I can put people to sleep and it's very noninvasive, if that works one time in four it should be a first line!

"You can? All right, yes, definitely. And that's interesting, I don't think Lancir mentioned it. Our Healers can put people under but it's not really normal sleep? Some patients will stay asleep once the Healer backs off, but in my experience psychotic people don't, I reckon it doesn't fix the underlying thing that's wrong or pause it for long enough that everything quiets down." 

Fidget fidget. "–Oh! Almost forgot, but I figured out how to take off your colour-blindness thing! It was fascinating. I had to go really deep in my Sight to find it; it's like there's a whole other layer that's mostly underneath the part of the tapestry I can see at a glance. But once I figured out how to shift my Sight focus over to that, I found the bit you changed without too much trouble. Oh, and I think it made sense of something I've never understood before, which is that my Gift causes some weird sensory side effects. I didn't dare experiment much on myself because that'd be a bad thing to break but I think I've confirmed that the side effect happens when I'm using my Gift to soften an area in the conscious-thoughts layer enough that I can move threads or cement a redirect in place, and it's leaking through to the 'layer' underneath which interacts directly with senses. And the part where I can create, what did you call it, synesthesia? Is probably when I use enough that it actually makes that layer malleable enough that bits can link up at random. Anyway. Just an interesting observation. Might or might not help me be more precise in using my Gift in future." 

I'm glad it helped!

"...Anyway that's most of what I had. I'll inform Aber of the plan and try to get us a clerk. In the meantime we don't really have any patients yet. I've been taking advantage of that to set up my suite and get settled. You're welcome to do that for the rest of the day if you like." 

Um, have I been folded into a command structure without my knowledge?

"Huh?" Baffled look. "I mean, you're on the roster at Healers' and you're getting room and board and your stipend with us? Aber said you proactively showed up and asked him the rules so I wouldn't've thought that part was a surprise either. Is there a thing you think happened without your knowing it?" 

I was envisioning myself as a freelancer living on the premises and coordinating with you guys for convenience who did not have to be informed that I was welcome to do things like that.

Melody frowns at her. "...I mean, no one's going to tell you no if you inform us you want to do reasonable things like that, at least not in peacetime. Nobody's really going to give you orders. Aber honestly has no idea what I need to do my work, so I inform him and harass Gemma until he does it. That being said, if something comes up and we need you, I'd been assuming you're in agreement you would come in for that even if it's inconvenient. 'Freelancer' is...I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that, something like independent craftsmen who aren't under any Guild?" 

Something like that. I don't work for you. I work for the patients, and if it's simpler to have a structure where their care is publicly funded, or I'm occasionally asked for a pro bono service, or we split a clerk between us, that's fine. I wanted to know the rules because I'm not from your culture and wanted to be sure people were in fact operating under rules at all. I'm happy to have a room and cafeteria access here and I haven't used currency in nearly twenty years and don't much miss it. But I don't work for you, my agreement that I'll come in even when it's inconvenient depends on it being my call when 'inconvenient' becomes 'unworkable', and I still won't work for you if there is a war, for that matter.

Melody is silent for a while. 

"...That wasn't in fact the expectation I had before," she says eventually, "so I'm glad we clarified it. Hmm. I...don't think that would change much in practice. Except the part about what if a war, which I really hope we don't have to think about for a long time – it's volunteer-basis for positions anywhere near a combat zone, I don't think that's ever been otherwise for Healers, but the coordination has to be pretty heavy, to make it work, if you were to volunteer for a posting in wartime you'd be expected to stick to it for the agreed duration. And if you took a six-month vacation in the middle of a war people would be pretty upset; if you wanted to do that now it'd be fine as long as you gave us notice to sort out scheduling. My sense is that you're a reliable person who wants to help people, so I'm guessing that 'unworkable' wouldn't be 'I had a picnic planned and it'll upset the guests if I cancel'. No one expects any of us to come in if we're already dealing with an emergency, personal or otherwise, and what counts as an emergency is up to your discretion." 

