Dead thirteen year old bread is not fun to look at. Belrun squeezes Leareth's stolen hand.

"Maybe you can try to fix my side of it first?" Leareth suggests. "Since I am having more trouble being functional at all. Then I can tell Belrun if it has any side effects she would find unacceptable." He glances at her, as if to ask silently if she thinks that's a good idea. 

"That... might be fine? It might have some spillover on to me anyway of course, since there's some connection..."

"I am quite good at aiming my Gift in a controlled way," Nayoki says. "There will likely be effects for you, but only via the lifebond-mechanism, not Mindhealing effects. Among other things, you have very good shields and you actually are partially shielding my Sight."

She can show this with a quick, bird's-eye-view glance across the lifebond at Belrun's mind, which shows up a lot blurrier, then she's back to focusing on Leareth. 

"I look so round."

"You do! Usually the shape conveys something about a person. I think that you have a very neat and well-arranged mind, would be my guess." 

"That's what it looked like to Melody too. - you're sure doing what you have in mind won't stop it from growing in the rest of the way at least as fast as it would by default?"

"Fairly sure, as long as I do not 'bake' anything into place - that is why stabilizing the current lifebond does not seem worth it, I think that might slow its further development." 

Belrun nods.

And Nayoki pushes Mindhealing at Leareth, hard, but as promised in a very neat and focused way, aimed just at the gnawed-out looking section of his mind. 

Leareth isn't sure if he's ever had Mindhealing used on him this hard, much less in this lifetime (what little of it he's had so far). The walls are meeeeeelting. He grips Belrun's hand more tightly. 

Belrun collects him into an entire hug.

He clings to her, as the centre of his mind goes gooey and melty. Nayoki doesn't do anything else, but she doesn't have to; the loosened material flows like cake batter poured down a slope, toward Belrun, thickening the bridge between them. 

She backs off, slowly. "Are you all right?" 

"I - think so..." He feels dizzy. But he also feels Belrun a lot more than before. 

She pokes, internally, at the fragmentary bond on her end.

It feels maybe a little more connected and less wispy than before, though the difference isn't huge. 

:Hey. I felt that: There's relief in Leareth's mindvoice, though. "It feels better on my end," he says out loud. "I do not think Belrun would like the side effects, though, it was very disconcerting." 

"I apologize." 

"Temporary, though, right, it might still be worth it. Maybe when I'm asleep."

"I can wait and see whether it helps with doing things. Also, I think she ought to be able to put you under for it, though that is even more Mindhealing so maybe you would prefer not." 

"Will that work better than just being asleep somehow?"

"I am not sure if doing Mindhealing this intensely would wake you if you were simply asleep." 

"Then I'll just cope with things being - Mindhealy."

"All right. I can check back at your usual bedtime if you want me to try once you are asleep, then." 

"If I'm likely to wake up and be freaked out I should possibly be rooming with Amshalan tonight."