Disclaimer:  If any of you still think I'm Mercedes Lackey, I disclaim all responsibility for where you're headed in a few years.

Chapter twelve.  There is a slight overlap in time between the last chapter and this one, but it's in a different place, so you won't be bored.  Poor, long-suffering Treet is going to, well, suffer.

I can't exactly say any thankful words about the number of reviews, as I'm writing this before I've even posted chapter eleven, but I'm sure there will be many, right?  -Does a Fireblade and glares at readers- 

Tenshi: Yes, they finally got there.  I was beginning to wonder too, honestly.  Stuff just kept happening to them.  Lirain is exceedingly cool, I agree.

Breezefire: That chapter is actually a favorite of mine so far.  I'm glad you liked it, I wasn't sure if I timed all of that properly.  Also very glad you didn't find any errors as I spent an incredible amount of time proofreading.

Badgerwolf:  She's not so bad, really.  She's a Healer, after all.  She's just a little odd sometimes.

Crinzin:  Thanks.  Treet will be alright in the end.  Of course, this chapter will involve much evilness to poor abused Treet.

Fireblade:  Thanks!  I hope you like this one.  By the way, could you tell me, by any chance, where I could get the lyrics to Sun and Shadow, if they have been written.  Not Meetings, the long one.  I noticed you have a fic about the pair up and I really need the lyrics to the long one, so I thought I'd ask.

Wizard:  Well, it gets worse before it gets better.

Lurks in Shadows:  She's not so bad, really.  She just doesn't like it when people get in her way.

SilentStream: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing myself, actually.  Maybe while I'm away, I'll do some one-shots on Karissa or something.  Bruise it?  What do you mean?  Sorry, I'm not too good with FanFiction terms –grins- Until last month, I didn't know what a Mary Sue was.

Violet Rush:  Yay!  New reviewer!  Yeah, I try to edit well, if only because I hate reading badly edited work.  It just spoils it, no matter how good the writing is.  Thanks!  I'm glad you like my storyline and you're right.  Healers ARE badly underrepresented.

Anyway, just to let you guys know, after these next couple of chapters go up, you probably won't get another update for a month and a bit.  You'll get one more chapter after this one, maybe two and then the updates will either stop or get really, really slow.

I'm going to go and visit the other half of my family for three weeks, and then I have to go on a "vacation" with the first half of my family, which means basically no computer time, and all my files are here anyway, so that means no updates, but maybe a one-shot or two if the urge hits me.

Ok, enough of me ranting about lack of summer computer time.  Just enjoy what you get, because I'm warning you, we are entering few and far between update zone.  I'll try my best, but no promises.

Don't kill this chapter, please.  It's my baby, my most over planned and over edited chapter yet.  Flames will probably be cried over.

Anyway, on with the show and making Treet suffer!

Chapter 12: Interview

Treet looked around him at the office he had been left alone in.  Herald Karissa had coughed meaningfully at the Dean and given her what he called the Herald Karissa Death Glare.

They had whispered for a while, then gone out into the corridor to talk, leaving Treet alone in the Dean's office.

Treet's impression of the aforementioned office pretty much matched his impression of the door that led into it.

The office was certainly friendly looking, with large plush chairs arranged around the walls and a well-polished wooden floor.  Even the desk looked comfortingly ordinary.  It was piled high with huge stacks of papers and assorted books. 

Despite the color scheme of cool green, the room really appeared quite warm.  Treet almost liked it.  Almost.

On the other hand, in front of the desk was a hard looking wooden chair that Treet felt quite sure he was supposed to sit in.  He edged towards it, flinching as he heard Karissa shriek from outside.  He couldn't quite make out the words, but she was angry and upset about something.

He looked around furtively and ran the last few steps to the chair.  He then sat in it, staring down at his sturdy shoes and trying not to disturb anything.

Only a few minutes later the Dean spoke, snapping him out of his reverie.  He was sure she had been speaking for a few moments, but he only caught the tail end as she said compassionately but firmly, presumably to Herald Karissa, "Now, I must insist that you leave."

Karissa was leaving him?  He had come to rely on her presence.  Feeling her stalwart support beside him had given him no end of comfort on the long journey to Haven.  He had thought that she would always be there, although he knew that that had been a ridiculous thought. 

Even when they had spoken about parting, it hadn't seemed quite real to Treet.  Now it seemed all too real.  She was gone.  He could feel her fuming all the way down the corridor, but soon her mental signature faded to only a small point of distress some distance away.

Treet had no time to brood on that for long, though.  A moment later, Dean Ainna closed the door firmly, shaking her head. 

