Bed. Wards up. Sleep. 

Nayoki isn't actually that sleepy yet, so she checks in with Leareth's other staff for a while, updating them on the Pool ship and the basics of the situation with Matirin. Not the horrifying Yeerk-morph part. 

Vanyel hears Leareth is back well after Leareth is asleep, so - he'll check in tomorrow?

Matirin is back before they wake up. The other Dome ship is now is orbit, only lightly shielded, so the Yeerks can see it. This is a much better posture from the Dome ship that is not missing most of its weapon systems. 

Matirin's state is somewhat fragile but as long as he avoids Melody this doesn't have to be anyone's business.

Melody is currently in Velgarth, although her plan had been to try to hunt Matirin down and check in with him as soon as he's back, probably being kidnapped is stressful. 

Leareth sleeps for a lot longer than usual, unsurprisingly, and wakes up still feeling kind of gluey. He also meant to find Melody last night and tell her to please talk to Matirin once he's back, but then, instead, he immediately fell asleep because he had done two billion-mile hybrid-interworld Gates in a row.

He Mindspeaks Nayoki from his bed and asks if they have any news. 

:Matirin is back: 

:Oh: Leareth almost looks for him with Thoughtsensing right away, then holds back. Possibly the respectful thing is to give Matirin some space and let him catch up on all the politics here before bothering him. 

He hauls himself out of bed and starts exchanging secure messages with Mhalir, updating him on the Pool ship, though hopefully someone else has already gotten to that while he was passed out. 

Melody gets back from Velgarth just before lunchtime, and badly wants a break and a coffee, but apparently Matirin got back early this morning? And probably she should look for him or something? 

She starts doing that. It's annoying because of his talisman but he's still findable with Mindspeech, with some effort. 

:Hey: she sends. :You're back. Can we check in?: 

<We can check in.>

She heads in his direction. Grabs coffee on the way there. :Sorry to be annoying if you're fine, just, figured getting kidnapped by your own side is a significant stressor. How was it?: 

How's his tapestry looking today. 

His tapestry is very very taut and some sections of it that are usually danced-around are instead blazingly active. <It was a very courteous arrest, no one threatened me or anything. Once they explained what had happened I was not annoyed with them. Just - grieved. They deserved better.>

:Oh no. Something really terrible happened, didn't it: 

<They were given coordinates that were those for a black hole. The ships to jump out first were lost. I don't know how it happened. I have a very hard time believing my father would have done it intentionally but it is an absurdly improbable coincidence.>

:- Gods. That's - awful - I'm sorry: She looks down. :You seem really tense. Is it just that or were there other things?: 

<I proposed that in order to confirm I knew nothing about this they have someone morph Yeerk. So they did that. It went exactly as intended but it was unpleasant.>

:I see. 'Unpleasant' must be a serious understatement, there. How are you feeling now?: She narrows her eyes at him. :Actually: 

<Sort of icky. But I am glad that the situation was resolved. Humans sometimes aren't even traumatized at all about it, so it's clearly possible not to be.>

:I don't think it actually works to just - decide not to be traumatized about something, even if it was a reasonable choice. And - it being your idea will probably make it easier to handle in the long run. I do think it's important to give yourself space to have whatever feelings you have, even if you think they're dumb feelings, if you try to ignore them they'll probably go cause some other problem where you're not looking: 

<I feel disgusting. Like there's something that hasn't stopped clinging to me. And very easily startled. I do not think it is impairing.>

:Both of those make a lot of sense. I think it was a very courageous thing to do but - I'm not surprised it's hard in the aftermath. I'm sorry you had to: She tugs at her collar. Checks his tapestry to see if the tautness has eased at all. 

Maybe the slightest bit. 

<I think you should check on Leareth. He seemed stressed though it might have just been the situation.>

Nod. :Thank you for the head's up, I'll do that. Try to take breaks today in particular if you can, all right? I'll check in again tomorrow: 

<All right.>

There is not, actually, that much to do, once he's broken the news to everyone and gotten caught up on what was discussed in his absence. The human governments have inquiries about whether the reappearance of the Pool ship means the people responsible for the attack in Brooklyn can be turned over, which he forwards to Mhalir. Some of them are also interested in trade relations with Velgarth; he forwards to Leareth or Vanyel depending. 

He goes to congratulate Cayaldwin and ask him for suggestions for a Gift-morphing training program; he wants to cycle all his people through it.

Do they...want the Yeerks responsible? Mhalir isn't sure what to do with them, so he's happy to negotiate on that point, but they're not currently in bodies or anything. (Having some Thoughtsensers with Fetching does make it a lot easier to yoink specific Yeerks out of the pool on the ship.)