...But what can she possibly do about this?  She's not a mage; she ran into arcane theory in her youth and bounced right off.  And that's probably what she'd need to make things less loud for Desta.  ...Perhaps one of her colleagues knows enough to help, for all that they're busy and she can't leave her kids to go looking.

(If she'd known beforehand that this would happen, she would have asked her relief to take this batch; Niriel Cethena, for all that she would protest the description and say things like 'I didn't graduate from the Academy' and 'I can barely cast class-two spells' and 'you know that that's not actually how being like me works, right', definitely has the eyes of a mage (according to Giselda).)

(To say Niriel Cethena has 'the eyes of a mage' is both true and false: true because due to a quirk of fate or wild coincidence she was born with a heightened ability to exert her will on reality relative to baseline - one that is reflected in her glowing eyes - but false because those are not just mages' eyes, even if that is the most common path for people like her in the Kingdom of Villarosa.  Niriel Cethena, by temperament, is most like a druid, for all that she is too busy with important work to study that craft.)

There are some hobbyist mages and enchanters amongst the staff, regardless of Niriel's circumstances.  Benevolent coincidence appears to have fetched Giselda's group up next to one of them - a man who weaves enchantments into his knitting.

"...Excuse me, but - Arthur?  I'm sure you're just as busy as I am, but - I don't suppose there's anything you could do to help with -" she gestures at Desta, in lieu of spelling everything out.

"...I can try, at least."

His fingers twitch through a series of somatic components as he attempts to invert some basic enchantments that make sound into a temporary spell to suppress it.  ...Thank goodness Esme had already asked him about this sort of problem, it's fresh on his mind - was this why?

...It might not last as long as he'd like, but it might last long enough regardless.  Now he just needs to deliver it -

...Opal is watching him.  Suspiciously.  You're not supposed to touch people without their permission!  Even if - okay it looks like he isn't doing that.  And it sounds like he's trying to help.  But still!

"Ask nicely!  ...Wait.  Um.  I'll do that."

There's a menu on the side of the paper that Opal shows Desta, but she's pointing to 'Miss G asked this man if he could help with the noise.  Do you want him to?'

It takes her a minute to orient enough to read the note, but when she's done she nods.

Then, with the characteristic purple glow of active (and otherwise ~unaspected) arcane magic, the sounds that reach her ears are stilled.

Things may not be completely silent - the magic does not reach inside her to interrupt the things that process sounds at any point, merely stilling the membrane that collects them - but it is quiet.

...um?

...yes?

He turns to Opal.  "Ah, may I borrow -" Opal folds the paper over and passes it blank-half-up to him.

'Is something wrong?  What should have just happened, is, there is a thing in your ear which moves when sounds hit it, and I just made it impossible for sound to move that thing for a few minutes.  That should mean that most of the noise is gone.

You might still feel some sounds, because sound is, eventually, just things shaking, and I can't stop your body from doing that.

That's all I can do that might help, right now.

If this is worse than the noise, I can remove it.'

Ohhh.

'For a few minutes', she taps, and then gestures vaguely; she didn't know that part!

'...Oh!  Yes, it won't last very long.  It just can't; I'm not that powerful a mage.  And even if I was that powerful, I wouldn't turn off someone's ears for too long without much more asking!

'I'm sorry, though - I still should have tried to tell you that before I did the spell, but I didn't know how to tell you things until your friend here demonstrated, and you looked like you were hurting.'

'If the spell does last long enough that you want it gone before it stops, you can just turn it off, like you're turning off an enchantment - except that once it's 'turned off' it's gone forever, because it falls apart.

'If you do want to try that, I can cast the spell again, afterwards.'

She reads.

She's a fast reader for a five year old, but that's not the same as being actually fast, and it hasn't at any point occurred to her to get out of the path of traffic.

Things aren't moving that quickly, being as the line is full of children and there's only so many people who can dish up food at a time.

And if she's been keeping together with the rest of the group so far, Opal has been shuffling them along when the occasion arises.

Fortunately she's used to navigating the painful chaos by way of following lines of kids, and has been shuffling along with her without especially noticing herself doing it.

"Otay", she says, when she's done, and then makes a face, because that's even weirder than the unexpected deafness.

...He needs to mind his kids through the line, now.

Opal, if she can have the paper back, would like to point out the menu, now that they're next in line.

(The offerings here are simple fare, being as they're bulk cooking, but there are generally a couple of choices for each - well, what Earth would call a major food group.  Children in Desta's age group pick exactly one item - no less, and no more - out of each set, and may have a small dessert (at their caregivers' discretion), unless they have special dietary requirements.)

She only winds up holding the line up a little bit, figuring out which thing in each category seems the most familiar and pointing them out to Opal.

She's seen worse.

The spell wears off while they're taking the elevator back up.

...It is now Alicia's turn to be, well, V I B R A T I N G, because there was magic and that was cool and she is going to be the Best Mage when she grows up, though she's doing an admirable job of keeping a lid on it right now.  (And maybe if she gets Miss Giselda to let her learn how actual casting works she can cast that spell when Desta needs it!  Or, well, if she does, too, now that she's thinking about it.  If things are that bad for Desta, and Desta reminds her of her, then maaaaaybe particularly loud noises are not supposed to be experienced as physical pressure?)

(...Though, that's also how sound works...)

(Ow.)

...okay, she's going to ask.  Well, she's going to ask Miss Niriel, probably, after lunch - but she's going to ask.  ...Again.

It's just that this time she has reasons beyond 'I promise I won't do anything bad with it' (...that's not a reason, but, well,) and 'I want to, really really bad, pretty please may I'.

...Oh dear.  That's Alicia's I Have Made A Decision face.

"...'licia, what are you thinking about?"