And Leareth now -? 

The core is the same. So, at a glance, it's not clear why the outside is suddenly so unstable? The most alarming part is that it's still changing, right in front of her - as though some foundation that she can't see directly was abruptly moved, and now everything is unbalanced, and only halfway through finding its way to a new resting state... 

The core is the same, but the surface crust of his mind is - collapsing, shattering, fragmenting and falling and setting off new cascades - and she has to look deeper to even start to see why. 

- huh. The messier middle layers of his mind are - spreading, connections forming and strengthening, destabilizing other parts - but at a purely local level, they're - somehow clearer, simpler? 

Leareth's mind has always been one that propagates patterns further, more deeply, than most people. And Nayoki can see the nudged-aside patterns lighting up, sending out ripples, still ultimately tied to the center of him, but tearing apart other structures, even the ones braided in at a deep long-established level...

Leareth tries to think. 

A superficial, obviously-wrong but maybe still useful gloss is that he cares about people more? (Relative to what? relative to things that aren't people - abstract principles? That doesn't feel like it captures it.) 

Another probably-wrong simplification is that he cares about the short-term more and the long-term less?

...It feels true that the Leareth of the past was missing something important, that he was underweighting some key component of what it even means to fight for the flourishing of all sentient beings now and forever? 

Well. Maybe he was. It wouldn't be the first time that he only saw the obvious in hindsight. This is....kind of the story of his entire life, actually.

The process for dealing with having been wrong about a fundamental basis of reasoning and prioritization is actually not dissimilar to updating on a mistake about something factual and concrete. And the first step is to understand what went wrong.

Possibly the thing that went wrong is just that he's being mind-controlled (- flinch -) but - it's also normal to flinch from admitting to a real mistake.

So his usual process for doing a post-mortem on his mistakes should...still...apply....?  

To Nayoki's Sight, a not-quite-visible source of frantic desperate tension in Leareth's mind is suddenly released, a little. The connections to his core are a little stronger, relative to the random noise.

(Senjas is going to keep reading their visitor's mind, while intermittently poking one of the other mages to check if Nayoki is available yet.) 

Emril interrupts Sandor a few minutes later. 

:You're definitely not sick with anything, which means you're not going to be very contagious for whatever you're carrying. You seem to be carrying the same general amount of tiny-life-forces that people here do, and they're maybe a little different to my Sight but I can't actually get more than that? ....Anyway, my thought is that we can protect you by having a Healer check you regularly, and only having you work with people in person if it's really necessary. And we can minimize the risk of you getting any of us sick if I burn out whatever's growing on your skin, and in your nose and throat and, er, your rectum. - Is that all right?: 

He mostly thinks incomprehensible thoughts and adjusts probability weights, at various points referencing incomprehensible thoughts about machines that can do math very quickly and laborers made of solid steel and flying machines, until he's contacted again, when -

:That seems reasonable. I expect my own staff can do more thorough checks once we are back in contact with them: He is thinking that Prudence will love this place, once she gets over the potentially increased risk of horrible death; he expects he can convince her that she can grant herself all the Gifts she wants, which will therefore be true, and probably pass them on to others, too.

( Senjas, still listening in, is SO INTRIGUED by the brief flickering thought about "machines that can do math very quickly". He doesn't understand it but he thinks his wife could make more sense of it? Certainly Leareth could. Though apparently their main problem is that Leareth is incapacitated right now. Anyway, he notes down everything he can.) 

:Good idea: Emril says, and then, :this might tingle but it shouldn't hurt, please tell me if it hurts:

(It doesn't hurt. 'Tingling' isn't exactly the right description, it feels very odd and at some points like it should hurt and yet somehow doesn't.) 

:It does not hurt. Thank you.: Bring in Prudence, bring in Steelstorm... bring in everyone, really, they can manage even if it's an arctic environment, this program really does just seem to render the war plan unnecessary...

Except, of course, for the one little hitch. He'll want to ask more about how the gods function, once he has the chance again.

(Senjas continues to be impressed and curious, and is definitely noting down 'Prudence' - who can apparently maybe give herself Gifts??? - and 'Steelstorm' whoever that is...) 

