Nayoki kind of feels like, actually, she is the one at the mercy of an absurdly beautiful woman!

She is, however, not complaining. 

The very convenient thing about Mindspeech is that kissing does not need to conflict with talking. 

:So: she says eventually. :How exactly did you end up nursing Vanyel back to health in Urtho's Tower? I am sure there is a fascinating story there: 

(Leareth, for reasons of generalized paranoia, has stationed one of his strongest Thoughtsensers near the room, to directly observe Nayoki and the alien sex-magic-equipped stranger, and then relocated himself to an entirely different facility, where he can receive realtime reports via long-range Mindspeech.) 

Real-time report: the alien with powerful sex magic feels that actually people she's having sex with should be much too distracted to ask any questions, and will escalate the distractions until that's been achieved. 

She puts most of her points into FUK. She doesn't actually like what ERO does to the world around her, so as soon as it was high enough to travel to other universes she stopped increasing it, and she's actually never met anyone it was particularly impossible to seduce at BOD 25 and SED 25. FUK, on the other hand, you can just keep getting better at. 

They can talk about Urtho's Tower once they're done.

"I'm collecting a harem of supervillains," she tells Nayoki drowsily, about an hour later. "I got a [perfectly reasonable reason to do it] and I've got six so far. One of 'em had heard of Velgarth and thought I'd be into it, so she did a portal for me. - her world has better fast-travel than yours. Dropped me in the tutorial zone where I met Vanyel."

You would think it would be difficult to have a glorious sexual experience while in a stone-walled Work Room with no actual...furniture...but the alien with powerful sex magic seems to be able to obviate the need for silly things like 'beds'. 

This is quickly becoming the best day that Nayoki has ever had in her entire life, and while on the one hand she has to assume that mind-control is involved somehow, on the other hand she does not, actually, care. It's not as though she's ever particularly had qualms about using Mindhealing to have a good time. (She just mostly never got around to it? Which is, in hindsight, a weird oversight on her part. She should fix that.) 

"I see," she murmurs back, nuzzling the stranger's neck. "Another world? That is fascinating! What...exactly is a 'supervillain'?" 

“It’s like porn, you know it when you see it. Name like Master Dark. Armies, plans of world conquest, kidnapping innocent girls, killed a boy and left Vanyel with a hole in his soul…. Urtho was also a supervillain.”

Leareth is not receiving a direct relay of the Thoughtsenser's reads; he asked to instead get a summarized verbal report, sent by a second Mindspeaker also stationed nearby. He's aware that they're playing with fire, here - that there is some kind of mysterious yet incredibly powerful force involved, that they don't even slightly understand, and it's very very clear that it's warping all of Nayoki's thoughts and motivations, and Nayoki seems half-unaware of this - 

- and he has to assume it's affecting him as well, but - what else is he going to do? He can't just walk away from this fascinating anomaly, and - if any of his guesses are on the right track, this is unquestionably the most important thing that's happened in at least the last thousand years. Maybe in his entire life. 

She comes from another world, which includes at least one mention of magic more powerful than anything Velgarth has to offer. She's - collecting a harem?? of "supervillains"?

(She found Vanyel and immediately tried to fix all of his problems - told him that those kinds of problems were unacceptable, that she and her magic couldn't abide that kind of horror existing in the world - and leaving all the rest aside, Leareth is deeply grateful for that...) 

She personally has powerful magic that seems...for some reason...to mostly be about sex? 

Even apart from that, she - seems to be running all of her reasoning on the basis that– on a premise that is sort of like believing she lives in a ballad? This feels important. Like it's the key to making sense of any of this. 

Leareth is not, yet, making sense of any of this, and then he receives the Mindspeech summary of her commentary about Urtho and he is suddenly very distracted. 

"From everything I have heard of Urtho - which is not very much - I cannot disagree!" 

Nayoki thinks, distantly, that she should probably have some actual coherent questions, but mostly she...doesn't. Mostly she is very happy and relaxed and wants to ride that wave as long as she can. 

"...So. Mindhealing. You wanted a tutorial?" 

“Yes!” Delightedly. “I’m pretty sure there is an entire skill tree here and I bet it synergizes great with Mindbending Sex.”

"There must be! I confess I have not explored this area nearly as much as I ought to. I suppose you might put in redirects from - whatever you wanted - toward sexual arousal. I have not done that before but I think I could figure it out with some practice -" 

....What is "Mindbending Sex" and why isn't Nayoki asking the obvious questions? It turns out that it's actually very frustrating to be fifty miles away from the most interesting mystery he's ever encountered, with only the narrow channel of Mindspeech communication. Leareth isn't going to do anything differently, yet, he's not stupid, but he is frustrated. 

:Please relay to Nayoki to ask how she obtained her - broader magical abilities: Leareth sends to his point of contact. :And whether it is possible for other people to learn: 

This is so annoying! Nayoki was busy having the best sexual encounter of her entire life and now Leareth wants her to resume the interrogation part? 

