She writes out more math problems for him, chattering in Tantaran about how she was taught to do this-and-that.

It's really helpful having her translate in Mindspeech as she talks; Ma'ar has been trying to listen in and pick up Tantaran since he arrived in the country, and already understood significantly more than he could speak, but he's starting to find it much easier to remember words and use them himself. He's getting faster and more fluent with the math problems too, and is so pleased with himself about it. 

Oh good! Since they're at her house rather than in the Tower, when it's actually lunchtime she makes eggs and greens and gives him most of them.

He thanks her and goes at his plate with gusto, though he has to slow down halfway through it, he's still getting used to getting even two meals a day consistently and he's so full. 

:Maybe you can teach me how you do a shield?: he says after. :I figured out how to do shields a bit but it's exhausting so I think I must be doing something wrong: 

"I've never tried keeping them up very long so I don't actually know how tiring mine are, but sure, say when you have your Sight up -"

Ma'ar nearly always has his Sight up, Sight by itself is only a little tiring. "Ready." 

She recreates her shield, eggshell-tight.

:Oh! Yours does look different, it's - very tidy? Or...smooth, I am not sure. Like linen cloth instead of a basket woven of rushes?: Ma'ar starts trying to imitate it. 

"I think of it like an eggshell!" she says. "I learned to do it like that for Thoughtsensing and it turns out to be kind of the same."

"Huh. You do have good shields for that. I don't know if mine are good. Hard to look at them myself." 

"If you want me to I can check but you mustn't stab me if it turns out they are not very good."

"I promise I won't." Ma'ar fidgets. Switches back to Mindspeech, it's still exhausting trying to keep up in spoken Tantaran. :If it helps you feel safer I can put my knife on the other side of the room: This is clearly an offer he finds nervewracking to make, but his expression is very sincere. 

"You look like that would be scary?" she says. She's not very intimidating, or at least she doesn't think she is.

:I think you probably aren't going to try to hurt me and if I want to ask you for favours then I shouldn't do things that scare you: 

"I'm not gonna hurt you."

Yes, well, anyone who feels like it can just say that, Ma'ar thinks but doesn't add out loud. It does seem like Azabel is upset about the knife; maybe she never learned to fight with knives so they just seem pointlessly scary to her? 

He unhooks it from his tunic belt, still sheathed, and leaves it on the counter opposite, before sitting down and closing his eyes. 

"Okay, say when - I like to try to think something boring for this but I don't know if you care -"

Shrug. "Ready." 

He doesn't shield as tightly as she does; plenty to avoid leaking any surface thoughts to a passive read, but he habitually keeps his Othersenses open enough to feel nearby people before they're in sight or earshot, and at his current skill level this involves shielding less effectively; his shield feels springier and a bit more porous, or translucent, than hers. 

Pooooke. "Yours isn't as thorough as mine, but I think I could puncture it if I were trying harder. Are you just using Thoughtsensing to tell whether there's people around always?"

:...Yes: He tenses a little. :I don't like not knowing who's nearby. I - I wasn't reading your mind at all, I promise, I - usually only try to read people if they're bigger and stronger than me and I think they might want to hurt me: 

He's scared that she's going to be very angry and shout at him, or that this will turn out to be some other school rule he had no idea of, but he doesn't want to lie to her, and besides she could get through his shields if she wanted and read it straight from his mind, so it's safer not to lie too. 

"It's okay, I don't think you'd be getting through my shield without me noticing. I use just a little to see if people are around sometimes too, whether somebody is there is not what they're thinking."

Ma'ar nods, relaxing a little. :Thank you for checking, I'll try to practice that kind too: Aaaaah it's making him feel antsy that his knife is all the way over there, even though that's objectively very dumb. He sits on his hands. 

"Are you okay?" What HAPPENED to this kid.

"Fine." How can she tell, Ma'ar didn't think his face was showing any feelings. :- Can I get my knife back now. It's okay if you say no: he adds quickly, :this is your house: 

"Yeah, it's fine. You could get the kind that people sometimes carry around for cutting meat and stuff, that would be less - alarming."