Then Lancir will wave them out of his office with a promise that he'll have a well-ventilated alchemy room and as many of the ingredients as he can procure by dawn.

Yfandes is waiting outside the building. :Lucy, Wilbur – are you starting right now, or do you have a bit of time?: 

"I'm starting in the morning, I have time."

:I think Van would appreciate seeing you for a bit: Yfandes arches her neck. :He's...coping all right, mostly. Sort of. Finally having his own comfortable private space is really helpful. But - he knows you're about to be busy and he doesn't want to think about why but he will miss you: 

"Okay. Um, there will be bits where there's nothing going on but things waiting to heat for the right amount of time or something like that, I can come see him then. I might smell a little weird though." 

:That makes sense. I'll...have to judge at the time whether that's going to help. Anyway, he's in his room right now but I've suggested he could come out to the Companions' Field or the stable for a bit, if you have time to come: 

Nod. "I have time." She heads in the indicated direction. 

Vanyel is just coming down the path, head down and shoulders tense. He manages a weak smile when he sees Lucy.

She immediately goes and hugs him. 

"Lancir has a whole different Mind-Gift for me to look weird in!" she reports. 

Vanyel tenses even more. "Oh. Right. He's a Mindhealer." 

Oops. "His thing is houses but I'm a forest. Wilbur's a, I'm not sure but I think it might be a termite mound."

That seems to get Vanyel's interest enough to distract him from...whatever the upsetting part was. "A forest? What sort of forest?" 

"Quaking aspen. It's this species of three where the leaves move oddly in the wind because of the way the stems attach to the tree branches." 

"Huh. Neat." Vanyel finds a spot on the grass and sits down; Yfandes ambles over and settles next to him. He's quiet for a bit; he keeps glancing at Lucy and Wilbur and then look away. 

"...You're going to–" he starts, then puts his forehead down on his knees, and switches to Mindspeech. :You're going to try the thing. And you think it'll work: His mindvoice is tight, and somehow feels transparent and brittle, like spiderweb-cracked glass that might shatter at the slightest touch. 

What can she even say to that, besides-- "Yes," she says aloud. 

He curls up even tighter. :Lucy, I'm really, really scared. I don't even know why. It - would be good, if it works. I, just...: 

"You just have a lot of feelings that you haven't been able to deal with on account of there being a giant hole in you." She sits down and hugs him again. 

Vanyel seems to accept that, and doesn't say anything more, just huddles up against her, still tense but not quite as rigid as before.

:...Can I sleep in your tentacles again?: he sends finally, very tentative, like it's an onerous request that he's embarrassed to make. :Just for one night, before you, um, start?: 

:Yeah.:

Then Vanyel will take her up on it! He isn't sure where to go that would be private, he suggests in one of the wooded areas beside the river. Um if she can carry him there without looking please. Yfandes can hang out nearby and warn them if any humans come near, but probably no one will. 

She will totally carry him there!

:I'll miss this too. You're my friend and I care about you a lot and I really like hugging you.:

:You're a really good friend: Vanyel will curl up and close his eyes and do his best to fall asleep even though his insides are tangled up with a mix of anticipation and sheer terror and then embarrassment at being such a mess about it. It'll probably help if she sings again. 

She sings Amazing Grace. 

It’s a beautiful song and Vanyel sort of tries to stay awake to listen but he’s still asleep by the end.

Good. That is exactly the result she was hoping for. 

She waits until the sun has finished rising in the sky before gently waking him.