She thinks about that for a moment, then nods.

"I continue to be very pleased with how carefully you think about this. Ah, and your last question was about defence. There is something that a Mindhealer can do called a set-command; it involves imposing a certain intent on a patient, usually expressed as an imperative word or phrase in Mindspeech, and pushing it into place with your Gift. You could, for example, force someone to 'stop moving', and they would stop attacking you. The single positive quality of set-commands is that they are fast, a second or two to place. They are very sloppy, will not wear off, and take much greater skill and time to undo afterward, which is why I do not recommend this unless you are in critical danger." 

Nod nod. "Does it have to be something simple like that - or something negative like that -"

"It does generally have to be simple, because of the lack of finesse. I believe positive set-commands are possible, for example ordering someone to run away." 

Nod nod.

He sits back. "Have you been practicing your Sight? Anything in particular you have noticed?" 

"I think the gears don't actually go through each other, they just go in directions that don't exist."

"Fascinating! It is definitely remarked by many Mindhealers that our Sight can contain physically impossible things, and that this is useful for conveying the full detail of the mind." 

"I'm not sure yet how many directions that don't exist there are.'

"I suspect your mind is still trying to absorb all of the information involved, and find ways of working with it. I - admit that your concept of more than one imaginary direction makes my head spin a little, but that may work fine for you. For myself, I found as a teenager that I could imagine the water of rivers and lakes as coloured, and this gave my metaphor a way of conveying more. The metaphor seems to respond to visualizations in this way." 

"That's smart! I'm not sure it will work for me because of how gears have to touch other gears to work though."

"Hmm. I think that it is not uncommon for Empaths to sense emotion as a colour, or smell, or equivalent to another sense, and emotional valence - or simpler valences - is a quality that can be attached to a gear or a cluster of gears but is not necessarily about the way they touch... I am not sure. This is something that is worth extensive consideration on your own, I think." His lips curve into a smile. "Which I am certain you will do. You are every teacher's ideal student." 

"Thank you!"

He pats her shoulder. "Anyway. More questions, or are you ready to move on to the exercises I had prepared for today?" 

"I'm ready, what are they?"

"So, one of the most common actual uses of our Gift that we will be called on to do with patients, is when they are troubled by an association - emotional or otherwise - with a particular situation, and - at least in the short run - would find it easier to go on with their lives if they did not have this. So I am going to give you a situation that I associate with strong emotions, and I want you to try to do a detour or fence around this. - I will of course put it back afterward. However, do you have any questions, first, about this practice in general?" 

"How come the detour or fence won't make it so you can't think about it to fix?"

"I suppose if you did a fence thoroughly enough it would make it trickier, but I have quite a lot of practice with this, and it is almost impossible to make a fence thorough enough that no angles are approachable, especially if one has Mindhealing-Sight." 

"Okay... how do I actually do it?"

"It is an extension of what you did to move the memory-association, but in a more directed way - would you like me to demonstrate a simple one on myself?"

"I think that would help. Show me where first though."

"Of course. You can watch now - tell me when you see it." 

Lionwind takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and settles himself. 

After about a minute, something several-layers-deep in a different corner of his mind moves - and then suddenly the movement is radiating outward, being conveyed in a sort of ripple or wave to other areas, including quite distant ones. 

"- can you undo that and then do it again -"

"I did not actually do anything with my Gift yet; that is just what it looks like when something has a strong emotional association. I can do the redirect now and then undo it, if you are ready to watch." 

"Oh, okay. I'm watching."