He reminds her so much of Mhalir. Though she could be imagining it because she's looking at everything through that frame.

This makes sense but also she's terrified that it's a really bad decision but all of her evidence for that is stories from other worlds and objectively that's not any kind of reason at all.

The mage recruit steps forward. "Uh, if I let one of the Thoughtsensers read your mind and relay the image to me, it might be enough to go on that I could Gate to where he is?" 

"I don't know if that'd help but you're welcome to read my mind for the location."

One of the Thoughtsensers and voluntary hosts steps forward. 

"- Er, I can't see very well - do you have some kind of spell or shield against mindreading...?" 

" - oh." And she pulls her hair off. "Now?"

"- Yeah, got it now." 

There's a long pause. 

"...Should we - do something?" Mhalir's second-in-command asks quietly. "I - goddamn it, people are dying out there, they're - mages from both sides setting things on fire... Mhalir would be -" So upset and angry and sad, but he doesn't finish the sentence. "Can you, uh, talk to him...?" 

"I can...try?" What got through to Mhalir - it was a lot of things, and he'd needed time - 

"Ma'ar?" she says.

Ma'ar jumps, flinging up every shield he can. 

"I did not give the order," he hisses back. "It - I cannot stop it now, I would have, I tried. What do you want from me." 

"I think you're making a mistake and you'd stop making it if you weren't so scared and I have no idea how to help but I have to try! Look, this is - bigger, than your war, you have to have noticed that, right, you don't have to do the blood magic thing that Urtho's mad about if you have stuff from us to solve all your problems..."

"I - I understand that - look–"

And then there is a violent explosion of magic, slamming into her spell, which comes apart. 

" - something happened. Probably an attack -"

There are surprised and horrified looks. 

"I - I can probably...still Gate there..." the mage says faintly (while hoping in every fibre of his being that no one asks him to, it seems like such a good way to get himself killed.)

"Gating into a fight sounds like a bad idea - you could Gate to *well above it*, I can fly and they can't' - no, Urtho's stupid gryphons can fly...could you Gate to below it and then I could burrow up from there as an Earth elemental or something -"

The mage stares at her in shock and fear and amazement. 

"I - I could...probably do that... You can turn into an earth elemental?" 

"From a scroll, I've burned all my fourth circle slots. I don't - super know what this gets us, but I could at least get a look at what's going on...."

There are looks around. 

"...Ma'ar could be in danger," Mhalir's second-in-command says. "We - Mhalir would be really angry, if we had a chance to - help - and we didn't take it and he died..." 

Pause. 

"You have my approval to do that. If it seems like a good idea." 

     "I can do a Gate now if you want," the mage adds. 

" - sure." She reads the scroll first. Turns into an Earth elemental.

The mage grits his teeth, and gives the spell his best try. He's never attempted this before. 

A glowing magical archway appears.

The other side of it is loamy soil, some plant-roots visible. 

She dives through it and heads for the surface.

There is nothing and nothing and nothing - and then there's FIRE and smoke, the sky not even visible, and sounds - moans, screams, the roar of a distant explosion...

Is there Ma'ar.

Ma'ar is not visible but he's within range for Detect Thoughts. He's half-stunned by the impact, confused but already trying to orient - starting to shape the threads of magic to Gate himself out and regroup else where - 

(He's so confused, it feels almost like the substance of reality no longer holds together, almost like gravity has ceased to apply and he's simultaneously drifting off and falling...) 

Probably if he's alive and getting out of here then she can't improve the situation. She finds herself running over to him anyway. "There's been an explosion," she says, "there's no one on their feet to resist and I can guard the spot, can anyone Gate to us here..."

Ma'ar is not having much success at the Gate, yet, he's in pain and dizzy and it's hard to concentrate. 

When he hears a voice he instinctively flings up shields. "Who -"

She's mostly staying in the ground, it's safer. She slithers over to him. "Carissa. I have been yelling at you from our ship."