Regression (Teldryn)

 A frightened scream wakes me from my half asleep state, sitting in one of the chairs by Neloth’s little library area of his lab. Taking a glance across the room I see it wasn’t Talvas who let out the noise, he’s sound asleep in his bedroll, and Neloth is not around at the moment. Another sound, more of a whimper this time, turns my gaze back toward what is in front of me.

Tangled among makeshift sheets on an old bedroll laid out on the carpet sits a little blonde Breton thrashing at the fabric like her life depends on it, a Breton who at first might not look like much- but looks can be deceiving, a Breton with startling blue eyes and a rather pretty face, often modestly dressed, but with a wit to match the most scandalous of people…

…A Breton by the name of Anna Lenox.

Must have fallen asleep on my watch after she fell asleep herself, with nobody else around at the moment, somebody has got to watch the mages so they don’t burn the place down, or worse. Anna sits in front of me, no more than perhaps six or seven feet away, and having noticed my stirring stops thrashing and instead stares at me, eyes brimming with tears, and makes another whimpering noise, barely audible.

With a sigh I get up from my spot, placing the dagger stashed in my boot on the table so I can kneel down easier, so the two of us are at eye level. “Bad dream?” Though by the power of educated guesses I believe I know the answer, wiping a tear away from her cheek I ask anyways, running through things in much the same way I do when Talvas has a bad dream, though in this case things are left to a strictly platonic level. At the question Anna nods in reply, but otherwise says nothing. “You want to tell me about it?” Anna bursts into tears, almost hyperventilating and goes back to thrashing at the sheets…I’ll take that as a no, then.

Time to pull out the usual arsenal of tools then. After being able to isolate one of her hands I give it a firm, but gentle, squeeze in order to provide some sense of grounding. While still very upset, it calms her a bit, to the point where I’m able to draw her into a tight hug. Poor thing practically cries her heart out, almost like Talvas on a particularly bad day. Having cried as much as possible and nearly vomited as a result I’m able to grab a nearby clean rag and gently clean her face up, getting rid of the tears on her face and the drool that can’t help but happen when you cry that hard. “Feel better now?” All I get are noises and nods, no words. Somewhat untangling herself from the sheets Anna crawls toward me and gives me a hug after I’d let her go not too long ago, as well as bonking her head against my shoulder, something I’ve seen her do before, it seems to be a combination of a sign of affection and a stimming behavior, but never have I had it done to me. I take it as a compliment. Talvas sleeps like a rock, as I’d expect him to with how hard Neloth works him, oblivious to the whole ordeal.

After a couple of minutes Anna lets go, sitting back on the bedroll and looks at me, before looking around, picking something up, and giving it to me. It’s a stuffed rabbit, grey, with some signs of wear, but overall it’s in good condition. “Is this yours?” I ask, taking the bunny. A happier noise comes out in response as if to nonverbally proudly say “Yes, it is mine! And I like it very much!!” She claps her hands as well, another behavior I’ve seen before. “It’s very cute, does it have a name?” Anna shakes her head, it seems that the stuffed bunny is simply named bunny and that is that. She watches my movements very carefully  as I hold the bunny, seeming almost as if she is ready to jump in and grab it should I mishandle it at all. “Bop.” I make as a sound effect, touching the bunny’s triangle nose to her own, which seems to make her happy.

The happiness unfortunately doesn’t last particularly long before it gives way to another wave of being upset, and now seemingly adding a bit of sleep deprived crankiness into the mix. There isn’t quite as much thrashing and outward upset but she squirms and cries and whines all the same.

 Having gotten up as I needed to stretch my legs and get some air in a brief moment of calm, as the lab can get stuffy when you aren’t used to it, I come back to a fussy and nearly inconsolable little mage. Passing by Talvas, who still sleeps peacefully, I debate waking him up for a bit of help, the two of them seem similar enough in personality, but decide against it. Talvas earned this rest, he deserves it, and if I can deal with my 18 month year old niece Xu when she’s cranky and can’t sleep, then I can deal with a 25 year old with a developmental disability and insomnia. Quickly I do the math in my head, give or take a few months Anna would be around 444 months, it sounds odd with such a high number. Pulling the sheet off to the side I pick her up easily, “Come here you, it’s alright. You’re okay.” I whisper as I pick her up and hold her briefly before finding a spot to sit down. She’s light especially for someone her height-Talvas is almost my size, as is Anna, due to Bretons and Dunmer having about the same average height of 5 feet 4 inches, though Talvas and Anna have different body compositions thanks to their respective races and assigned sexes, Anna being almost feather-like. “You wanna read a book?” I ask blindly feeling around the nearby table until I grab one, luckily it’s a simple story meant for any age and anybody, and not a textbook on how to brew complicated potions or perform heart surgery.

