For a couple of minutes it doesn't really feel like it's doing anything, and then - it's like something settles into place, and suddenly the gears-sense is less unbalanced, staying in focus rather than shifting in and out at random. 

"That did something..."

"Good! When you are properly centered and grounded, it ought be less the case that any change in your own state or emotions causes your Gift to fluctuate at random, and so you will have the base to build control on. I want you to try a motion like leaning into it, try to bring it more into focus, and once you can do that, try leaning back and sort of folding it away." 

Okay, she - stares real hard at the pretty gears - and then sticks herself back to the Tower which is stuck to the ground.

She can stare hard at the gears and they get clearer and sharper and she can see way more detail! It takes a couple of tries before she can get the hang of the pulling-back, rather than just having the not-sight oscillate wildly in and out, but then she's done it, it feels a bit like changing the focus all the way on a telescope so that the sky is totally blurred and then unscrewing the eyepiece and putting it away. 

"Oh - okay, I think I got it."

"Wonderful! That was quick. You must be very clever." 

Skan has been trying so valiantly to sit still, and he's practically vibrating with the effort of it. "She is!" he bursts out. "She's the SMARTEST. Probably in the whole world!" He bounces. 

She giggles and scritches him. "What do Mindhealers do? I can kind of guess from the name but I don't think people have real gears that can get - bent teeth or sand in them or anything -"

"Not literally, no. Your Sight is a metaphor, just like how some Empaths see emotions as colours, except that mind-structure is more complicated. You ought to have lessons with an actual Mindhealer, I do not know much about it myself, but - well, sometimes people's minds do not work the way they want, and they need help setting it right. They might be uncontrollably sad all the time, or be troubled by memories of a very bad thing that happened to them, or be paralyzingly afraid of going outside or of small spaces or heights or snakes, or have trouble stopping themselves from losing their temper or drinking too much wine even though they regret it afterward. Things like that. And a Mindhealer can help a person understand what is going wrong, and work with them to put their mind into a shape they are happier and healthier with." 

"Oh." She considers this very solemnly for a while. "Is there one here who can teach me?"

Urtho is smiling fondly at her. She looks so serious and he bets she'll be a diligent student. "Yes, there is. His name is Lionwind k'Leshya, he is of the Kaled'a'in people. He does tours of the surrounding area, since he is one of very few Mindhealers in Ka'venusho, but he will be back in the Tower tomorrow. I can arrange for him to meet you for a lesson." 

"Okay!"

"Well, child, it was a pleasure to meet you. I wish you the very best of luck with your lessons. Having Gifts is a wonderful and precious thing." 

Skan follows her when the hertasi escorts them out, and manages to wait until they're out in the hallway before BOUNCEBOUNCEBOUNCE. 

"Aza that'ss sso amazing you can fix people'ss headss! I have to tell all my friendss! - Do you think you can make me read better? Is that a stuck gear? It feels like it ssometimess." 

"I don't know! I didn't see any stuck gears but I was kind of trying not to look because I think it is RUDE to look at people's gears without permission probably. I can ask tomorrow but I should probably at least have one lesson so that if it is very easy I can just have the teacher tell me 'actually it's very easy' instead of guessing and if it's very hard I will need lots of lessons."

"I guesss it'ss rude, and - I wouldn't like it if ssomeone looked at mine and then ssaid I was sstupid and made fun of me. But you already know you're ssmarter than me and you don't ever teasse me about it. So I don't mind." 

"I think maybe you should think about it more before you say I can look! I wouldn't want anybody to look at my gears even though I bet they are very beautiful and nobody would make fun... I wonder if I can actually..." Can she see her own gears.

It's a slightly different mental motion from looking at other people, sort of like she has to screw the imaginary-telescope-eyepiece on backwards, but with a few tries she can do it! 

"- I can! Oh, I am very interesting to look at and I don't have to feel rude about it at all since I'm me. I have a really big gear that hooks up to everything else - I don't think you could actually build this, I think some of the gears are going through each other? But it works for imaginary gears..."

"Oh! I wonder if that'ss how being ssmart workss. I heard Urtho iss ssupossed to be brilliant, did he have that?" 

"His gears were also really cool, I looked at them harder than at yours or the hertasi's since he seemed to think it was okay. I don't know if some of the differences are from me and him being humans or if it means something else."

"Dunno." Bounce bounce. "You sshould go tell your mother! I bet sshe'll be sso proud." 

"I will, once she's done teaching! I can't go interrupt."

Skan would absolutely interrupt his parents at work if he'd just gotten Gifts, but Aza is the smartest so probably she's right. "We could go to the library?" he suggests. "Maybe there are bookss about it."