Nodnod.  Deep breath.

"I've four firsts.  So we needn't ask Endures of the forts.  Then my seconds for emergencies, unless we've need of a Bull's at some time."

"Oh!  We usually just... are cold all day.  I won't say no to magic, but you needn't, if you'd rather keep it for something else."

"Hm..."  She chews on a fingernail, gazing abstracted at nothing.  "I've scarcely used my Sleeps but I mislike going without any, and it sounds that this patrol hasn't its own wizard?  If I keep Sleep in first, that leaves a second free for an extra Glitterdust..."  She glances uncertainly at the squad leader.

     "Make better time if you're not freezing your- toes off, Learned."  A glance at the paladin as he amends whatever body part he was originally going to mention. "But better t'take another day than not make it there."

"...I suppose if the Mendevian forts needn't pack the channels, we could put the horses in them?"

It takes him a moment to parse the last sentence, and he's still not sure how it's related.  "Yes, we do that sometimes.  Keeps them fit."

"And he's right – you should probably have an Endure, Learned, you're Osirian and weigh nothing besides.  But for the rest of us, or me at least, I'd sleep better with an extra Glitterdust.  The whole patrol won't have Endures, so it won't be much difference on time."

"If you're sure...?  We had planned to swap between patrols and stay on the road as long as possible.  And certainly you'll be in the channels too, but it's still..."  She trails off.  Maybe he's from around here, she thought Taldor was on the Inner Sea but she could be wrong and anyway that doesn't mean anything about how far north it goes.  Maybe he's being stoic but you can't argue a man out of that.  And they're right that they should be more worried about demons than frostbite anyway.  "I call 'eyes' for Glitterdust, you'll remember or wish to practice?"  It's the Osiriani word, less because they expect the demons to understand Taldane than because she'd been used to it with Tariq and Omar and didn't want to risk losing her Taldane in combat.

"Yes, I'll be fine, and I'll tell you if I'm not," cheerful nod.  (He is perhaps being a little stoic, but you cannot argue him out of that without being his commanding officer, and he's been here long enough to make good progress on genuinely not minding.)

"I might as well practice just in case, but I figure it'll be straightforward enough – you call an unfamiliar word in combat, there's not a lot of things it could be, right."

"I'll attempt to not swear, then."  Small smile.  "My other best combat spell is Flaming Sphere, not so good against demons but I keep it for such as bears.  I can control it but it does frighten also the horses."

"Oh, so you'd swear in front of a paladin?"  An amused grin at both of them.  (Toes, indeed.)

And she opens her mouth to respond and about three and a half trains of thought collide- did he think I wouldn't and is he reading this as banter or flirting (but he's a paladin) and oh fuck there's more politics here I got too comfortable- and absolutely no words make it out into the air.  After a beat she closes her mouth and covers it with a hand.  Which does absolutely nothing to make her look less like a started rabbit.

The squad leader interjects, almost smoothly, "You should check the maps for the next leg- where does this fort keep them?"

Oh no, what did he do...  Hopefully it's just the sudden foreign language problem rather than him insulting her horribly somehow?

"Ah-- I'm sorry.  Yes, the commander has them, I-- should go ask."  By himself, because proposing showing the fort maps to Chelish soldiers would be not only badly taken but genuinely a bad idea, and probably this man knows that.  (And not that Marcus hasn't looked at the route before leaving for this trip, but this fort's maps are probably different and may have more useful local detail. Assuming the commander will let him see any of them, which is really not a guarantee, in Mendev.)

He will go do that.

Breakfast the next morning passes more or less without incident; the Chelish squad clusters together, making final decisions on who's taking which horses, and the cleric wanders in yawning between her divine and arcane spells, to grab some bread and wander out again.

Marcus clusters with them and watches her with only a polite greeting.  Watches them, too, to get a better feeling for how they interact with each other, rather than trying to join in immediately.

Once she's gone again, he asks the squad leader, a little quietly: "So, uh, did I insult her somehow, yesterday? Or something?"

"Doubt it.  She's got... trouble with Taldane.  Sometimes."  

One of the soldiers further down the table opens his mouth as though to add something and gets an actual full-bore glare from the man across from him. 

Wow, he's so curious about the glaring and there's no possible way to ask.

"Yeah, I noticed. Still better than my Osirian."  

"Anything else I should know?  Besides keep her from freezing and bring her back in one piece."

(Glared-at wisely puts some bread in his mouth instead.)

"She's fine in combat, doesn't happen with incantations- 'f she lost her head she'd never've made it this far."

"Forgets to eat sometimes, y'know how city wizards can get," another man volunteers slowly.  "Not much on the road, but- might remind her once y'get there."

Nods all around.  "Yeah, I can see that. She's got to be more wizard-ish than most of them, to have gotten this far her age, so she has more of their troubles too. Remind her to eat and to look at things that aren't books. Put in a word against exploding, maybe, if it's starting to look likely," bit of a smile.

One man snorts quietly at that, but Cambra shakes his head.  "Nah.  She knows."

Some whispers at the other end of the table resolve to:  "She ain't Abadaran so much.  Grew up there 'n can talk the lingo, is all."  

"Huh, all right.  And... I don't know much about Osirion... does she have that Qadiran thing where you can't touch her?"

This prompts a storm of meaningful looks, and more whispers, some of them heated, until the squad leader clears his throat and the table instantly falls silent.  

"Make like she's your baron's daughter."  One of the older men says finally, and punctuates this with a glower.

A confused look.  "Well, yes, but--" that doesn't answer his question at all... Oh. Oh no.

"That's not what I meant!!"  He looks a little horrified by what he apparently just said – and he's blushing on top of that, damn it.

"I meant, there's a custom in Qadira... I heard there is, anyway..." probably half the things they say about Qadira in Taldor are lies, but he doesn't know which half... "that men can't touch unrelated women, literally, at all, not a touch on the shoulder to keep her from tripping and falling in the street or anything.  That's all I was asking about!"  Are they even going to believe him.  He feels like such an idiot right now.  Half the mess hall is smirking at him.

There is an entire extremely Chelish meaningful looks debate going on.  Some eyebrows are even getting involved. 

The rest of the mess hall finds the flailing baby paladin incredibly funny and is not inclined to be nearly as quiet about it.

"Suuuuure you were!"

       "Boy's some kind of Taldor nobility anyway, for all you know he's been fucking barons' daughters left and right!"

He's just going to sit here and pretend he doesn't exist until someone says something he can reasonably respond to, how about that.

The eyebrows are getting voluble, but a good fraction of the glaring is now directed at the other tables instead of him.  

"We know you're a paladin, boy, y'can ease up," the older man growls at last.  "Y'ain't sinning against Nethys if y'stop her slipping on the ice.  Just- mind she's a priestess."  With a particular glare at the man with the color commentary on barons' daughters.