"Not permanently, but connecting up the rest of your flagged injuries might help? Shall I do the next one?"

"I don't want to waste your time. Or your ability to do telepathy."

His mind has tentatively settled in a very different state than before.

"If it's any consolation this is actually much better clinical experience than anyone would let me do under normal conditions while I'm this undertrained."

"I can be your scrap leather to practice your stitching on."

"I would not choose to put it that way but, yeah."

"Go on, then."

Nod. Connect up and - pin in place.

"...Maybe... not... that."

"- okay, it's not permanent, I can undo it -" Unpin. Re-flag. "Can you tell me what it did?"

"I think you found the... part of me that listens for... where he is, whether he's thinking about me. It just got... kaleidoscopic. I don't think there's any point in touching it, it's broken but it's supposed to be broken. I think."

"Okay. Do you need a minute or should I do the next one?"

"You can do the next one."

Next one.

The next one is better.

He keeps coming up with kind of distracting conversation topics - what's the weather like where Bella is from? What kinds of structures do people live in?

As more of the puzzle pieces come together, it might eventually become apparent that, on top of being psychically wounded and in an immiserating situation, Verlan is just kind of melancholy as a person. Not in a way that would really need subtle artist attention under normal circumstances - his mood isn't innately unresponsive to circumstances and he's not incapable of being happy when things go well - but it's there and it's not helping.

She can show him mental images of the weather - it's a temperate climate, a little swampy in the low-lying areas, she lives in this dorm, her parents' houses look like so.

There is nothing long-term she can do about a melancholy temperament, but she can safety-pin things together, one at a time, as he's ready for them.

He thinks her parents' houses are amazing, particularly her father's. There's nothing like her father's house in all Pern. They don't have the forests for that.

"Huh, not enough trees?"

"It's green space that doesn't produce food. Anywhere that's not kept barren needs to be protected from Thread. That's... rain that eats plants and animals, all of them."

"That sounds bad, yeah. There's lots of forests on my planet, though they're pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, I think most of the trees people build houses of are farmed these days."

"...I wish I could farm trees. Or - never mind, you know that already." He sighs. "I... think I could be fine if not for my whole existence being utterly meaningless. You've helped a lot."

"I'm trying. I hope that your - people - back home will be able to help you find something to do with yourself."

"...You probably don't want to, with me as your best example, but I suspect you could Impress a dragon."

"I wouldn't want to do that even if I'd only ever seen it working out swimmingly!"

"Huh. Why not?"

"...I understand it's necessary to make protecting your planet work but it seems completely unappealing as a lifestyle? I don't want to share my head."