Thellim will pay slightly more attention to her hunches, though it wasn't like she was ignoring them.  :My mind - or possibly your mind, I'm not sure whether I was interpreting or you were Seeing - the void looks like something was ripped away.  But if, say, one of Vanyel's memories was deleted, we wouldn't see it at all - it just wouldn't be there.  Arguendo:  The void is something that happened when something else was ripped away, it's not the missing thing, it's the damage done by its removal, missing connections, ashes of what was burned, as they are revealed in what Mindhealing shows about the state of Vanyel's brain and its effect on Vanyel's future thoughts.  I don't know if your Gift lets you just go in and clean the whole thing up but - I'd be rather leery of trying that without either a lot more ongoing harm than even this, or a lot more patient consent.  In terms of the surface metaphor, we could try to strengthen the threads that are reaching toward the void and disintegrating, try to redirect them away from the void or redirect the void away from it, try to do more of the work that Vanyel's already done to work around the damage, maybe find a place where Vanyel seems to be trying to do more of that work and push it along, patch in more of Yfandes to the broken pieces.  But these are all thoughts I've had without trying to understand what I'm seeing.  So I propose that we look at something that's changing, one of the threads in the process of reaching toward the void and unraveling, and see if we can understand that before messing with it.  We won't have to prod it into motion if it's already in motion?  Or so I'd guess?:

:...I think that's right. That what we're seeing here is the damage done by something having been ripped away, I mean. And - I can't fix it. Not even if I were willing to take any risk. Mindhealing is powerful but not that powerful:

A pause. 

:I'm still inclined to ask him, because I don't think I - or we - can guess what's going on, not without a lot of invasive Thoughtsensing that doesn't seem justified. And because it'll be hard to do anything about it without his agreement and cooperation anyway. But, sure, it seems interesting to look for unraveling threads, and I think he could use another couple of minutes to collect himself before I ask him anything: 

:I'd say ask Lissa, in case she knows some reason we shouldn't ask Yfandes who's also tied up in this; and if Lissa doesn't have enough info, we should ask Yfandes before asking Vanyel.  Also, should we ask Lissa to delegate one of her employees to start the process of bringing you more tea?:  If the tea is actually important Thellim does not want it to not be there.

:I mean, I won't collapse if I don't get tea, it just helps me think. And - sure, we can ask Lissa, but I'd prefer to ask Vanyel for permission to do that first. Sometimes people are uncomfortable with that, and it's important that he trust me: 

Valdemar certainly is full of people who think they don't need things that help them.  Thellim wonders what their velocity of money is like, and if nobody ever actually buys anything.

:Oh, well then, Melody, consider me to be asking you to ask Vanyel for permission to ask Lissa about what we saw, so that we can ask Lissa if it's okay to ask Yfandes if it's okay to ask Vanyel.  But first let's take a closer look ourselves, to whatever extent we can only look without changing anything.  My people have ideas about investigative procedures, and one of them is to look at something yourself and think about it yourself, before you ask somebody else what they think is going on.  This does presume you have mastered the important prior skill of actually being able to toss out your mistaken first impressions in favor of the more informed answer somebody else tells you afterward, but I do have that training so it should be okay.:

Aside to Lissa, patching in Melody.  :Lissa, Melody thinks she doesn't really need more tea even though it helps her do her important work.  Can you delegate one of your employees to bring her some more?:  She is beginning to suspect that this universe has a Systematic Problem.

:Hmm? Yes, of course!: Lissa's emotions are mostly of relief (she is SO GLAD to have advice on a concretely helpful action she can take.) 

:- Huh. Yes, all of that makes sense to me - hmm - I think I recognize the concept you're pointing at, but I never managed to put it quite so clearly? I'm very impressed!: A pang of longing, quite noticeable in the overtones. :I think I can manage to hold my first impressions with the right amount of uncertainty, and toss them if they seem wrong later. Mostly I was worried about how I'm not sure how much Vanyel wants this to be happening right now, but - it does seem that he needs it...: 

Melody's uncertainty is leaking through a little in the Mindspeech overtones; it feels as though she knows what needs to be done but isn't sure that she has permission to do it. 

:Vanyel looks damaged to the point of hospitalization.  Among my own people we might consider it to be an ethical dilemma to proceed further if he told us to stop, but not to do more passive scans on him when it's clear that we or rather you are medical personnel and he's not objecting.  Does your standard-professional-ethical-code say otherwise?:  Overtones that go along with the dath ilani word for standard-professional-ethical-code will include the explicitness of the code, patients relying on and trusting the code, and five hundred Very Serious People debating the details in newspaper columns.

:- Your world has a standard code for this?: Awe, desperate curiosity, a hint of envy. :I... For reference, Valdemar has few enough Gifted Mindhealers that there isn't a school or curriculum for it. I've - mostly figured things out myself, over time:

The unstated implication, clear in the overtones, that she knows there's a lot she hasn't figured out yet - and some she doesn't expect that she ever could, on her own. 

:And it - hmm - it feels...disrespectful to Vanyel, and - like it could be bad for our future relationship and rapport, if I ram through on things right now without asking for his input. And...a bunch of other feelings I'm not sure I can describe well... But you're saying your world has formal policies?:

Amazement, fascination. 

how OLD is sapient life on this planet, is it TWELVE

Thellim mentally revises somewhat downward the amount she should defer to Melody's still-superior actual professional experience.

