It's slow going, and actually quite a tiring application of his Gift, and way more nervewracking than Mindhealing work usually is; the substrate of her mind is still more fragile and malleable than it should be, and keeps not behaving quite like he expects to in response to his Gift. He'll try to get all of the soot and smoke, and then even more carefully clean up the metaphorical spilled glue and acetone. He didn't even know you could have that kind of foreign-feeling corrosive mess in someone's mind. Mindhealing Sight is often hard to interpret, especially with patients who can't talk and answer questions about what they're experiencing, but he has even less idea than usual what's actually happening there. 

(The glue doesn't want to 'come off' without tearing up strips of what's left of Iomedae's mind along with it, and the 'acetone' has actually disintegrated a lot of what's beneath it, concealing even worse damage than was apparent at first. He's noticed the fact that her physical injuries are entirely healed and he's still made barely any progress. He...is not quite at the point when he feels like he can give Ma'ar an estimate of whether she'll recover her full faculties at all, let alone how long it's going to take, but it's hard to feel optimistic.) 

It's probably going to take multiple candlemarks. He's not really expecting to get multiple candlemarks without interruptions, given how there is apparently an entirely separate emergency happening and both Iomedae and Ma'ar are prime targets for whoever caused the first disaster. 

...They probably shouldn't give her more painkillers even though it's pretty distressing to be hurting her so badly. He is at some point going to want to be able to check if his work here is actually resulting in Iomedae being any more lucid. 

Ma'ar is so tired of feeling helpless. Of watching problems slowly cascade into disasters, and not actually having any way to gain control of the situation. He still doesn't know what happened, which means he isn't sure whether Iomedae is still being affected directly by whatever force did this to her.

She's at least not getting worse, so - that's one tiny note of hope. 

He is also really not expecting to go that much longer without news, good or bad. 

He will, in fact, be contacted within the candlemark by a very unhappy Need. 

<Still no dice on getting Iomedae over here?> 

He feels like crying. <No. - what's happening -> 

<We seem to have landed ourselves in a situation that could use some diplomacy, and I am not the right person. Neither's my bearer, despite her many lovely traits. And, don't take this the wrong way, sweetie, but it's not you either.> 

Why does she keep calling him 'sweetie'. It's weird and uncomfortable. 

...Diplomacy. That - sounds better than some of the alternatives. Probably? He hasn't heard about any diplomatic disasters with Tantara's generals or the monitors or the gryphons or anyone else in Urtho's forces, so it's - probably in reference to the shamans. 

<Explain?> 

<We had them cornered and then the old guy stabs himself in what I swear to all the gods is some kind of bloody horrifying dark magic ritual. I don't know what the point was and I doubt I'll enjoy finding out. ...The woman's alive and she's more or less in hysterics, which is hard to blame her for but it's really cramping my style what with trying to interrogate her.> 

Um. 

Probably Ma'ar should be able to think of...something...to do about that. Having complete thoughts is mostly not happening right now, because Iomedae is making that awful whimpering sound again and it's so distracting and also. What. 

<...Don't touch the body. Seal the basement. Urtho might know what he could have been doing, ask him if he is conscious. Obviously secure the other shaman, she - may genuinely be upset but I would not assume she is incapacitated - is she a mage...?> 

His hands are shaking. He looks at them with puzzled irritation. 

<Yes. Adept, but just barely. Shayeen and I together have her outmatched in a straight-up fight, doubt she's combat-trained at all what with the being a shaman and all, but - she might not use it to fight...> 

Ma'ar grits his teeth. 

:If she gets off a compulsion on either of you, you - at least have the advantage that the other will notice.> 

But Shayeen isn't a Mindspeaker, isn't trained, she won't know the communication-spell – the smart thing to do would be to hit Need first...

<Is she shielding? I would - I know Tantara has ethical qualms with this but I would be reading her mind constantly.> 

A burst of mental laughter, without much humor. <I'm not Urtho. If it's the only warning we get, I'll take it. ...And we'd best get out of this basement, Shayeen's having a panic attack at me and it's tedious.> 

Presumably Need has already considered that getting the untrained fourteen-year-old out of this situation is a priority, and Ma'ar repeating it will not be adding any new information. 

