"I guess if he's already too big to comprehend you can't measure him with a measuring-stick." Jisa narrows her eyes at him. "...Are you sad about something?" This is a slightly dishonest question because she KNOWS he is, but people get annoyed with her when she just announces at them what their feelings are, even if their feelings are being very loud right there and it's not like she can miss it. 

<No.>

She is giving him a very dubious look about that claim, but arguing with people about that usually also makes them angry with her, so she doesn't. "Anyway, did your god do any things other than giving you thoughtspeech?" 

And maaaaybe if she is very careful she can push and make him a bit less sad and a bit less stressed and he won't notice? 

<Yes, he told us lots of stories. I could tell you one, if you would like.>

He doesn't notice, and doesn't notice, and doesn't notice and then does and his tail flies at her (the fact that she can see it do so is really really worrying about his general health, not that she would know that) and then stops as he remembers himself -

<What are you doing.>

Jisa lets out a startled high-pitched yelp and tries to jump backward and falls on her bottom on the grass - she's simultaneously trying to pull her Gifts back and also look to see if she hurt him by accident and her heart is pounding out of her chest and she's forgotten to shield at all (which means she is incidentally projected SCARED in her general vicinity) - and now her head feels all funny, like the world is sliding in and out of focus, except it's not the world it's something else. She'd noticed feeling funny like that before, a few times, but thought she was just not shielding properly and people were having weird emotions. 

:I'm sorry I'm sorry I just–: And then it comes better into focus, it hurts her head but there's something there she could open, if she wanted, and even though her pulse is hammering in her ears, she wants to see what's in there... 

<My head is mine and nobody else gets a say about its contents -> he is scared right back at her, he is even more scared -

He doesn't feel any better but he tries to pull himself in line anyway -

<I am not going to hurt you. I apologize for startling you.> And now he is overwhelmed with terror that someone will be angry and want him out of here, and stress about whatever she was doing with his head and guilt and sadness about the child-his-daughter's-age and about his daughter and about everything that's gone forever...

Also, she can See him from a new angle now. From that angle he is - a garden, that once had plants in it, but then someone paved it over with bricks, and now the bricks are gone but you can see the indents from them everywhere and almost all of the plants are dead.

Jisa tries to take a deep breath and say something but it's too horrible, she doesn't know why it looks like that but it SHOULDN'T, and she's trying to shield but she's too scared and upset to centre or ground so the shielding isn't working at all - she just wants to not be looking at it, she wants it to go away, to not be like that - if she could water the sad awful garden then maybe the brick-indents would get soft and go away and the plants would come back to life again and it would be okay...

- and then something happens that makes her head ring. Also that is probably a lot more water than what you're supposed to water gardens with! 

Something is very wrong. (Shimmering, shivering, bleeding away in all directions) - something is very wrong and the child's - his child - not his child - some other child - but still a child - not a Yeerk - right now it's like he can look into her head and see the Yeerk but he's pretty sure that's not true, it's a way of trying to straighten out a hundred shifting things into a line but it's not the right way - maybe - if there's a Yeerk and he can still move then that means he needs to - but his body doesn't obey him - so it's too late, probably...

He collapses to the ground and thrashes with his tail at random.

Jisa screams and scoots back and tries to fix it but nothing is working the way it should and - she thinks she made a mistake, a really bad mistake maybe, and she grits her teeth because she's going to be in so much trouble but she can't just not do anything and she doesn't know how to put it back– 

:MAMA MAMA HELP: 

Shavri is in the House of Healing talking to Gemma and nearly jumps out of her skin, clutching both hands to her head. :Jisa, too loud - what–:

:I was talking to the alien and I think I did something funny with my Empathy and I - might've broken something...: 

:Jisa!: Shavri doesn't know the entire story of why Alloran is here but she knows enough to guess that this is really, really, really not ideal! :Jisa, baby, stay calm, just stay there, I'm coming–: switch to reaching for a different mind, waving a hand apologetically at Gemma and breaking into a run.

:- Savil can you reach Van we need Melody: 

:What? He's on Earth, I can't do the interworld comms spe–:

:Get a Mindspeech-relay message up north tell them to contact Melody she needs to Gate to Haven right away:

:On it. - Shavri, what's hap–:

Shavri keeps interrupting and talking over her because she's in such a hurry. :Jisa did something to Alloran and doesn't know how to fix it, she thought it was Empathy but I have a bad feeling she might've just gotten a different Gift: 

:Goddamnit. She couldn't have picked literally anyone else, could she: 

Out on a field, everything is still shifting and bleeding and falling apart in slow-motion but now there's a vaguely familiar mindvoice in Alloran's head. :Alloran. Can you hear me?: It's Taver, the Groveborn, his mindvoice is brighter and steelier and cuts through the buzzing confusion with more clarity. 

<Someday you will slip up and you will die of it> he tells Mhalir.

:This is Taver. You are in Haven. The child did something to your head by accident but we are bringing Melody here to help: 

It takes him a while to process this. When he does he stops thrashing his tail but does not otherwise respond.

Taver directs the other Companions who've all rushed over to keep their distance. He keeps talking to Alloran, calm and steady and measured, repeatedly trying to reassure him of where he is and that they are going to fix it soon. 

The Mindspeech relay isn't instantaneous even for a high-priority message, and so it's nearly five minutes later that Leareth gets the message passed on from one of his mages here. He's been attempting to take a nap in one of the conference rooms, and instantly scrambled up.

:Matirin. We have a problem in Haven and they need Melody right away. You may want to go too, apparently a small child suddenly acquired Mindhealing and - did something to Alloran that she does not know how to put back...: 

- sigh. <I will go too. What kinds of things can you plausibly do ->

:I know very little about this area! Melody can almost certainly fix it but she should hurry, where is she–: