:Sure, though I don't know if I'd think myself was scary, I don't think I'm scary in the mirror even if I make faces in it:

:Well, I think you - definitely don't look harmless?: 

And he bounces her the image of herself as seen through his eyes, fierce and glaring. 

:I'm not sure somebody who likes attacking people would detect that I was actually dangerous and not just overconfident? I might be overthinking this though:

:I mean, I don't think it'd make us completely safe from attackers, but - I do think that nine out of ten of them are looking for easy targets, and if we're together and armed and you have that expression on your face, I'm pretty sure we don't look like easy targets: 

:Yeah, that makes sense:

Ma'ar pauses for a moment, looking at her, then glances aside. "....See you in class tomorrow?" 

"See you!" And she's off.

And they fall back into their usual routine. Ma'ar nods to her as usual at their next class, and glances over when the teacher asks them to partner up, but another student grabs him first (both of them are popular potential partners, nowadays, since they're usually head to head at the top of the class) and he shrugs apologetically at her. 

When Azabel writes to the various contacts provided by the woman at the temple to Bestet, she eventually receives back a trickle of answers, the last of them arriving just before the end of their current session. One of them has stories about a differently-styled order worshipping Bestet, among some different nomadic clanspeople living in the mountain foothills southwest of Tantara's borders; here the men participate alongside the women, though the entire culture is matriarchal. Another letter has a few more stories of possessions; the letter-writer was herself possessed on three separate occasions, twice to fight off attacks while traveling as a mercenary with a merchant caravan in the Ceej, a third time, after she settled down to be a town elder, in order to viciously lecture the town mayor for letting some visiting highborn boys get away with harassing local women. She claims to remember all of them somewhat, but the last the most clearly, since she was still 'partially in control' and felt more 'empowered' by her Goddess than fully pushed aside by Her presence. 

That is all interesting and she passes the letters on to Ma'ar for him to read.

"It - does seem like maybe it's good for Her to be around and have followers, in places where there's lots of violence against women? ...Then again, maybe Her having influence makes things be more violent, overall. I dunno. I'd have to think about it a lot more." 

"It might be that having lots of her people around has a deterrent effect but I'm not sure how we'd find out."

"Mmm." Sigh. "Anyway I think I'd still like to go see the capital, after exams." All their current classes have final exams at the start of the week set aside for them, so they have almost a fortnight off. "You still want to come?" 

"Yeah, it'll be interesting. And probably involve less hiking."

"It should! I can Gate us right to the inn downtown, and we can plan on mostly seeing places there." 

"Have you got an itinerary?"

"- I don't, uh, know the city that well." He looks embarrassed. "I didn't really go downtown, I'd've stood out too much, I didn't look rich enough to be there and the guard would've kicked me out. And, uh. I didn't know how to read so I have no idea what a lot of the places are. But I've got a few things on a list and we can ask around once we're there." 

"Okay, that works fine. Should I learn more of the language, do you suppose?" She's got a few words from being around Aala.

"I should probably teach you some basic phrases, but I was thinking we'd mostly stick together and I can translate for you in Mindspeech. Also some people will speak Tantaran, since it's a big city and there's trade." 

"That's about what I was thinking, yeah."

He gives her a vaguely unhappy look. "I wish I knew more about– oh, I don't know, just how to dress and talk so we blend in. I think it'll probably just be obvious that we're foreigners? And...hopefully that's fine and as long as we're armed-looking foreigners the stupid Guard and all the pickpockets will leave us alone." 

"The Guard picks on foreigners?"

"I remember them doing, anyway, although mostly it was foreigners who didn't look that rich. I guess since they wouldn't be expected to have powerful local friends." 

"Wow, okay."

"I think we should be fine even if they have a go at us? I know all the official law, I got a book out of the library on it, so they can't get me by pretending something is illegal. And I'll bring a bit of money for small bribes, just because that's less complicated. And at worst we can Gate out and what are they supposed to do." He smiles crookedly at her. "We're better trained than any of the mages working for the King's Guard, and you can do set-commands."