Nod. "I would certainly rather not have awkward interactions, I just wasn't sure if it was - responsible not to."

"I'm guessing you're checking on her once in a while - it seems probably important to make sure she eats, but I figure you can bring her food at meals or nudge her to come out and eat with you, and then that's also an opportunity to make sure she's...not doing anything more worrying than hiding a lot." Shrug. "And hopefully she'll feel less awkward with her Ma'ar." 

"She's got a ring, she doesn't actually have to eat. I don't quite know what her Ma'ar thinks of her but if he respects her as a person then I bet it'll help."

"I mean, I have a ring too but Yfandes still starts worrying about me if I'm not eating - she says I like eating and it's just if I'm depressed that I don't bother." He rolls his eyes a bit about this. 

"Yeah, skipping one meal happens sometimes but I almost never skip all of them.

Will she....stop being depressed....once she has processed her feelings and stuff?"

"...It'll probably help? I don't know, if seeing that is - the kind of thing you get over." 

Carissa looks desperately confused, but she nods.

"- I mean, I think Leareth would find a way to cope fine. I'm...less sure that I would. Or it'd take decades. I don't know which of us she's more like." 

"...I would have thought more like me, judging from my Carissa." Leareth smiles tiredly at her, reaches out to briefly squeeze her hand. "But - I am less sure now." 

"I don't think of myself as a very emotional person but she's doing something weird? She - stopped believing there's anyone out there on her side, I think. Which - maybe there isn't."

"I mean, I am almost certain there are people somewhere out there in the multiverse who share her values. Perhaps even powerful people. But - I suppose there may not be anyone who shares her values, is powerful enough for this to matter, and cares about her as a person. And...it makes sense that this would feel very awful, I think." 

"I would just - change my values. I think - maybe Mhalir let her not do that. Because she could expect to be protected even if she didn't agree with him. Until -"

"My read is actually that he still wants to unconditionally protect her, even though he feels very betrayed! But...he does feel betrayed and hurt, I think, and - it makes sense that she is scared. And - I am not sure it is reasonable, or a good resources tradeoff, for him to want to protect her this way..." 

"And it's not going to feel sustainable, to her, to be relying on his - arguably unendorsed unexplainable goodwill -"

"Of course." 

Leareth sighs. "All right, we had better get set up for supper here - I hope this is not too awkward." 

"Oh, we still have the thing to watch movies on, right? Maybe we should see if Carissa can find a movie to show Vanyel that has pretend magic in it. Apparently those are popular on Earth." 

"And probably very silly. But, sure, that would at least be something to do." 

:Maybe I had better find an excuse to be busy, though: he adds in Mindspeech to Carissa. :I worry it contributed to her being sad, before, seeing us together - probably feeling jealous...: 

:- yeah, I bet she's jealous. I don't know if we should accommodate her about that, though.:

:I mean, I would not want to seriously inconvenience our operations for it, but - it is not very costly, I am behind on things: 

:All right. I'll miss you.: 

Other Carissa does not emerge for dinner, so it's just them and Vanyel and Ma'ar.

"Aww, I wanted to ask her about Earth movies." 

Ma'ar pushes back his empty plate and gets up. "Well, I'm going to go ask her if she can show us a movie. They're really great and I want to get to show off to Vanyel." 

And at least if Carissa feels awkward about him, he thinks, it's more likely to be because she's sleeping with the grownup him than because he's going to be very involved in melting Hell. 

He knocks politely on her door. 

"Yes?"

"Our friend Vanyel is over and I've been bragging to him about Earth movies and I was wondering if you would be up for helping us show him one? He's a really really powerful mage so I thought it'd be fun to find one of the movies that's pretend fantasy magic." 

"- sure."

So she comes on out and helps them operate the TV and they can watch...The Last Unicorn, or The Sword and the Sorcerer, or The Wizard of Oz, or The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. "More of these might be pretend magic but if they don't put it in the title I don't know how to tell..."