When they wake up, she still isn't back.
[Jane?]
No response.
Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.
The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy
"...So that's new," he says.
"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"
He shrugs. She coils tighter.
"Hang around and wait, I guess."
It is later, when Helen is just past her sixth birthday, that Ranata brainphones Kas who is off somewhere. [There's a lovely-looking children's aquarium opening in Chicago,] she says. [I thought perhaps Helen would like it. We could all three go, with Charlie if he's up for the flight but he probably won't be.]
Kas arrives on foot, with Helen. Petaal is coiled around his neck as an iridescent black snake, and Kalavar is perched on Helen's ear as a fuzzy bumblebee.
"Hi, Ranata!" says Helen, giggling and hugging her. (Kalavar buzzes over to say hi to Castarilan.)
There are touch-tanks, where little human hands can pick up starfish and gingerly run their fingers along urchins and unglue snails from tank walls, and there are swim-tanks, where little humans can cross a bridge or creep through a tunnel into central islands surrounded by inhabited water, and their daemons can turn into penguins - or rays - or trout - or eels - or creative little sea-serpents - or otters - and join similarly shaped creatures in capering around. (There are signs up; it is important to turn into a saltwater or freshwater creature, in the corresponding tanks, although exact shape doesn't matter very much. The aquarium is not responsible if some child's daemon provokes an animal and the daemon is pulled farther from their human than they'd like, although none of the tanks in question are big enough to make this more than moderately uncomfortable. Daemons are not to chase, attack, or frighten the animals.)
Helen is delighted by the dolphin dance, and pleased with the snail-petting, and then Kalavar gets to play with the creatures and that is just the best thing. Penguins! Otters! They are especially fond of the otters.
Don't tell anyone, but the iridescent snake is missing from around Kas's neck and there is an extra otter going around.
Kalavar totally knows, though, and she is cheerfully playing tag with Petaal-the-otter. They go around and around, and the other otters join in, and a fun time is had by all.