Having gone through about three books in the span of two hours Anna eventually falls back to sleep, though I don’t want to move her out of fear of waking her accidentally. As a result, I sit there trying to find a comfortable way to do things and put a rag over my shoulder so she doesn’t drool on my clothes. Who knew the habits you pick up when you have a niece who’s a toddler could transfer so well to others? Thinking about the topic, I realize Anna never did tell me what her nightmare was about, in fact, I don’t think I’ve heard her say a single word since before she went to sleep, only noises and crying. Mentally I make a note to ask Yuuri about the topic, and Farkas as well, the two are currently in Raven Rock doing a bit of work investigating the mine and such, they’ll be back in the next day or so. For now it’s me, the two magic forces of cuteness and chaos, the cook, the steward, and the mycologist at Tel Mithryn.

For the most part Anna sleeps without trouble for the rest of the night, though I’ve learned she has a bad habit of sticking the knuckle of her thumb in her mouth and lightly biting it, as well as the fact she sometimes drools or kicks or squirms around in her sleep. At one point during the night I grab the blanket and her stuffed bunny, both of which seem to calm her. It’s understandable from a psychological perspective why it would help, and why she would react that way, after all she does have a developmental disability, and those can manifest in many different ways, and even vary by the day and the triggers in the environment like new people or places.

Anna wakes up mildly grumpy but overall is less distressed than the previous night, breakfast helps as well. Though I notice another peculiar thing, she seems to be having difficulty with using her hands, as the way she holds the spoon is awkward and at one point she gives up before finishing the bowl of oatmeal with some coaxing. Talvas and I have a kind of rice porridge, as we’re used to it for breakfast instead. When I get a minute I write down a list of things to discuss with Yuuri, my background is in the criminal part of psychology, while Yuuri focuses on the neuro-developmental side of things. If I remember correctly, I do think he mentioned Anna has an atypical form of Rett syndrome, which would explain the hopefully temporary regression. Until I can discuss it further I keep a careful eye on her while allowing her to be as independent as she wants to be.

…As it would turn out, she would much rather sit on the carpet with her bunny and her blanket looking at books all day in between bouts of wanting to be picked up or held. In between looking at books or keeping herself entertained, she seems to sleep a lot, or at the very least lays down and rests, if not falling entirely asleep. Talvas rifles through the bookshelves pulling out a stack of things that would be suitable, there isn’t much unfortunately, after all this is Neloths tower and not Fyr’s, but he finds some things to keep her from being entirely bored. For the most part, Talvas does his own thing, really only needing me occasionally to hold something or grab an ingredient to substitute the ones that are out of stock, hence part of the reason Farkas and Yuuri went to Raven Rock.

In the afternoon the three of us take a break for lunch by order of the cook. Today on the menu is glass noodles in a broth with vegetables, pretty standard fare around here. Talvas had helped with the preparation, and made a small amount of rice in case Anna was unable to eat it. Luckily, she was, for the most part. The rice was dropped off with the Mycologist then, as she rarely has time to eat. Having finished lunch it’s back to work for Talvas, after all he needs to finish repairing the staff that somehow was broken before Neloth returns from his trip to the mainland with Valan in a few days.

While he continues to work on that I sit with Anna over in the little makeshift library corner of the lab. Aside from the very rudimentary sleeping quarters on the opposite side of the lab, this is the only part that is ever so slightly more homey than the rest of it. “Which book was your favorite?” I ask her as I look through the selection she’d already gone through, Anna makes a happy noise and points to one. Happy noises are better than crying, but the lack of verbal expression is mildly concerning. “Can you tell me about it?” I ask, hoping to get some form of explanation of the plot for a response. Of course I already know the general plot, but this is more of an experiment than anything else. “First era.” Is the response I get, it’s words, I’ll take it! “And what about the first era?” I question, looking at the cover “Last year of it.” Anna responds. “That’s right! A lot went on during that year didn’t it?” In response I get a nod and a facial expression that says “oh yes there certainly was a lot that went on” and having overheard the conversation Talvas interjects “Is that the 2920 series? We have the rest somewhere.” without looking up from his work. Of course they have the rest of the series, Tel Mithryn is inhabited by two nerdy wizards, a mycologist, a cook, and a steward…it is a good series, though.

As the sun is beginning to set the duo finally arrive with the much needed supplies, and it’s a good thing they arrived when they did as an ash storm seems to be beginning to brew. “We got what you needed Talvas!” Yuuri yells up to him as he enters the door and takes off his coat before coming up to the lab with Farkas following after. “Thank you!” Talvas yells down in a reply before taking the bag from Yuuri once he’s entered the lab. The two of them go to examine what Talvas has been working on while Farkas looks around for a moment as if wondering where he should go now, before focusing on Anna and I as we sit on the carpet, and as if realizing something is amiss tilts his head curiously for a second and looks at her before coming over and sitting down. “And they all lived happily ever after the end.” I finish, closing the book of traditional fairy tales for the moment as Farkas joins us, which results in Anna letting go of her bunny and instead giving him a tight hug. The hug is reciprocated much to her delight and when she lets go she picks up the bunny again, now offering it to him to hold instead.

“You want to read another story?” I ask, opening the book again and get clapping in reply from Anna who had now decided that sitting up wasn’t really doing it for her and instead flopped down onto her back. “Alright, now we have the legend of the white snake.” Upon realizing that very likely the two are unfamiliar I clarify “Don’t worry, this story has a happy ending, like the last one.” And begin to read, finishing the tale around the time we’re called for dinner. Since there are more of us now, dinner is served in the more traditional sense of rice, soup, and three dishes all divided into smaller portions. As expected, Anna has trouble using chopsticks, luckily the dishes and silverware are clean.

A few hours after dinner Anna begins to get tired again, though it’s still relatively early in the scheme of things, and goes to take a shower. “Yuuri, get over here.” I whisper once she’s gone, and he comes over to me “We have a possible problem.” Yuuri looks at me with an unphased expression “You mean the regression?” He asks, completely deadpan. “I was wondering when that was going to be brought up…” I hear Farkas murmur as he sits not far from me. “Started yesterday night, woke up screaming and crying from a nightmare, practically inconsolable, eventually calmed down and pulled out her stuffed bunny to play with, eventually started crying again, and fell asleep two hours later hugging her bunny while refusing to move from her spot sitting on my lap. Didn’t hear a single word from her the whole day until this afternoon when I got a couple of words and an almost complete sentence.” I pause, mostly to catch my breath. “Does that happen often?” I ask, not sure exactly who the question is directed toward. “The nonverbal part? …No, the taking a while to go back to sleep after waking up screaming? Sometimes, but usually it doesn’t take that long.” Farkas answers, that’s good information to know, at least something is out of the ordinary.

 “You said she’s got an atypical form of Rett syndrome right Yuuri?” And he nods before going to rifle through his bag “Yes I did, and that sounds like an example of good old temporary regression, possibly ptsd induced if that’s what the nightmare was about, but who knows.” He pulls out some papers “Generally there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it, as it kinda comes and goes depending on the situation. But it’s good to have on the radar because that means you have my full attention and- since you seem to have gone through a lot of books and that must get boring-“ he pauses and goes back into his bag, pulling out a small container “my arsenal of things to keep developmentally delayed people engaged when I don’t have my full resources at my disposal.” Perks of having a neuro developmental psych as a friend, this. “You may now go back to your duties of making sure the resident Telvanni mage over there doesn’t cause an explosion now.” Yuuri adds with a smirk upon getting an “I heard that you know!” from Talvas who sits across the room looking through a textbook. “And speaking of Telvanni mages, I might put in a quick notice to Fyr. He could possibly be of assistance.” That would be understandable, Divayth Fyr does after all have four daughters with varying degrees of mental illness or neurodivergence, and Ayron, his unofficial adopted fifth child. While playing with Anna is fun to a degree, I’m happy the two who have more experience with the situation are taking over.

Sneaking up behind Talvas I pat him on the head, startling him slightly and pull up a chair “So what’s my favorite mage reading about tonight?” Talvas gives me a look “Soul gems and staff building. Or at least attempting to read about them.” I look at one of the figures on the page, it looks rather interesting, if very complex. Looks like it would be an absolute nuisance to build. “Sounds boring.” I say, leaning back and get a kick under the desk “Did I ask what you thought? No. And if you’re going to be annoying I can always send you to go do more errands.” Ah Talvas, you little shit, this is why we get along. No ill intent in any of our words, simply just the fact that we like to mess with each other. “Incorrect, gotta make sure you don’t become a pyromaniac, therefore, you’re stuck with me.” Talvas sighs and reaches under the table, pulling out a bottle and a glass, pouring some liquid into it, before putting the bottle back under the table. “At least I hopefully won’t be sober for it then.” I look at the bottle, glance under the table, and look at Talvas “You're not gonna offer me any?” I ask with a fake dejected tone, Talvas takes a sip “Nope.” He says matter of factly. Fine…guess I’ll just suffer.

On the other side of the lab Yuuri sits opposite Anna while they play with some toys until she becomes sleepy enough that it’s about time for bed for her and curls up in the makeshift bed from the night before while Farkas and Yuuri talk quietly as she sleeps. Talvas continues to read while I sit next to him, getting ever so slightly bored with the near silence that’s happened until that silence is broken again by a once again crying Anna. Yuuri, after attempting to comfort her briefly, stands up and conjures a portal of sorts. A portal that a somewhat tired but not overly unhappy looking old mage steps through. “Ah, Yuuri, I got your message. Need some help now?” Talvas looks up at the familiar gravely voice “Hi Fyr.” He says briefly, to which Fyr waves hello, before Talvas returns to his work. Yuuri, in the meantime, explains the situation. “Now who do we have here?” Fyr asks, sitting down so he is more or less at eye level with Anna, who shrinks away from him and closer to Farkas. “This is our friend Anna, she’s a bit…different, you could say. The past few nights she’s been waking up from nightmares and entered a state of temporary regression.” I summarize, walking over to the others. The older mage taps his fingers together, thinking things over and humming to himself. “Come with me, we can sort things out at Tel Fyr, and it will at the very least be more comfortable than this abomination Neloth calls a living space. Talvas, you can come if you want, I’ll make sure Neloth doesn’t get mad at you, but also I get Beyte freaks you out- and that’s entirely understandable…she’s weird, even if she means well.” Fyr stands up again, clapping his hands together and murmuring something to himself, with the rest of us following, even Talvas, who decided it would be better to come along and possibly get help from Alfe regarding the staff than stay here struggling. Gathering our things we step through the portal one by one, leaving Tel Mithryn and appearing in the main entryway of Tel Fyr, the home and tower of Fyr and his family, with the exception of Ayron, the youngest and former apprentice of Fyr’s, who now has his own tower just outside the town of Vos.

“For those of you who haven’t been here before, welcome to Tel Fyr, my home. If you see four identical girls lurking around those are my daughters. Wavy haired quiet one is Alfe, ponytailed talkative one is Beyte. Take anything she says and especially anything about relationships with a large grain of salt she has delusional personality disorder. The somewhat edgy one with a bun is Delte she acts as the steward, and the one with long hair worn down is Uupse though she’s usually in the basement. Lab is upstairs, the Sanitorium is in the basement, this is the main floor. I think that’s everything” with the lecture finished we go upstairs, some of us with a little help from Fyr as levitation magic was banned around the end of the third era. Anna finds a chair to sit in and curl into a ball almost immediately as if trying to hide. “Does this happen very often?” I hear Fyr ask Farkas, who shakes his head “Occasionally she’ll wake up from a bad dream but will go back to bed pretty easily after a few minutes.” He replies. Fyr makes a noise and looks around, before stopping and just watching Anna for a second. She ignores him, like the rest of us, instead having her head ducked between her knees. Fyr slowly walks over to her and crouches down so he is once again at eye level with her and very lightly taps her to get her attention. Her face just barely peeks out from its spot, large eyes looking at him. “Hello Anna, my name is Divayth Fyr, but you can just call me Fyr, I get my first name can be hard to say. You seem upset, can you tell me why?” Remarkably, Anna responds, though the rest of us are out of earshot. The two of them have a conversation that lasts nearly fifteen minutes, until he convinces her to stand up and she goes and gives Farkas a hug. One that is reciprocated without a second thought. Eventually ending the hug, and seemingly feeling better, Anna rubs at her eyes- a signal she is once again tired. “There’s a room down the hall, follow me, I’ll show you.” Fyr waves his hand, turning around and Anna follows, pulling Farkas lightly by the hand. Having shown them to the room, Fyr says goodnight and closes the door, coming back to Yuuri, a mostly asleep Talvas sitting in a chair, and me. “You were right to call me. The rest of you would have been there for hours.” He sighs with a smile, looking at Talvas now “Aiya, Neloth works him too hard. He needs a rest. I try to tell him ‘Neloth you need to treat your apprentices better’ but does he? Ah, no.” Fyr lightly nudges Talvas in the foot “Ài, Talvas, you should sleep, staying up this late with no rest isn’t good for you. Who knows you may end up like me.” Talvas in response mumbles something so Fyr turns to me “The two of you can stay in the room at the other end of the hall, all the way down on the right.” He says “Hey, you, come on it’s bedtime.” Fyr taps Talvas each time to punctuate a word or series of words. Still, Talvas does not move, so, I instead pick him up and carry him away, leaving Fyr and Yuuri to discuss whatever they will before both going to bed respectively.

