:Um, if you figured out how to do the nightmare block thing I...wouldn't mind if you did that:

:I think I did but it should wait till tomorrow, I've had a very long day and need to go to bed:

:Okay. Um, sleep well. Thank you for doing the wards:

And Ma'ar will do his best to sleep too. His best is not that good.

She's there first thing in the morning and hopes he did not have TOO many horrible nightmares last night.

The Healers don't complain out loud about it, at least, and neither does Ma'ar. He looks a bit less bleary today. One of the Healers is just finishing up changing the bandages on his arm.

:Morning: he sends to Azabel, tight with suppressed pain.

:Morning. Uh, I can do the thing while you're distracted as long as I'm not distracted, do you want me to now?:

He is not complaining but last night was fairly miserable. :Yes:

She consults her notes, finds the spot again, checks it from all angles. Clockwork is regular and mechanical and predictable but a) it's metaphorical clockwork b) it's metaphorical n-dimensional clockwork, so it takes a lot of checking.

"I'm going ahead," she murmurs, and she pushes till it clacks into place and all the teeth are locked where they can roll just right.

Ma'ar makes a face. "...That felt weird."

"People say things look strange a bit? And that, yeah, it feels weird. But it's hard to describe in advance. I hope it helps."

"I'll make sure to notice and tell you, if it does." Ma'ar's hand on his burned and bandaged arm is working better today, enough that he can rub his eyes. "- I didn't ask properly before. What happened, when you went to talk to the teacher, did they believe you...?"

"He was going to go look into their disciplinary records, and also Lionwind's going to volunteer to do lie detection. And teach me how."

"Oh, you can do that with Mindhealing?"

"Apparently it's tricky but he knows the trick!"

"Neat." He squirms in the bed, trying to find a more comfortable position. "I'm still going to be kicked out of the class, though. They - have a point. That it's not safe."

"The teacher did say he wouldn't like to but if he decides to he has a pretty good reason, yeah. Maybe there's time for you to switch into illusions with me?"

"Mmm. That makes sense for now, I guess. Just - I do want to take that class someday, and - I don't know how to. Make it so I won't fight if I think someone's attacking me. ...Honestly I think it'd be really stupid to - turn that off? I would've died in Predain if I were any less careful, and - I want to go back, right..."

"Doing shields very fast and reflexively wouldn't be dangerous."

"Oh. I...guess so. I'd need to get so fast, though. I do shields all the time but - not enough that I'd feel okay just...letting someone levinbolt me. And doing a better shield takes longer than a second and attacking takes less than that. Maybe if I practiced a lot..." He looks thoughtful. "I wonder if there's a class in really advanced shields. I could try to get into that instead of the fighting class."

"I don't remember seeing one for our level but maybe there's one more advanced than that you could plead special exceptionality for, since it'd help you take the combat course safely?"

He nods. "I can ask. Or I could just practice it on my own, I think the kinds of shield we know are good enough and just too slow, but maybe I could figure out how to change it to be faster."

"Or more efficient so you can leave it up."

"Mmm. For that I think I might need a different kind of shield, that's designed for that..." He trails off. "Oh! I just remembered, there was a book I read that talked about important generals in the army in war wearing magical artifacts to shield them, so they'd be protected even if they weren't mages. I dunno if I could wear that and have the shields on all the time, it'd need to be re-powered too often, but if the spell were mostly a set-spell on a focus, then it'd be way faster to put the shield up all the way."

"Well, you're taking the artifacts class with me."

He nods, looking hopeful. "So maybe by next session I'll have figured out something better, and then I can turn my being-attacked reflex into a different reflex."