"If she tucked her feet in maybe? It wasn't that high off the ground, just long and big."

"Yeah, when I ride Kalavar I have to kind of - flop on her," says Helen. "But it's not hard, because she's taller than I am."

"Flop on her? I don't think I understand."

"Like - lie on her back with my arms around her neck," she says. "Because I can't really sit on her without kicking her wings."

"Having my own wings is much more convenient," says Damaris.

"I fly around sometimes but just by magic. I like it but not nearly as much as Bella does."

"I don't think I would like flying with magic nearly as much as I like flying with my wings."

"I think you're right!" says Yseult.

Soph giggles. "Why's that?"

"Helen likes flying on her daemon, and Damaris likes flying with her wings, and I don't like flying very much," she explains. "So I think that we might not like flying with just magic very much."

"I like flying my cloud-pine," Helen muses. "But you're right. Plain old magic flying doesn't sound nearly as fun."

"I mean, it's a useful way to move around occasionally, and I like not having to have a stepladder," says Soph. "But teleporting is better if I'm really in a hurry and I still like hopping in a car with Tony. He has nifty cars."

"I don't think I've ever been in a car I'd describe as 'nifty'," says Helen. "What's nifty about them?"

"One of them has the driver's seat in the middle," Soph says. "And they're shiny and just - cool." She peers at the other Dominiques. "Do you not know cars? I guess you don't know cars."

"I don't know cool cars," says Damaris. "Cars are loud and ugly and give off noxious smells. I wouldn't ride in one for all the pastries a small village could give me."

"I am a little bit lost," Yseult admits.

"My favorite one of Tony's looks like -" Soph produces an illusion.

"Pretty," says Yseult.

"Ancient," says Helen. "Even I can tell that and I barely know anything about cars. But I guess that makes sense; I'm something like sixty or seventy years ahead of you, aren't I?"

"It's just 2006 in Sunshine."

"Wow, yeah. 2081," she says.

"And Samaria's so far future it's changed calendars and Rêverie is a whole nother thing."

She laughs.

"Yeah, it's 691 for us," says Damaris.