...yeah.

He finds some food, and the clothes from that package they left that she never found, and he brings these things back and puts them down and then goes to the end of the alley that's farther from her and sits and waits.

After a while, she stops crying, but she doesn't move.

Maybe he should say something...? Because that worked out so well the last time. Right.

He sits and doesn't do anything.

She looks up, eventually. She doesn't seem any less scared, but she's more resigned. She's confused that he's still there, though.

After a moment, she notices the food, and tenses up all over again.

...if this was just about her, at this point it would probably be best to just leave her alone because clearly there is no way to interact with her without making things worse, or if there is a way he's unlikely to stumble on it by accident and definitely not going to figure it out by observation.

But it's not just about her, is it.

Something happened to scare her like this, and if he doesn't figure out what it was and make it stop, there's a good chance it will happen to more people.

Now how does he find out what it was, when she can barely talk and is terrified of him and he has no idea what she's even afraid of or how to avoid it?

Good question.

She decides to ignore the food. That helps a little. She considers Taliar, and after a couple minutes seems to come to a conclusion.

"You stay... until... they come?"

"...I don't know who you mean by 'they'," he says.

She looks at him again, confused and concerned and perhaps a little less scared, though it's hard to tell.

"Police, or..." she shrugs. "To... take me back." The last phrase comes out all at once, and she tenses up again and looks away, staring at nothing.

"...I am not going to take you back to - wherever you were that made you this scared of everything," he says. "If I knew where it was I would go there and make them stop doing that."

"Supposed to." She doesn't look at him.

"I'm supposed to—? Supposed to send you back? I don't think I am, and even if I was, I still wouldn't do it."

She doesn't move for several long seconds, and then gives him a dubious look.

"You must be from somewhere very far away."

Shrug.

"If you don't somebody will."

"...I think you're probably from another world," he says. "Because if you were from this one you'd recognize me. I've taken my healing aura through almost everywhere in the world that has people in it. And I've never seen any clothes like those before, or heard a language like the one you're speaking. I didn't know there were other worlds until now, but it's the only thing that makes sense."

She considers this for a few minutes, and then inclines her head in a 'that's plausible' sort of gesture.

"Can't send me back. Maybe." She doesn't actually look any less tense at the prospect, though she is less confused at least. "What instead?"

"I'm going to leave this town tomorrow to go heal more people. You can come with me, or follow me, if you want. People were a little scared when you appeared like that, because it looked like someone might've done something awful to you with magic, and people who do awful things to other people with magic usually don't stop at just one. But whatever's going on, I think it's not exactly that."

Headshake. "Tinker trap."

"...what?"

"Not magic. Tinker trap. Cape stuff."

"I don't think 'cape' or 'tinker' like you mean them are things this world has," he says. "And I bet 'soulbearer'," he gestures at his necklace, "isn't something your world has."

She considers, shrugs, and then nods.

"So. If you want to follow my healing aura around you can do that. If you want to avoid me instead for some reason, you can do that."

She goes distant again. "I don't... talk. Stuff." She gestures vaguely.

"...yeah, I noticed that..."