Urtho is a quick study and seems to understand it very quickly! It probably helps that Velgarth mages have Othersenses, similar to permanent Detect Magic but possibly even more flexible, and his is extremely well trained. At one point he jumps up and slides out a large piece of slate set in a frame and starts scrawling out diagrams on it in chalk. 

(Mhalir is thinking that they're adorable, being so excited about cool magic at each other, and probably this is the best possible way to leave Urtho with warm feelings toward the bossy meddling aliens who showed up spying on his country, and toward Carissa in particular.) 

It's a good thing that Mhalir is keeping track of that! Carissa suspects if she tries thinking about politics she'll get mad at Urtho again and anyway all she wants to do right now is think about magic so she's going to do that.

Eventually one of the hertasi politely interrupts and suggests they take this conversation to one of the conference rooms and continue it over supper, it's that time. 

Urtho is not tracking the passage of time at ALL and is a little surprised at this, but gets up without complaint and ushers Carissa down the hall, without pausing in his questions. 

Carissa doesn't need to eat but doesn't volunteer this; probably it'd make Urtho jealous and possibly it'll distract him from himself consuming the food he does need, and she is curious what Tantaran food is like.

Tantaran food is delicious! There's a creamy squash soup, and salad with berries and flowers for garnish, and roast duck, and pie for dessert.

Urtho would probably be better at not letting his food go cold on his plate if he were a Mindspeaker and could talk at the same time. As it is, he does some amount of talking with his mouth full, gesturing excitedly with his fork. 

Carissa still thinks he is very reckless and annoying but she's having a hard time feeling upset about anything, today, and magic is good.

Eventually Mhalir suggests that they'd better head out and check in with Ma'ar, who may want to come back to the ship tonight for an update. 

Urtho is so not done talking about magic, and looks a bit plaintive about it, but agrees that it's late and they have other priorities in addition to comparing their magic systems. Which he would like to do more of, later! 

Sure. They can do more later.

Mhalir calls for a shuttle pickup, and then while they're waiting out in the courtyard with Lady Cinnabar babysitting them again, contacts Ma'ar on his comms device and asks if he would like to come back to the ship. 

Ma'ar says yes instantly, and then amends it with 'in a candlemark once I've wrapped up this meeting.' 

Mhalir says this is fine and they'll send a shuttle for him in an hour.

Carissa thinks vaguely that hopefully having gotten things straightened out will make Ma'ar feel better, he seemed pretty badly off yesterday. Unlike Urtho, who seems to have bounced back immediately. Probably that's not fair but running wars when you have no idea what you're doing also isn't fair.

Mhalir thinks his feelings about Urtho are probably unfair as well. He suspects Urtho is pretty upset underneath, but is the sort of person who finds it easier to not-think about painful unpleasant topics by instead thinking about exciting shiny ones like MAGIC, whereas Ma'ar...is not going to let himself avoid thinking about important things if they're not addressed yet. Also...this part is especially uncharitable, but he thinks Urtho's worldview lets him not feel as much personal responsibility for the entire mess? Because he doesn't see himself as a leader, he sees himself as a person who gave the former King his best advice, which led to the war being declared, and then reluctantly stepped up to lead it when the King was incapacitated. This is all guesses since he hasn't been in Urtho's head but he feels like it fits. 

Carissa judges people for incompetence a lot more harshly than she judges them for having values that result in horrible things happening. They're entitled to their horrible values but they're not entitled to be incompetent. She is not sure this is at all reasonable but it's how she feels.

Mhalir thinks he agrees, or shares at least some of the same intuitions? He feels that competent people with horrible values can be negotiated with (even Asmodeus agreed to terms, in the end); they'll act predictably, taking openings you leave for them to advance their interests, they'll be strategic, and if you make it more strategic for them to play nice then they'll do that. Whereas incompetent people might do anything. 

Yes, exactly. Competent people usually don't blow up the world in order to achieve things that aren't worth that.

(Even Asmodeus wouldn't have done that, Mhalir thinks, and doesn't share that thought with Carissa because it's a reminder of the things that still make her really sad.) 

They reach the ship. Mhalir debriefs with his staff on how the Urtho 'negotiations' went. 

Ma'ar rejoins them on the ship an hour and a half after their departure from the Tower, when Mhalir is just about wrapped up with his meeting and can call it short. 

He's not visibly upset like he was yesterday. He's...not visibly anything, really, he's holding his body still and his expression impassive, politely thanking the shuttle pilot for picking him up. His eyes go to Carissa and he nods to her but doesn't seem sure what to do next. 

Do you know what that means?

<I think he is doing the thing I used to do, of - not letting himself feel emotions because they are a distraction? Which is sort of reasonable given that he had many responsibilities today, but...I think it is not good to do it for weeks at a stretch and we should try to tell him to stop? I am not sure how though.> 

"Did you want to come back to our room and compare notes," she says to Ma'ar.