"Mmhmm." 

Whatever the explanation for the baffling events of that afternoon, it doesn't seem to have any ramifications in Ma'ar's other classes, aside from the fact that he no longer volunteers to say anything in his classes about everything other than practical magic. Refusing to answer when called on would stand out even more than giving the wrong answers, he thinks, so he just tries to be very very boring. 

Urtho meets with Carissa less often, these days, since he's already heard most of what she has to say about Golarion magic; mostly he summons her when he's made progress on a project and wants to show it off. It's unclear how he finds time to always have half a dozen experimental magic items on the go, in addition to all his other responsibilities, but he manages somehow. 

The next time he calls for her is about a week later. 

She's anxious about being around him, now, since Ma'ar got in trouble, but she doesn't show it. She heads over to meet him with some of her own in-progress projects should a distraction be needed.

Urtho is capable of supplying plenty of shiny distractions from his end, too, and his manner with her isn't too different from normal; he maybe seems a little more preoccupied today. 

After he's spent an hour showing her his project and gotten up to refill their teacups, though, he clears his throat and nudges the half-finished magic artifact aside. "I apologize for the awkwardness, but, er - I wanted to ask you about Ma'ar. I've been a little concerned about him lately. Does he...seem all right, with you at home?" 

Well, fuck. 

"He's very happy here, and I think he has learned a lot. He has mentioned that he - doesn't know how to talk in the debate class without being misunderstood - but I think he's handling that very responsibly, trying to listen more to the other students and not argue."

"Mmm." His lips twitch. "Yes, he was something of a bull in the china shop at first, with the debates, but he does seem to be learning, well, some tact and self-restraint. I've been impressed with that. It's just that..." He pauses, tapping his chin absently with two fingers. "With you, does he often talk about feeling threatened or in danger? He - gives one the impression of a child who feels quite unsafe in the world." 

"He...is a child who feels quite unsafe in the world. The tribe he grew up in is regularly raided by its neighbors. His father was killed in one of those raids, a year ago. His mother died in childbirth shortly after that. He was nearly killed in one, too, before he started sitting them out. He wanted to come here himself but he would've been killed for trespassing in his neighbor's territory. When he left with me we were ambushed by armed bandits who dragged him off his horse and knocked him into the river, where he almost died. He's been injured trying to defend a girl from bullies, and he doesn't understand why they don't do anything to the students in detention or what comments get you sent to a Mindhealer."

"Why we don't do anything– oh, you mean physical punishments? In my experience, when one is trying to train large numbers of very young and often hotheaded mages, the last thing you want is a punishment that's likely to rile them up enough to lose control of their Gifts, which is very often what earned them detention in the first place. Much better to give them a nice long boring evening to cool off and think on how not to let it happen again. Perhaps some amount of suffering is character-building, but I think the youngsters will find enough of that on their own, without canings." He shakes his head a little. "And - huh. Was it not clear to either of you why I called in a Mindhealer? I thought it obvious enough." 

"We don't have Mindhealers in Cheliax so I think I don't have a very good understanding of what they're employed for." She knows exactly what Nayoki is employed for.

"I have worked with thousands of children, over many years, and Ma'ar seems to me, to be a very troubled young man. It is - not normal for a child of his age to speak of - rape, and other assaults, in the way he does. As though it is completely ordinary to him. And he is so ruthless, in his thinking, he holds nothing sacred. Which is always a worrying sign, but especially in one as brilliant as he is, and an Adept mage." He shakes his head. "There is darkness in him. It - comes from pain, I suspect, in his past, but that does not make it less worrying." 

"I am not sure I know what you mean. But maybe everyone in Cheliax is troubled, as compared to a place as peaceful as this one. Is it rude, in Tantara, to talk about rape?"