<Make sure Urtho is aware. ...Make sure all of Urtho's people are aware, we need to be communicating updates and things are - very chaotic - I will update people from my side.> 

<Thaaaaaat sounds like diplomacy and, as I said.> A mental...sarcastic head-toss, or something, it's not exactly clear how Need is managing to convey body language along the communication-spell, which doesn't normally have much in the way of side-channel content. <I'll do my bloody best.> 

<Question her as soon as possible. There may have been others involved.> 

And Ma'ar drops the connection, and fights the urge to put his head down on his knees. He doesn't want this to be the thing that's happening. He wants a different better thing to be happening instead, he wants to be in a world where Iomedae is bouncing back from every injury with impossible superhuman speed, barely inconvenienced by a fifty-mile-wide fireball, not...semi-comatose and helpless, just barely conscious enough to hurt. He would like not that. 

...Also his own head continues to feel - off - in a way he hasn't had a chance to poke at and is kind of scared to investigate further but should probably think about. He's functional - he's good at that - but he's almost certainly impaired.

It would be tempting to borrow Iomedae's headband, except that one, it was deeply unpleasant the last time, and two, he is not actually sure if that's the only thing still holding her mind together at all. It certainly seems like a pretty bad idea to disrupt anything right now. 

They're not fighting. 

That's the only thing that matters. Everything is awful, something precious might have been destroyed forever for no reason, and yet, his people and Tantara's people are on their sides of the lines, and no one is throwing fireballs at each other, and that - does matter, it's the most important thing here, even if right now the world feels far away and not quite real. He has tactical problems and can make tactical decisions and if he just keeps holding this together long enough, then maybe someday the bigger picture will start to make sense again. 

If he keeps Iomedae safe and does everything in his power to help her, then maybe someday she can look into his eyes again and show him how to stop being scared

He closes his eyes, and reaches out with the communication-spell to update his commanders. He should really meet with the King but - he can't. Not right now. 

Shakat will grumble and sigh and demand a different chair and a pillow for his back, and generally make it clear that he is very unhappy at the sudden unexpected multi-candlemark Mindhealing marathon, but he does actually want to clean up the - foreign matter, or whatever it is - enough that he can get a better assessment of the underlying damage. 

The painkillers are going to be wearing off now. He's gotten all of the metaphorical smoke and soot, and nearly all of the metaphorical acetone, and the metaphorical spilled glue is an enormous hassle but he's figuring out a strategy to scrape away at it one layer at a time without causing too much additional damage in the process. 

Her mind looks spectacularly horrifying, but there's been a real and significant improvement since he got started. Is Iomedae actually showing any signs of increasing responsiveness as a result? 

With the painkillers wearing off, she'll be - conscious. Talking, even, in her own language none of them speak.

...Well, that's something.

Heeeee doesn't think it's a good idea to actively Mindspeak her, but if she's not shielding then someone can try to read her surface thoughts and figure out what she's attempting to say? 

Absolutely shielding. She started that the second she became conscious. 

...Yeah, that's about what Ma'ar expected, usually she's spectacularly well shielded and utterly impossible to read. He had wondered if the damage would impair that but apparently not enough. 

They could try having one of the Healers put her under, briefly, and see if he can get through then? It did seem earlier like her shielding relied on her being conscious, and maybe if he can get through at all, he can maintain that link while they let her wake up just enough to actually have any thoughts. 

Sure, they can try that, though Iomedae is back to having vastly more life-force than a human person should and the Healers aren't sure if this will make that correspondingly harder, or if she's going to try to fight them about it. 

It does make it much harder, but not impossible, and her shields do crumble once they push her under.

Ma'ar will take her hand - physical contact helps, more with weak Mindspeakers but he wants every edge here. (And maybe once she's conscious again, she'll be tracking her surroundings enough to find it comforting?) 

- there. He's not getting anything off her, her surface mind is a still dark pool, but he thinks he has contact. 

They can try very slowly easing back on the Healing-pressure keeping her unconscious. 

Then eventually she's conscious.

- pain -

-  so much pain  -

- she tries to Lay on Hands, and it doesn't work -

- maybe she's in Hell -

And he can't even tell her otherwise, because he doesn't speak her language and Mindspeaking her will just cause her more pain and possibly cause actual damage, and he's not sure she would actually be capable of processing words at all, let alone remembering the not-being-in-Hell part for more than five seconds. 

He squeezes her hand, not that he expects her to notice, and tells the Healers they can ease off all the way, it - feels like an awful thing to do to her, she shouldn't have to be experiencing this, but he wants to try to check if she was actually saying anything more coherent before. Trying to talk to people nearby while in Hell doesn't make a lot of sense. And she may have information about what's happening here that they very badly need to know.