"Your dad is really upset lately," Shura observes to Helen.

"Why not?" asks Shura.

"Because he doesn't want a doctor to do anything about it," says Helen. "He's like that."

"Just peculiar," says Shura. "A lot of things about your dad come down to him just being peculiar, don't they."

"Yeah," says Helen. "They really do."

"It would bother me if my dad was very peculiar and I didn't know why. Do you know why or do you not care about knowing?"

"What do you mean, 'why'?"

"Why he's peculiar, instead of... not peculiar."

"I'm not sure there is a reason," says Helen. "I think maybe he just is."

"Yeah, that would bug me if it was mine," says Shura. "But my dad is very normal."

"Then everything should be fine as long as your dad and my spinach don't decide to switch places."

"That would be the peculiarest thing ever," declares Shura.

Helen giggles.

"I wonder if you're so good of magic because of your own peculiarity or if you just are. That's a thing people can just be."

"I think that's a just-is," Helen says consideringly. "Or maybe it's because I worked so hard when I was little so I could learn runes early and bake cakes in the wilderness. So it's indirectly because of being peculiar."

"Wilderness cake," giggles Shura.

"It's delicious because it's unexpected," Helen says cheerfully.

"How is it unexpected if you make it yourself?"

She laughs. "Not unexpected like surprising, unexpected like - unusual."

"So you don't do it a lot?"

"No matter how many cakes I bake in the wilderness, there is still a whole planet full of people out there who don't do that at all."

"I guess that's true," laughs Shura.

"So I think my unusual cake is safe."

"Yes, probably."

She laughs.

"Unless a bunch of other people copy your idea. Where do you even get cake ingredients in the wilderness?"

"Oh, Kas brings them," she says.

"I guess that makes sense. I was imagining making acorn flour and maple sugar from random wild trees."

"Maybe I'll try that next time."

"It sounds like a lot of work and probably the cake wouldn't be that good."

"You have a funny idea of fun."

"Yes I do," says Helen.

"But at least you also like regular things like flying."

"That's true, I do!" says Helen. "Wanna fly?"

"Yeah!"

So they do that.

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

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

"Ooh. What about it?"

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

"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?"

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

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

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

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

"Where will you get a space suit?"

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

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

"Of course!" she says, grinning.

"Thank you," says Inkeri.

Helen beams at her.

Inkeri smiles back.

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

"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."

"You did always like those," observes Inkeri.

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

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

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

"Okay," says Helen.

"Congratulations, Helen," says Ranata again.

Helen giggles a little.

"Is there anything you want me to pack you for the trip? Food is usually it - and I'll get your white silks."

Inkeri nods. "That is usually how it goes."

Inkeri's Veravia shows up, and lands on her shoulder, and inspects Kalavar for himself.

"I wonder if you could ride her," says Veravia.

"Sit on Helen's cloudpine," suggests Inkeri. "Get up that way."

"If the bird existed they must have had some way to do it," says Veravia. "Unless that is why they went extinct."

"Well, they're extinct, so nobody's sure, but some people think they did use the wind," says Helen.

"Wind is useful," opines Inkeri.

"It is!" laughs Helen. "I'm glad I know how to make it."

"It may come in handy," agrees Inkeri.

"Are you worried about separating?" asks Inkeri.

Kalavar chuckles.

"We did it on the first try and it was not easier for us," says Veravia.

"That is part of how we did it on the first try," says Inkeri.

Helen smiles wryly.

Helen and Kalavar are a little nervous, but not fretting too badly.

Kas and Petaal hug them goodbye.

Castarilan hovers close to Kalavar. "It'll be okay," he says.

Kalavar rustles her wings unhappily, careful not to disturb the air too badly for Castarilan's sake. "I know," she says, "but it hurts."

"I know, sweetie," sighs Castarilan.

That is how it works, yes.

"Wonderful!" cries Ranata. "Well done, well done."

Helen is very shortly visible dashing back across the waste. She tackle-hugs her daemon; Kalavar nuzzles her exuberantly.

Ranata lets out a small sigh of relief. "Let's eat our lunches and head home," she suggests.

Ranata proffers lunch and starts on her own salad.

Ranata follows on her cloudpine, matching pace and smiling.

"You're having a good time," laughs Ranata.

"We aaaaaaaare," giggles Helen.

"Oh!" exclaims Kalavar. "Argentavis magnificens. That's what I am." She stretches her wings out to their full twenty-four-foot span, then folds them again and gives Petaal a nuzzle.

"She's beautiful," agrees Castarilan, hovering near both other daemons.

"Sure thing, button," says Kas. "I'll pack up; you tell me when you wanna go."

"I should say bye to my friends first," Helen decides. She gives Ranata a hug and whirls away to go look for Shura or Inkeri or both.

"We did it!" says Helen. "Now I think I'm going to go away for a few months and then come back and find someone to teach me more exciting kinds of magic."

"I hope you have a good time," says Inkeri.

Inkeri calmly accepts her Exuberant Hugs.

Shura is over here, apparently learning to weave silk.

Ooh. That is worth hovering to watch.

"Hi!" says Helen. "We did it!"

"Yay!" says Nicoa, and Shura claps her hands.

Helen swoops down and hugs her. Exuberantly.

Shura is much more exuberant about hugging than Inkeri is. "Are you and Kalavar okay?" she asks.

"Yeah, we're good," she says, "we're fine - I rode her all the way back, she's big enough to carry me and I don't hardly slow her down, it's awesome."

"That is awesome! Will she still be big enough to carry you when you're all done growing, d'you think?"

"Yeah. Probably. I hope so," she laughs.

"That would be really, really cool."

"It so would! Anyway, I think I'm taking off for a while," she says. "Enjoying my newfound adult freedom and stuff. But I'll be back in time for my birthday."

