Thellim realizes she has a new private theory about Vanyel.  It is not one she can talk about to not-Melody people without Vanyel's permission.  It explains why somebody in constant untreatable pain might have his System 1 steer him to refuse to eat, go in a hostile place with constant exposure to violence, and then, after being given medical treatment that might otherwise increase his expected lifespan, try to run off and do exhausting magework immediately after that.

But it didn't seem like Vanyel was consciously suicidal, so they should give him some time to get used to being in less pain, maybe, before Melody tries to talk to him about that.  If Thellim is even right about this theory at all.

It does bring to mind one possibly important point from earlier.  :That reminds me.  Can somebody tell me more about Gates and if Vanyel maybe shouldn't be - doing whatever that is?:

:A Gate would definitely be the fastest way to get to Haven. It's a pretty intensive mage-working, though, and Van is... He has extra difficulty with it. Yfandes, can you explain better...?: 

Outside, Yfandes stops, kicks at a clod of mud.

:His Gifts were violently ripped open with Gate-energy specifically. He's - very sensitive to it - it causes him agonizing pain while he's casting, and if he's unlucky he'll be unconscious or delirious for days afterward. Crossing someone else's Gate hurts him some, but not nearly as bad: 

:Can you try to narrow-and-quantify 'hurts him some, but not nearly as bad'.:

:...Er, it's quite distressing while he's actually crossing, and he usually has a headache afterward, but not so bad he can't sleep, and standard painkillers help. I don't like it when he has to, I think it should be reserved for emergencies, but in this case it's arguably worth it if Savil's up for the Gate - it's not like riding twelve candlemarks a day for most of a week will be a piece of cake for him either, in this weather, and if we take a slower pace we lose even more time: She tosses her mane. :Personally I think it's almost never justified for Vanyel to Gate himself anywhere, but of course he'll offer anyway: 

:It's not obvious that what I need to do in Haven, technological-uplift-wise, needs Vanyel to be there right away?  Riding twelve candlemarks a day for most of a week could potentially give him some time alone that he might need?  Or is one or both of those thoughts dumb, somehow?  And I forgot to ask if Melody would be coming with us, or coming with him, or neither...:

:- Oh, are you thinking you might Gate to Haven on your own, and we could come separately? I...would prefer that, I guess, given that we can sleep indoors at least on the journey. Van will feel guilty about it but I could probably convince him: 

A pause. 

:I have no idea what Melody's planning. I think none of us've had time to think about it. And Healers would need to approve her relocating, I assume, probably deploy another Mindhealer to replace her here... Though it'd be a weight off my mind if she were around for Vanyel to keep seeing her. But she'd slow us down by a lot if she traveled overland with us, and she might be miserable - she'd have to ride an ordinary horse and I don't know how experienced a rider she is: 

:Under less complicated circumstances I'd think the path of common sense would be Vanyel taking a relaxed, gentle course home.  But - well, I'm worried about a number of things, like whether nobody can stop Vanyel from running off to do mage-work.  Or help Vanyel if something weird does develop as a result of the work I did with Melody.  But on the converse side - did the Gate thing happen to him at the same time as the lifebond broke?  Because that sounds like if Vanyel is approaching the Gate, it should be with Thellimelody monitoring him, and potentially getting ready to call off Vanyel's transit.  In case the brain damage wasn't just a broken lifebond.:

:- It was the same time, yes: Yfandes is suddenly tense. :Or within seconds, anyway. It wasn't the broken lifebond itself that caused it, it was - the Gate was tied to his life-force, and a trainee tried to take it down...: 

Lissa shivers. 

:...It does occur to me that if anyone could figure out why Van reacts this way and fix it, it'd be you with Melody: 

:...if, it turns out, we can fix it right away, does somebody immediately start Gating Vanyel all over the entire region in order to do lots of mage-work?  Maybe I shouldn't even ask but - I worry about consequences, there.:

:I guess it'd be a little unrealistic to fix it and then not tell anyone and pretend he still can't: A mental sigh. :I don't think we start doing that, though. Gates are tiring even if they don't hurt him, and they also play hell with the weather, it gets problematic to use them a lot: 

Thellim knows that she ought to have this conversation with Vanyel, when Vanyel is in better shape.  The trouble is, she is not confident of Vanyel's ability to say no to things that hurt him but that might help other people.  That part where Vanyel stumbled off the metaphorical operating table and tried to start work immediately after has shaken her, to be honest.

(tightbeam, Yfandes only)  :Yfandes, in your best judgment, will Vanyel hurt himself through overwork if given the ability to Gate more freely.  Not should he, will he.:

After a very long pause:

:...He might:

Another few seconds of thought.

:Not - not if things were going well, I think? He was doing much better than this before the war - but when everything around us feels like it's falling apart, it's...hard: 

:And, I hate to ask it, but compared to that probability, how likely does it seem that in the next week or two there could be some huge emergency where Vanyel has to be able to Gate somewhere or else many many people die.:

Yfandes starts to answer, then hesitates again, thinking. 

:Not...as unlikely as I wish. But he can do distance-work too, if there's a battle and he isn't in the right place. I don't think it's urgent to mess with this in the next week. Seems safer to space it out: 

Lissa, after a few beats of waiting with a puzzled expression, pours herself more wine and then sort of awkwardly half-waves at Thellim. She's used to people having private Mindspeech side conversations in front of her - she does work with Heralds, after all - but in this particular case she really wants to know what's going on. 

:So what's the plan?: she asks. :I would order Vanyel not to Gate, except he outranks me and he would point that out: 

:Current baseline plan to meliorize against is Gating myself to Haven so I can start talking to engineers; but asking Vanyel to avoid non-extreme-emergency Gates for the next couple of weeks, due to their prior involvement in the incident we just did mind-surgery on.  And him taking a non-emergency ride back to Haven which will give him time to adjust to mental changes, recover from warzone stuff, and eat tasty things in warm inns.  I'm admittedly not sure how we do that if Vanyel outranks everybody and your organization doesn't have fallback options like 'outvoted by Lissa plus two Healers on medical grounds'.:

:The Healers do sometimes place Heralds off-duty on medical grounds. If Melody thinks it's a bad idea he'll hopefully listen to her?: 

:He was decent about listening to Lancir, before: Yfandes offers. :Well. Most of the time: 

:I don't have a better plan, unless you've got an established process for Visitors from Faraway assuming command over leading mages.  Though maybe Melody should wait to talk to him about that tomorrow, give him a chance to rest overnight before arguing with him about something else.:

:Mmm, probably: 

There's a longish silence. 

Eventually Lissa takes another gulp of wine, and re-props her feet. :So. What was that about you having done something even stupider once when you were a patient? Sounds like a story: 

:I'm... not sure it translates very well... but in my defense, they should put stronger access restrictions on medical devices than 'press Start three times to enter doctor mode' if patients are actually genuinely not supposed to modify those settings.: