"Do you want us to sleep in separate rooms? I'll take the left one, I guess." 

"...I guess I didn't really want to, but they gave us two bedrooms and I thought that must be what rich people do when they have nice houses." Ma'ar has never slept alone in his entire life. 

"It is often what rich people do when they have nice houses but being rich is supposed to be about having more options, not less."

Shrug. "Then you should decide the thing you like best. I don't mind either way." This is not entirely true. He liked the hugs, and he's finding that he misses sleeping in a crowded tent with his clan. But he'll manage. 

She looks at him skeptically. "Why don't you set up the other room so you can have a place to do homework or be alone if you need it, but you can sleep in mine."

"All right." 

"And we should ask where and how you attend classes."

He nods, a bit nervously. "Can you tell me how - going to classes - usually works?" 

" - well, in Cheliax under Hell, all children were required to go starting when they were five, and you sat in rows on benches and kept your hands on the benches unless you were called on, and got candy if you caught someone else taking their hands off the bench, and you practiced reading and writing and arithmetic, and they had tests every week and published the scores, and the children who got the best scores had to beat the children who got the worst scores with a switch, so they'd learn to try harder. And every few years they'd shuffle the children so you were around other children with about the same scores as you. And the best ones got to be wizards.

I don't know how it works here but I bet it's pretty different from that."

That isn't exactly helpful in terms of knowing what to expect, but Ma'ar nods. Fidgets a bit. "What if the teachers think I'm very stupid. Because I can't read in Tantaran and don't speak it very well." 

"They might think that. I think the mindreading should help you with catching up, and lots of magic is shown, not explained."

Ma'ar assumes he isn't the only student who can read minds, but he nods. And then yawns again. Maybe he should go to sleep, although come to think of it he's also hungry, he hasn't really eaten proper meals today. 

They can presumably step out into the hallway and find someone to ask about food?

One of the little hertasi is right there, and very apologetic! She shows them the rope they can pull to call for someone anytime, if they don't want to go looking around the hallways, and for now of course they can bring food over, but do they know how to use their magic kitchen? The apartment comes with one and it should now be stocked with food. 

They do not know how to use their magic kitchen, could she show them?

She would be delighted! She bounces a bit in delight! 

Their magic kitchen has a cold-box for the perishable foods; right now they have fish and fresh milk and cream and some garden vegetables. Their cupboard has bread and eggs and spices and they can pick up other things they want at the market, which is held out in the square every morning. There's a square of magic stone that gets hot at a verbal command; they can cook fish or meat directly on it, or put a pot on top for soups. 

Do they buy things at the market or do they just take whatever they'd like, with Urtho making sure the farmers are treated fairly? (Did Urtho engineer a servitor race? She supposes that's a reasonable thing to do, really, if you're that powerful.)

For students and guests of Urtho, food at the market is covered, he pays the farmers for it. Though if they want more exotic fruits or spices than the ones local to Tantara, they'll have to go to the public market on market-day. There's also a dining hall where the classrooms are, and many of the students eat there, but they only have one dish prepared for everyone at each meal and a lot of the families from far away prefer to cook the foods they eat at home. 

That makes sense. She thanks the hertasi. She isn't a spectacularly good cook or anything but she will put the meat and vegetables into a soup pot.

The kitchen heating-stone is very easy to cook with, and Ma'ar isn't a picky eater. He kind of appreciates having some food that's simple and only requires one kind of spoon to eat, actually. He eats it while yawning and trying very hard not to fall asleep facefirst in his bowl. 

"You should get some sleep so you're rested for school."

"Mmmhmm." He gets up and wanders over to the bedroom they selected and flops facefirst on the bed. 

And she will join him and cuddle him even though she's not yet tired and wait for him to fall asleep and then get started on a headband for him. ...wisdom first, she thinks. Velgarth mages use both but wisdom will help more with the non-magic challenges.

Another of the little hertasi is back in the morning, a few minutes after Ma'ar is up. "New student, yes? Does he have uniforms and a schedule yet?" 

"Not yet."