take multiple sessions he might like to be temporarily unable to smell daffodils or something? And he is very grateful for the subtle artist's help.

Temporary stuff knocks loose, but he can have temporary perception block on daffodils, sure.