Luckily there are changes of clean clothes in the drawers, nobody wants to sleep in armor. It’s quite uncomfortable and I do not recommend it in the slightest. Having changed Talvas and I both fall asleep quickly.

I’m woken up by flailing and confused muttering and open my eyes to find Talvas clutching at me, and off to the side of the bed stands none other than Beyte, one of Fyr’s daughters. “Hello!” She says cheerfully while Talvas looks between me and her, seemingly very confused and rather uncomfortable. “Breakfast is ready if you want it.” She says before exiting the room, almost skipping down the hall. Beyte is…interesting, very good cook, and like the rest of her family a gifted Spellsword, but most of the time I think there is not a single thought in her head. Not. One. “I’m not hungry.” Talvas says abruptly after a few minutes of silence. After an initial awkward encounter with her poor Talvas hasn’t been thrilled with the thought of her ever since. I don’t blame him, she does say some really very strange things. To the point that whenever Fyr has visitors he has to give a disclaimer of sorts.

Despite the refusal of breakfast Talvas does get up and come downstairs to the main floor. Delte I see out of the corner of my eye taking inventory of some things while Beyte goes between cleaning up the kitchen and attempting to make conversation with Anna…her attempts are unsuccessful. Yuuri is not awake yet as far as I can tell, Fyr was busy in a part of his study that we passed on our way downstairs, and Farkas talks to Talvas if only to keep Beyte from talking to either of them. While finishing breakfast I’m tapped on the shoulder from behind “Whos the girl?” Turning around I see Alfe, who is looking across the room at Anna, now all we’re missing is Uupse who will likely not make an appearance, and Ayron to show up from Tel Vos and then all five Fyr children will be accounted for. “A friend of ours, she suddenly went practically mute. Fyr decided to help Yuuri.” Alfe hums, satisfied with the answer, mumbles an “Interesting.” and leaves, heading in the direction of the basement to assist with the sanitorium most likely.

At the end of breakfast Yuuri appears, though visibly still exhausted. “I think Fyr and I figured it out. We were up far too late into the night and early morning, but I think we did it.” Those of us paying attention perk up, curious. “Teldryn, you mentioned this started with nightmares, Farkas and Talvas you both confirmed that. Additionally, since adding in people or objects that are known to be familiar and comforting she’s improved a bit over time. So…Fyr and I have the hypothesis that I’ve seen before in a few cases and that is if you treat the nightmares, then you treat the distress, therefore you have nothing to be distressed about and the regression will alleviate.” Talvas holds up a hand “So how are you going to treat the nightmares?” He asks and Yuuri looks up toward the lab “A combination of familiar environment, people, objects, etc. and Fyr is working on something with  a mild sedative property that’s worked for Valan in the past.” That answer is satisfactory. While Valan doesn’t regress temporarily or otherwise he is a chronic insomniac under normal circumstances.

In order to trial things we agree to all stay another night, and keep ourselves entertained in various ways until the evening. As it gets closer to bedtime Fyr gives Anna the sedative after she agrees to it, informed consent has always been something important to Fyr, and this is a perfect example. Once the sedative begins to fully kick in Fyr leaves Anna and Farkas mostly alone, only checking in every few hours through the night to monitor and which allows Yuuri the night off. Talvas goes to bed long before I do and so in between periods of checking in and monitoring effects I chat with Fyr, who asks a bit more about the details of the situation. “How were you able to get her to have a conversation with you though?” I ask at one point and Fyr shrugs “I raised five kids by myself, four from whatever the clone equivalent of birth is, and one from the age of eight, you get good at it I guess.” I suppose that’s understandable, the only personal connection I can make is my niece Xu, but she’s not even two years old. By the time early morning hits I decide to go to bed, which is fine with Fyr he has research to work on anyways.

In the morning it seems the trial was a success, Anna seems more alert and interactive, and even had a brief conversation with Talvas about the staff he had brought that was in need of help from Alfe. Beyte remains a menace to poor Talvas, and seems curious about Anna but does not engage with her much per the request of Delte who needed Beytes help with something else. Fyr makes enough of the sedative to last about a week, and wishing Anna and Farkas well sends them home.

With the portal closed Fyr sits down with a sigh next to Yuuri “Never a dull moment, eh?” He remarks, and the rest of us shake our heads. Talvas fidgets next to me and seems as if he’s about to ask something until Fyr notices and looks at him “You need help with that staff, don’t you?” Talvas nods. “For Neloth or else he’ll make you give him another skin biopsy?” Again, Talvas nods.

Getting up from the table Fyr sighs “Ah, fine, come on.” He begins to walk away from the table with Talvas scrambling after him, leaving Yuuri and I to quietly sit with our tea.

It really is never a dull moment.