"Yes, actually, I do!"

Ma'ar takes her hand - not seeming to think anything of this action - and escorts her out of the suite. Leareth's Work Room isn't far down the hall and he has a key; he still casts a Velgarth illusion over both of them so that no servants will incidentally notice them walking around. 

He unlocks the Work Room, which is bare stone inside, and spends a minute or so with his eyes closed, surveying the shields with his Othersenses. 

"...Wow. This is - kind of terrifyingly impressive work." 

She's studying it too. "I guess if you have thousands of years to do things you get - really good at them."

"I suppose so! I hope to someday be this good. - Anyway, I think the shields can take anything I can throw at them and probably ten times more than that. You should stand back - over there ought be enough distance for safety..." 

And he waits for her to have moved, and the focuses, drops into a balanced stance - 

- and throws a truly spectacular amount of lightning at the wall. 

And then keeps doing it, for almost an entire minute. 

She's so jealous. (Not that it's very hard to kill lots of people will lightning bolts with her magic, but he has so much more control over it and he effectively gets his spell slots back from Recharge Innate Magic and she's as jealous of this as she is of Queen Carissa which is really really saying something.)

After a minute or so of that he stops, makes a face, and then sags back against the wall and rubs his forehead with both hands. "Ow. I am not sure if Recharge Innate Reserves even fixes backlash! You Golarion wizards are very lucky that casting spells does not tire you out." 

"I guess, but we mostly can't do that at all!" She's so jealous.

He rubs his forehead and winces again, and then takes a few steadying breaths, gathers his concentration, and casts the more powerful first-level spell that Aroden gave him.

It helps somewhat; it doesn't totally make the backlash go away but he does feel less tired and less drained, not quite like but not entirely unlike he'd rested for an hour.

...Well, that's something; if he were in a fight it would make a huge difference. 

"I think Lesser Restoration may be a necessary component of the full effect," he admits. "But it is a second-circle spell and Aroden did not want to call anything attention to this by giving me multiple cleric levels to start with. ...I think I am done now, in any case." 

"Makes sense. We could get a wand of Lesser Restoration, maybe, in Absalom, to have on hand for an emergency."

"- Oh, that is probably a good idea - how long would it take to make that trip, would anything still be open at this time...?" 

"Adventurers keep weird hours, I bet some place is open." 

"I can Gate us over. ...I am not sure I can do both ways without being very tired, do you have any Teleports...?" 

"Do I ever, I can't use my spells at all. I'll take us." And she disguises them first just in case and then drops them back in Absalom.

It's still just as startlingly lovely the second time. 

Ma'ar finds himself reaching for Carissa's hand again. :All right - where to?: 

:Same place as we bought your ring.:

:All right:

Ma'ar glances around, orients, and then heads toward that place, his fingers still entwined with Carissa's. He seems more relaxed than he has at any other point today. 

Absalom's nice and passersby will think they're dating and - she should nip that in the bud before it goes anywhere, there are lots of things that are useful to pretend but it is pathetic to decide that's like them being true -

She finds the shop and wants to buy out all their wands but that might be conspicuous so she just gets two.

Ma'ar has no idea what will or won't be conspicuous here so he mostly lets Carissa take the lead and also reads people's minds a lot. 

- he catches a few glimpses of Carissa's thoughts in the process, he's not really trying to but Velgarth Thoughtsensing isn't that discriminating when you're just skimming for nearby surface thoughts. He - is still confused. It doesn't seem productive to bring up now. 

:We could do different disguises and look for another place that is still open and buy more?: he suggests once the transaction is dealt with. 

:- sure, why not.: She finds a place to prepare more spells, which she's very fast at now, casts Disguise Self and Disguise Other. Now they're two men, Qadiran, and can hit up another magic shop, still holding hands if they feel like it.

Ma'ar does feel like, he decides! He's still reading everyone's mind and if the locals seem to be reacting badly they can stop. 

:- I like watching you prepare spells: he remarks as they head for the next magic shop. 

:Huh! I guess it looks cool but mostly people can't see it. Maybe if we get bored on the trip I can teach you a little arcane magic too, why not.:

:That would be so many kinds of magic! It does look very interesting, though: He squeezes her hand a little. 

And she goes to pick up another couple of wands. The locals do not think much of anything of two men holding hands; it's Absalom.