Loreen pats her hair, a little self-consciously. :I get it done at the salon: 

:I like it. Alice thought you might have the things the mages need to make an artifact for the return trip?: She describes them from her notes.

:I was hoping so! Come right this way, I parked the car over here...: Loreen directs her. :Alice says you heal people too. Do you do crystal healing? I have a friend who's into that -: 

:Mages use crystals sometimes but the healing doesn't require a focus like that. I thought there wasn't magic here?:

:Huh! Well, lots of people are skeptics, but my friend says...:

Loreen, while leading her to the parking lot, launches into an explanation of crystal healing: how the way crystals form underground over millions of years means they can hold energies, and crystal healing is a 'holistic and natural' practice for tapping into how these 'energies' affect the body and mind. 

:My sister puts them around my body and here and here, like this, when my sciatica is acting up -: 

Loreen does...not really stop talking, or rather thinking at Belrun. Ever. 

The 'car' proves to be some other kind of large machine, all metal and painted bright purple - the cars all around it are a variety of shades, most of them less bright. It looks a bit like a carriage except with very wide, thick wheels in some kind of matte black material, doors that seal entirely. Instead of any way to harness horses, it has an excessively long front-end a bit like a snout, complete with two glassy lens that flash brightly when Loreen gets out a chunky key and inserts it to open the door. 

Hmm, one of those things that tried to plow into her when she was walking across the city. Presumably it's politer to people inside it. :Somebody loaned me some cash but if you'd rather I work on your sciatica I can see what I can do about that by way of thanks for the materials:

Loreen pats her arm affectionately. :Oh no, no, dear - I don't want money for this! ...Though I wouldn't complain at a little something for my poor sciatica: 

Something deep inside the car rumbles and vibrates, and then they're in motion! Loreen affectionately taps some sort of swinging mobile, a glittery rhinestone and tuft of dyed feathers hanging from a little chain, and then backs out of the parking lot. 

:You know, I've been getting into aromatherapy too, lately - do they use essential oils in your world - I loooooove the lavender, helps me sleep like a baby...: 

Again, Loreen does NOT stop chattering as they steer onto one of the big wide roads and speed up. 

:People use lavender in potpourri but I don't know that I've heard of it being rendered into oil:

Loreen barely waits for her. :I also really like marjoram, and lemon - my friend uses peppermint but I find it a little stronger than I want -: 

She chatters away relentlessly until, within about seven or eight minutes of driving, they reach a quiet street ending in a cul-de-sac. Loreen's house is big and rambling and looks a little run-down; the roof is missing some shingles and the siding and porch are both in need of repainting. 

The decor is incredibly busy; there's an overgrown flower-garden, FULL of cheap ornaments; this includes, for some inexplicable reason, a row of painted ceramic figures, little men with exuberant white beards and pointy colorful hats and exaggeratedly large noses. 

Loreen parks in the driveway, gets out of the car, and gives one of the ceramic figures a pat. :Do you like my garden gnomes?: 

:I've never seen anything like them before! They're, uh, decorative?:

:Yes! And they're supposed to bring you good luck!: 

The porch has wind chimes hanging from the railings, and potted plants at the top of the steps. Loreen unlocks her door and lets Belrun in. :If you don't mind taking your shoes off...?: 

Belrun will sit on the steps and take off her shoes obligingly.

:Come on back - my craft room is this way, you can just have a poke around - would you like tea or biscuits while you're here -?: 

:I'd take a biscuit if you have spares!:

:Of course!:

Loreen shows her to the craft room, which has a table and desk covered in various half-completed jewelry pieces, and points out the shelf full of storage cubby-boxes. :Just have a poke around - jewelry wire is here, this shelf has most of the stones and crystals...: 

A minute later she's back with a porcelain plate full of very decorative little cookies. The plate itself has a picture of a kitten on it. 

:I like the plate: Om nom. Does this room contain what the mages need?

It seems likely! She's going to have to spend a while looking through the options, though; the storage bins are not very well organized, they're kind of just piled full of stuff. 

Leareth is, inconveniently, just alert enough to be bored but still too low on energy to do much about this. He eventually settles for asking Marian's help in figuring out the 'television' device in his room, and watches the 'news'; he can't read the captions or understand what's being said, which makes it all rather baffling especially when he's still somewhat groggy, but it's something to do and he's hoping it might help for eventually picking up more of the local language. 

Dr Millinger eventually manages some late rounds on his stable patients, including Leareth! He's brisk about it; he comes into the room, examines Leareth quickly and suggests clamping his chest tube for a few hours 'to see what happens', gruffly informs Leareth that he'd like to see him up out of bed and sitting in the armchair by tomorrow, and then asks Marian to switch his antibiotics to a less aggressively broad-spectrum drug.

Marian relays all of this to Leareth, and gets him another carton of the high-calorie meal replacement drink, this time chocolate flavoured, along with the bag of his new antibiotics. :Need anything else?: 

:No, not right now: Leareth misses Belrun, but he can be patient. He lays back against his pillows, takes occasional sips from his nonfoodlike drink carton, and half-watches television footage of mysterious events; there's a moving image of a city block on fire and emergency responders of some kind spraying it with enormous jets of water. 

Marian sits at the desk with her chin propped in her hands. The monitor for 114 is not reading happy numbers at all. 

Then, after a little while longer, it's not reading any numbers at all. 

She sighs and shuts it off, and closes her eyes for a moment, and then stands up and, head bowed, slips through the curtain into the room. 

After a while Leareth shifts uneasily in bed. He's too warm, for some reason, and he feels a bit sick to his stomach. Maybe he drank too much of the not-food-liquid. His back is itchy, too, but scratching it would require moving, which sounds unpleasant. Maybe if he adjusts the bed so he's not so propped up, and just lies still with his eyes closed for a while, he'll feel better... 

The bed controls are very convenient, but the movement makes him dizzy, and suddenly he's feeling very sick - and Belrun isn't there to help him find the bag for vomiting in, he thinks it's somewhere nearby but he isn't sure where and he can't see Marian either - he can sense her just barely, through the wall, but he can't Mindspeak her at that distance, and the fact that his body is on the verge of throwing up makes it hard to call out for help. 

He feels lightheaded and now his tongue is itchy, of all things - he tries to kick off his blankets and roll over, he's so hot and his forehead and palm are slick with sweat against the cool plastic of the bedrail - he feels awful right now, the sound of the television is hurting his head and the lights are too bright and for some reason his chest is tight and it feels hard to breathe again. 

Belrun, he tries to reach out, but she's far out of his Mindspeech range, so all he can do is cling to the lifebond and wait. 

- elsewhere, Belrun's head snaps up out of a box of mostly fabric scraps. :Can you call Alice at the hospital and tell her something's wrong with Leareth?:

Loreen sticks her head into the room. :- Yes, of course - how do you know, is that healing magic too...?: