Most people don't travel with multiple books in their saddlebags, probably. Vanyel spends a lot of time awake in the middle of the night; it's kind of a necessity. 

He unlocks his door, ushers DZ in, goes and dives into his pack, and comes out with three books. He opens one and shows her the first page, proudly. "Writing!" 

"Dazek j'us, y'chel."

She sits at the desk and begins reading at a speed that would be extremely implausible even for a human entirely fluent in the language in question.

Well, huh. 

Vanyel sits down and watches. Normally watching someone else read silently to themselves would be boring, but he's too burningly curious. What's going on in her mind? 

It still takes her a few hours to get through all three, but she does, reading without stopping until she's done.

Vanyel does go out to use the privy at one point, and then comes back and sits on the bed with one of the books she's done with. It's his room, after all; where else is he going to go where no one will bother him? 

She doesn't bother him at all, until she finishes the last book and looks up. "Thank you, sir. Did you have any questions for me?"

He stares at her, wide-eyed. 

"Did you...just...learn Valdemaran by reading those books to yourself? How did you do that?" He rubs his forehead. "Would it help to have more? I can probably find you more books." 

"Yes sir. A few more books would help but I should be fine with just these if it's an inconvenience."

Hmm. There's a temple on the outskirts of town, they'll have more books. "It's not too inconvenient but I'll go in a little while. I, um–" his brain catches for a moment on the sheer number of questions, no, one at a time, "it's fine if it's private and I won't push, but, er, your friend Deskyl, is she...all right...? Is there anything I can do to help?" 

"It's fine, sir. She's quite badly injured and needs to rest but we expect her to recover."

He sags a bit with relief. "I'm really glad of that." And he's not going to ask about whatever mission or battle the Force brought them to that caused her injuries because he doesn't actually want to know and also it's none of his business. "Er, will she be all right to travel in a few days? I'm not planning to stay in Polsinn for long. The capital is...nicer." He's not sure how to put it any more diplomatically than that.

"I'll have to ask her about it. Can you tell me more about the capital, please?"

He can! He describes Haven for a bit – the Palace, the older and newer wings (the newest ones have running water indoors), the House of Healing, the various levels of walls that were added on as the city grew over centuries. The districts of the city, some nicer than others. The Companions' Grove, where the first King of Valdemar prayed for a miracle and got himself Companions and, thereby, Heralds. The Death Bell, which mysteriously rang the first time a Herald died even though it wasn't finished yet and didn't have a clapper inside, and now magically rings when any Herald dies, no matter how far away. 

...All right, a lot of Valdemar is pretty weird and Vanyel's wondering just how many questions DZ is listing up for him. 

Well, she's not so curious that she doesn't listen patiently to whatever he wants to tell her before asking any questions. When he's done, though, she wants to hear more about the House of Healing, and then about their general technological level.

The House of Healing is attached to the Healers' Collegium, the biggest school that trains Healers – a kind of magical Gift in their world, he thinks to clarify, plus some quick details about how it works, Sight that shows natural energy-flows and problems within the body, plus the ability to manipulate it in certain ways. Vanyel actually trained there, thanks to his (extremely weak) Healing-Gift, so he knows a fair bit about the training and techniques. 

Technological level... She may need to ask more clarifying questions here. They're pretty good at durable stone buildings? They have waterwheels for mills. Herald-Mages can do a lot of things with magic, building and defences and wards, but there aren't enough of them. 

How's their metalworking? Can they make wire? How about chemistry, do they know about acids and bases?

Wire, yes, though he only knows about copper wire used for jewelry. Savil's new student is interested in alchemy and he vaguely remembers her saying things about acids, but he isn't well-read on the subject. 

Okay, good. There's a thing she needs instead of food, and the machine to make it will need wires and acid and maybe a waterwheel, but it can wait a few days until Deskyl is doing a little better and can make a machine like that.

...Oh no that's the question he was going to ask but instead he asked about Deskyl first and then got distracted, how embarrassing, what a terrible host he's being to these strangers from another world. "I'm sorry for not thinking of that," he says. 

"It's fine, sir."

Nod. "All right, I think you'll want to come to Haven then. There are jewellers and artificers there who can make wire for you, there, and whoever Sandra does alchemy with, but none of that is here." He frowns. "Er, how urgent a problem is this? Are you going to...starve...if it takes a week?" Realistically it's a week's journey just to get back to Haven, and then surely it'll take Deskyl longer than a day to find the relevant people and make the device.  

"I'll need to be careful with my reserves to last that long, sir, but I won't starve, exactly. If Deskyl makes a list of what she'll need once she gets there, is there someone who can get those things for her, if I'm not able to?"

"...My aunt can." He says it more decisively than is really justified, but he's pretty sure Savil can pull it off, and that he can convince her it's important once he's back. "I'll think about how to get us back as soon as possible. I can talk to Herald Jores, I...need to help deal with the prisoners we took," according to Yfandes they're currently still inside his mage-barriers, which ought to last at least two days given how hard he overpowered them, being watched by some of the Guard. "But after that I don't think they should need me here anymore." 

He chews his lip. No, he really should say it even if it's awkward. "I, um, wanted to make sure Deskyl knows that, er, a lot of the Heralds in Haven have Thoughtsensing, like me. She seemed kind of upset about me reading her by accident? I didn't mean to, it's just that most Gifted people here shield, and, um, it's considered invasive and unethical to read someone without their permission but if she doesn't shield then other people might by accident." 

"I'll talk to her about it. Can you tell me more about how your Thoughtsensing works, please?"

Vanyel explains as clearly and in as much detail as he can manage. 

The receptive component of Thoughtsensing as a Gift nearly always comes along with projective Mindspeech, though there are rare exceptions. A Mindspeaker can both reach out with their Gift and read the surface thoughts of other people, Gifted or not, and someone with a strong Gift (like Vanyel's) can dig deeper if they make an effort, searching memories. Un-Gifted people usually won't notice a passive read of surface thoughts, but will notice a deeper probe; most un-Gifted people, in his world at least, have at least rudimentary natural shields, but generally with a layer of surface thoughts on the 'outside'. Someone with Mind-Gifts will notice even a light probe, and anyone in Valdemar with an identified Gift (mostly Heralds and Healers, though occasionally a Bard crops up with Mindspeech or Empathy as well) will be trained to shield fully. 

Mindspeakers can also project thoughts into the minds of others. There's a standard protocol for it between Gifted people – meshing shields to form a narrow link, along which words can be passed, but which generally doesn't leak thoughts that are meant to be private. (Sometimes accidental thoughts do get sent, though. The polite thing is to pretend you didn't hear.) A very strong Mindspeaker can also project to un-Gifted minds. Vanyel is strong enough for it. 

Empathy, right – that's a related Mind-Gift, and can show up with or without accompanying Mindspeech. Empathy senses emotions, rather than the content of thoughts. Again, it comes in receptive and projective, and it's more common for receptive to be found alone. Vanyel has both, though much weaker than his Mindspeech. 

Questions?