Either way, it's not urgently in need of intervention, probably? 

Melody waits until he's settled back in bed, gives him a minute to catch his breath - moving must be hurting him quite a lot - and then settles herself in the chair, at an angle where she can easily hold eye contact with him but is also giving him some personal space. 

:Can you tell me how you're feeling, er, mentally and emotionally? We tried very hard not to cause any damage along the way, but I'm aware that we're not nearly as skilled with this as whoever put those compulsions down in the first place. Is there anything that's going to cause you trouble?: 

:Exhausted. Strained. Nothing worse:

Both betrayed and oddly grateful, though he'd known this was a possibility. He wouldn't call this fair and honest cooperation, but if they've gotten his mind the way they want it, hopefully he can just try to function, now.

:I can't think of anything. I expect I should sleep:

(He's actually extremely certain he should sleep.)

:Yes, I agree: Melody glances at Gemma. :It's normal to feel pretty worn out, Mindhealing does that even when you're not going into it tired. I think it'll be better in the morning, and then Vanyel is hoping to meet with you again and, er, explain the answers to some questions he wanted to steer around while you were under potentially hostile mind control. Are you willing to take something for  pain now?: 

Oh, that makes sense.

(Wait, no, it doesn't. Vanyel wasn't lying to him - what could he possibly be leaving out? That's going to be eating at him all night... no, sleep.)

:I am:

And he will take it, and wonder about Vanyel's dark secret, and sleep.

At shift change, they locate another trainee who speaks Hardornen to sit with him. (He's stable enough medically at this point not to really merit one-on-one supervision, but Gemma has other reasons to insist on it.) 

The trainee doesn't wake him, though, just sits down at the bedside, with more poppy-syrup and water and a bedpan ready, and waits for him to wake on his own. 

He sleeps a surprisingly long amount of time, and when he wakes, he does drink the water and use the bedpan, but, again, refuses the poppy-syrup.

His main concern is what the hell Vanyel's secret is. If Vanyel was lying to him, he's - little though he likes it - in over his head; he got a read from the man, and he wasn't a criminal mastermind unless he was really, really good at it. But if Vanyel isn't, what secret could it possibly be? Gods aren't powerful enough to change things as fundamental to humanity as the cycles of civil war, and nothing but a god could live long enough to do it.

Well. His answer will be here soon enough.

(He'll also notice that he feels a good bit better, both physically and mentally. The gluey post-Mindhealing exhaustion is almost entirely gone, the last dose of poppy syrup has worn off, and his chest actually hurts a little less than it did when he last woke; at shift change Gemma declared that his body could probably tolerate some more Healing, and the trainee did some supervised work on the wound and has been holding a link and passing him Healing-energy ever since.) 

A different adult Healer, stocky and red-haired, comes in once he's done with the necessities. He's carrying a bowl of oat porridge. "Good morning," he says, in surprisingly fluent Hardornen. "I'm Andrel. Came to see if you were up for some breakfast, and - after that, if you can manage it, we'd like to bring you next door. You're at the point in your recovery when a bit of walking will do you good, if you're up for it, and Vanyel says it'll - be easier to explain if you go to him." 

He's glad he feels so much better! He's going to try to resist, with great difficulty, the instinctive urge to push this as far as possible and act as if he is perfectly well in all respects, which is what he would normally do.

"Good morning, Andrel." he says back. "Count Janos. Thank you."

He's happy to eat, he's even happy to try to walk (focusing on his pain-control meditations as he does), but most of his thoughts are on the question of Vanyel's - and Valdemar's - secret.

Andrel and the trainee help sit him up and ease him out of bed, so that he doesn't need to use any of his sore chest muscles, and then have him sit on the side with his legs dangling for a minute before attempting to stand, to make sure he's not about to faint or something. He does feel lightheaded after going from sitting to vertical, but it passes quickly, and Andrel is right there holding him steady. The walk, which is only about thirty yards, goes without incident. 

