He nods, thoughtfully. "I - think we're probably going to learn lots of kinds of self-defence that don't kill people or hurt them really badly, like the paralysis trap thing, and I guess that'd be better. But - if the alternative was killing someone, it...just seems way better to do a set-command? Or a compulsion. And I can't do set-commands but I could do the same thing, and - and then I'd never have to kill someone because they were trying to kill me, ever ever again..." 

"- I think one of the important things about set-commands is they're fast? Are compulsions fast?"

"It doesn't say, hmm..." He reads a bit further. 

Although any and all use of compulsions is banned in Tantara, the theory behind compulsion work is taught in schools at the highest levels, since this is necessary to remove compulsions safely and they are often used by criminal mages in bandit groups, and sometimes in wartime in other kingdoms. 

"- So they're going to teach us about it at least. Eventually. But if random bandits can do it then it can't be that hard - I bet you could do a simple one like 'stop' fast if you had practice. Except it's still illegal." He makes a face. "- Why don't they use it in the army, you could just make all the enemy soldiers stop fighting instead of killing them!" 

"...well, if it were very common maybe everybody would wind up standing there including a lot of the people who could unfreeze them, and then they'd die of thirst, especially if the civilian mages who weren't there at the time were scared to come unfreeze them in case the other side had mages doing the same thing at the same time and would stop them too. Since, look, it says they're low power, I can't set-command a whole army but a mage could compel one, or a chunk of one..."

Ma'ar considers it, seriously. "...Okay, that makes sense, it's probably a rules of engagement thing like not torturing prisoners and keeping parleys, that was in the book, that's important or - each side would just do worse and worse things." Shrug. "I don't - I still sort of wish it could be allowed in self-defense? You're allowed to carry a sword and if you kill a bandit with it because you were attacking you, you'd - get questioned by the Guard about it and all but if it really was self-defense you just get let off with a warning. Same if you're a mage and you fireball someone, I think." 

"I guess if you compel somebody you - can't just go to the Guard about it because you need a mage to check what the compulsion is, but a regular guard person can see that somebody's been stabbed or fireballed... I'm not sure that's a good enough reason though."

Nod. "I guess it's complicated. If you're making laws for a whole kingdom. I...would ask the teacher about it except she'd probably give a stupid answer again... Maybe if Lionwind does do a guest lecture I could ask how he'd do it, if he were making laws." 

"That's a good idea! He's really smart and sensible. You could also talk to him even if he doesn't wind up guest lecturing, he has, like, an office." She thinks they would get along!

Somehow going to Lionwind's office seems scarier, even if it's just to ask questions, because it's...more the sort of context where he might look at Ma'ar's mind and then decide he's evil? He probably wouldn't, because he seems like a sensible person, but...

Ma'ar tries not to look scared, though, and nods. "I think it'd be good if he said it to the whole class, so they all know his smart and sensible opinions too? But we'll see." 

"Yeah, the teacher has to let him. But I'll ask her next time we have class."

"All right." He smiles at her a little. "Thank you." 

The next time they have class, the teacher carefully sticks to very uncontroversial magic theory, but when Azabel approaches her she does consent to have her Mindhealer teacher in for a guest lecture. 

Oh good! She will inform Lionwind straight away.

In that case he's pleased to go talk to her teacher and arrange it as his schedule permits! This turns out to be the next week, some of his sessions with patients are flexible. 

Ma'ar is excited and also scared, but probably it's the stupid kind of scared, so he tries to make it go away. He's gotten a lot better at making the scared go away when it's inconvenient. 

Lionwind is very good at addressing a classroom and holding their attention! Also at blackboard diagrams! He gets up and explains approximately the same things he did to Azabel, though it takes a lot longer because he needs to back up and summarize a lot of Mindhealing context on why, for example, being enslaved by bandits is generally bad for children's wellbeing - in a way that (very unfairly) affects their moral character - completely separately from blood-magic. This is testable, even, since bandits sometimes enslave children who aren't mage-gifted at all, and he's also treated some of those cases and they struggle nearly as much to adjust to not being criminals.

Ma'ar raises his hand and asks about the bit in the book on how it gives mages bad control, and the part about how they can't do Gates but also probably they didn't have teachers and maybe that explains it already? 

"Hmm, give me a moment to think - retraining control wouldn't be my focus, right, these teenagers would have mage-tutors as well, who would also teach them what's legal versus not, I'm not an expert in that either. So take whatever I say with a grain of salt, but...my guess is that blood-magic behaves pretty differently from casting from reserves, especially for kids whose Gift wouldn't be strong enough to touch nodes. There's a lot of it so the easiest thing to do with it is big and sloppy, and you'd build that habit, and not the habit of being precise. ...I reckon it's not that far off from what you see sometimes in youngsters whose Gifts awaken traumatically at full strength, usually you get years of practice before that, but if you're an Adept from the start you've got more power than you know what to do with." 

"Huh." 

Aza guesses that if random blood mages wanted to fix that problem they could all share deaths and get a little bit of power from each one apiece but she doesn't think it will help anything to say that. (She does write it down.)

Lionwind answers a handful of questions from other students, who now seem considerably more willing to talk about blood-magic instead of just looking horrified and upset, and then: "- Yes, you - sorry, what is your name?" 

"Kiyamvir Ma'ar," Ma'ar says very politely. "I wanted to ask you a question - it's a bit complicated - the book we read the thing about blood-magic in also had other kinds of illegal magic, and one was compulsions, which are sort of like set-commands except not Mindhealing, and...set-commands aren't illegal, right, even though compulsions are. I figured there're just way fewer Mindhealers, but - what do you think, about whether they're different and should be treated differently by the law?" 

"Oh. Hmm. That is a complicated question - let me think it through for a moment... First of all, set-commands are against the rules in all but a few situations - if a patient is emergently a danger to themselves or others, or if the Mindhealer themselves is in imminent danger. It is true that this is prosecuted by the Healers' guild, not the official Kingdom law - that is also true for crimes regular Healers commit with their Gifts, though murdering someone with Healing would fall under both. Anyway, there are a few historical cases of Mindhealers losing the right to see patients, and in one case having their Gift blocked permanently, due to misusing Mindhealing and particularly set-commands." 

Ma'ar nods. "So it's illegal to do crimes with it, the same as it's illegal to do crimes with a dagger, right? And if you hurt someone with a dagger because they attacked you, you'll get questioned about it, but not get in trouble if you really were going to die otherwise." 

"- Yes, that seems about right, though it's a less formal process than the Guard-house and courts just because there're so few of us. Compulsions are... I suppose not different in principle, but it would be much harder to enforce, since there are so many more mages. And there are fewer licit uses, right. Mages do not use set-commands to treat patients, and they have many other options for self-defense."