Oh no he's so precious. 

She should probably at some point tell both of them but - she thinks this part is important to making a Leareth, and maybe Urtho won't do it - or will be too obsessed with teaching him caution - if he knows.

She hugs him back and beams at Urtho. "Is there somewhere we can stay? My world's people will be trying to find me, but I assume if it were straightforward they'd have already done it - I can teach my kind of magic, and he can go to school -"

"Of course!" He rubs his hands together. "Let me call someone for you. We have dorms for the youngsters, but if he's not used to strangers - and is used to you, and you're staying - then I think I'd better set you up with some private rooms. We should have lots of extras. Hmm - are you nervous about heights? I know we have some unused rooms up on the fifth level, we had them furnished for a diplomatic visit from Acabel and only use them occasionally since." He makes a self-conscious face. "Honestly this tower is bigger than I need. I figured we'd grow into it, and - well, no one's ever built anything as tall, I wanted to see if the design would work." 

"It's really lovely. I don't mind heights. Maybe once he's adjusted and learned the language he'll want to live in the dorms but I think it'd be better if he can adjust gradually."

"Makes sense to me." Urtho smiles at Ma'ar again, and then stands and tugs a tasseled rope hanging by his bookcase. "It'll be just a moment." 

Indeed, just a moment later the door opens, and one of the lizard-creatures pokes its head in. "Yes, Master Urtho?" it says in a piping voice. 

"Gesten! These are our honoured guests. Please find them a room - I thought perhaps the row on the fifth floor, from the diplomats..." 

"You mean the sixth, I think. Yes, of course, Master Urtho." The creature bows to Carissa and Ma'ar. "I am Gesten, at your service. Follow me?" 

They can do that. "He has guest rooms for us," she tells Ma'ar.

"Oh." Ma'ar takes her hand again and holds on tightly. 

Gesten leads them back to the stairs, and then they go up. And up. And up. There are so many stairs, and Ma'ar is very out of breath by the time they reach the sixth floor, though the little lizard bounds up with no difficulty. 

They follow the sixth-floor corridor, and Gesten pauses, looking thoughtful. "Hmm. I will show you the Jade Room, but do tell me if it is not to your liking, and I can show you others." He gets out an impressively large key-ring, jangling with many keys, and unlocks the oak door. 

The little apartment has a main parlour with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, looking out on an expanse of gardens and buildings and paths in the vicinity of the Tower. There's a sofa and armchair, currently covered in canvas, and an empty bookshelf.

Gesten putters around, opening several doors. "To the bedrooms, there are two, this one has a window. And over here is the bathroom, and you would have a little kitchen for yourselves... What do you think? I do apologize that it's not set up yet, very embarrassing, but Master Urtho did not exactly give me any warning he had honoured visitors! Tut tut." 

"He did not have much warning himself! I think this will do nicely."

"Excellent, excellent!" Gesten turns and pulls the canvas covers off the sofa. "Now, you two have a seat. I will call my friends and we will get this place ready for you, but you should just sit and enjoy yourselves!" 

He pulls another bell-cord, though nothing audible happens in the room itself; indeed, within a couple of minutes, half a dozen more of the little lizard-creatures are swarming through the apartment, carrying bed-linens and kitchenware, stocking their magic-cold-box with food. 

Ma'ar sits very close to Carissa and stares in amazement. 

She sits down and extends her arms in case he wants a hug.

He would like a hug! 

Hug. "I know it's overwhelming."

He leans on her shoulder. "It's really nice! It's just - a lot of nice. And everything is so magic." He rubs his head. "Can you see it or do you have to cast a special spell to do that?" 

"I have to cast a special spell to do that. I haven't cast it yet, I'm distracted enough anyway. He has - something beautiful, here. I hope we can make sure it's not destroyed."

He had almost forgotten and now he's scared again. He shivers and curls up against Carissa. "I don't - but what if we can't stop it," he says plaintively. "What if it it happens and I'm - not strong enough, yet..." 

"Then we'll leave ourselves notes, somewhere far away where they'll survive it, and we'll get reincarnated and we'll still be us and know that we would have done that, and we'll find them and pick up where we left off."

"I thought you didn't remember anything if you got reincarnated." 

"You don't. So we'd need it to be in our notes. We'd need to be the kind of people who will go search the reaches of the world for notes we left, even if we don't know if we've ever lived before. But I think we are."

Ma'ar looks confused and upset and hopeful all at the same time. "...Now I'm worried, what if I left notes before, and I should - go look for them, because I've forgotten... But probably I should do that after I learn how to use my magic. And - we should try very hard to find a way to be immortal, before we get old or before - anything else happens - a better way, where we remember..." 

"Yes. That's right. That is the right order of operations. We'll go look for notes you might've left once you can Gate to places you haven't been, which will be years even if you study very hard and I make you a headband. And we'll figure out how to prevent the war, and we'll invent immortality."

He doesn't know if she's telling the truth, of course. Ma'ar has to keep reminding himself of that - that words are cheap, words are easy, anyone can say words... 

But she doesn't have to say these particular words, to get him to stay with her and try very hard to learn magic. He would do that anyway. 

And - he isn't sure, the shape of it is still vague in his head, but - it feels like maybe a person wouldn't even be able to think of those words, wouldn't even be able to hold the concepts behind them in their mind, unless they understood it, deep in their blood and bone. And he's not sure that understanding it and meaning it are any different, because...just...how could a person deeply understand that the world is bad and needs to be fixed and can be fixed but no one is strong enough to do it, yet, so they need to be the people who are - he doesn't see how a person could see and understand that and not automatically be it, just because they're the right shape to notice it at all...

That's the problem, he finds himself thinking, that's why no one else from clan Kiyam has fixed it yet. Because they take the world as it is, and try to live the best they can within its bounds, and as soon as you realize that the walls are just - accidents of history - then how can you not want to shatter them and built something better... 

Something like this tower.

He wonders whether Urtho understands. He couldn't read Urtho's mind; Urtho was very good at shielding, apparently; but if he built a tower like this...

"We'll do that," he says quietly. "And - maybe the king from your world will find us first, right? Either of them, the one from - this world in the future - or the other one who was a god... Because they're very clever."