Probably this means she screwed up somehow but she is too drained and emotionally wrung-out to figure out how to fix it. She holds him and tries to think through whether she should kiss him. The argument against is that he seems very sad and lost in thought and maybe it'll make him feel that she is being frivolous. The argument in favor is that he has just offered to try to help her prevent the war and you really should kiss someone who offers that. 

Eventually Ma'ar breaks this deadlock. 

:- I want - it feels as though it would help - I want to kiss you right now. And...other things... But I would understand if you are - not in the mood for that: 

:You just offered to steal a spaceship and try to prevent the war with me. Of course I am in the mood.:

Kiss.

He laughs and kisses her back. Twists and pins her to the bed and goes on kissing her.

It's a very convenient fact about Mindspeech that kissing does not have to interrupt a conversation. :Well, 'spaceship'. I expect it has far fewer luxurious amenities than yours: 

And then, for the next while, Ma'ar is too distracted to have any commentary. 

Unsurprisingly being a contemptible pathetic emotional wreck also interferes with enjoying sex though - not as much as she might have guessed, if she'd ever had time to contemplate how she would be affected by being a contemptible pathetic emotional wreck. It helps that she suspects Ma'ar would disagree that she is a contemptible pathetic emotional wreck. It helps that while trying to communicate about their feelings didn't work or anything ridiculous like that it did involve him saying incidentally that he respected her as a person or he wouldn't take her along on the trip - and that's true, that's how Mhalir thinks, it'd be surprising if Ma'ar took along someone he thought was boring or annoying or stupid just for company or just for sex.

The other Carissa has a kingdom and a child and a husband who loves her and it is awfully tempting to pretend she has that, but she's not that pathetic yet. And it feels like there's a kind of mental motion of - feeling safe here, feeling wanted here - that isn't just about deluding herself, though she can only hold onto it for a bit at a time.

Ma'ar can sort of tell that something is wrong, distantly, but mostly he's confused and upset and has just spent a day on a spaceship feeling bizarrely, stupidly lonely, and he wants this so badly - just a little while when there doesn't need to be any thought, any planning, any strategy save for the next five minutes - 

- and afterward he holds her, cuddled up, and finally cries a little, though it's mostly silent and not all that noticeable save for the dampness of tears against her shoulder.

She is not at all sure what to make of that but she holds him and cuddles him and lets her brain spin in circles about how they'll leave and find something too late and Hell'll be gone and about how they'll find more Golarions and bring the war there too and -

- eventually she is crying too.

It helps, in some obscure incomprehensible way...

...and Ma'ar still feels like something is off-kilter, as though somehow the words they're saying to each other are part of a mechanism that isn't quite lined up. But he doesn't know how to express this and so he says nothing. 

:I need to go in the morning: he tells her, a long time later. :I can stay until then: 

:I want to show you Absalom: she says, even though it's probably a terrible moment for that when they've just been lying here quietly crying for a while. :I'm not allowed but probably Leareth would be all right with it if you were supervising.:

Ma'ar's breath catches. :I - would like that. If we could do it before we go. And - I think Aroden is not expected to arrive for another day...: 

She nods, then realizes he probably can't see her. :In the morning, maybe?:

:I will ask Leareth in the morning: Ma'ar agrees. 

Then they can sleep. She doesn't need a spell to manage it, tonight, though she is definitely excessively clingy.

Ma'ar is unbothered by this, and is some amount clingy as well. He always sleeps alone, and never thought it bothered him. And yet. 

(He also doesn't have a Ring of Sustenance, and so unless Carissa takes hers off, he's going to fall asleep sooner and stay asleep three times as long as she does.) 

She is tempted but doesn't do that because it'd be kind of silly. 

When she wakes up she takes the extra time to prepare some spells and take a bath and poke her face until it doesn't look like she's been crying a lot, and then clean the sheets with magic, and then dry her hair and make it look nice and crawl back into bed beside him and read a book. There are Carissas out there who think it is very pathetic of her to be trying this hard but she's going to ignore their entirely hypothetical judgment.

And eventually Ma'ar wakes up - holds very still for a second as he extends his mage-sight and Thoughtsensing, and orients - and rolls toward her and smiles. :Morning: 

:Morning. Still want to go see Absalom with me?:

:Yes! But I need to go speak with Leareth first. Would you mind waiting for me?:

What else is she going to do. :Of course.:

Ma'ar kisses her and then goes off to have his meeting with Leareth. 

And a while later, to his Carissa: 

:Are you busy?: 

:No, what's up?:

:I just spent a few hours catching up with Ma'ar - the adult one, I mean. I do not have anything else I need him for until Aroden arrives, and he wants to take the other Ca– he wants to take Catalina to Absalom. What do you think...?:

:- I can't think what'd go wrong? Which on the one hand seems like not sure enough, given the stakes, but on the other hand - if we want to chain her to the wall we should just do that, like she said, and otherwise....I bet Ma'ar'll like Absalom. And it'll be good for her too.: