Gemma scowls at her. :Please don't. He's had a pretty rough day and he badly needs some rest, and I doubt explaining what you did to his mind is going to be a short conversation: 

She glances over her shoulder. :Also, Van should be in bed: 

:But I–: 

:No buts. You did your part, there's absolutely no reason to have four of us here all night: 

Melody sighs. 

:I don't feel comfortable leaving until I know how he's going to react. I...guess we can keep each other company in here: 

This gets a tired smile. :Just like old times, huh: 

Except for the part where Melody is pretty sure what she just did was a horrifyingly unethical abuse of her Mindhealing Gift. 

She's going to dwell on that later, though, once she knows what the actual impact was. 

:Van, go to bed. We've got this covered: 

And she settles herself more comfortably in the chair, and lets her Sight play over Janos' mind. 

He really doesn't look inclined to wake up! And relentless Healing-pressure to keep someone under is, indeed, not very good for them in the long run. Gemma lets up on it all the way, and just keeps up a steady current of projected calm. 

:Savil, if you could send in a trainee to bring us some tea?: 

And they wait. 

It's well into the night - and possibly after the point where someone would, in fact, consider it to be 'morning' - when Janos awakes with a pain in his chest, a strong desire for a bedpan, and a total - inability - to?

To -

He wants a bedpan because - (he knows he's thinking unclearly, he knows it, he leans on his strongest reinforcements) -

Because -

The expression on his face is rapidly turning from confusion to absolute anguish.

It's a few candlemarks after midnight, and Melody is starting to feel very very cranky about this assignment, but she's a professional, and there's no sign of irritation in her face or manner as she scoots her chair closer, putting herself in his line of sight, and takes his hand. 

:Hey, hey, it's all right, just try to stay calm. Can you tell me what you need right now? ...Or lower your shields a bit and let me read you, if that's easier: 

She can tell at a glance that his mind is - mostly not working at all, actually, nearly every pathway that lights up very quickly ends up touching on #7 and then looping on itself until the dampening causes it to die out. It's actually hard to tell what the effects will be from the compulsions Vanyel removed, because the effects of that block are so overwhelmingly dominant. 

:Bedpan:

And he should lower his shields because -

Because -

He should -

"I CAN'T THINK!"

(Unfortunately, he says that in the language of the Eastern Empire, which Melody does not speak.)

Fortunately Melody doesn't need to understand him or read his surface thoughts in order to figure out what problem he's having! It's really obvious! 

:I know. I'm sorry. Please just try to relax and - don't try too hard to have thoughts, it's going to be hard right now, but we can fix it soon, I just need you calm enough to listen to me and try to answer some questions: Pause. :We'll get you a bedpan first. And something for pain?: 

But he needs to try to have -

He needs -

Calm. He needs to be calm to -

Pain. (Focus on the object level.) :Less pain:

He can manage one more word, before his thoughts blur again:

:Treachery:

It's not even an angry tone, almost; just... despairing.

Melody isn't sure whether he's accusing her of treachery or...himself? 

It's really upsetting! Which she was expecting but still! 

"Gemma, he needs a bedpan and more poppy-syrup," she says out loud, and then turns back to Janos and squeezes his hand. 

:My name is Melody. I'm a Mindhealer. Last night, after you were asleep, I helped Herald Vanyel remove as many of the compulsions on you as we could manage safely. I'm really sorry, it would have been much better for you if we could have gotten your consent first, but Vanyel was afraid that some of the compulsions were protective against tampering with the rest, and also that you might have a suicide compulsion in there somewhere, and we couldn't risk stepping on one of those by accident, so we had to keep you asleep for it. Three of them - number six, seven, and eight in some kind of order, we're not sure what the ordering means - looked more load-bearing to your mind than the rest, so we left them in place and I've used Mindhealing to temporarily block them. I was intending to let you rest and wake up, and then have a conversation with you about whether to unblock them or remove them entirely. Unfortunately it's seeming like that might be hard: 

Pause. 

:Did that make sense?: 

He has some trouble following her speech without tripping over his own thoughts, but he can get the really important bit:

:UNBLOCK:

Everything else he can -

when -

he -

else -

:All right. I thought that would be best, but - I'm sorry, I really need you to try to tell me what the seventh one in particular is for. Or confirm what it's not for, at least. If I unblock it, are you going to be compelled to leave or try to harm yourself or us?: 

:No:

(He has no idea, actually, but - although he cannot think clearly enough to put this thought into words - this is not an environment in which he is guided by a desire to demonstrate his fidelity and reliability, it is an environment where he is guided by a desire to stop being mind controlled.)

:This will be quick: 

Melody reaches out separately to Gemma. :I could really really use your Projective Empathy right now, he's - kind of panicking: 

And she undoes the redirect-loop. It's indeed very quick; it's not a big piece of Mindhealing, it doesn't need to be, the point of contact is so specific.

She only unblocks #7, for now. Hopefully, that will be enough to get him lucid, so that they can actually have a conversation here, though honestly she's already expecting to also unblock and keep the other two. 

(Once he's able to pay any attention at all to finer details than 'can't think', Janos is likely to notice that the rest of his mind feels - gluey, a kind of mental exhaustion entirely distinct from the physical fatigue, and also just different and slightly unstable.) 

(Compulsion #2 is indeed gone, as are all of the ones related to not tampering with existing compulsions.) 

... All right. All right. Being angry does not serve the empire, being angry does not serve the em-

Getting trapped in redirect loops does not serve the empire. Being angry does not serve the empire. Getting out of control does not serve the empire. Seeking vengeance does not serve the empire. He is the sole representative of Imperial culture, dignity, and beliefs in this forsaken wasteland. (All of these are - easy habits, for his mind to fall into, when stressed; they're slower, muddier, harder to think through, but they can still be used to calm down.) His mind is exhausted, his head is tired, his chest has - had - a knife in it... all right. He can function.

He gingerly prods the compulsions in his mind, expecting the action to be forbidden, but #4 is missing. So's #3. So's #1. So's -

Oh yes #2 is missing he may need to forgive some of these people some of this. His future's looking much better.

(For instance, he might have one.)

He tries the minor compulsions, the one he can overrule if the Empire needs him to. #8 sends him into a spin - that's still present-and-blocked - but the rest are missing.

:I follow:

:Good. You're doing really well and I am so, so sorry about that. ...Are you able to tell me now what the ones still in place actually do? I'm comfortable unblocking the blocked ones if you don't anticipate that doing so will be unsafe for me or Gemma or the others in this building right now: 

She makes a soft irritable sound in the back of her throat. :If Herald Vanyel were here, he'd say 'if doing so won't harm Valdemar's interests', but honestly I would understand if you're not feeling very cooperative with the Heralds right now. I - agreed with Vanyel that we didn't have much of a choice, mages can do so much damage, but I am sorry: 

Discussing without invoking #6 feels like walking a tightrope, but at least he has a tightrope to walk.

:Serve the emperor. Serve the empire. Obey the law:

He fuzzes out partway through 'serve the emperor', but he manages to finish the word, before continuing.

:It won't be:

:Nothing unsafe:

He's going to consider just how they feel *later*, after his brain is starting to work again.

She unblocks the other two. 

:There you go. And we'll deal with the necessities before I ask you more questions: It'll give him a couple of minutes to gather his thoughts. Gemma is back now with a clean bedpan and more poppy-syrup; she pours out a dose and refills Janos' water cup, and the two of them help him sit up a little to drink, and then get him onto the bedpan. (Melody stays in the room, but politely turns her back while he uses it.) 

She doesn't need to be looking at him with her ordinary eyes in order to use her Mindhealing Sight, though, and she pays a lot of attention to the ripples downstream of the compulsions they removed, especially the first five. 

Janos takes care of the necessities, though he doesn't drink the poppy syrup; he's willing to do that once he's finished answering questions, but not until then, and he's going to spend the thought-time he has before Melody starts answering questions on his pain-suppression exercises, sternly telling his chest that it has no reason whatsoever to be reporting pain to his brain, and that, strange as it may seem, he has no pain at all.

The ripples are - present. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what is stress from the blocks, what is a shift from the removal of the compulsions, and what is just the fact that he's in a good deal of discomfort and trying to do something about it. The distortions from the first and second compulsions are starting to be smoothed out, but he hasn't started thinking about anything related to #3 through #5 yet, and most of the changes in his mental tapestry have been both quiet and slow.