She turned to see Treet already sitting down, and she smiled at him again.  "Good, I see you're all settled in." 

She sat down at the desk across from Treet and folded her hands in her lap.  "So, why don't you tell me about yourself?"  She asked in a way that made it seem more a command than a suggestion.

"What should I say?"  Treet asked uncertainly.  Nobody who asked that question ever wanted the truth, only some distorted facet of it that they could interpret in a way that suited their purposes.

"Let's start with your name."  Ainna said patiently.

"Tretin Ninsson, but everyone calls me Treet."  Treet recited in a slight monotone.

"I see.  You are Holderkin, I have been told?"

"Yes.  I was born and raised in Ninsholding."  He couldn't quite bring himself to say it proudly.

"Yes?  And what was your life like there?"  Ainna asked.

To Treet's surprise, she actually sounded vaguely interested.  Nobody had ever been interested in him before.  He decided to test her interest in him by telling the truth.  If she thought he was one of the perfect Holderkin sons his Father had expected him to be, she would soon find herself mistaken.

"They didn't like me very much.  They liked to trip me and shove me around.  They tried to 'make a man of me,' and this Gift thing of mine didn't help."  Treet said honestly.

"Ah yes, your Gift.  Tell me about that, Tretin."  Ainna said, switching topics like a flash.

"It wasn't always there.  I mean, I've always been different.  I guess you could say I've been more sensitive than the other males my age.  They said I should have been born a girl.  Then, in the last few years, strange things started to happen.  I could feel other people's emotions, sort of like color clouds around them.  Even more strongly, I could feel pain and sickness.  I knew when people were hurt before anyone else in the Holding."

"Yes, that sounds like the Healer's Gift.  How old are you?"

"I'll be fifteen years old next moon."

"So this started when you were about twelve or thirteen years?"

"Almost exactly."  Treet said, unsure of where she was going with this.

The Dean turned briefly and made a short motion with something enclosed in her hand.  When she turned back to Treet, she could see that he had stood up in recoil and that he looked shocked.  She displayed her hand.  A short but deep cut in the center of her palm oozed blood.

"That hurt!"  Treet said reproachfully.

"Yes, it did.  Can you put it right?"  Ainna said, not wanting to give him any more direction than she needed to.  In her years as Dean, there had been a couple of Trainees who had known instinctively how to Heal, and it was always better to give them the chance before giving any sort of instruction.

"What do I do?"  Treet asked.  He had tried healing emotions before, but never wounds.

"Can you still feel the pain?"  The Dean asked patiently, seeing that she would have to be a bit more explicit with Treet.

"Yes."

"Now, use it like a beacon to find the cut and try to send your mind into it."  The Dean said in a soft voice.  "Feel where the cut is, where the skin has parted.  Now, try to bring it back together."

Treet fumbled around with his mind a little, trying to focus in on the Dean's palm.  Nerves made him awkward as he tried to sink his mind into the cut.  After two or three tries, he located it.  Remembering what he had done with Karissa, he sent his energy streaming into the cut, forcing the skin together and giving it the strength to accelerate the natural healing process.

Treet snapped back to awareness.  He swayed on his feet and dropped back into the chair.  When he looked up, he could see the Dean grinning at him with a pleased expression on her face.

"Yes, Tretin, without a doubt, you have the Gift of Healing."  She displayed her hand to him, palm up.  Only a slight pink streak showed that there had once been a gash there.

"Now, you're almost done, I promise.  We just have a couple more things to do before I introduce you to your mentor and let her show you around the Collegium."  The Dean said.  "We're just waiting for someone else to show up."

She began to quiz him on various topics, maths, writing, reading and other things.  He could barely keep up, being forced to remember things he hadn't even known he still knew.  By the time she professed herself done, Treet was slightly dazed, but pretty sure that he had done alright.

Only a few moments later, there came a knock on the door.  It was not as gentle as Treet's first knock and not as emphatic as Karissa's.  In fact, it was somewhere in between.

Ainna stood up to get the door, casting a look at Treet that was almost apologetic.

The door opened to reveal two people, both in the Greens of a Healer.  The one wearing full Greens was a tall, auburn-haired woman who looked exceedingly competent.  She smiled reassuringly at Treet.  "I'm Healer Rith.  Mindhealer, to be exact.  I'm just going to be having a little look at you.  This is my Trainee."  She motioned to the emerald-haired girl wearing the paler Greens of a Healer Trainee.

The girl walked over to Treet.  "I'm to be your mentor," she said.  "My name's Lirain."

