:Yeah, we wanted to know what our lifebond is doing since it's not 'being okay again instantly'. He's napping but I can wake him up? Or just, you know, inform you that he was interested in learning this information when he was awake:

:Up to you. I can accept you consenting on his behalf and it sounds like he needs his rest, but if he needs to be awake for something else anyway... I'll be there in a moment: 

She opens the door very quietly when she arrives. 

:I don't think he needs to be awake right now:

Then Melody will sit down beside the bed and have a look without waking him. 

:...Goodness: she sends, a while later. :That is one confused lifebond you have there: 

:Confused?:

:Sorry, that's not the clearest description. But this is a pretty weird situation, where lifebonds are concerned! Normally a lifebond will properly snap into place when there's mutual sexual attraction, although I've read it's sometimes possible to notice the beginnings of a lifebond earlier than that - say, if one or both of the people involved are way too young. If you were both, er, lifebond-compatible but hadn't previously been bonded, I think there wouldn't be anything yet. However. You both have holes in you, so there's a lot more - metaphorically looking for the missing piece, I guess? I don't know exactly what's going to happen from here, but my best guess is that if you spend a lot of time together, you're going to end up with a sort of partial lifebond. Until he's, um, actually past puberty, I would think: 

:I guess in a lot of ways that's better than if it didn't wait:

Melody makes a face. :This must be pretty strange for you. It's - gods, it's very surreal, it really doesn't feel like 'Leareth' and 'tiny and adorable' ought to combine like that:

Among the many drawbacks of stealing children's bodies, yes. :It's pretty strange for me, yes:

:Also his mind is a mess in other ways, but I'm guessing he knows what to do about that, and I think there's a Mindhealer up north too?:

:There is, yes. Could you give me a general idea now though -:

:It's - gods, this is very hard to explain. I could show you my Sight, if you know how to do sense-sharing with Mindspeech?: 

:I haven't learned how before:

:Hmm, I'm going to try sort of pushing it at you - this doesn't work with entirely un-Gifted people but might do fine if it's just that you haven't done it before, and it's not like you need more than a second or two to get the overall gist. Ready?: 

:Yeah:

And she'll get a burst of Melody's Sight, similar to Healing-Sight in some ways but extremely different in others. Whatever she's Seeing is a lot more metaphorical than Leareth's actual brain - the impression is of something like a tapestry, splayed out in a way that wouldn't quite work in ordinary space.

It is very obviously a tapestry that has some problems.

One of them is the ragged hole in the middle. It's not hard to guess what that represents. There are loose tendrils of thread sort of floating out from it, searching for something... 

The rest is also pretty weird! It kind of looks like a previous tapestry was recently shredded (this is sort of exactly what happened), and has been patchily replaced with - something even stranger, a sort of rectangular-grid scaffolding not exactly made of thread, with the beginnings of a new pattern being laid down and woven into place on it. The most complete section of it wraps around the hole. It's a pattern of stars against a dark sky.

Everything except that is very unfinished and messy and jury-rigged, with bits of shredded Essi scattered around the edges. 

Belrun shivers a little and nods.

Melody drops the deeper connection. If she's disturbed by it, she isn't showing it. :I'm guessing the other weirdness is a result of his, er, method of dying and coming back, and that he's got ways of dealing with it, but it's very much not dealt with yet and I'm assuming that's having consequences on how well he can function right now: 

:Yeah. His notes are up north, I think that'll help:

:I hope so. ...Do you want a peek at yours? I'm not sure if that'd be helpful at all, it might be the opposite: 

:...I admit I'm curious:

Then Melody can show her that too. 

Belrun's mind is a very tidy tapestry, with a coherent aesthetic theme and neat stitching. It also has a gaping hole in the centre, complete with loose bits searching haplessly for the missing half; the edges are less messy, though, overall the pattern is holding together decently well. Her bond with Amshalan is sort of visible off to one side, as something like an added section, trying hard to match the colour scheme for the rest and not quite making it. 

:Overall: Melody sends, :you're in shockingly good shape, given the givens: 

:I guess so. Huh, I wonder if Amshalan'll integrate more when it's been more than a month and a half. The lifebond probably clashed even worse:

:I suspect so. Companion-bonds tend to stay looking more, well, separate than lifebonds do, but I think it'll work its way in somewhat more over a few years: 

:Well, thanks for showing me: