Ranara and her little daughter Azabel move to Urtho's Tower when the latter can say six words ("up", "mama", "milk", "no", "now", and "please") and hasn't started to walk yet. Ranara sets up to teach little children to read, ones who don't have evident Gifts yet - Ranara herself has Mindspeech, is all, with about a classroom's worth of range. Azabel sits in on classes, worn on her mother's back or later plopped in a corner with toys or, when she's only four, plopped in a corner with a book, younger than the other kids in the class. When Azabel has in fact sat through her mother's curriculum she is turned somewhat loose, to walk very carefully up and down and around the Tower, exploring.
She's about to say "sure why not" when she notices that this is, possibly, not just about Shann wanting company while he walks through the gardens. "Um," she says.
Ma'ar glances up from where he's packing away his notes. :- Did something weird just happen? You're making a face:
:I hadn't thought about it! I've never gone on a date. I guess he's nice? I don't know him that well:
:It's not like a list, it's like - being comfortable with him and stuff? Also I think it might matter if he's cute, which I also hadn't thought about:
:That makes sense. I - haven't thought about that kind of thing either. I guess maybe you could tell him to ask at the end of the class session, and maybe by then you'll be able to tell?:
:I told him I needed to think, yeah, though he looked very awkward so maybe among dating-age people 'I'll think about it' is understood to mean 'no':
Ma'ar makes a face. :What would you be supposed to say if you actually want to think about it, then? It seems stupid for it to be a secret code!:
:Maybe if you don't instantly know the answer is yes that means you're below some threshold for how interested you have to be for it to make sense to date? I don't know! I'm going to ask Ranara:
:Oh, that's probably a good idea. ...Can you tell me what she says, too, now I'm curious: No one has tried the same thing with him yet, but if they do he's not likely to handle it any more gracefully.