:Sure. Can you give me an overview?:

:Yes, of course. Let's go sit down in my office, this might take a bit: 

She starts leading the way. :Er, to start, has anyone explained much about the Tayledras to you? They're one-half of what used to be the Kaled'a'in people, so I suppose you'd know Brightstar's ancestors, but...well, it's been an eventful few thousand years: 

:I won't expect him to be too much like the Kaled'a'in I know:

They reach a door at the end of the hall, which opens onto a pleasant little office; there's a desk, and a slate on the wall with the start of a day-schedule on it. There are four doors opening off it; two are closed and have little signs on them warning that the occupants aren't to be disturbed. 

Melody pulls Azabel into a third room and shuts the door, gesturing to an armchair.

:Some history - after the Cataclysm, the surviving Kaled'a'in schismed. Both halves formed different pacts with their Goddess, taking on some ongoing responsibility, in exchange for help staying alive I guess. Some of the clans became the Shin'a'in; they stay put guarding the Plains, which we now know really means guarding Urtho's Tower and his damned weapons, and they swore off the use of magic except for a few shamanic duties. The rest became the Tayledras. Their pact is to clean up and fix the land damaged by the Cataclysm, which we call the Pelagirs. They live in Vales, a couple hundred people with shields to keep out the dangerous beasties, and they have something called Heartstones, which are a very unusual magic that the Star-Eyed granted them. Supposedly each Heartstone has a fragment of Her inside it. They're - hmm, I'm not a mage, but my best understanding is that they're like nodes except stable and...somewhat intelligent. Vanyel built one here in Haven, a decade or so ago, with advice from his Tayledras friends; it's what supports the new Web: 

:Huh, okay... the damaged land produces "beasties"?:

:I don't understand the exact details, but there's a lot of strange magical residue, and it...changes...the plants and animals living nearby. Kills lots of them, but the surviving ones often end up with odd magical abilities, like invisibility. They're called Changecreatures: 

A pause. :The monster that swam down the river and killed Savil may have been a Changecreature, coming from hundreds of miles upstream where the river runs through the Pelagirs. Or could be a mage-construct designed to look like one, we don't know: 

:Do you still have it?:

:Its body, yes. Half taken apart, but it should still be in the Healers' stillroom: Melody's eyes narrow. :Why?: 

:I wrote a book on gryphons out of Urtho's notes, I don't know if a mage-construct with modern techniques would have any similar signs of being made that way but I could give it a shot:

:Oh! Yes, please - I'll have to run it by Dara of course, but it seems like an excellent idea to get your impression too: A pause. :Especially since if it was made by Leareth, well, he could plausibly have learned that sort of magic at Urtho's Tower too: 

:Plausibly, yeah, if he didn't update it much in the last two thousand years:

:Seems worth checking, anyway: Melody sighs. :After. Back to Brightstar. He's a Healing-Adept; it's a particular mix of Gifts that seems unique to the Tayledras. Adept-strength mage-gift, comparably strong Healing, and...probably some other, third, Gift, that lets him use Healing on the land itself and not just people or animals. Healing-Adepts handle the most important elements of cleansing the land and making it safe and inhabitable again:

She pauses for a moment, frowning and tugging at the sleeve of her robe. :Sorry, just thinking how to explain. They're also, hmm – they're unusually sensitive in some ways, and especially closely-bound to their homeland. It's a sort of sacred duty: 

Melody closes her eyes. Takes a slow breath. :...You heard what happened to k'Treva Vale?: 

:It got blown up:

:Yes. Specifically, the Heartstone was destabilized. We suspect by Leareth, somehow, though it's not at all clear how - or why, honestly, it seems like an unusually difficult mission to pull off and there must be ways to hurt us worse with less work: 

Shrug. :Brightstar was here in Haven when it happened. We learned of it when he and Jisa Gated over to investigate. Brightstar...saw what had happened to his home, up close. All his family and friends there are dead. The land he's spent his entire life working to repair is destroyed. Also the magical residue hit him hard, physically, because of his Healing-Adept Gifts. So he's quite ill as well as incredibly traumatized: 

:Oh, yikes. Okay, that's... a little more difficult than I normally would have been seeing at this point but I can give it a go:

:I would appreciate it. You won't be seeing him alone the first time, I want to be there and introduce you - mostly I want another set of eyes on this, to be honest I feel a bit out of my depth with him: 

:Okay. Do you have policy on degree of appropriate personal rapport - like, apparently my home also blew up and everyone I knew is dead except the one who has turned into a mass murderer -:

:Oh, hmm, good question. Our Collegium doesn't have a firm policy on it - personally I don't tend to lean on that sort of personal rapport, but that's more a matter of my style, not because I think it's objectively correct. What do you think your teacher would've said about it?: 

:Probably that I should use my best judgment after I get to know Brightstar a little more and see if what I'm doing to cope would work for him:

:Makes sense. Any more questions, or do you feel ready to go see him?:

:I'm ready if he is:

:Gemma said now’s as good as any time. Just a moment...:

Melody drains the rest of her chava, sets down the cup, and stands. :Let’s go: 

She forges back out into the main hallway, past the Healers’ central station again, and eventually pauses at a door. She knocks, saying something in Valdemaran, and waits for the equally incomprehensible answer before opening the door.

Brightstar is a young man - he looks a couple of years older than Azabel - with waist-length silver-white hair, currently tangled and splayed everywhere. He’s curled up in bed, hugging himself tightly; he does look ill, pale and clammy, eyes dark-ringed.

The Healing trainee sitting at his bedside says something else to Melody, who nods briskly.

:Hello, Brightstar, I'm Azabel:

Melody pulls over two chairs for them. :Brightstar, this is the new visiting Mindhealer I told you about. Are you still willing to see her?: