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A utilitarian Easterner lands on Vanyel during the Karsite War.
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He's cooperative and friendly and honestly a very good patient! He's also young and clearly very fit and should make a good recovery, though he really didn't do himself any favors by Gating a thousand miles apparently while seriously injured. 

She can't communicate anything to him about his current condition, but she has a look, peeking under his bandages as well as checking with her Sight, and smiles reassuringly. His body isn't going to tolerate any more Healing right now; they threw a lot at him during the meld, just to get him stabilized, it'll be safer to let him heal the natural way until at least tomorrow. It was a pretty clean injury, though; he lost a lot of blood, but the knife missed his heart, lungs, and the biggest vessels, and it's knitted enough now that as long as he stays in bed, it shouldn't reopen. 

She gets him a cup of water, and pulls in a trainee to help him sit up and get him propped against more pillows so he can drink. Notices his wince of pain, and attempts to ask via gestures if he wants more poppy-syrup. 

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He's happy to sip the water, and appreciates all the healing!

He absolutely does not want more poppy syrup; he wants his head as clear as possible for this, and there's exercises he learned that can help control pain. Not perfectly, but if you can't function in pain, you really can't function.

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Well, if he's sure. It'll be right over here on the side table if he changes his mind.

Gemma leaves the trainee to sit with him, though the girl is mostly reading a book and just glancing at him ever couple of minutes to make sure he's not getting worse and doesn't need anything from her. 

She's intensely curious about their mysterious patient, but answers can wait. It's not like she doesn't have a dozen other urgent priorities. 

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Elsewhere - five rooms down the hall, in fact - the Senior Circle is having an urgent meeting. 

"Savil, you've got the extra privacy-wards up?" The King of Valdemar waits for her nod, and only then, with the door firmly shut, lets himself lean forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, and massage his forehead. 

"Van. You're still pretty sure he's from the Eastern Empire?" 

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Vanyel is thoroughly ensconced in pillows and cushions, with an extra wool blanket; he's very easily chilled, right now, which is apparently to be expected after losing almost half the blood in his body. He's not moving any more than necessary, and his complexion, always pale, still looks almost translucent. He's alert, though. 

"Not utterly certain, but - everything he's said or thought fits. He came from east of Hardorn, and I think that's all the Eastern Empire, it's huge. He's under compulsions. He ran because some cutthroat political scheming nearly got him killed. - Oh, and he's incredible with magic. We know they have more mages and probably much better education than we do." 

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"How do you know that?" 

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Shrug. "You know I read a lot of books." 

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"Right. Well. What do you think we should do?" 

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Vanyel hasn't had a lot of time to think, but it's not like it's an especially hard decision. 

"I think we want him as an ally. Which means we have to get the compulsions off, first, because right now he's - not entirely his own person, and he may literally not be allowed to tell us what all of them do, or what kinds of scenarios could force him to act against us. ...Unfortunately, I don't think it's safe to ask for his permission. So I really hope my guess is right and he'll be mostly grateful for it." 

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"How are we supposed to slip that by him without him even noticing?" 

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He's thought this through too. "I think Savil needs to Gate Melody over from Horn as soon as possible. Or Kilchas from that end, if he can manage it - he's still stationed there, right? We'll need to warn Healers' over the relay, we can't have them holding the Gate for ten minutes while she packs her things, but I think we shouldn't tell them anything about why, aside from 'it's an emergency'." A crooked smile. "Let her assume it's about me." 

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Savil can't quite hide her own smile. It's - a good sign, she thinks, that Vanyel can speak about that sort of thing so lightly; he's normally so defensive and embarrassed about it. 

"I did the Gate to collect him, but it was short range. Should be able to handle another, though don't expect much of me for the rest of the evening." 

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Randi nods, his eyes distant. "Keiran, Katha - any other considerations for that move?" 

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"The Karsites will detect the Gate. Not that I know what they'll make of it - and it's not as though we're moving any combatants off the Border." 

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"They might be Farseeing the area. Command building is shielded against Farsight and scrying but we don't have the resources to cover everywhere. Not that I know what they could possibly infer from us apparently evacuating one Healer, but - maybe we should move some other people at the same time, just to muddy the waters a bit?" 

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"Sure. I can send Herald Nita, she's been on leave up here for a few weeks but she's ready to head back. And I think the Healers are due for some personnel rotation, I'll work it out with Aber. Savil, when can you be ready for the Gate?" 

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"I don't think it needs to happen in the next twenty minutes or anything," Vanyel interrupts. "I'm thinking we'll wait until he's definitely asleep, get some help from the Healers to keep him that way, and then Melody can advise us on how to do this carefully while we keep him under. Hopefully he'll fall asleep soonish; he had a lot of Healing thrown at him, he'll be tired, but I get the sense he's also going to be trying his best to plan." 

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"Are we, er, worried about letting him do that." 

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Shrug. "I'm not that worried? Savil and I were in touch while she was questioning him, and - he knows he's in our power, right now, he's not going to antagonize us while he's still recovering and Gemma thinks that'll take days if not weeks." 

Pause. 

"Randi, I did want to ask your permission to talk to him face to face. I think I can get a better sense of him, that way. Savil thought from reading his surface thoughts that he's - honorable, in a certain way? He's - not loyal to Valdemar, why would he be, he doesn't know anything about us. But - he tries to repay his debts - to make it worth someone's while to help him. I'm not very worried he'll betray us to Karse, since if he did, we'd regret saving him." It's an oddly familiar sort of reasoning. He knows exactly who it reminds him of. "But I think I can get a better sense of him in person. And find out more about his magical and other expertise. Honestly, if half of what I've heard about the Eastern Empire is true, this...might be the best piece of luck we've had this year." 

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Randi looks so dubious right now. 

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"Van, ke'chara, are you...sure that's a wise idea? You're not exactly well, right now." 

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Vanyel scowls at her. "I'm not an idiot. Gemma can have someone carry me there, and you're welcome to hover and watch my back. But he's probably in worse shape than me, I'm not dealing with backlash on top of being stabbed, and I'm almost certainly a lot stronger than him. I don't think I'll be in any danger." 

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"Van, you're going to have to do a lot of convincing here if you expect us to trust him." 

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"Oh." Vanyel almost chuckles out loud. "I don't. But I don't think we need to trust him, in order to use his skills. He's - in a pretty desperate position, right now. I think we could work out a deal that benefits him as well." 

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Janos is left alone with the trainee for about the next forty-five minutes. 

Eventually, Gemma comes in, accompanied by another trainee who speaks some Hardornen and can translate for her. 

"Hey. How are you feeling? Think you could manage some broth?" 

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