Running out. :Gate, where...?:

One of the mages who's visited Haven for exactly this purpose can give them a Gate right here. 

Leareth is staying back because he doesn't want to go near the Heartstone. 

:Matirin, are you coming too?: Melody heads for the Gate at not quite a run. 

Yes, he is!

They arrive at the Heralds' temple and a very worried Herald Savil is right by the doors. "Oh thank gods, Melody - War-Prince Matirin - this way," and she starts running. 

Fine Melody will run for this, but it just means she'll be out of breath when she gets there, she's not as physically fit as the Heralds. 

Taver is still standing protectively next to where Alloran is sprawled in a heap in the middle of the field. :Alloran, Melody is here now and she is going to put your mind back how it was: 

To Melody's Sight, it shows up looking as though Jisa has spilled a large quantity of multicoloured staticky lint all over Alloran's tapestry. There's a lot of it and it's clinging to the tapestry and itself and tangling all the usual pathways, but it hasn't affected the underlying substrate at all, she can just gently scoop and shake it off and it'll be fine. 

:Oh, phew, I can fix this in a couple of minutes: she tells Matirin. 

<Thank you.>

:Alloran, it's Melody, I'm going to start fixing it now: She does so very, very gently, it'll take longer but less risk of damaging his still-fragile underlying mind-substrate. She metaphorically plucks off lint and softly brushes and blows it away, clearing one section of tapestry at a time. 

He holds still and does not acknowledge this.

It does take about three minutes and then she's done and the whole tapestry is clear. 

She backs off a little and waits. 

He would really like it if someone would pick this body up off the ground and make it say appropriate things but he's not, himself, the person to do that.

:Matirin, he might need a bit: 

And she settles down cross-legged next to him. :Alloran, I'm going to stay nearby. You're still in Haven with the Companion herd, it's safe here. You can take however long you need: 

He knows that, he just can't - move, about it, and he doesn't want to think about how he can't move because then he'll go back to being in his memories instead of being here.

:I am guessing it might help if I talk to you and help you stay here, so I'm going to do that. I'm paying some attention to your surface thoughts right now and if you think at me that you want me to stop then I'll stop: 

And she settles in to keep Alloran company, talking to him about nothing in particular - describing a cloud-shape she can see from here, wondering if it's going to snow tonight, random things like that. 

He doesn't even know where he would start if he were trying to form a preference about whether she listen to his thoughts. Probably for mind-doctors that's kind of like having vital signs sensors for other-doctors.

Eventually he successfully wonders if he is still fixable or if it is too late for that now.

:I think you're still fixable. The thing that she did didn't cause any lasting effects, but it makes sense that it was scary and now you need some time to recover from it, and you're probably also very tired. I haven't listened to your thoughts at any time when you were able to talk to me in words, but right now you aren't able to. I'll stop as soon as you manage to thoughtspeak me, and if you're upset with me later about it, when you can have preferences again, I can get you one of Leareth's amulets for blocking it and then I won't ever be able to do it: 

That seems very complicated.

He wonders if the little girl is all right. If he'd been in better shape he would have attacked her when she did the thing to his head.

:She's fine. Shaken, in lots of trouble with her parents, but fine. I'm glad you didn't hurt her. She shouldn't have done it and she knows that, but she's also very little: 

Yes. (Grief, loss.)

Alloran having emotions seems like an improvement, Melody thinks. :She reminds you of your children?: she guesses.

His daughter was that age the last time he was deployed. Wanted to be a soldier. (Andalites do not send women to war.)

:Mmm. She wanted to be like her father when she grew up, though?: Melody's mindvoice is mild, level, but she's blinking hard and telling herself firmly that she will not cry.