"Have lots of fun!" says Shura brightly.

"You bet I will!"

And another hug for the road.

Kas decides that this trip is a good time to tell Helen some things.

[Hey guess what,] says Helen to Ranata, when they have been gone for a few days.

[I'm on the brainphone is what!]

[...Oh! So you are! Hello!]

[I love you too.]

[Anyway. Kas told me a bunch of things. I think I'm going to visit the moon now,] she says merrily.

[...Have fun, dear.]

Inkeri is over here, planting vegetables.

"Sooo," says Helen, "do you remember when we were talking about casting spells on the moon?"

Inkeri thinks, then nods.

"It turns out that on the moon, 'north' is where you think it is, if you're definite enough about it. If you're not sure, then spells that draw on the cardinal directions just don't work."

"Also," says Helen, "I've been to the moon."

Inkeri tilts her head the other way.

"There's a big, complicated explanation full of interesting secrets," she says. "Want to go to the moon and hear it?"

"You can take me to the moon?" asks Inkeri.

"I can take you to the moon!"

"Will I be alive there?"

"Yeah," laughs Helen, "I'm not going to take you to the moon and kill you, why would I do that?"

"I do not know how you survive on the moon," says Inkeri reasonably, "so I did not know if I could do the same thing."

"Special secret magic," Helen asserts.

Inkeri looks around, somewhat more interested in the moon than the diagram.

"You were going to explain interesting secrets?"

"Yeah," she says. "I'm just - kind of not sure where to start? Um, I'm the Shade-Dreamer's daughter. That's where Kas started when he told me, it kind of explains some things all by itself a little."

"Yes," she says. "That was big secret number one. Big secret number two: she had a lot of magic that isn't anything like witch magic, and she gave Kas some before he left. That's what he used to make me, and what I used to bring us here - it grants wishes, and it's nice about it, as long as you more or less know what you're doing. I would've been in trouble if I'd tried to go to the moon without thinking about air first, but Kas took me the first time and I could just copy what he did after that."

"Oh," says Inkeri, looking up at the sky.

"I took us to somewhere away from the Earth and the sun, but I could show you the Earth if you want," she says. "It's beautiful from up here."

"Yes, please."

Teleport, and there's the Earth.

"I... really don't know," she says. "That's what Kas has been so depressed about, actually. He's always had a hard time with her being gone, and now he's having a hard time with knowing when she's going to be back and having to wait for it. And I've never met her or anything - Ranata's told me stories, and so has Kas, and of course there's about a million movies, but I don't really feel like she's someone I know."

"Does she know you exist?"

"I don't know. Probably not. I can't imagine how she would; if there's yet another secret kind of magic that would tell her, I don't know what it is."

"That sounds difficult," says Inkeri.

"Yeah. For everybody."

Inkeri nods. "What are you going to do when she comes back?"

"I don't know," she says. "I can't help thinking... what if she doesn't like me?" She sighs, and looks up at the Earth. "I'd be okay. But I'd rather get along with her, and I don't know how to do that, or if I can even make a difference to it at all."

Inkeri nods, still admiring the Earth in the sky.

"Maybe it'll be okay," says Helen. "I don't know. I guess I'll find out soon."

"Very soon," agrees Inkeri. "I don't know exactly when because I don't know when she left. Do you?"

"Late spring next year. That's when Kas says."

"Not long now."

Inkeri is quiet.

For once, Helen is quiet too.

"Okay," says Helen, and she listens to Kalavar and murmurs, "Who's there?", and Kalavar says "Nobody," and Helen teleports them down off the moon.

"Thank you for showing me that," says Inkeri.

Amariah goes home. She makes sure the local Janepoint is reasserting normalcy, even if it's a bit of a sluggish process from a break this bad. She spots Kas curled up on the floor. She conjures up something more comfortable under him and curls up beside him, the big spoon to his little spoon, Path perched on her head.

Poor sweetie. Jane's fried enough she didn't know how long it had been right away, although she promises to figure it out. Amariah figures anyone who's been waiting besides Kas can wait another few hours. She closes her eyes and goes to sleep.

Isabella wakes up as soon as he makes a noise. "Oh, sweetie." She wraps her arms around him tight and hugs him. "How long was it? Jane was so fried she didn't know -"

"Sixty-six years," he half-sobs, hugging her back. "I love you - I missed you - I could not take missing you like that, fuck."

"I'm so sorry." Hug, hug hug. Path nuzzles his cheek. "I love you too, sweetie, I'm so sorry - we went to this fucked up world that broke Jane as soon as Aegis walked in - they're going to give Jane her own body and she's gonna sit nice and snug in the Belltower doing fuckall with it and there's a backup for time syncing now."

"Must have been a whole lot of postcards. I can conjure them in batches," she says, "right now I'm too glad to be home - I wasn't gone nearly as long on my end but the world was pretty terrible, Glass puked when she saw it through the door." She conjures up the first couple hundred, starts reading.

"—Who's that?" says an uncertain voice out of thin air.

"Fuck." Kas rubs his face with both hands. "C'mere, button."

[I had a kid!] he says. [I wished myself pregnant and I didn't specify by who and apparently the magic picked you!]

"Hi," says Amariah automatically. "I - apparently haven't - gotten to that part yet." She waves the postcard she's holding, drops it negligently into the "done" pile.

"...I could go away," she offers. "Until you've caught up."

"Okay. Bye," she says, and tilts her head as though listening, and vanishes.

"How old is she?" asks Isabella quietly.

"Thirteen," says Kas, also quietly. "Her birthday's in August, I said the third but I could've been wrong. It's in a few months - you've been gone exactly sixty-six years minus a day."