The young woman steps closer as well. "I can't say I've met the man, but you hear things, you know." Handwave. She reaches out a hand, lowers her voice conspiratorially. "I'm Liora. I– I'm afraid I can't just offer you breakfast for nothing, but - what sorta things can you do, as a mage, you know...?" 

"I'm really not a good one. I can light fires, and I can clean fabrics, and I can do lights. That's pretty much it. I can move stuff if it's not very heavy but honestly I can't move more with magic than I can just by lifting it."

She holds out her hand. "Hey, I get it. Hmm, I'm trying to think what you could do for us that Master Baar would agree was worth breakfast... Hmm, if you come stand with me in the workshop and make a light and bring me supplies from the shelves when I ask for them - they're not heavy - I think we could probably get enough done that he'd sign off." 

"Okay. Thank you."

The young woman takes her inside, to a back room with herbs strung from the ceiling to dry and more boxes and jars on floor-to-ceiling shelves, and a complicated glass setup that looks like it's for distilling grain alcohol. There's also a vat of ordinary beer in the process of being brewed. 

She asks Carissa to make a light and get an urn of something down, but isn't very focused on her work; she's too busy being curious about the newcomer, it's been a while since anyone interesting showed up in town and she's still thinking that he's cute.

"So, where're you from?" 

She makes a light and an unseen servant to fetch things. 

"I'm from Tiran. It's way down on the border with the Ceej."

"Oh, wow! I haven't heard of it. You must've - sorry can you grab me that box, yellow label - you must've travelled a long way! By yourself?" 

Unseen Servant gets the box. "I, uh, ran away from home. I've mostly been walking. It's been a month or so."

"Oh. I– that sounds rough. Why did you run away, er, if you don't mind me asking." 

"My dad wanted me to enlist, and I heard people saying there'd be a draft soon anyway, at least for mages, and - I'd heard all kinds of things about the war. Most of them probably not true, but still."

Shiver. "It's scary. The rumour's that whoever is in charge over there is using all sorts of dark magic. And, I mean, we've got the Mage of Silence, probably it'll be all right in the end..." 

"Yeah, probably. But that doesn't help if I'm dead! I heard they use blood-magic."

"They do! It's not even a secret or anything, I heard that even before the war they had public executions for it." She shudders. 

"It sounds like a horrible way to die."

"It does!" She puts down her mortar and pestle and leans closer. "I heard even creepier things - they mind control their soldiers, right, and - I heard when they take prisoners they put compulsions on them too, to make them obedient, so they can't run away..." 

"I heard that too! And that they attacked the palace with some kind of fear magic..."

"I heard the King went mad from it and that's why he died, of madness. And some of the other nobles were never seen again - makes you wonder if they got out in the first place, or got snatched up." 

"I wish we'd never started the war."

Shrug. "I mean, me too, but I can't reckon we could've let them keep rampaging across the rest of the continent and murdering people for blood-magic and all that." 

"Were they murdering lots of people for blood magic outside their fancy public executions?"

"If they were it was secret, obviously, but I bet they were." She flips her hair out of her eyes again. "They said at school that blood-magic is addictive and mages who use it get corrupted by it and just want to use more and more and more." 

Shiver. "What do you think will happen if they win the war?"

"Ugh, I don't want to think about it." She grimaces. "I mean, probably they'd make Tantara part of their empire - I bet they'd put compulsions on all the important people to make them go along with it and pretend it was their idea in the first place, seems they like being able to pretty up their conquests that way - and they'd nab all the mages and teach them blood magic and - did you know, I heard they breed mages? Like - pigs, or cattle..." 

"They make them have children?"

"Yes, exactly, they want more mages - reckon it'd be worse for girls, I heard for boys they mostly just - stud you out - it's gross but you wouldn't need to be pregnant at least..."