They listen and ask careful questions and sneak speculative glances at each other. Overall this - seems hopeful, in terms of ways the war could end, even if it's not what they were expecting and was terrifying at first and they still feel like Ma'ar must have been making some very risky and delicate gamble, in choosing to surrender. (Though he's right, it's not like they actually wanted to conquer Tantara; Tantara is an excellent neighbour to trade with, and never causes problems with border security since their internal rule of law is solid.) 

The King meets with them afterward, over a meal which is fancier but not quite as delicious as the food in Urtho's Tower. He's a little older than Ma'ar, and he gives the impression of someone who constantly has to prod himself into speaking more and who would really prefer to sit back and listen, or possibly read a book by himself in a quiet library. He seems sensible, though, and is also pretty legible to Carissa in his thinking. He presses her carefully, not too hard, on the question of setting up trade agreements with Golarion (in his mind, but unsaid, he means trade agreements that are more beneficial to Predain than to Tantara.) 

Carissa suspects that they'll want to investigate the Gate question and whether the gods of Golarion can operate here, which significantly changes who all will want to come and how much of Golarion's infrastructure for trade agreements can be straightforwardly imported. Regardless of how those things work out, they'll be able to sell the things their magic can do and Golarion's magic can't, like Mindspeakers seem better than Golarion mindreading and compulsions better than Golarion's systems for convicts and Healing maybe useful for the cases where Golarion magic healing doesn't help and no one has any idea why not. Yeerks are also generally willing to pay people to be hosts, and depending on local political situations sometimes willing to replace prisons and executions, and they're very convenient, she has one if Ma'ar didn't mention.

Ma'ar did! (The King has been feeling awkward about finding it hard to tell which of them was talking.)

They certainly do sound convenient and also - helpful? (The King is thinking that it would be great to have a Yeerk who liked big meetings and giving fancy speeches in front of crowds do all of that for him, he doesn't mind talking policy with his top advisors but he really doesn't enjoy the crowd-pleasing stuff.) 

And eventually the evening is over and Ma'ar politely excuses them and tells Mhalir and Carissa that they can request a ride back up to the ship. 

Mhalir can do that! 

"Possibly if we're going to spar we should do that first and not on the ship."

"- Oh, would it be bad to do it on the ship? All right. We can use a shielded Work Room if that is better for safety."

"I could probably damage the ship if I were trying and I suspect you can do more things than me."

"We can use a Work Room. Follow me." 

He leads her to a bare stone room with a very sturdy door, which if she uses Detect Magic will display many, many layers of multiple kinds of Velgarth shielding. 

"- How good are your shields?" he remembers to ask. "Velgarth Adept mages can generally deflect fire and levinbolts without any difficulty, even in here without nodes to draw on, but we should discuss in more depth what is allowed here." 

"I can do energy shields but I don't go around with them, they don't last all day." She casts them now, though, Protection from Energy (Lightning) and Resist Energy (Fire). They're going to last NINETY MINUTES because she's a FIFTH CIRCLE CASTER. "My shields that last all day are probably worse than yours but I'm harder to kill because it's a side effect of Golarion magical healing. Maybe it evens out." Shrug. "Can we both fight, can we use our energy weapon -"

"My shields can handle the stun settings - can you demonstrate the highest setting at the wall, the room shields can certainly take it, and then I will be able to tell you if mine can."

"Sure." She kicks the Dracon beam up to its highest setting and fires on the wall.

"Yes, you can use that. If my shields end up weakened enough that I am not sure, I will yield." 

"Sounds good."

You should use that while I cast, then, she tells Mhalir. I can't shoot and cast at the same time and it takes me longer than Velgarth mages to get spells off.

<I can do that.> It seems like an unfair advantage, but then again, cheating is just strategy. 

Ma'ar checks all of his shield-talismans, and raises all of his additional personal shields. "Ready?" 

Whatever Ma'ar is hoping to get out of this it feels cheap to try to give it to him by not trying. Also she really hates losing. 

"Ready."

"Now–" and he flings up a disk-shaped shield of raw energy in front of him, which presents no barrier at all to the bolt of lightning he flings half a second later, at the same time as he dodges to the side - the shift in momentum is unnaturally fast, he's probably cheating with magic on that too somehow -

Mhalir trusts Carissa's shields to catch that, and rather than dodging, focuses on firing at Ma'ar with the Dracon beam at its maximum setting, unless and until Carissa needs her hands to cast. 

The shield catches this but it's a strain. 

- well, she can speed reflexes too, with Haste, it should help Mhalir out with the shooting, though her casting is unbearably slower than Ma'ar's, she has to tie things together while he can just think it...she's so jealous -

Ma'ar holds off the Dracon beams but has to redirect to reinforcing his shield rather than attacking more - he has several more layers of shield behind it but doesn't want to start counting on them in literally the first five seconds.

His shields are far better than any Golarion shield she's ever seen except maybe on Aroden, but his shields take effort to maintain, whereas her energy resistance will be there for ninety minutes  (!)  with no effort on her part.

She alerts Mhalir so he can turn away and shield their eyes, and Fireballs the room. Aiming behind Ma'ar but without any particular attachment to hitting that, it's a twenty foot radius, it should hit them both.

It seems to completely go around Ma'ar's outer, directional shield! His shield-talisman takes the brunt of it, burning down some of its stored energy, and he's unhurt but very startled. 

He throws a ball of raw force, shaped less to pierce or crack her shields and more just to bodily shove her off balance and if possible knock her down, while he takes the second or two of concentration he needs to prepare a more complicated spell. 

Mhalir fires the Dracon beam at him some more, but Ma'ar's outer shield is still up even if it didn't do much against the Fireball, and it strains but catches it without needing Ma'ar's further attention.