"Um, sure." Vanyel is already having trouble keeping his eyes open. "Tarinda, m'sorry..." 

"Don't stay up on my account, it's actually the middle of the night."

"Oh." How long have they been here? He's too tired to ask; he accepts painkillers and then is asleep again within seconds.

The night passes. 

Tarinda finishes her list. She solicits a room from Leareth's people and sleeps.

Leareth checks on Vanyel first thing in the morning. 

He's awake but bleary - vaguely realizing that he doesn't know where he is, and his head still hurts, but this is hardly a first occurrence in his life and Yfandes is there resting her head on his shoulder and calm so it must be okay - 

- and then LEARETH IS THERE and he has a vague recollection that this makes sense for some reason but also it makes NO SENSE and he tries to shield and then yelps in pain–

And there's a Mindspeech tap at Tarinda's mind. :Are you awake? Vanyel is very agitated, I think he forgot where he was again and then was startled to see me:  

:- am now. Coming:

She's there a couple seconds later.

:That was fast: Leareth remarks. 

Vanyel is plastered against the headboard of the bed, clearly trying to get as much distance between himself and Leareth as he can while not, actually, being able to get out of bed. He looks thoroughly disoriented and also terrified. 

Yfandes is nuzzling him again but still can't risk Mindspeaking him. 

"Hey Van it's okay - you're backlashy, which I think means you aren't supposed to do any Gift stuff, I can relay if Yfandes says things -"

He has not exactly failed to notice that. Tarinda looks pretty calm, though, that's reassuring? Sort of.

"Why - where - Leareth...?" 

:Tell him he's been here for a while and everything is fine, Leareth hasn't harmed us - gods, I don't know if it's worrying that he keeps forgetting everything we tell him - er, don't say that to him, it'll just alarm him for no reason:  

"Yfandes says - uh, through two layers of translation - says you've been here a while and everything is fine and Leareth hasn't harmed us."

"What happened? Was there a fight - why don't I remember how we got here?" 

:Ugh, he's going to be upset again but we should tell him. I think he had some sort of fit when he was in the Web helping Savil out, and - when that happens to a mage, sometimes they throw a lot of magic around at random, and he had the entire Heartstone's power... It wasn't his fault: 

"Yfandes says she thinks -" She repeats it.

"I - how - that's never happened before - gods, I'm sorry–"

"It was not your fault," Leareth repeats. "I believe, in fact, that it is the gods who ought be sorry. The Star-Eyed Goddess, I suspect, since the Heartstone is Hers. They were trying to kill Tarinda for - changing the world too rapidly in their Foresight of the future, I would suspect. Though it was a startlingly inept attempt, really." 

Vanyel looks like this is maybe a bit much for him to absorb at once while he's still out of it. 

"Gods can just - give people fits -? Why didn't she give me a fit, I would have been okay but I was also okay this way!"

"I was not previously aware that this was possible! My guess is that it is only possible for a few mages who are directly keyed to the Web, while they are working within it in next to the physical focus of the Heartstone - it would give Her very direct access to their minds, I am not sure how it would be done but likely She could simply have poked him with a bit of magic in exactly the wrong way. That method would not work on you, since you are neither a mage nor keyed to the Web nor likely to ever enter the Heartstone sanctum. Vanyel, on the other hand, built the Heartstone." 

Vanyel feels awful about this! He's maybe not completely following but he can make out that there was an earthquake and this was his fault. 

"I'm sorry, Van," says Tarinda.