"Yes. And then Leareth asked Iomedae who to marry and She suggested me. In a rather indirect fashion."

Nod. Leareth didn't go into much detail on it and Mhalir hadn't felt any urge to ask. 

...Still keeping his thoughts very tightly to himself, he checks what Carissa is thinking. She wasn't even tracking or paying attention, during most of his conversation with Leareth. 

She is confused about why they're married and even more confused that Iomedae matchmakes but she's not in the mood to really feel curious about it. She's vaguely wondering how the other Carissa feels about the destruction of Hell. Probably she can stay home and then comfort her Mhalir after which isn't as upsetting as being there.

"We thought maybe I should borrow you for the next while," she says to Mhalir. "So that, uh, the two of you can get some space."

Her offer is a relief and also kind of terrifying, but - glance at Leareth's face - if Leareth thinks it's a good idea, then Mhalir trusts him. 

"I appreciate it," he says stiffly. "Thank you." 

"One moment." Leareth meets Mhalir's Carissa's eyes, trying to somehow convey from his expression alone that he's talking to her and not just Mhalir, which probably does not work at all. "Carissa, we - I am going to put back the compulsion against casting spells."

It's very tempting to - ask for permission, ask if she understands, try to reassure her... But this Carissa won't appreciate any of that, Leareth thinks, and so he doesn't. 

Carissa should probably be trying to figure out how the new version of Mhalir is conceptualizing the thing, which was of course also an attempt to kill him, it might end up being really important especially if Mhalir doesn't want her anymore. She feels too numb and tired though. 

...Oh no. 

<I - Carissa - I still...> No, he can't lie to her. <I - do not not want you anymore, all right? I am just...> 

He doesn't know how to say it. 

"I am going to leave her head," he says instead, to the other, slightly older Carissa, who looks so much the same and yet different in some indefinable way. Maybe the difference is in how she looks at Leareth. "I will come out her ear and - you just need to hold me up to yours - it will not hurt and I am not going to seize control of your body against your will, I promise." 

What an incredibly reassuring parting note.

"All right." She sits down on the floor next to younger Carissa and waits.

And a small, wet, squishy, sort of greenish-grayish slug oozes out of Carissa's ear. Mhalir is about the length of her hand. He looks very little, and very fragile. 

Wow. 

Feeling squeamish about this is a stupid feeling. She reaches for him and holds him up to her ear and she doesn't have Calm Emotions prepared but she knows what it does to her and can sort of try to do it without the spell, smoothing out the feelings, because it does not actually matter if Mhalir is an ooze.

By the time Mhalir is settled she has mostly succeeded at this and is instead contemplating whether Yeerks make separate Will saves or just aid you on yours and, more urgently, what to say to younger Carissa.

Mhalir spreads out. Gets comfortable. 

...He's impressed. This is Carissa, but - older, wiser, a Carissa who knows who and what she is, and isn't afraid.

(A mother. She and Leareth have a baby together. Wow.) 

Fourth circle, he notes. Of course. She must have been kept very safe, ever since she and Leareth married. And she's calm and in control and already thinking the clever questions. 

...With a sort of swallowed mental sigh, he opens his thoughts to her, because somehow he's gotten used to doing that all the time, and it hurts, and feels like suffocating, to close himself off again the way he did with Alloran. The way he has been with Carissa for the last day. 

<We make separate Will saves> he answers for her. <Or are separate spell targets entirely, for enchantments and such.> 

It– No, he can't say that it saved his life, once, or their lives. It did the opposite. A devil momentarily confused; a Dimension Door into hard vacuum; and then nothing, for a long time, a time that must have held the trial he still doesn't remember. 

This is Carissa and he's so grateful for her offer, but she's Leareth's Carissa, and - he misses his Carissa, urgently, painfully, he wants her back and he doesn't know how to ever make things all right. 

Well, I'm not much of a therapist and was pretty out of ideas last time we got a sad Leareth but I'll try to talk to her. 

"I have to say, mine's hotter," she says, rather than anything about anything. 

It would be nice to be able to trust yourself but - she's not really sure what other hers want, or who they belong to. It feels faintly ridiculous to - what, pretend that the thing 'alternate universe versions' translates to is 'casual friends', but - 

"Ma'ar who isn't sixteen is pretty good looking."

"Ma'ar who isn't -"

"The one I know. I guess I'd peg him at forty? I didn't ask. Probably your Leareth is still the hottest if not off literal face shape because that's some terrifying Gating."

"I bet Ma'ar'll be almost that good by the time he's forty. ....I guess we have lots of mental enhancement magic to get him there and he's learning from his older self and in the original timeline he was awfully busy."

"How'd you, uh, end up with him."

"Nefreti Clepati, who is an asshole, landed on him and then dragged me through some kind of extra-long Gate to help him out and then vanished. It took Leareth eight months to track us down."

"Right. He said - something about that."

"They are partial about you and they want to protect you and take care of you."

"And we might invade Hell, yeah, but - only if it's a good idea? I'm really worried about - picking every fight we run into and then inevitably losing one of them..."