Sigh. "- In a moment. Leareth wanted to know how you - er -" it's weirdly difficult to remember what she was supposed to be asking about, "- how you obtained your sex powers? And whether it is replicable for other people?" 

“Master Dark can fuck me himself if he wants to ask me lots of boring questions. Is the Mindhealing Gift the reason you look like a bunch of silk ribbons in a really complicated tie - do I need to level bondage to use Mindhealing-“

"I think Leareth does not...fuck...people? I am not sure he has even had any romantic relationships in the last thousand years. ...Tragically. I think he is missing out on something important and it is impossible to convince him to care, he - is so focused on, on fixing all of the problems in the world - I am not sure how to convince him that it would be good for him to also do things that make him happy...." 

(Nayoki thinks, distantly, that she's also not sure why she said all of that out loud, she hadn't even known until now that it was how she felt. Though it undeniably is how she feels. Leareth is so alone and it's a tragedy, whether or not he would ever notice this let alone admit it to himself or anyone else.) 

...Oh, right, she was being asked a question. "Silk ribbons! That must be your Sight metaphor. How fascinating. Mine is..." And she parts her shields and tries to slip into full concert-rapport, to show her own bread-Sight of the stranger's mind. 

"Oh, incidentally, I am not sure I ever got your name? My name is Nayoki. If I did not already say that." 

Previously:

”Ah, shoot, names,” he says when Vanyel, inevitably, asks. “I usually pick one per world. Does your language have any names that could be a girl, could be a boy -“

"You usually pick one per -" Nevermind, he is not going to ask any more questions about that, it generally doesn't go anywhere useful.

(And he's also not going to press on the whole "could be a girl, could be a boy" bit, mostly because that will predictably be the most awkward conversation imaginable, and also won't go anywhere useful.) 

"Let me think. Ummm. I think Callan could be either? The Herald Callan I know of from the ballads was a man but it could be a woman's name. Or, wait, maybe it was Fallan - no, that was a different person. Arvil is a name that could be a boy or girl, I haven't met any Arvils myself but I wouldn't be able to guess their sex just from the name, if I did. Or Elfyn, I actually think I've met a boy with that name in some village, and then a girl with the same name in a village on the other side of Valdemar..." 

Other suggested names include:

- Laylan 

- Isten

- Jebren 

“Elfyn might work. It needs to be - a bit of a stripper name, if you take my meaning? And this seems like a good universe to lean into Tolkien - I want an alliterative surname - Elfyn Everyoung, how about that. Do people even have surnames here.”

Vanyel does not at all know what she means by 'stripper name', and has even less idea what 'Tolkien' means, but it's fine. 

"What, as in your family name? Yes, usually, though the noble families, er, take it more seriously. And Heralds tend not to use their family names at all. My family name is Ashkevron but nobody calls me that anymore."

(Instead they call him Demonsbane, and Firelord, and Hero of Stony Tor... And he is not going to dwell on Tylendel's clever wordplay when he chose 'ashke' as a pet name for him...)

"Everyoung - doesn't exactly sound like a usual family name, either for nobles or commoners, but I...guess it's evocative, at least?" 

He bows. “Elfyn Everyoung. At your service.” Which he says like he deeply means it.

It's - sweet, and strange, and kind of overwhelming, and so so so confusing. And Vanyel isn't sure that he cares. It's not as though his life before this made sense, either - it feels like the world stopped making sense seventeen years ago, when the horizon turned to fire on the other side of a faltering Gate.

And at least this is a flavor of not-making sense that also happens to be pleasant and fun. 

In the present: 

Nayoki is still waiting for an answer. Though not with any particular impatience. She's in such a good mood right now. 

The Thoughtsenser observing from outside the room is so incredibly curious how the sex magic alien is going to respond to Nayoki's unexpectedly emotional speech about Leareth's loneliness. 

"What, you kidnap a girl and don't even bother to learn her name first? I knew yours, it was on my [magic source of information]. Elfyn Everyoung.

....'he hasn't had a woman for a thousand years and is too distant for any human connections' sounds like an incredibly paint-by-numbers solve-before-the-first-commercial-break kinda problem, except I've been promised a hell of a reward for this quest so I actually bet it's going to be more complicated than that somehow."

The Thoughtsenser outside starts to summarize this for passing along to Leareth, and then stops, and frowns at the wall. She knew Nayoki's name because it was on her what? 

He shrugs, and relays to the other Mindspeaker nearby that she knew Nayoki's name for - some reason that makes perfect sense but that he didn't quite follow? And then sends the of her words verbatim, because how do you even summarize that. 

......Leareth has never before been accused of - being a quest to complete??? Let alone a "paint-by-numbers" quest or a "solve-before-the-first-commercial-break" one, whatever those even mean; the Thoughtsenser relaying thinks, based on Elfyn's thoughts, that they're probably...synonyms for 'boring' or 'trivial' or 'not challenging enough to matter'. Which is a very jarring thing for someone to think about Leareth as a person. He has no idea what to do with it.