"...she offered what?"

"In one piece and content and exactly as you remember her except much more obedient" -

"...in exchange for -"

"Not killing her. Not sure how she was planning to enforce it - wasn't going to invite Maira to, to -"

"You made the right call."

Nod.

"...and that suggests it's possible -"

"With fucked if I know what mental tampering unless Maira was lying, sure."

"Yes. It's probably going to involve significant mental tampering. I - better us than Maira, even if she was telling the truth."

Very softly: "I don't want to hurt her."

"I know. You're - not even aiming for 'exactly as you remember her but much more obedient'-"

"Yeah. But I don't know how to get anywhere without hurting her."

"I have some thoughts on how to make things tolerable day-to-day, if you're committed to trying to eventually figure out a way to tamper her back together-"

"...'committed' would be a strong word for right now."

"She's not communicating anything about her preferences, but I expect that she'd strongly prefer not to be ignored and to have useful work to do and to feel like people are happy she's - around. I recognize that'll be difficult while it's painful to be around her-"

"I can stop avoiding her. It's just that she looks at me like I'm going to - do - something to her - it's not that it's painful to me it's that it looks painful to her - and that was one thing when I was pulling her into lucid dreams and reading her books so there would be anything going on in her life that wasn't horrible but if she really wanted to read the rest of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea the internet'll be up soon -"

"Up to you."

Sigh. Nod.

Hug.

"Thank you."

"Of course."

So Isabella stops avoiding her, which, since Maitimë is convalescing in her room in the palace, means Isabella brings her dinner. And brings dinner for herself.

"Hey."

"Isabella."

"Yep. Crop songs mean fresh bean sprouts in our sandwiches even though the sun has only been up for a few weeks, it's great." She can sound almost not strained. Sets down the plates. "Did Maira write 20,000 Leagues fanfic for you?"

"I've had this interaction before, yes."