Urtho blinks. Clears his throat again. "I - see. 'Rude' is not how I would put it, exactly, but - well, it would not be considered healthy or proper, to speak of it to youngsters, we should of course not shelter them too much, but - there is a right amount. And I think Ma'ar has never been sheltered from the world's horrors, starting from an age at which he cannot help but, well, be damaged by them. The Mindhealer tells me he is incredibly distrustful and has very few friends, and seems to expect threats everywhere. Which is not a healthy way for a child to be. That is a large part of what I am worried about." 

Children Ma'ar's age can both commit and suffer rape, whether or not you tell them what it is. That does not seem like a safe thing to say at all. 

He didn't know who the Mindhealer was or what they wanted or how they were reading his mind, no wonder he was distrustful. That doesn't seem like a safe thing to say either. 

"I think that the fight with the other kids was something of a setback for him," she says. "And I think it's hard, in class, when he knows he did something wrong but not what. I would be worried if he were responding by doubling down or getting angry or being scared all the time, or if he seemed to expect bad things in contexts where there wasn't any reason to. When he tells me about his fears, though, they seem moderate, and well-reasoned. He'll be afraid that the children he got in a fight with will retaliate, and then avoid them for a couple days and then decide that at that point they're not likely to, and stop worrying about it..."

"Hmm." Urtho nods, and then looks past her into the distance, fingers playing with the edge of his notepad. 

"- He is the one I end up fighting, is he not," he says finally. It's not a question. "Or - would have. Who the other me fought. He - grows up to become Leareth, who conquered Cheliax with his army." 

"Yes. I wasn't sure at first, but - yes."

"I was not sure but it seemed likely. He - is someone who seeks power, seeks to be in control, because he fears what will happen otherwise. I cannot blame him for it, given his past, but it is nonetheless alarming to me, and - I think I understand better, now, how he could have frightened me badly enough that I would wage war with my own student." 

Carissa is mostly of the opinion that this is stupid!!

"When he talks about his plans for the future, he actually mostly doesn't talk about - fearing what will happen to him otherwise. I think he knows he could be comfortable here forever, doing magic research. He talks about - how there are lots of people pointlessly dying and he wants to protect them. I think the thing he wants to do is very hard. I've told him that. But I don't think it is mostly coming from fear."

Urtho looks thoughtful. A bit surprised. "I see. I confess it makes me nervous that - I am certain I would have tried to help him, to - teach him to follow the path of light rather than of darkness, regardless of what information I had or lacked about his future. The fact that in another world it went the way you described, means that I failed." He lets out his breath, slow and unsteady. "And - I find myself at a loss for words, often, in class with him. There seems to be such a wide gulf between us, in how we think, and I am not sure I know how to cross it." 

"Sometimes after class he comes to me with whatever was being debated, and we talk about it. He makes sense to me. Probably because, being from Cheliax, I have some things in common with him. But often I can't explain your reasoning to him, because I don't know it myself. I would be happy to try, if you wanted that."

"Oh. Yes, I would appreciate that. I - do you understand why I think it is risky, for already-powerful mages to seek political power as well?" 

"I can think of lots of reasons for that worry, though I don't know which one is yours specifically."

"I - think it is not good for us, limited mortals as we are, to have too much power. It warps our minds. It - makes it too easy to believe what is convenient, to find stories for why we should be able to do what we want, when in fact the reason is just that no one else has the power to stop us. And - I think that the world tends to become a worse one, when power is in the hands of a small number of people, whose lives have little in common with those of ordinary folk. Does that make sense?" 

"It seems very hard, to make sure that places are ruled well and not badly, and usually it goes worse when the rulers have nothing in common with the people they rule - don't even see them as the same kind of person - most places are harsher to their colonies, and to their nonhuman populations, and to their women, in places where only men can rule.

With all due respect I am not really sure you would have - more power, in any way that affects your life - if you were a King."

"- Really? That is a very surprising claim to me. I do not set the laws in Tantara, or command its army, and I think that is for the better." 

"I think you command its army. In the war we are going to prevent. The weapons that destroyed the world were not the King's, and not Leareth's. And - are there laws that have substantially changed how you operate your tower and city and peoples and school? I look at it and I - don't see things that look like someone else decided how they're shaped."