Treet could barely take his eyes off of her hair.  He remembered what Karissa had said about her being slightly unconventional.  Slightly wasn't exactly the word Treet would have used to describe anything about Lirain.

When Treet finally looked down and met Lirain's slate gray eyes, he felt a shock travel through him like an electric charge.  He felt as though he was falling into the depths of her eyes, and he never wanted to leave.

When he finally registered her face, he could see that she too was captivated.  For the first time in her life, she was at a loss for words.

A few moments later, when Rith saw that the two were not going to separate unless she reminded them to, she coughed gently.

Called back to the present, Lirain leaned over to him and said "I also bear greetings from a certain Herald I think you may know."

"Karissa?  She left ages ago."  Treet said mournfully.  "I felt her leave."

"Well, yes, but she sent me to keep you company while Healer Rith checks you over.  It would seem that our oh-so-friendly Dean here kicked her out.  She didn't want you to be alone, was quite adamant about it, in fact, so she sent me in her place."  Lirain said lightly.

Lirain sat down in the corner of the room, leaning against one of the plush armchairs and wearing an expression that said that it would not be a good idea to try to force her to move.

With a despairing sigh at the audacity of her pupil, Healer Rith moved over to stand beside Treet, crouching so that she was at eye level with him. "Why don't you sit somewhere more comfortable?"  She suggested gently.  "Like in one of those nice armchairs.  That's what they're for, after all."

Instinctively, Treet looked to Lirain for guidance.  She was obviously much better acquainted with the customs of this place than Treet was.  She nodded at him encouragingly, so he stood up and sat down in the armchair that Lirain was leaning against.  It felt natural and infinitely comforting to be near her.

The Dean had backed away from the three of them and was sitting in her own chair, behind her desk.  She was not a Mindhealer, and, despite her encouraging words to Karissa, she knew when it was better to let the professionals take over.

Healer Rith also stood up and settled herself in an armchair next to Treet's, arranging her robes elegantly around her.  She lent towards Treet, speaking softly and reassuringly while projecting a calming aura with her mind.

"You know, the Collegium has got to be very careful about who they accept for training nowadays.  I mean, if we taught the wrong person, who knows what kind of horrible things would happen."  She said conversationally.

That made sense to Treet.  He wouldn't want his brother Keltav, for instance, knowing all about how he was put together and how best to take him apart.

"I can see that," he said cautiously.

"So, you see, whenever a Trainee comes into the Collegium we have the most senior Mindhealer around scan them.  Just quickly, of course.  You'd hardly even notice it, really.  Then, once we're sure that the Trainee in question is a decent person, we officially admit them to the Collegium."

"So, you want to do that to me?"  Treet asked, dreading the answer.

Rith met Treet's frightened green eyes with her unruffled brown ones, projecting a calming aura at him as she spoke.  "Yes, that's what I'm here to do.  I'm just going to ask you to take down your shields.  I'll take a quick peek in your mind, for impressions, you understand, I will avoid specific memories as much as I can, and then you can put everything back up again and you'll be free to leave."

The 'free to leave' part sounded good, but Treet wasn't so sure about the rest.  "Take my shields down?"  He asked.

"I know it's hard."  Rith said compassionately.  This job was a regular duty of hers, being that she was the only full Mindhealer stationed at the Collegium.

"But, I don't know how to take my shields down." Treet protested.

"You don't know how?"  Rith asked calmly, getting worried but refusing to show it.  "That's fine.  I'll show you how to do it."

"Well, I guess we could try."  Treet asked nervously.

"Alright, Tretin.  I'm going to try to link with you and show you how to get your shields down."  Rith closed her eyes and extended a cautious mental probe in Treet's direction.  All she could find was his shielding, smooth and solid, without a single crevice for her to anchor to.  He had obviously been unconsciously augmenting his shields for some time.  They were faulty and badly built, but in times of stress, such as now, they held firm.  Rith could break through them if she had to, of course, but that was a last resort.  She had no desire to inflict that sort of pain on anyone.

After several failed attempts, however, Rith had to admit that she couldn't link with Treet.  She was about to give up when Lirain said, more softly than she had ever spoken in her life, "Rith, let me try.  There's sympathy between us already, and I may be able to link with him better than you can."

"Alright, Lirain."  Rith reluctantly agreed.  Ordinarily, she wouldn't have dreamed of allowing a Trainee to participate in such a delicate procedure, but she was desperate and she, also, could feel the sympathy growing between the boy and her Trainee.

Lirain rested her elbows on the arm of the chair and met Treet's eyes.  Slowly, projecting calm, she tried to form a mental link, however tenuous, with Treet.  A few moments later, her efforts met with success. 

"I've got it."  She said quietly to Rith, not turning away from Treet.

"Excellent job!"  Rith praised, also quietly.  "Try to teach him to lower his shields.  You know how it's done."

Lirain tried as hard as she could.  She went into Treet's mind, mentally hand in hand with him.  She tried to show him how to take back the energy he had put out into his shielding, but it was to no avail.

Nearly a half Candlemark later, even Lirain had to admit defeat.

She shook her head sadly at Rith.  "He can't do it, Rith, his shields were built under great stress and fear, unconsciously as well.  There's no way he can take them down.  They are not even a part of his conscious mind, from what I can sense."

Rith winced internally, but refused to let any of her misgivings show on her face, although she was already tense at the thought of the ordeal ahead.  "Tretin, I'm going to have to go into your mind myself and take down your shielding myself."

Her efforts to hide the implications of that were to no avail.  Treet also had the Gift of Empathy, and he could feel that she was not telling him everything.

"Is this going to be hard for you to do?"  Treet asked hesitantly.

"Not hard for me to do, exactly, more hard for you to endure.  I can do it, but it will probably be painful.  Very painful, I'm afraid."  Rith said, knowing that Treet would sense it if she lied to him outright.  She took a deep breath, knowing what she had to do.

She met Treet's eyes again and cupped both of her hands over his cold, clammy ones.  "I'm not going to do anything yet, I promise.  I'm just going to take another quick look at your shielding.  You'll barely feel a thing, I promise."

Like a swimmer entering icy water, Rith slowly entered Treet's mind, but recoiled almost immediately at what she sensed there, physically drawing back at the depth of his terror.

"I can't do this with him this frightened," she said.  "Or, rather, I could, but it would probably cause lasting mental damage if I tried to plough through his shielding the way he is right now."

Treet was nearly in shock.  Physical pain, he could tolerate, had tolerated all of his life, but his mind was his retreat, the one place where the pain could not pass.  To have that security ripped away from him was more than he could bear. 

The feeling of the Healer touching his mind uninvited in such a personal way, however gently, had been the catalyst that had released all of his repressed terror.  The thought that there was worse to come filled Treet with a feeling like shards of ice slashing into him from his head to his toes, leaving him cold but in no way unfeeling.

As though from very far away he heard Lirain say "Let me try to calm him down.  I had better luck with him before, maybe I can make this easier on him."

Treet didn't think that anything could make him feel better, but he very much wanted Lirain to comfort him.

Lirain moved from her spot beside Treet's chair until she was kneeling on the floor in front of Treet.  She took his trembling hands in her own, projecting her best calming aura at him to soothe his terror.

"What's the matter, hmm?"  She asked him.  "Talk to me, Treet."

"I'm frightened."  He said shakily.  He had never admitted such a thing before in his life, but with Lirain, it seemed natural.

"I know you are.  I would be too.  In fact, I was."  Lirain said.

"You, frightened?  Never."  Treet said, unable to envision such a scenario.

"I was terrified.  I could take my own shields down, of course, but I was terrified all the same.  I believe you could have heard my teeth chattering all the way in Rethwellan."  Lirain admitted ruefully.

"Was it as bad as you thought?"

"Yes.  Every moment of it.  Of course, the worst part was that I was all alone.  All alone at the mercy of a complete stranger.  You won't be alone.  I'll be here."  Lirain assured him.

Somehow, this was exactly what Treet wanted to hear.  If he had to submit to a probing by someone he had never met, he would rather do it with Lirain beside him, even if he had only met her a quarter Candlemark ago.

"You'll stay here?"  Treet asked.

Lirain had a moment's sense of déjà vu.  She gave the same answer she had given the last time.  "Yes, I'll be right here with you."

"Alright."  Treet said, face pale as snow and hands still colder than ice, despite Lirain's warming touch.

Lirain nodded slightly to her teacher.  Rith bent forward as imperceptibly as she could, so as not to alarm Treet.

"Alright, Tretin.  Take a deep breath.  Don't stop breathing on me, now.  I promise, it'll all be over before you know it.  Breathe in."  She closed her eyes, bending forwards still more.

To Treet's eternal shame, a tear trickled down his face.  First one, then another.  He instantly did what would have been expected of him at the Hold.  He clamped down on his tears instantly and firmly, swallowing them down.

