Then they should remedy that! Ma'ar can go with him and be lent some temporary student uniforms and fitted to have proper ones made to order for him, and then they'll figure out what classes he should start out in - introductory mage-classes, presumably, and what's his current education in reading and writing and mathematics like? 

Ma'ar can only catch a few words of this, and is giving Carissa an anxious look. 

"He doesn't speak the language yet and doesn't have any formal education."

"Ah. We do have classes for children in that situation - what language does he know? And perhaps you can come with us for the morning, and translate?" 

"He's from Predain. And I would be happy to do that."

"Ah - I do not speak their tongue, I am afraid, but we do get some students from that region, we ought have a suitable class for him." The hertasi bobs his head at Ma'ar. "I am Loben. You can follow me." 

They're led down two flights of stairs to a spacious, busy workshop where several other children are being measured for student robes. The staff is a mix of human and hertasi; one woman is attempting supervising what seems to be a magical loom. Or maybe failing to do so; the threads are snarled and she looks very exasperated.

     "Loben, Master Urtho's experiment is broken again." 

The hertasi shakes his head. "Why am I not surprised." He peers in closer, nudges at the shuttle. "Misaligned again. I will come fix it for you in a moment." He turns back to Ma'ar and tugs him over to an unclaimed stool by a table, then beckons another of the hertasi over. "He is a new student. He will need the usual uniforms, and some temporary robes in the meantime." 

    The other hertasi nods and takes a measuring-tape from the pocket of her apron. 

Why does it seem like every single person here wants to touch him all the time. Ma'ar holds himself rigidly still for it. 

"I can give you Tongues for the next hour, it'll wear off after that and it might confuse people if you suddenly stop understanding them but at least you'd understand them now?"

"I would like that." 

So she taps him with Tongues.

It feels very odd to suddenly understand all the side conversations happening in the room, but it is better. 

Ma'ar is measured for his uniforms and handed two sets of robes to wear in the meantime, which are a bit too long on him but can be belted so he doesn't trip, and then he's led off by another hertasi to a different room on the same floor but the other side of the tower, where a clerk and half a dozen assistants are juggling scheduling for a lineup of students.

Ma'ar will have mage-classes every morning; he's too late for today's but can start tomorrow, here's a map of the Tower layout so he doesn't get lost; if he gets lost anyway he can ask anyone in the hall for help, it's very normal to find the Tower confusing at first, it's huge. He'll be put in the remedial class for children without previous formal education in the afternoons for now, with a teacher who speaks the language in Predain, and will decide if he should also have one-on-one tutoring for a bit and when he'll be ready for the standard introductory classes in history and mathematics and such. 

It's all VERY OVERWHELMING, and his Tongues wears off before the clerk is quite done explaining his schedule, but Ma'ar keeps his composure. He's getting used to everything being way too much all the time, and maybe it's better to get it all over with, so that by next week he knows everything there is to expect.

The clerk hands him off to another of the wandering hertasi - do they want to be shown to the student dining hall for lunch? 

That sounds good, thank you.

The dining hall is crowded and loud, full of children and young adults; the ages seem to range from twelve to early twenties, most of the students appear to be in their late teens. Ma'ar is among the smallest. They sit at long tables with their trays of food and talk, the conversations blending into an indistinct roar. A couple of hertasi in aprons are serving food from steaming tureens at one end while gossiping nonstop; today's meal appears to be a hearty soup with bread. 

This is too many people! Ma'ar has his Thoughtsensing as open as it goes, it was helping him follow the conversation once Tongues wore off and it also makes him feel safer that he'd know if anyone were thinking about hurting him. More of the students here shield their surface thoughts than among the general population, but it's still so many minds in one place and it makes him feel like his head is going to burst. 

So schools are the same everywhere, at least in some ways, even if they are different in other ways like that students who are being punished aren't standing against the wall with no food. She pats Ma'ar on the shoulder and finds them a place to sit, though this won't really help with the overwhelm.

Ma'ar sits hunched over his soup and eats and reads every unshielded mind. It's reassuring that none of the students are noticing or thinking about him at all. They're thinking about homework and drama with their friends and being annoyed at strict teachers and looking forward to playing games on their next break. None of them are thinking of themselves as in danger; most aren't even paying attention to their surroundings beyond the conversations, let alone on alert for threats. 

He can do this. It's exhausting and stressful right now but once he's used to it, it won't be as bad. And he's going to learn magic, and all sorts of other things, and Carissa is staying, and they're going to somehow stop Urtho's war from happening... 

It'll be all right. 

She wants to give him a Lesser Restoration for the pick-me-up before afternoon classes but she has one of them ever again so she doesn't. She watches him eat and eats a bit herself though she doesn't need to and then tries to figure out where they're supposed to go.

Ma'ar's remedial class is in a room one floor down and around the other side of the Tower, but otherwise not too hard to find, the map is fairly clear. (To Carissa; Ma'ar is very unused to reading maps and is having trouble getting used to interpreting the stylized lines and symbols as corresponding to hallways and doors and stairs.) 

There are half a dozen children already there, with almost half a dozen visibly different ethnicities represented. 

The teacher is a young woman who can't be more than fifteen or sixteen; she's tall and spindly, and has her chestnut-brown hair cut in a very odd style, very short on the sides and a bit longer in front and on top of her head so it stands up like a crest, with some hair left long at the back and twined into a braid. She's wearing a bright mustard-yellow gown with a high neck in front but a deep scoop in back, with cutouts leaving her slender shoulders bare.

She turns and beams at the two of them. "I'm Lady Cinnabar," she says, in the Predain tongue. "You must be Ma'ar, yes?" 

He nods shyly. 

"Welcome! We're delighted to have you. Here, have a seat, I'll get you your books..." She looks up at Carissa and smiles brightly. "You can come collect him this afternoon at the last bell. I'll look after him, I promise." 

"Thank you." It won't do him any good with the other students to have his presumable-mother hanging around. She goes back to her rooms. Presumably at some point Urtho will have questions about her magic system but she can keep working on Ma'ar's headband in the meantime.

Later in the afternoon one of the hertasi from the day before is back again. "Master Urtho would like to speak with you again once you're settled here, ma'am. He is very busy today, but would tomorrow morning suit you for a meeting?" 

"That sounds good." It is tragic she can't make him a ring of sustenance as a present, but it takes divine magic.

Ma'ar is subdued when she collects him from class, and asks quietly if they can go back to their apartment to eat rather than the dining hall again, or if she doesn't want to cook maybe she could bring food back for him? It's just that he has a headache and there are too many people there.