A tall slender woman in a gorgeous flowing silk wrap dress, with a scarf over her hair, is examining apples at one table and catches a glimpse of Carissa. 

"- I don't think we've met," she says in a pleasantly throaty voice, lowering her scarf; her hair is spectacular, shining white-gold in the sun, coiled in a braid that falls past her waist. "I would remember you."

She is giving Carissa a very thorough look. Her eyelashes flutter. 

She's collecting a bit of everything so they can see what they'll like. "Ah, hello." How much trouble will she get in for mindreading people here. "I arrived yesterday, so you wouldn't have had much chance to. I'm Carissa."

"Silver Veil. What brings you here? You don't look like you're from Tantara." Silver Veil smiles at her. It's a moderately flirty smile. 

"I'm from very far away, an acquaintance sent me here to, uh, look after a child she'd run into who needed an escort to the tower."

"For schooling, I imagine? Are you yourself a mage?" 

"My magical education was very different but I can do some of the same things. And yes, he's here for classes. My impression was that it was the best place in the world for it."

"Oh, yes, it certainly is that." Silver Veil finishes examining an apple, deems it acceptable, and puts it in the basket hooked over her arm. "Where did you study? I may have heard of it even if it is far away, I have travelled extensively." Eyelash-flutter. 

Possibly she should be clear about some things. "Cheliax. It's very far away; my husband is from north of the Ice Wall Mountains and it's farther than that."

"Truly? I did not know there was anything north of the mountains!" Silver Veil bats her eyelashes again, but she does seem to be noticing that Carissa isn't reciprocating the flirting. "Well, I hope that someday I will have my chance to explore the north as well. And I very much hope you enjoy your stay at Urtho's Tower." She curtsies gracefully, and then turns to examine a table of zucchinis. 

"Thank you, it's been lovely." Carissa...hopes she wasn't rude? She wasn't trying to be rude. She should maybe learn how these people understand marriage to work. She should maybe learn so many things.

It is arguably stupid and delusional of her to be insisting that she's married.

She collects a little bit of everything in the market so they can see what they like.

She imagines Leareth growing up here. 

She imagines Leareth, attacked by surprise, figuring out how to win a war with Urtho. Waking up in a world that the war had utterly destroyed.

It'll go differently this time but she has no idea what that means for whether the other timeline ever existed, whether there's anyone who could come for her.

...she's been assuming Iomedae can't reach her because it's too far but - if it's two thousand years ago - Iomedae hasn't been born.

She goes back to her room after a while. Works on her headband.

Ma'ar makes his own way home from class after the end-of-day bell, with a new bookbag that has several books in it; Lady Cinnabar was impressed at his quick progress with reading and graduated him to some books not aimed at five-year-olds, and he has penmanship practice to do. 

He lets himself in and immediately flops facefirst on the sofa. He's so tired. 

"How was your day?"

"Fine." After a moment he rolls onto his back and is less muffled. "The magic teacher didn't hit me even when I made a mistake. And I got harder books to read because I was early for class and I practiced, and I could show Lady Cinnabar that I read all of the easy one." 

"Oh good. What are you learning in magic class?"

Shields! Apparently shielding properly is a lot more complicated than the way he figured out to do it on his own, but also more efficient and he'll be able to make much stronger shields. He got a headache again from practicing it so many times, though. Also they were testing each other's shields by tossing pebbles at them, and one of his classmates thought it was funny to throw them at Ma'ar when he wasn't paying attention (they weren't even paired up), but Ma'ar, remembering what Carissa had said, gritted his teeth and didn't hit back and that boy got detention. 

"I'm proud of you. That was a much better way to handle it than fighting him."

Ma'ar nods. "The teacher said no fighting was the rule. And I read some of the others' minds and they thought it was a real rule and not a fake one. So I was only a little bit scared." 

She gives him a hug and starts cooking a random assortment of market things. "At home, it'd be dangerous, to let someone hurt you and not fight back?"

"If it was someone from another clan they'd kill you. If it was someone from my same clan, we'd both be beaten by one of the elders for misbehaving, if they saw, but - also if you don't fight back everyone sees you're a coward, and then you're - not worth anything to the clan, and probably don't get food... The only reason I got away with it - being a coward, I mean, because I wouldn't go on cattle-raids anymore once I'd decided I was going to leave - is that I was doing magic for them all the time so what were they supposed to do." 

She nods. "You have to guess quickly, in strange places, whether it's a place where it's more important to look dangerous or to look innocent. But I think mostly in places like Predain it's more important to look dangerous and in places like Tantara it's more important to look innocent."

Nod. "It's easier to guess if I read people's minds. Although I'm trying to do it less so I don't get headaches." 

She brings warmed vegetables and meats of various kinds over to the table. "That should get easier with practice, I think."

"Mmm." Ma'ar looks delightedly at all the food. He's finally used to having several meals a day, enough that he doesn't try to wolf down all of it as fast as possible, and can actually pay attention to which foods he likes best. It's hard to say he dislikes any of it, really, it all tastes better than what he used to eat with the clan. 

"It's free, so we can grab more of whatever's your favorite."

"It can't be free, someone had to grow it."