They've left him alone in his cell.
He can't really be said to be lucid but he has very acute instincts for when there's someone and when he's alone - it's the last of his senses to depart him - and he's alone.
And then suddenly he isn't.
They've left him alone in his cell.
He can't really be said to be lucid but he has very acute instincts for when there's someone and when he's alone - it's the last of his senses to depart him - and he's alone.
And then suddenly he isn't.
Nod. I don't have a good idea of when I'll be ready to go to your world at all, but if I'm here all winter there'll probably be time for both.
Okay.
He starts singing softly in Quenya. His voice is in pretty bad shape; to his own ears he sounds awful.
Yes but singing though.
As soon as she has an idea of the tune, she starts singing along in harmony.
They can do that until he gets too hoarse to continue, which isn't too long.
Then - sugar water, please?
I should probably push myself to try soup or something. I don't want to, but I bet I'd be able to walk faster.
I don't mind you taking it at your own pace. Physical health isn't the only important thing here, probably not even the most important one.
Psychological health's a lost cause and 'functional' might happen by the time physical health does, I'm not really sure.
She makes a face - 'yeah, but'. There's gradations between 'completely back to normal' and 'just functional'. It's worth aiming for the better ones, if you can. Speaking from experience.
Her nod is only slightly dubious. It's at least a good idea to avoid doing more damage, though, if you can help it, which I'm trying to make sure is the case.
She makes no move to hug him, sends nothing about the actual sensation of being hugged, but sends just the comfort and companionship and sense of being-in-it-together that she'd get from one.
She finishes the blanket, and then goes out to work on the new spell. She comes back in after a few hours.
He's awake again. He doesn't acknowledge her. He's trying to get some badly broken and rehealed bones to fix themselves without him having to rebreak them.
She sits and waits for a little while. If he's still busy after twenty minutes, she heads down to the pantry and comes back after an hour.
And so she does. She's not trying to interpret his emotional state, but it's automatic enough to be pretty unavoidable regardless.