:It sure does!  And don't worry if your world doesn't, I've had enough contact as a patient with standard-professional-ethical-codes in medicine that I can improvise a new one for Mindhealing as we go along.:  Inward screaming?  Who, her?  Not at all!  She doesn't have the time!  :Would you like me to be the one to ask Vanyel if it's okay for me to look at things and talk to Lissa?:

:....Sure, if you have a good script for it: 

Vanyel is still rocking and hugging himself. 

Lissa, not looped in on the recent conversation, is rubbing Vanyel's back and looking very worried. 

:I do not have a script because we don't have Mindhealers.  If you have an actual script you should definitely use the script.  I would say, "Vanyel, we're planning to use concert-sight for me to take a closer look at your mind-state, and then ask Lissa or Yfandes some questions about what's going on, which may include describing what we've seen.  If you're okay with that happening, you don't need to do anything at all.  If it's bad, you can let us know.":

:- Hmm, all right, I think I have a script I prefer to that, at least: 

And to Vanyel:

:I've looked at your mind and I see - something pretty big and significant. It's your mind, of course, and if you'd rather tell me yourself, or - tell us to bugger off - then that's fine. But I think it's important, and I imagine it could be pretty hard to talk about. So, if you want us to help but you're also finding this hard, would it be all right for us to ask your sister or your Companion for input?: 

Vanyel stares at her for a long moment; judging from his expression, he could be very tempted to tell her to bugger off.

:....Sure. That's fine. I - I do want you to help me...do things... Both of them know a lot but Yfandes knows more: 

:Yes, that was significantly better than I could have done.:  She'll go on deferring to Melody for actual patient interactions, check.  :Note, but suggestion only, my world's rules would suggest that you ask Vanyel explicitly about my being able to look at him using your Sight.  I don't look like medical personnel - I'm not actually medical personnel except in the sense that I'm trying to do the job of one - and the way we think about things, I wouldn't be covered by the permission Vanyel just gave you.  Other Mindhealers who work for or with you would be, if they had the same code.:

:- Noted. And, for future reference, I do want to get that code from you in writing as soon as possible after this: 

A pause. 

:Vanyel, is it also all right if I share - er, keep sharing - my Sight with Thellim? She isn't a Mindhealer, obviously, but I think she could be very well placed to help: 

:Sure, that's fine: If anything, Vanyel seems significantly less self-conscious about this part. :...Yfandes? Do you want to, er, tell them -?:

Tell them why he's broken and will continue being broken forever. He doesn't finish the sentence but it leaks through a little. 

:- Yes, of course: 

Yfandes hesitates, though. She seems to be tensing up, like this is a painful subject for her as well. 

After a moment, she narrows her Mindspeech to exclude Vanyel.

:My Chosen had an awful childhood - his father was horrible to him. When he was fifteen, he was sent to the capital to live with his aunt. At that point he...fell in love with - and lifebonded with - another Herald-Mage trainee, Tylendel: 

(From the overtones it is both very clear that Tylendel was male, and that same-sex relationships were strongly disfavoured and disapproved of by the popular consensus, if not by Vanyel's aunt specifically.) 

:They had a few happy months together. But - a lot of awful things happened, and - it's complicated - Tylendel was trying to save Van and raised a Gate using his life-force. And then -:

(- agony, desperate confusion, loneliness -)

:- and then lost his Companion. And he - he - he called a Final Strike: 

The Mindspeech connotations here are clear. A Final Strike means burning all of one's life and strength to set everything nearby on fire.

:....and most people who lose a lifebonded partner, er, they - don't survive. But Vanyel is very strong: 

:Survived because Valdemar needed him,: Thellim says.  There's respect in her Mindspeech, inextricably intertwined with horror.  Thellim can't think of a single person so vital to her own Civilization that they wouldn't retire to cryonic suspension and the hope of future healing, with that level of injury.

Thellim was trying to not know all this yet.  But this is exactly the sort of thing where somebody would look at that huge void and think that it was the missing partner instead of dangling connections, remembered pain, if somebody had told them too early what to think.  She'll just try to blank the knowledge out of her mind and see from first principles.

:A lifebond would have to be much more than a romantic entanglement to do this kind of damage.  Something like Mindspeech but much deeper.  Yfandes, are you okay with - talking about this subject - or should we be looking for an expert on lifebonds?:

:I don't - I'm not sure that there are any experts on lifebonds...:

:I'm okay with talking about it. Although I - I - I don't know where to start...: 

:What you know about what lifebonds are.  What they do.  What happens when they break.  What kind of ongoing damage they do after they're broken.  Why there's a new connection to you in Vanyel's mind holding up some of the damage.:

:Lifebonds are - when two people's souls fit together, and then - when - if they meet, they form a strong bond - they can feel what the other is feeling, they can share magic, it's - even deeper than a Herald-Companion bond.... I don't know what lifebonds are for, but - lore says they happen when the gods are meddling...: 

:I'm not sure anyone knows much about the damage that a broken lifebond leaves. Vanyel is...the first person who's ever survived longer than a few months: 

:- Possibly because I bonded to him immediately after Tylendel died. I - I -:

Another long pause, but this time a tense one, replete with tamped-down...anger? confusion? desperation? 

:....I think the gods - a god - wanted that. Wanted us to bond - wanted something of us - but I don't, I don't–:

Yfandes goes silent. 

:Is a 'god' - responsible for the ongoing damage?  Would we be opposing its active counter-intervention if we tried to fix it?: