"Indeed, I think the world should look very different if there were!"

She's as personable as ever as they continue on, but it's increasingly obvious she's flagging sooner than others would, even another wizard- shorter answers, longer pauses before a subject change, starting to slump a bit in her saddle.

Worrying.  Not very much so, he's known people who manage patrols fine despite ending them this exhausted, but only a few of them, and it might be something different.

He stops distracting her for a while, in case that helps her conserve her strength for the ride, but it doesn't seem to.

"Are you feeling all right?  Should we stop and eat something?"

"Hm?  Yes, 'm fine?"

"You're not falling asleep, or having trouble feeling your hands," no, she got an Endure, that shouldn't be it, "or dizzy, or anything like that?"  And does she look like she's having trouble thinking about the question?  Although she sometimes does that anyway.

(Probably she's just the normal amount of tired and would rather he not draw attention to it. But it doesn't cost much to make sure, and he's responsible for the three of them.)

She looks, if anything, embarrassed and faintly defensive; she straightens in her saddle a bit and tries for a smile.  "Oh.  No, nothing such, this is as usual for me.  'M something a wimp as wizards are."  

"Ah, I'm sorry, I'll stop fussing," apologetic smile.

He'll still dismount a few minutes later and walk for a while -- it's not as if they're going faster than walking pace anyway, and the ground in this area is bad enough that he suspects the horses are going to get tired before they get to the next fort.  If he lets his mare have an easier time now, she can carry the poor tired wizard later if her own horse starts having trouble with it.

She manages a small return smile this time.  "No need to apologize for.  Of course you do seriously your charge."  Her horse plods stolidly along after Ferrer's, not seeming especially worn down quite yet; even with her kit, a beast used to carrying a grown man in armor would hardly notice her.

(It's perfectly normal, probably.  Wizards are noodly, it's just a fact about the world, and if Tariq sometimes gave her shit about it, well she was the reason they could get far enough out for it to matter in the first place, and she'd throw that right back at him.  Even archmages are comparatively more fragile than the kind of sword guy that parties with archmages, probably.  And if Txell or Janer or Farre y Puig never look as exhausted coming off a patrol as she feels, well, they're Chelish, they wouldn't.)

He does do his charge seriously, and is glad to be seen for it.  (And some walking will keep him warm even if it's not needed.)

Does it keep looking like she's all right and just more tired than usual?  It's all right if she can't manage much keeping a lookout for demons, with three of them still up to the task (are Cambra and Ferrer still looking normal?), as long as she's not going to fall off her horse or be too disoriented for a fight.

Yeah, Cambra and Ferrer are looking tired, but the normal amount of tired for somebody who's been riding seven hours of the day so far; Khalida inexplicably looks like it's been more like ten or twelve hours, but doesn't otherwise seem ill or injured.  (She'd probably be stumbling a bit if she was on her own feet at this point, but she's still scanning the horizon every so often.)

"Tell me about your horse?"  she asks, a few minutes later.  "Where did you get her?"

"Egede, from a cleric about to go all the way to Lastwall by river. He'd gotten a sponsor for the war college."  If she wants to have a conversation, he will as always be happy to do that, but if she just wants him to tell her lighthearted stories about his horse and his travel adventures to help her stay awake, he can manage that too.

Yeah, she's listening and responding to questions and such (and can share a couple of stories about mishaps with rented camels) but would really prefer he hold up more than a fair share of the conversation for now. 

The sun slips below the horizon while they're traveling, but it sets slowly enough this far north that the next fort is solidly in view when they need to pause so she can cast a Light on Ferrer's bridle.

He likes camels, but they sure are that way.  Not that horses aren't given to mishaps, but very different ones.  There was the time he traded for one in the River Kingdoms that turned out to be trained according to some deliberately confusing local tradition -- he thinks they were probably running some sort of scam, really, one place selling horses to foreigners and another one in the next village offering to buy them cheaply when they turned out to be too frustrating -- but he and the horse made it work...

He walks along, keeps up the conversation, and keeps an eye out for whether she looks likely to fall off her horse. (As well as for demons, of course.)  She seems enough of a wizard that she might lose the ability to ride before the ability to talk, at least if the occasional sudden trouble with words is unrelated to tiredness.  But it looks like they're going to make it just fine.

Sudden Words Trouble maybe happens a bit more often the more tired she is, but it's a little hard to be sure with only a day and a half to go on; her grammar is distinctly getting worse but it might be just that she's not putting in the effort to remember where Taldane adverbs go.

When they finally pause for a Light, she slides down out of her saddle again rather than dismounting properly (her horse glumly tolerating this), but she's steady on her feet the few paces over to Ferrer's.  "Good boy.  Good boy, Apple, not too much farther now," Marcus can probably catch her murmuring. 

He makes sure her slide doesn't turn into a fall, and calls out his thanks for the Light.

Poor Apple does look rather glum and droopy.  "Try Kalta? She's rested enough. And not so energetic that she'll give you any trouble."  He gives his mare a fond look.

"Oh- are you sure?"  She's not about to argue, though, and offers Kalta a hand to sniff.

Kalta sniffs her hand and then pushes at it a touch impatiently.  Yes, small person, you've been around for days, she knows!  But maybe now she can get scritches before it's time to Go Places again?

"Of course."  He gives her a slightly amused smile and refrains from pointing out that he's a paladin and definitely not in the habit of saying things he's not sure he means.  (He would, if they were having a cheerful conversation over a meal, but right now she looks too tired for anything even slightly socially complicated.)

Awwwww.  Yes, Kalta can have so many scritches.  Under the harness?  Is that good?  "I apologize, haven't any carrots for thee, gentle lady."

The scritches are very good!

But also they should Go Places rather than continue to stand here in the cold indulging his horse, though he does take the opportunity to give her some scritches while that's happening.

Kalta is a bit taller than Apple, and Khalida looked so tired, and... if he asks "Can I just--" and reaches over in a telegraphed gesture to pick her up, will she let him put her up on Kalta?  Because she's small and light enough that he can absolutely do that without it even looking undignified.

"Oh!  Um.  Yes?"  It's a little embarrassing (and also kind of hot) (stop that he's a paladin) but it would actually be really helpful.  "I, um, I could do with only a leg to stand on-"  she glances back at Cambra, who is studiously pretending there's something interesting off on the eastern horizon- what the hell does she do with her arms.

That's enough of a yes that he can have her up in the saddle before she's done with all the additional words, and not give her much time to worry about what to do with her arms.   (She's very cute.  He is obviously going to continue being a paladin about this.  But this is how one should treat a baron's daughter, so Cambra should have no complaints.)

He makes sure she's settled properly, shoots her a grin, and picks up where he left off in his travel stories as they start moving again.

Khalida actually makes a little startled squeaky noise when she's hoisted, and immediately claps a hand over her mouth, starting to blush.  She doesn't look at all offended, though, and gives him an answering smile after a moment.

Oh no, that's adorable.  

His job here is nonetheless to watch the snow around them, but he can do that and some conversation and intermittent smiles, for the hour or so until they reach the fort.

One Worldwound fort is very like another, but the Mendevian ones aren't literally identical; this one is an irregular elongated shape perched atop a bluff.  It's more populous than the last one, but no less exhausted- presumably they're helping cover the patrol shortfall to the north- and they can rustle up enough wounded to half-fill a channel, once Khalida's been helped down from Kalta and gently steered into the mess hall.  (It's a tiny bit stronger than the last couple, about middling for a new cleric.)

It's always good to stand in a channel and feel some of his missing strength return to him.

He knows plenty of people here, including some of the wounded -- they exchange greetings and well wishes, but really he and Khalida and the men need a hot meal and then a good night's sleep, and he should focus on making that happen. 

Food is not hard to come by, for the cleric responsible for the unexpected channel and for her party.  They can sit down and eat.

Khalida isn't feeling particularly in the mood for More Stew, but she'll lay claim to a mug of whatever hot drink is going around (mint and roseroot, apparently), and perk up a bit once she's gotten some of it down.

"...oh.  I neglected to ask about getting the horses in-"  she glances around, doing mental math about whether they could've fit all the wounded in the stables.