"Yeah, I think the Gate didn't do any harm here but it's not cutting it by itself."

Nod. "- I'll be in trance for a while, then - can you keep an eye out...?" 

"Yeah, of course."

Ma'ar goes quiet, concentrating on the weather-magic. 

The clanspeople mostly talk amongst themselves, occasionally glancing a bit awkwardly over at Azabel and Ma'ar. 

She keeps an eye out. If anybody comes at Ma'ar with a stick she will be ready.

Ta'ana does not seem to think that Ma'ar sitting quietly by himself is annoying, and doesn't go at him with the stick. She doesn't seem very interested in what he's doing either. 

...

Eventually, within about a candlemark, clouds start to roll in. The clanspeople look up curiously but then go back to what they were doing before. 

Ta'ana seems a little more impressed once the drizzle starts. 

Good for Ma'ar.

And eventually he uncurls himself and stands up, stretching and shaking out his arms. He looks very tired. 

"Rain," he says, with quiet pride. "- Did you ever have a chance to look at Aala - uh, sorry, the one we thought might have Mindspeech. I tried Mindspeaking her, earlier, it - might've been easier than usual? And she wasn't as freaked out by it as you'd expect for someone who'd never been Mindspoken to and wasn't Gifted. It was hard to tell though." 

"I haven't looked at her because you haven't conveyed to me her interest in being looked at!"

"Oh, sorry. I tried to ask her but I don't think she really got the question? She - uh, she's being sort of like my grandmother is about everything, she doesn't really believe things unless she can see and touch and throw them." 

"Then I suppose I will not be able to secure her consent. I suppose you could - demo Mindspeech by having her hold up fingers and tell me how many while I'm turned away, if that would help."

"- Oh, that's a good idea. She might still - not update, I think people here...learn not to be curious or expect to understand the world, or something... But it's worth trying. And probably the littles will think it's a fun game to watch." 

He goes off to recruit the children for this. 

And Aza will hold up various numbers of fingers while not looking at anybody. She wonders if Ma'ar's gloss on this is the most charitable - like, the clanspeople could be being reasonable if, say, charlatan scammers came by claiming wondrous powers on a routine basis? And also they don't think highly of Ma'ar personally and wouldn't think him beyond reproach. Or maybe they're... choosing skepticism as a low-energy option, because if they were more curious, more lively, they'd be burning calories they don't have? She doesn't know how many calories being curious burns. Hitting people with sticks seems like a waste of calories they don't have though.

The children giggle and stomp their feet and seem very amused, if not precisely curious. 

Ta'ana watches from a distance, her expression - world-weary, and distantly worried, and very faintly impressed.

And afterward Ma'ar goes over to Aala and talks to her again, in a low voice, and then takes her hand and and leads her over to Azabel. 

:She's - more convinced: he sends. :She says you can look: 

Then Aza will put down her hand and look.

It's a little ambiguous, but - probably that's an early, half-awakened Gift? Clearly not trained, yet, or even much under conscious control - the gear-linkages to the rest of her mind still have that haphazard half-random look - but there's something there.

:So?: 

:Yeah, she's got Mindspeech awakening. It'll probably get the rest of the way there if we talk to her a little? - and maybe we should stay back a bit in the morning and give her the basics of how to shield so if she reads everyone's minds all the time it is a conscious defense against stick-based abuse and not an accidental atrocity:

:Sure:

A long pause. 

:I - could ask her if she wants to come back to the Tower with us? Even if just for a few months, and we could drop her back here - they've got lessons for Mindspeakers too, not just mages: 

:Yeah, if you think she'd go for it, and she'd be less impaired than most people by not speaking the language since she'll be able to Mindspeak after not long:

:- I think it'd be really good for the clan to - have someone who's...: and he hesitates for a long time trying to find the right word, :who's - normal - have them go go to the Tower for just a little while and then come back knowing more things but...still one of them...:

Yet again Ma'ar feels like he has none of the right words to convey what he means. 

:I'll go talk to her: 

And he goes off and does this.

...will she still be one of them after several months in a no-hitting-people-with-sticks zone. (Aza considers if she is dwelling too much on the sticks thing. It was only Ma'ar's grandmother in particular who she saw do it, and she knows they kind of base their whole economy around stealing cows from their neighbors, which is also bad, except it's a form of bad they're driven to by being starving, whereas the stick thing seems totally unnecessary. It's metonymy for all the unnecessary badness, she decides, of which sticks are merely the most obvious.)