"That means more than nothing coming from you, Champion, but it'd mean more than that if I thought stuffed toys could really dislike anyone."

Oh death is he using that as a name.  That's got to be cut off immediately.  "We've been calling him Fia and me Aten."

"All right.  Aten.  It stands that the people here are not merely operating under desperate conditions and are pieces of work in their own right; of the two of you you're the better suited one now that we've made it in."  He takes the four cards and puts down three rhombuses.  "Why didn't you take the magic?"

"Couldn't."

"Any of it?"

"...We saw the 'Endure' and the thing the commander had."  Though now he's looking at Feradi for what he could mean, of course.

Yeah, there's totally something here that's much easier to look at than whatever those guys had, though still not easy to interpret.  It's something about - it's not strength, in his muscles directly, and it's not... not-getting-hurt, in his everything directly...

Seems like magic, yeah.  Take.  "We were concentrating on the language and keeping warm.  Give me my shoes back."

"Certainly."  Swap.

He plays a heart 7.

Feradi takes all four.  "Was that the only thing you noticed the commander had?"

"...As we think you mean that question, yes."

"He has the single most anxious disposition I've ever observed.  I suppose most people'd get rid of it, back home, so we may expect to see more here."  Two antis and a rhombus, all low.  "I don't know that him being more afraid of us than we are of him will do us much straightforward good, though."

"Hm."  Square 3.  "...Fia notes that unsure-footed people are often harder instead of easier to work with."

Eventually they are out of cards, and Aten has gotten much better at figuring out some patterns, but there's still an outcome that cuts against his expectations every once in a while.  Feradi declares that he's lost, which was at least the expected outcome based on how many cards he earned.

And then they can go and try to find the patrols guy.

Patrols guy wants to attach them to separate patrols from each other, since they have not evinced having different abilities from one another, both speak Chelish, and aren't exciting enough to build a whole new squad around.

"We'd prefer to stick together on the first one."

"You're not a complete party, two of you."

...Eye contact -

"We'll each go on two.  With whoever you would have sent one of us along with."

"...they overlap and go in opposite directions."

"How often are they?"

"We send out a patrol from here or one back where it came from in each direction every fifteen minutes if there's nothing wrong."

Take take time system - wow these years are really long.  "And how often does a single person usually patrol?"

"And how long do they take."

"Most of the soldiers are on patrol at least out and back one fort along every day and often more. Takes a few hours each way depending on the snow."