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Bruce Banner as Vanyel, from end of book 1 of "A Song for Two Voices"
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Gemma brings him some broth and another dose of the pain-medicine, and then Lissa helps him lie down and pulls the blankets over him and strokes his hair. No one seems to be expecting anything of him in particular, right now. 

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If nothing is expected of him then nothing is what he will be, for a while. 

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He's in a mountain pass. Unnatural, vertical walls of glassy, slagged stone. Carved by magic, dark tainted magic. Ahead, an army. 

He remembers sending Tylendel away to bring help. (But Tylendel is dead?) 

Help isn't coming in time. He knows that he's going to die, and...he's ready, resigned, if not quite at peace. 

“Herald-Mage Abras.” A man dressed entirely in black, dark hair falling to his shoulders, black eyes like still water. Mage-power radiates from him in waves. His enemy. Too powerful to hold off with anything except his own death. It feels like he's always known how this is going to end. 

"Leareth," he hears himself say, and raises his hand to strike–

And something brushes at his mind; it hurts, like salt on an open wound. :Abras, wake up, it's just a–:

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He tries to move away from the pain without it throwing off his attack, contorts his mind and body in the dream, and it bleeds into reality in an uncontrolled blast of magic at whatever unfortunate person tried to Mindspeak him while he thrashes himself half-out of the bed.

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Mardic gets out half of a startled yelp before he slams into the opposite wall and then collapses in a unmoving heap in the floor. 

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"Abras! Abras, it's all right, it's just me, I've got you–" Lissa grabs at his leg before he can actually fall out of the bed, and then wraps her arms tightly around his flailing body. "Abras, it's me, can you just – HELP! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP IN HERE?" 

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And now there's a third voice yelling at him. :Abras, wake up, calm down – you were having a nightmare, it's not real–:

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AAAAAAAA he can't move someone's grabbing him and Lissa is screaming for help and there's a voice in his head! Time to panic more!

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The floor starts to shake. A corner of the curtains catches fire, then part of the bedspread. The chamberpot flies into a wall and smashes everywhere, with...predictable and unfortunate consequences. The door of the wardrobe bangs open and shut.  

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"Abras Abras Abras it's me just calm down–" Lissa's urgent barking is not especially calming. 

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And finally a new voice, quiet but firm. "Let go of him," Shavri says. "Quiet. Just be quiet." 

The hands on him go away (he's firmly enough on the bed not to fall off easily even if he keeps thrashing.) The voices both out loud and in his head stop. 

Shavri yanks her newly-rain-soaked Healers' robe over her head and starts to smother the smouldering bedspread with it, then stops, and first presses a corner of it to Abras' face. Carefully not covering his mouth or nose, so he can breathe, but it's cold and startling and should serve at least as a distraction from the newly-urgent throbbing pain that's at least partially in his head, even if most of it is in places that seem to be outside normal space.

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Eventually some part of Abras' brain realizes he'll do a better job of panicking if he has some idea where he is and what's happening, and he manages to open his eyes and start interpreting the evidence of his senses. The evidence of his senses is that things are pretty bad! Both in the room around him and in the pain department.

"Ow, ow, gods, Lissa, are you okay, aaagh, what's happening?" All of this is somewhat muffled, because he's futilely clutching his head again.

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“I’m all right, I’ll be right there!” Lissa, hastily clambered up on a chair, manages to finish smothering the curtain-fire with a cloak snatched from the hook by the door, and hops down, sitting on the (not-on-fire) part of the bed and reaching for his hand.

“I’m fine, I promise.” She keeps her voice forcibly soft, even though there’s a definite undercurrent of fear. “Abras, are you all right? Your head...?”

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"I think I hurt myself again . . . why was the bed on fire?"

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In the corner, Mardic stirs. "Hnng?" 

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Shavri finishes putting out the corner of the bedspread and moves to stand where Abras can see her; she's damp and shivering in just her underclothes, though at least they're enough coverage that she's decent.

"I think you had a nightmare and used some of your Gifts accidentally," she says. "That's why you're hurting–" she breaks off, "Lissa I need you to go check that Mardic is all right and then get him somewhere else, please." Switch back. "Abras, I've Mindspoken someone at Healers' and asked them to bring you more pain-medicine. Just try to relax. You're safe, everything's fine." 

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"Oh gods, started the fire?! I'm sorry, I didn't mean--oh no, did I hurt Mardic too? I'm so sorry . . ." 

He desperately wants to go back to sleep, but he doesn't know how to be sure he won't use magic in his sleep again. So instead he sits still and tries to stay awake but not do anything or think about anything, and mostly just feels embarrassed and guilty. He can't even offer to help clean up his own mess; he's hurting too much to concentrate.

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:Chosen, it wasn't your fault: Reaching him from a distance and with everything already in so much pain, Yfandes' mindvoice hurts a LOT, but she sends a tide of affection and love and reassurance along with it. :No one can control their Gifts right away. We'll get you trained and it won't happen again. But not yet, you're still ill and you need to rest now. I love you: 

She fades out but keeps sending a faint wash of caring along with it. 

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She is his Companion and she loves him and he is going to pay attention to her even if it hurts. He definitely agrees that he needs to be trained not to hurt anyone. And yes, he should definitely try to stop being ill so he can get on that; he'd be an awful student in this state. :Okay:, he sends; he doesn't want to risk Mindspeaking a longer response in case it hurts more.

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Within a few minutes, Gemma is back. She looks like someone who doesn't especially want to be awake. 

"I actually don't think poppy-syrup is enough for this," she's saying to Shavri, barely audible to Abras because they're in the corner and keeping their voices low. "We gave him a dose, what, a candlemark ago? And here we are. So... I don't like it, but I'm going to give him argonel. Should have a stronger calming effect as well, help keep him from panicking – poor lad, I don't blame him, Lance says he's got multiple new strong Gifts and that's a lot to deal with on top of, er, everything else. But I'd like you to stay with him the rest of the day, all right? Make sure we don't overdose him by accident." 

Then she's at Abras' bedside, speaking to him directly. "Hey, let's get you sitting up a bit – thank you, Lissa. Drink this, please." The cup she brings to his lips holds something that tastes like fire, and burns when he swallows. 

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At least this pain has a comprehensible source. "Will this make me not mess up again?" He asks once he's done drinking it.

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Sigh. "It won't give you control, lad, only teaching will do that. Right now the most important thing is that you stay calm and avoid getting yourself worked up – my understanding is that's when Gifts tend to manifest accidentally, when you're feeling strong emotions. This will make you feel very drowsy, and hopefully give you a dreamless sleep, no nightmares. And, of course, keep your pain controlled for now while you heal. Lancir said it's important you minimize using your Gifts, so that your channels can recover. All right? 

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"Alright." If it can keep him from doing magic in his dreams he can go back to not-doing-anything when he's awake. That should work. Probably. He's already getting less awake.

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Lissa gets back while he's still just barely conscious. "Abras, I'm here. Feeling any better? Do you want me to stay?" Pause. "Oh, I just found out. Savil should be Gating back at some point today. So you'll see her soon." 

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"You don't have to stay if you don't want to." Whether she should probably depends on whether he's going to start another fire but he isn't sure in which direction and he's too sleepy to explain that. He's not looking forward to facing Savil's disappointment even though the last time he was afraid of facing Savil's disappointment she turned out to be surprisingly okay with him.

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