Shrug. "The part I expect not to be negotiable is your being under our legal jurisdiction – as in, if you commit a crime with your subtle arts according to Valdemaran law, you'd be tried as a Healer. That's true even for Healers who never trained in Haven, which I personally feel iffy about since how would they know our rules, hells, if I'd done anything irreversibly bad with my Gift when I didn't know I had it, I could've gone in front of the Healers' Court and the thought still scares me. I have no expectation that you will break any of our rules but I thought you should know." 

I'm capable of keeping commitments I in fact make. I just haven't in fact commited, yet, to showing up on any schedule, definitely haven't committed to obeying orders, explicitly told Aber that I didn't think it made sense to fold me in to the standard Healing paradigm back before I even knew it was safe to do magic here, and may wind up disagreeing with work-life balance expectations even if I don't have an emergency per se. For example, there's some spell development I need to do in order to contact my friend from Arda who will be trying to find me. I'm worried that he might go to Materia instead of looking for me directly, since he expects me to be there, and I think that it might kill him on contact, and I need to finish my spell before he finishes his so he knows I'm not even there. But this isn't an emergency on any single day, it's just something I need to set aside enough total mana and time for before an invisible deadline hits.

"Huh. 'Work-life balance'. What a good term. I should make sure I tell it to Lancir someday." Melody hops up and sits on the edge of the desk, smoothing down her robes. "You have a very weird and interesting life, Bella. I'm sorry about your friend's situation, that sounds terrifying – I would understand if you wanted to spend all your time on that until it's taken care of, although if the bottleneck is mana then maybe you can't. I'll inform Aber of your 'freelancer' plan – I believe you that you said as much to him, he's just busy and can be absentminded." 

She tugs at her sleeve. "Question, though. Not asking for a commitment, yet, just one woman to another. Do you think you're likely to stick around and put, oh, at least three or four candlemarks a day toward working here? You've got magic now, you could do all sorts of interesting things instead of staying and helping us. I got excited about this being a good opportunity to try running things in a more organized way, but...I guess I was assuming I'd have you for a while. If it's just going to me I don't know that it's such a good idea, I know from past experiences that there isn't, well, enough me for it, at some point I'll get swamped and behind and it'll stop being fun and I'll find an excuse to go start fresh somewhere else." 

Assuming I encounter no surprise irreconcilable problems I will offer least that much time per day towards seeing patients in some capacity, arts/magic ratio and healers' patient pool versus other to be determined.

Nod. "That's something I can work with, and Aber will just have to make do. He's not going to tell you to go away when you can heal someone of any injury in six seconds." Melody is starting to get a very speculative look. "...Your magic is learnable by anyone? How long would it take for me to learn it?" 

You might be able to get the very basics on the first day but I can't teach it without materials I haven't acquired yet.

"Can I speed that up by helping you acquire them?" 

Sure. I need nice paper and fancy ink in several colors and appropriate pens or brushes.

"Oh, is that all? Pretty sure I know where to get you some in the Palace, Lancir has a stash for official documents and he won't mind if we nab a bit of it." She slides down from the desk and glances around. "...All right, I've told Gemma we're out for the day, she wants to know if she can Mindspeak you if any horrific accident victims come in, anyway follow me?" 

Mindspeaking me with the knocking protocol is fine, but I'm at risk of making a mistake if I'm interrupted while I'm with a therapy patient so she should knock.

"Reasonable, passed it on." Melody starts moving at a brisk walk. 

Bella flies along.

Melody gives her frequent, slightly jealous glances. "How long does that spell in particular take to learn?" she says just as they reach the main Palace wing. 

It isn't a discrete spell, it's sort of freeform. I don't know exactly because in Valinor there was an effect making stuff take longer and I had a head start and it's all generally confusing, but more than five and fewer than fifteen years probably.

"Practicing how much per day?" Five to fifteen years is a long time but if it's for learning to fly...

...some? It depends a lot on how smart you are and how much mana you have innately and stuff.