Emril is about halfway through her work when she hears from one of the other Healers that Nayoki is out of ideas, but thinks Leareth is stable enough that it's fine to have their visitor from another world come meet with him. She doesn't say anything, just keeps going. 

Leareth very badly wants paper to take notes on. And, ideally, to be in his own private shielded room where no one is going to watch him take notes.

He's aware that Nayoki has a point about how he's probably compromised in some way, and more to the point he doesn't expect that his argument for why he needs privacy anyway will convince her, so he doesn't say anything, and keeps trying to think. 

:- I'm done: Emril sends, finally. :We'd like you to be pretty careful for the next while about cleaning your hands after using the privy, but I'm not that worried. Anyway. I think Nayoki wants to talk to you again, if you're up for that?: 

:Of course: he says. :Lead the way:

Emril will lead the way! 

Nayoki is currently in the process of relocating Leareth to somewhere else which is not the most secure and hidden Work Room in this facility, since it seems like a good idea to keep that in reserve. ...Probably. She is kind of distracted right now, and mostly making decisions on instinct, and by checking against her expectation of what normal-Leareth would point out was insufficiently paranoid. 

So Emril will guide Sandor to a comfortably appointed conference room, where Leareth is already sitting, looking only mildly distressed. 

Oh, good, he's in range and Nayoki can point all of her Sight at him again!

...What's he thinking right now? How does his mind look? 

The precise configuration of the outer confectionary has shifted, with the color scheme and frosting composition slightly altered and details of the cake-crenellations different, but everything below that level is essentially the same. He's presently thinking about how to make a good impression, which mostly involves analyzing Leareth and Nayoki a lot.

He'll nod, as he comes in.

... And then he'll start calculating really, really, bizarrely fast. It's difficult to read his mind just because of the speed of the information flow, everything's subverbal, but in a moment the thoughts can be followed - 

Leareth has just had a critical shock, then got over it surprisingly fast, but is still updating -

He is extremely controlled under normal circumstances, and this is an unusual failure - 

Nayoki is extremely grateful to Leareth, extremely loyal, extremely worried - 

Leareth is the sort-of-person-who-collaborates and can be trusted to make and keep deals except that he is currently under immense shock and many facts about him are rapidly shifting -

Nayoki is afraid because of her fear that Leareth has been damaged -

Leareth does not think he has been damaged, just that he has had a realization that made him desire to alter his plans -

Nayoki is the sort-of-person-who-distrusts-authority-figures except Leareth -

Leareth is an immortal - 

He is having constant emotional updates; about five percent of them are positive -

And more, and more, and more, information flooding in from minor details of how everyone moves or doesn't move or tenses their muscles or controls their expression or - 

:Leareth. Is there anything I can do to assist?:

(To anyone reading his mind, his fundamental intention is to say a greeting that is helpful and inclined to make his hosts feel positively towards him without being deceptive.)

Conveniently, the new conference room locale doesn't have such thorough shielding, which means that about eight Thoughtsensers are currently listening in from a distance and noting down whatever they can catch!

...It's pretty confusing and overwhelming. They're doing their best, though. 

(Nayoki is mostly only watching with Mindhealing-Sight, holding her Thoughtsensing just open enough to pick up deliberately projected surface thoughts; it's less distracting, and probably not something their visitor is already tracking - she's picked up by now that he makes inferences from tiny observations on a level that far exceeds what even Leareth at his best can pull off...) 

...Leareth wasn't actually holding his Thoughtsensing open, and Sandor doesn't have projective Mindspeech. 

(Well, Nayoki can relay, then.) 

Leareth lifts his head. 

:...I am not sure. I suspect I am still under the ongoing influence of a mind-affecting artifact from your world, but my sense is that your magic is very idiosyncratic, so I - do not actually expect you to have advice or solutions: 

(His mindvoice is very level, directionally-shielded enough not to leak any overtones at all, and his visible body language is controlled and neutral, but it may still be apparent to sufficiently superpowered perceptions that he is in agonizing emotional pain, and mostly sort of in control of it, but just barely.) 

... Well. Leareth is impressive.

:I do not, though others in my world might know of some idiosyncrasy that counters this idiosyncrasy, or of means to track down more information about how it was created: He is on friendly terms with an immortal, back home, even if she is fairly young as immortals go.