Shavri yawns and hugs her knees and switches her gaze back and forth rapidly between Leareth and Julie. 

The protomolecule swirls petulantly in their blood. 

    ?

...Wow that is so creepy. 

:Wait: she tells the Proto. 

How bad is Julie looking, right now? 

Not great, not terrible? She doesn't seem to be having whatever problem most recently hit Leareth so hard but she's still, well, significantly eaten at this point, and even though the protomolecule isn't growing it can cause some problems without doing anything at all. 

:Still no doing any things here and here: She marks out Julie and Leareth's bodies with her Sight, then stands up so she can go Look and point out the rabbits. :Do as much as you want here. And - more resources for you, soon: 

The protomolecule is confused by these instructions somehow and goes back to work in a random selection of places that are not the ones Shavri designated.

Ughhhh.

Maybe the problem is that it doesn't understand her sensory impressions? 

She picks a random spot in Leareth's body where it's started doing things, goes in very deep and close. Pokes at the swirling currents of energy that the Proto is constantly sending around itself - very very gently, she's not trying to be disruptive, just noticeable.

:Stop doing things here: she tells it. 

It confusedly stops part there and part in a rabbit's eye and part in Julie's lungs.

....Shavri is now baffled. 

:Thank you: she tells it, and then starts keeping a lookout for places where its activity is causing trouble, so she can keep trying to tell it to stop in those places, even if this only sort of works. 

A couple of minutes later, Nayoki confirms that she has a plan for feeding several hundred livestock to the Proto! Mostly sheep and goats, not cows, but there are lots of them, in good health, and she can Gate over a (very carefully contained) sample right now. 

...She's welcome to take some rabbit piss or droppings? 

Maybe she'll grab one of the Fetchers to put some of that into a bucket without anyone having to touch it. 

She wants to confirm this plan with Leareth, but he's not exactly conscious, so she goes ahead and Gates in and the Fetcher collects some rabbit waste-products and they Gate out again to somewhere else. 

Shavri is barely staying awake at this point, but she smiles a little to herself. 

:Resources: she tells the Proto. :So many resources. Far away - can you tell it's far...?: 

.̸̡̞̤̺͒̏͊̀͊͜ͅ:̶͇̗͍̎͌͌̀̎̄́͋͝n̵̤̯̣̮͒́̋̒̒̈́̈́͜ớ̷̧̖̙̗̹͚̌̎̆̽͆̀̿͝ṫ̴̗̉̾́̏̄̋̂͊̔̆̇͘̚͝ ̵̡̰̮͈̝̝̼̥͗̈́̽̀́͆́̎̈͘ͅf̵͓̫̘̦̳̪̱̺͈͈͋a̴̪͎̤͓͈̤̩̰͕͇͓̱̤͔̟̎̋̌̋̈́͋͗̎͑̀̂̃͒̚r̴̢̡̤͎̘͇̥͇̃̈́.̸̰̦̜͈̙̗̉̑̿̏͋̕͠*̷̧͈̩̆̎͝͠

And it grows.

They can feed it Gate energy too, over in the underground livestock pen seventy miles away, where it hopefully will help the nearby Proto grow rather than the Proto living in humans. 

It does seem to have that effect.

It is mostly successfully leaving Leareth and Julie alone, now, while it devours all the sheep and goats.

Leareth sleeps fitfully, keeps half-waking with the feeling that he needs to be doing something very important, interrupted by the Healers telling him not to worry and just rest, which isn't entirely reassuring but also staying awake is so hard. 

Shavri waits a while, making sure the patients are stable, and then checks herself over very carefully for any sign of Proto before asking for a place to sleep with her daughter.

Nayoki can get them a tent? 

At this point she would probably sleep in a hole in the ground. She's exhausted. 

She goes up to the surface, by Gate since there are several dozen mages on hand for minor errands and also they're not avoiding feeding the Proto, and she retrieves Jisa from one of Leareth's employees, apparently some sort of mage-researcher, who happens to also be breastfeeding her own toddler and has been somewhat unwillingly shanghai'd into wet-nurse duties. 

She sleeps. Even Jisa's fussing barely wakes her, just long enough to shift around on the bedroll and resettle her on a breast. 

The protomolecule devours its herd of livestock and settles into some kind of enormous glowing crystalline form.

Leareth eventually wakes up more fully. He's feeling...well, still pretty sick, but it's much more a normal kind of sick, and he can mostly think again. 

He checks his Mindspeech range - still can't reach the surface, there's a lot of rock in the way - and then he reaches for the part of the Proto that's right there inside him. 

He tests how well his visualization ability is working, which again is a lot closer to normal, and then sends the Proto:

...Huh, that's not conceptually familiar at all. 

:What is that?: 

.    ?