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Ranara and her little daughter Azabel move to Urtho's Tower when the latter can say six words ("up", "mama", "milk", "no", "now", and "please") and hasn't started to walk yet. Ranara sets up to teach little children to read, ones who don't have evident Gifts yet - Ranara herself has Mindspeech, is all, with about a classroom's worth of range. Azabel sits in on classes, worn on her mother's back or later plopped in a corner with toys or, when she's only four, plopped in a corner with a book, younger than the other kids in the class. When Azabel has in fact sat through her mother's curriculum she is turned somewhat loose, to walk very carefully up and down and around the Tower, exploring.
smol bell in urtho's tower
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anticipating_night
"I don't know if my guesses will be any good but they might at least be usably wrong. Are you scared that... we'll try this and then break up?"
small-and-alone
"- Oh, hmm. That's...close, but not exactly it? I think I'd be all right if we broke up. But I'm - scared of messing it up somehow and hurting you. And I'm scared that–" He stops, swallows, seems to be having a hard time with words.
small-and-alone
Eventually he gives up and switches to Mindspeech. :I'm - scared of - something bad happening to you. I...damn it, I know it's stupid, me caring about you that doesn't make that more likely, but...it feels like...: He shivers, curls up more tightly against her shoulder.
anticipating_night
:Have bad things specifically happened to people you cared about more than other people in your experience?:
small-and-alone
:I mean, I know it's not - causally my fault - and it's biased, right, I'm more likely to - see the bad things, if it's someone I know, I'm not stupid, just...: Shudder.
small-and-alone
:Feels like it has, anyway. My parents - both died the same year - they were the only two deaths that year, well, of adults...:
small-and-alone
:It's scary that you're so good and - there's only one of you in the whole entire world:
small-and-alone
Snuggle. For the moment, Ma'ar doesn't seem to have anything else to say.
If she peeks again, his gyroscope is still a bit off-centre, but less so.
anticipating_night
"Gyroscope is going back to normal, a bit," she reports, when it does occur to her a minute later.
anticipating_night
"I wonder if it wobbles out of place a lot and I'm just not looking when it does."
small-and-alone
"Probably sometimes, but I think not that often? It - felt different from how I usually feel."
small-and-alone
"Not more scared, I used to be more scared than that all the time, but - more confused?"
small-and-alone
"- Being scared isn't destabilizing at all? Or, I mean, maybe it is for other people, but...for me it just feels like it simplifies everything."