Vanyel's room is bigger, and if Janos is using his mage-sight at all, he'll be able to notice that the shielding on the walls is very thorough, and looks permanent. Vanyel himself is sitting up in bed; he pushes his breakfast tray aside when he sees them enter. 

In addition to being more spacious, the room also, inexplicably, contains a...stall? With a horse in it? The mare is snow-white with blue eyes, which rest on Janos, and - there's intelligence in that gaze.

:Good morning: Vanyel says, levelly. :Have a seat: There's an armchair prepped and ready for him, with pillows and a folded blanket. :I'm really sorry about last night, but - Melody says you thought you would be all right?: 

His apology seems genuine. 

A horse.

A horse.

If the answer to 'how did Valdemar function' is 'they used the magic power of HORSE BREEDING to solve all their problems', he's going to object to whoever is writing the universe.

Ahem. Yes. Right.

:Good morning. Thank you: He's pleased to sit. :Some difficulties in the awakening, but I think the overall effect was positive:

He actually expected to be much more grateful, really.

:And your own recovery, Herald Vanyel?:

:- Right, Melody mentioned there was some sort of bad interaction with the Mindhealing blocks. I apologize for how we had no idea what we were doing. Valdemar doesn't use compulsions:

He smiles. :- And, thank you, I'm feeling much better: This is even mostly true. :Anyway. I - wanted to explain some things about Valdemar, which I expect will be very surprising for you. - First of all, um, what in all hells was the second compulsion on you, in the ordering? It - looked like it would have been causing you a lot of distress, if you were awake, but I'm not experienced enough with this to tell what they do just by looking at the structure and placement: 

Bad interaction, yes, that's a good way to do it.

:It may be worth learning the basics of compulsions, if only to help you understand how others use them, but I agree that's a story for another time:

Right now, you should pitch the story, involving your - is that horse magic - that gray is totally magic. He wants a refund.

... And he really ought to stop distracting himself from the actual issues.

:The second compulsion was an - act of prioritization, by the emperor: Even in Mindspeech, his tone comes across; that of someone handling an ugly, disgusting thing with verbal tongs. :It is laid on every mage in the palace of Master or Adept strength to commit suicide on his death if the order is not first removed. To ensure none of the people who could kill him would gain from his death:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Vanyel keeps his face mostly under control, but will not actually manage to hide from Janos that his reaction is 'utter horror and internal screaming.' 

:That's unfortunate: he says, neutrally. :I'm very glad we removed it. Am I right that you were also under compulsions to prevent you from tampering with them or cooperating with others trying to remove them, and so we really couldn't have asked your permission first?: 

:I was, and you could not. I appreciate the removal of the second compulsion a great deal:

... Okay, seriously, Janos, you need to notice that Vanyel seems to be REALLY NAIVE about how government works. This entire place is weird, and I don't think it can possibly be that it's normal and you're weird, because you've read all the Hardornen ambassador's correspondence and Hardorn is not this kind of country.

:Are there any of the others that you would have preferred we leave intact, if it had been possible to talk about it first? Er, I'm asking more for debriefing purposes than because we're likely to be able to do anything about it now, I'm not good enough to put them back, and also I don't think we realistically could have gotten just the suicide one and the anti-tampering ones without talking to you to figure out which was which, and that wasn't safe: 

:If I say that you left only the ones you should have left, is that too absurd to believe?:

(Though he's avoiding thinking about #6 at all.)

:I mean, that's what we were aiming for, and we were trying pretty hard! So I'm - flattered, I guess. Melody was more comfortable leaning conservative on it. I don't know how much you're able to think about the remaining ones, but - do you want to be compelled to loyalty to the current Emperor? I - think it's pretty obvious you can't go back, at this point, and in your position I would kind of prefer not to be forcibly loyal to the person who suicide-compulsion'd me. But it's your head: