:Right. You could just talk to the other Vanyel and have him pass it on, maybe?: 

I will at least do that first but it might be irresponsible to do it exclusively.

Leareth stands up, trying not to make any noise. :You know I would not ask you to spend more time here, helping him, than is sustainable for you, right? If you would prefer not to be taking so much of this on then we would figure something out. Although I do very much appreciate everything you are willing to do, here: 

He doesn't take very long! I usually sit with patients for much longer at a stretch. The commute takes a chunk out of my mana but since I'm the only wizard around I can tap basically anyone I run into and they don't care, so that's fine.

:Fair enough: Sigh. :I really wish he would stop being afraid I am going to murder him. It...does not actually make sense to be offended that he thinks so, and I am not, but - I disprefer it: 

Why does he think it?

:I am not sure! I have no desire at all to murder him, and he was me at a past point in his timeline, so you would think he would be able to infer that: 

He's never thought through the reasoning clearly while I was paying attention, so I don't know either. You could ask.

:That sounds like a very fraught conversation but it makes sense to attempt it: 

Yeah, there's not really a graceful way to ask "why do you think I'm going to murder you", is there.

:Not so much: He shakes his head. :Anyway, I suppose I will see you tomorrow to try the copying thing?: Pause. :Is that something that also has risks of some hard-to-fix mistake? I would guess so since you would be doing it for the first time: 

I don't even know how complicated it is yet, but it sounds like something I should be able to do, if I go slowly. Unfortunately I don't actually have, like, statistics on how likely subtle artists in general are to make mistakes under various conditions, because there was not a safe way to take data like that in Materia.

:You somehow keep mentioning facts that cause me to hate Materia even more. I...feel some responsibility for checking that this is a reasonable thing to try, I suppose. Since I think my alt is in a much worse position to make important decisions: 

Imagine you had to lay a thousand grains of rice in a grid on a floor all pointing in the same direction. This isn't easy to do without making a mistake, but you'll notice most mistakes as soon as you make them before you place the next grain, and if you go slowly enough, and if you actually care enough about the grains of rice all pointing the way they're supposed to, you can do it. My favorite professor complimented me once about how I don't ever forget for a second that it's not grains of rice, it's a person. She said a lot of telepaths try to go faster because they can usually get away with it and that she couldn't even enforce being perfectly careful in class because most people would drop out if they got in hot water for being sloppy once, but I'm not sloppy. It's just that if I'm laying out a thousand grains of rice on the floor I have to acknowledge that's actually hard and not just promise I'm very careful.

:What a good compliment. And, I believe you: He frowns. :Do you have any idea why he has decided that his main mode of communication now is having you read his thoughts? I find it somewhat baffling: 

It's easier, I think? He's so tired.

:I suppose that makes sense. He does seem very tired. I know I find Mindspeech easier when I am weary, and we are not letting him use it: Pause. :Is it normal for him to still be this tired?: 

Being traumatized is exhausting and so is disturbed sleep - I don't know if he's sleeping soundly in spite of the help in the evening.

Nod. :I can ask him later. We try not to bother him at night so I am not sure: 

If he's having nightmares I can block them. It doesn't stick but maybe Nayoki can watch it and make it last?

:Interesting. I will inform her of that: 

It'd be really useful if she can. It's not nearly as good a technique when it needs maintenance.

:It would make sense to me if she could? I think our Mindhealing is good at cementing things in place so they will be semi-permanent but still easily reversible, which it sounds as though subtle arts is less good with: 

Yeah, I think maybe it's related to Mindhealing being messier? A really precise structure is more fragile than an organic one. I can do irreversible things, just not stuff the mind pushes back on like the nightmare block.

:That would fit. Nayoki believes it is possible to do very precise things with Mindhealing, but it takes a great degree of skill. Also her Sight-metaphor is worse for it than Melody's. She was a little annoyed about that: