"Well, I was never tempted, so I'm not sure, but my experience with Charlie was less 'I took one look and had to have him because of his beautiful eyes' and more 'we enjoy talking to each other and get along so well'."

"Aha. Congrats to you! You sound cute together. I mean - I'm not saying violence for sexy-times is right or anything, just that insanity is a thing that happens to some magic-users for us. Could be the same for you. I'd have to poll all witches everywhere and that's really too much work."

"The fact that it's been so sharply on the decline as the odds of getting punished for it have increased suggests to me that it's nonsense." Pause. "Do you want to talk about your mother or would you sooner skip it?"

"That's not quite the witch habit... it's not uncommon for a witch to marry three or four or more mortals in her lifetime. And we don't tend to flatten cities."

"Huh. Interesting, alright. Good on you guys for not flattening cities, because that's bad. She only did it once, though. She was in the city at the time."

"I'm not even sure how a witch would flatten a city."

"That's fortunate for cities everywhere, I'm sure. Hear they don't like being flattened."

"And I doubt we'd get away with it, either."

"That, too. Though if you want to get technical and stuff - my mom didn't get away with it, either."

"Well, there's away and then there's away."

Zeviana giggles. "Well when you word it like that... It definitely made her go away."

"I take it this was a while ago?"

"Four-ish years ago! So, kinda. I mean, she was a sucky, sucky mom, I don't miss her."

"I'm not that close with mine myself."

"Yeah. Plus I'm kind of pissed with her still because she took out our practical father with her."

"Mmm?"

"He was in the city at the time. Step-father, though not like - officially or anything. Just unofficially, to us. Adarin hasn't mentioned him? I was sure he was still mourning."

"Not in enough detail that I'd committed it to memory."

"Ahh. Yeah, that makes sense. He gets vague when things bother him. But anyway - that's kind of why I hate my mom! That and terrible parenting."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Eh, it's fine. It's 'cause of her that I've got kick-ass magic powers, so it's not all bad."

"You seem to be handling the whole thing pretty well, yes."

"Thanks! I figure, there's no use moping about it. It was a thing that happened, it sucked, but it's over now. If I stay stuck in it, then how can I say I'm living?"

"I admire that attitude."