Lirain could see that he was getting himself into a state again, and she knew that the more times they had to stop, the worse it would be.  She strengthened her calming aura still more, meshing it with the one Rith had in place already.  She gently chafed Treet's hands in her own.

"It's alright to cry, you know.  I did.  All through the whole thing, all the way home and for nearly a Candlemark afterwards.  Rith was out on an assignment at the time and the other Mindhealer we had was very young.  She was so upset that she nearly cried herself, after it was done.  If nobody thought the less of me for that, they shan't begrudge you a few tears."  Lirain assured him, not positive that he would hear her words, but knowing he would catch the meaning.

The reassurance in Lirain's voice sent Treet completely over the edge, and tears of terror and helplessness cascaded down his cheeks in floods.  Unlike anyone else he had ever met, Lirain offered no reproach or chastisement, she only whispered words of comfort and clasped his hands tightly.

Rith steeled herself for the task ahead.  In her usual habit, she murmured things like "very good" and "you're doing fine" at appropriate intervals, but it was an unconscious response.  Her whole being was concentrated on doing what she had to do.

She formed her Gift into a wedge shaped mass of power.  Where she would usually wield it with great precision and care, the object this time was to get this over with as fast as she could.  She found the weakest point in Treet's admittedly sturdy shields and rammed it with power. 

After a moment of elasticity, the shields shattered like broken glass, falling in broken pieces through Treet's pain-wracked mind.

Treet was about as tense as he had ever been, every nerve on fire with anticipation, waiting for pain.  When it came, he nearly passed out with its intensity.  It felt as though every portion of his mind was shattering under an assault too heavy to bear.

Unconsciously, he squeezed Lirain's hands, holding onto them as though for dear life.  The tears raining down his face dampened her hair, but she didn't notice.

She soothed him as well as she could, but they were in rapport and she felt his pain almost as much as he did.  Their tears mingled as they supported each other.

Rith was wracked with pity and her awareness of Treet's pain.  With no shielding to speak of left, he was wide open, projecting everything he felt into her receptive mind. 

No matter how many times she did this job, she never grew to be able to tolerate it any better.  With as gentle a mental hand as she could manage, she riffled through Treet's mind.  True to her word, she avoided specific memories as much as she could, but she gained a sense of the kind of person he was.

Treet reeled again from this new assault.  He felt as though everything he was, his deepest secrets and flaws had been hung out in the open air for everyone to see and remark on.  He felt violated, sullied by the intimate touch.

His breathing was so shallow as to be barely noticeable, and every portion of his body was trembling like a leaf in the wind.

Lirain, too, was feeling the effects.  It was as bad as her own admission to the Collegium in some ways, and far worse in others.

Rith disentangled herself from Treet's mind as gently as she could, leaning back in her chair with fatigue.

The Dean also lay back in her chair, struggling to bring herself back to reality.  Her own shields were very strong, but the fear and pain had threatened to overwhelm her.  With all of the energy she could muster, she smiled at Treet.  "Bravely done, youngling.  Bravely done indeed."

Rith smiled as well.  "Yes, it certainly was.  You should be very proud of yourselves, both of you."

Treet barely registered the praise.  He smiled vacantly and tried to stand, eyes still watering with the pain.  He took a few steps and the world promptly spun around him and then proceeded to go black.

Lirain uttered a small cry as he collapsed, but she was too spent to move or go to him.

"It's only shock," Rith said calmly.  "It's probably best that he work through the experience this way.  We'll put him to bed and when he wakes up, someone can teach him the correct way to shield so that we never have to go through that again."

With a strength that few would have suspected her of having, Rith lifted Treet up and began to move towards the door.  "I'll put him in one of our empty rooms in the House of Healing.  Lirain, you had better go to your own bed.  No more lessons for you for the rest of the day."  Rith declared.

"I'm not leaving him."  Lirain said in a tired but firm voice.  "He needs me.  I remember the nightmares I woke up with the first few nights after I was admitted to the Collegium.  Bright Havens, I can only imagine what he'll wake up with.  I can comfort him better than anyone else, so I'm staying with him."

Dean Ainna made a noise as if to protest, but Rith knew better.  "Certainly you may stay with him, Lirain.  I shall set up a cot for you in his room."

The three of them left the Dean to enter Treet in the Collegium Rolls and went off to find a bed for Treet and Lirain.

The cot, of course, was unnecessary.  Not a quarter of a Candlemark after Rith left, she came back to check on them and found Lirain curled up against Treet, head pillowed on his shoulder.

Rith smiled and left them.  They both deserved any comfort they could get, however it happened to come to them.