i bought some postcards

[truthwright]

Kas is sadder, after Inkeri's prophecy. And it gets worse as time goes on. The closer they get to Isabella's return, the more it hurts.

He tries to do the best he can for Helen regardless. Helen, in turn, hugs him a lot and doesn't fuss when he cries on her. They make a good team that way.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri still doesn't initiate conversations much, but she tends to lurk around Helen, since the prophecy.

Lurk, lurk, lurk.

[carillons]

"You are lurking," Helen informs her, and smiles. "Think any interesting thoughts lately?"

[alicornucopia]

"I have been thinking about geography," says Inkeri.

[carillons]

"Ooh. What about it?"

[alicornucopia]

"I have been wondering if anything interesting with spells that deal in cardinal directions happens if you try to cast them near the poles."

[carillons]

"Good question!" says Helen. "If you were at the north pole, would you be at the northiest north because there wasn't any more north to go to, or the southiest south because it's south any way you point, or both? And would the magnetic poles do the same thing or is it the geographic ones that are important? What if you were on the moon?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know at all," says Inkeri.

[carillons]

Helen grins. "It's still fun to think about," she says.

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. I don't think any witches have been to the moon," muses Inkeri.

[carillons]

"Witches should go to the moon," Helen asserts. "When I grow up if nobody else has I'll do it."

[alicornucopia]

"Where will you get a space suit?"

[carillons]

She shrugs. "I'll think of something."

[alicornucopia]

"Will you tell me how spells with cardinal directions work there if you do this?"

[carillons]

"Of course!" she says, grinning.

[alicornucopia]

"Thank you," says Inkeri.

[carillons]

Helen beams at her.

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri smiles back.

[carillons]

Helen bounces happily.

Kalavar leaps from her shoulder as a dragon, then circles them as a teratorn. There's hardly room for her to stretch her wings without tugging on the bond a little.

"I wanna go flying," says the enormous bird. She shifts species subtly, once and then again—her wingspan in this last form is massive, twenty feet or more. "I wanna - oh."

The massive black bird lands on the ground beside Helen and preens her hair with a beak longer than her hand. Standing up, not stretching, Kalavar in this form is a good six inches taller than her human.

"I think - I think I'm done," says Kalavar. "I think I found it. What we're supposed to be. I think I settled."

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri claps. "What are you?" she asks politely.

[carillons]

"I'm not sure," Kalavar says thoughtfully, leaning gently into Helen as Helen hugs her. "I'm a teratorn - a big one. They're exctinct; I think they might have been related to condors, or maybe just similar to them."

[alicornucopia]

"You did always like those," observes Inkeri.

[carillons]

Kalavar laughs. "Yeah. And I've been teratorns a lot lately, but I was never the right one until now, and then—" She makes a shruglike gesture, lifting her wings slightly and then folding them close again.

"I'll tell Ranata," says Helen, and she puts her voice where Ranata is. "Manatee, manatee, I settled!"

[alicornucopia]

"You did? Oh, congratulations!" says Ranata. "What are you?"

[carillons]

"Some kind of teratorn," says Kalavar. "We might have to look it up to get the exact species."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, that's lovely. We can go north first thing tomorrow."