:Uh, the enclaver member of our team is asleep so I'm not sure if she's going to be able to guarantee paying you back for the mana once we reach... civilization?:

....That's really confusing, and it's not even a form of confusing he was expecting from what Autumnsong told him. Though presumably Autumnsong didn't tell him everything because it's late, and she's tired too, and even if the weird visitors (he's definitely thinking of them as visitors and not as bandits) said something about it, it was probably just as confusing to her. 

:...I am not sure why you would have to do that? A heat-spell is not even tiring, and if it were I could just tap a node.:

Oh, uh, Bella said there was free mana lying around but that it was - gross somehow? I guess if you have a technique for that then - yeah, heat spell would be great.

:Oh no! Did she draw on the node? You need special training to do that, here, it is contaminated with the fallout from the Cataclysm.: He sighs, his mindvoice leaking a bit of put-upon frustration. :I should probably look at her and see if I need to cleanse her channels.: 

He'll give them a heat-spell first, though, they might be strangers entering the Pelagirs without permission but that doesn't mean he needs to be uncivilized to them.

...And then he can trot over to them through the deep snow, because he's an Adept and he's not actually scared of them. When he reaches them, he's visibly about ten or eleven years old, though his hair is already snow-white. This does not particularly interfere with him casting a weather-barrier that quickly brings the air temperature up to toasty. He leaves the barrier-shield up, and folds his arms, looking curiously at them. 

Oh no an unsupervised kid?? Not old enough to be REALLY delicious but still super should not be out alone - maybe the others are hiding? Maybe he's a tiny Orion, Orion had white-ish hair though Caio has no idea if that's related - right, mindreading, uh. Probably this is fine and the kid knows what he's doing, it's not like Caio knows what's going on.

It's slightly rude to read people's minds without asking, but Wingsong is curious and they might be dangerous. Though they don't really look dangerous. They look bedraggled and underfed and like they haven't been somewhere with proper hot springs or hertasi to fix their clothes in the last five years. 

The thought that he shouldn't be out alone gets a nonplussed and faintly offended look. :I am an Adept, you know. I can take perfectly good care of myself. What happened to all of you?: 

:We graduated from the Scholomance but we didn't wind up where we came from when we were inducted the way we ought to have.:

:...Can you explain that again but with more words? I have no idea what a Scholomance is or what being inducted means or how any of those things work. - is the 'Scholomance' a bad place, it sort of looks like you were somewhere very bad before this.: 

:I'm not sure I should actually talk about it if you don't already know what it is? I'm really confused but under some possible assumptions that could be dangerous:

:I am a Healing-Adept! I am not frightened of dangerous things. Very few things are more dangerous than the Pelagirs, anyway, and I have the power to fix them. Maybe I could help you figure out a way to fix whatever is wrong with your Scholomance?: 

This kid is probably around Diamantino's age. Not that Caio has seen Diamantino in four years. Anyway the heat spell is nice but they are still in this horrible forest and don't want to be. :I was sort of hoping you could tell us which way to go to reach, like, a city.:

Shrug. :I suppose there are cities in kingdoms not in the Pelagirs. The nearest not-Pelagirs is more than five hundred miles away and I have never been there for a Gate.: 

He frowns, thoughtful. :- If you promise to cause no harm, and all of you let me read your mind to check you mean it, I think you could come to the Vale. While we figure out if anyone can at least Gate you to a different Vale. You clearly all need to bathe.: 

Maybe with free mana lying around, even if it's icky somehow, you can just make a place safe, and that's where this kid grew up, somewhere safe. A lot of things would be different with free mana lying around, sort of like how plants grow on the surface of the Earth where there's sunshine and underground you'd have to make do with mushrooms and ration your closed-cycle biomass and whatnot. In fantasy stories evil creatures live underground but maybe they're just hungry and scared and have not realized that if they just go up there are plants growing everywhere.

Though here the plants have teeth? Maybe they don't have teeth in the Vale, whatever the Vale's deal is.

They do need baths though personally Caio would prioritize that somewhat lower than a goddamn fucking meal with a fruit in it. He showered just a week ago and it has been four years since fruit.

:We have fruit! And nuts, and roast quail stuffed with eggs, and - the hertasi will make you whatever you ask for, they love it -: 

He does still want to read everyone's mind to be sure they aren't planning some sort of sabotage, though. It's the duty of his people to make sure no one messes with the magic of the Pelagirs. 

:I can wake the girls up if - uh, can someone convey the lady from before my apology on her behalf about her reaction to being mind-read, she's really touchy about that and realistically will probably do it again if people keep trying to read her mind -:

:I think Autumnsong figured that out. I do not intend to keep reading her mind but I would rather not have to take your word for it that she only has friendly intentions toward us.: 

Well, she doesn't if they insist on reading her mind sort of like she also wouldn't if they kept grabbing her ass or something! He's not trying to say that it's just the obvious thought. :We're a graduation alliance, Bella's not going to randomly attack people who are being friendly to us.>

It's kind of common for the sort of people who end up in the Pelagirs when they're not supposed to be there to randomly attack people. ...It's probably more common when they knew they weren't supposed to be there and went there on purpose. These people really do not seem to have come here on purpose or to have any idea why the Tayledras find it alarming. 

:- It is our duty as a people, given to us from our Goddess, to cleanse the damaged lands of the Pelagirs and to prevent bandits and dark mages from using the magic toward their own ends: he explains patiently, sounding sort of like he's reciting a memorized speech. :We are not required to kill outsiders or anything, but - usually the only people who come this far are bandits and dark mages and they try to kill us first. I think you are not bandits and did not know you were not supposed to be here but that is why we were worried.: 

:Okay well we aren't bandits and we don't want to be here at all and we don't want to kill people!:

:Good. You do not really seem like bandits.: Except for the part where they really clearly need a bath, but it would probably be rude to mention that again. :Anyway if you wake the others and they can also promise not to hurt anyone then I think you should come to the Vale. And we can talk about how to try to get you home. It sounds like your home must be very very far away so I am not really sure how, but we can probably think of something.: 

:Are people going to read Bella's mind, she HATES that:

:Does she know how to shield? The normal kind of shielding without - biting people - I mean. I can ask anyone who is not good at controlling their Gift yet to stay away, but if she is not going to shield normally then it is sort of hard not to do it by accident.: 

:I have no idea what's normal around here?? Mindreading isn't a really common affinity where we're from:

He'd heard Mindspeech was rarer in other places but it still feels surprising. He makes a face. 

:I mean, I could try to explain how, but the normal way to teach people how to shield is to try to get through their shields until they figure it out and it might take longer without practicing that way.: 

:She might be able to whip something up but I don't know how long it'll take her.: