He smiles at her, when she does. "Hey," he says, with a wave. "That problem you had on Friday taken care of?"

"Yeah, basically cleared up overnight," she shrugs.

"I continue to resent her having been mad on my behalf. I suppose she needn't care."

"Sorry about her. She um - means well? And I mean I was kind of mad at myself, too, so, I don't hold it against her?"

"You did fine," says Isabella, patting his arm.

"Thanks," he replies, smiling a bit. "I'm glad it all worked out."

"I'm kinda glad I'm not dreaming. Or continuing to have fainting spells."

Bella pulls out a notebook and pays attention.

Bella glances in Darren's direction.

Darren glances between Mrs. Adams and Bella, then makes a 'later' gesture. He kind of doesn't want to attract attention to this.

Bella returns her attention to the debate.

Bella doesn't approach Mrs. Adams immediately, not while students are still straggling out the door. She does murmur to Darren, "Is she the one you mentioned?"

He knows what she means. "Yup," he replies. "That's her."

"Do you know her personally?"

"Dad does. It's why we're in Forks in particular. I haven't met her 'til just now, but I know her name."

"Okay. Maybe he can introduce us later since she went out of her way to say... 'hi'... but not right now, I think." Bella does wave a little at Mrs. Adams on the way out.

The next good chance to talk is lunch. Bella's not sure to look forward to Savannah Trying To Be Subtle About Major Critter News, given that she has not in fact spoken to Savannah since turning.

"That's the plan."

"Cool. Have fun. I don't want in, though, you two go nuts. I'm still reeling that Darren made a friend on his own."

Darren rolls his eyes.

"I have no evidence that this is as weird as you seem to indicate."

"Mhm. But he's my brother, so I've got tons. I'll summarize - he is a nerd."

"My understanding is that this means he should make friends with other nerds, not that it's a curse that renders him permanently friendless such that my presence is a miracle."

"He's also shy! Have I mentioned he's shy? It's not that he's cursed with nerdiness and he's permanently friendless because of it, it's that he is nerdy but does not seek out nerdy friends because he is shy and so normally he doesn't meet them."

"I'm not actually seeing that? I mean, I believe there is something in his personality you're labeling that way, but he talks to people, I have seen him do it."

"Behold, talking to people is a thing I can do," says Darren dryly.

"... I think I'm mussing up the wording. Whatever, doesn't matter anyway. Keep up the good work, Darren."

"Sure," he shrugs.

"Perhaps in the future you can aspire to have multiple friends."

"Let's not go speaking crazy talk, now."

"Okay. I will feel extra super special about it, then."

"Feel free," replies Darren brightly.

"I am unique in all the world," singsongs Bella.

Darren laughs. "Congrats. Unless you count the hordes of people that borrow my notes as friends, in which case... You are part of a long line."

"I haven't borrowed your notes since the first couple days. I take great notes. If you're ever home sick you will be borrowing my notes. I am much specialer than all those people."

Darren snorts with laughter. "I don't think that's a word."

"Shakespeare invented hundreds of words. I am in good company."

"Lots of people try to invent words. It only counts when people start accepting them as actual words."

"Are you claiming not to have successfully understood what I meant when I said 'specialer'?"

Bella snickers. "I suppose I am not the Bard."

"If you were I would be very surprised. You don't look like a four-hundred-plus year old dead man."

"Well, obviously I'd have to be the undead Bard. Or the reincarnated Bard."

"Mhm. Bella the undead Bard. You should write that down, if I ever persuade you to play Dungeons and Dragons. That can be your first character. You can kill people with music."

"Is the Monster Manual racist against undead?"

"Bella. Bella, why would you even ask such a question. The answer is 'Of course.' Of course it's racist against undead, it is super racist."

"So can I get some homebrew deadly-music undead?"

"Yup. If I am to DM, I will be a nice DM. Strange creatures for all."

"Cool. Can we call my kinda undead a 'revenant'? I like the word."

"Sure. Want any cool lore bits about revenants or should I make it up?"

"That's all I have right now, you know better what will fit neatly, I don't even know how to play."

"Right. I'll figure it out, then. It'll be fun!"

"Yeah, ditto here. It won't take up all my time ever, I've got stuff to do, but it's fun."

"How much am I supposed to be inventing a revenant who has no properties in common with me versus inventing one who serves as a good - avatar for myself?"

"That's really a personal preference. Go with whichever seems the most fun."

"Well, I don't know what's most fun, I don't know what my revenant is going to be doing."

"If we had a proper group going I'd ask what everyone wanted to do and then build a campaign around that, soo... I couldn't tell you? Do you want to try and pull off a two-person D&D group?"

"I dunno, maybe if I take a closer look at the game I will wind up disappointing you and not wanting to play at all."

"Fair enough. I mean, no loss, I didn't have anyone to play with before, either."

"He tried to get me to play. It's boring," declares Savannah.

"What's boring about it?"

"Lots of numbers, lots of rolling dice, lots of - lists of things. To choose from, to write down, to look through, and so on. It got on my nerves."

"Numbers? Greaaaat."

"... It's more fun than it sounds, I swear."

"No it's not."

"I'll give you a fair chance to sell me on it."

"Yay!"

"But I promise no more than a fair chance. Perhaps it will be too much like math class."

"Fair enough. It's really not like math class at all, but some math is done so I guess that could get annoying."

"I don't actually hate math. It's just that it comes to me least easily of academic subjects so it has some accumulated resentment for that reason."

"Ahhh, I see. History's mine. I lose track of the dates."

"Dates are the least fun part of history."

"They really are. I mean, I know it's important to learn history, but - just throwing dates at me doesn't make me care."

"The good history books are not the kind that make it into the public school system, unfortunately."

"Nope. It's kind of annoying, actually."

"They should just drop Guns, Germs, and Steel on everybody in ninth grade. It's imperfect but it's extremely readable, it'd make a good springboard."

"Yeah, I mean - I think it would be better to explain why things happened rather than - 'This person did this at this time.'"

"Right. Context, narrative."

"Exactly. People like stories, not - lots of names and dates. So if it's a story, and not just dry information dump, I think people would care more. At least a bit."

"I think so too."

Savannah is resisting the urge to tell them to kiss. Somehow. She's not entirely sure how, but she's managing it.

Darren doesn't notice Savannah! He's smiling at Bella.

Bella is smiling back at him! She isn't paying any attention to Savannah.

Off to art!

Whee, art!

When they get there, Savannah nudges Darren. Then she raises an eyebrow at him.

... And Darren is confused!

So is Bella, but she at least doesn't seem to be directly targeted! They're doing coil pots this week. She pays attention to the teacher's explanation of the importance of slipping and scoring "almost like you have a problem".

Bella makes a tall pot that branches into three sections partway up. She is methodical about slipping and scoring. At the end of the class they put their unfinished work in plastic bags with wet sponges so it will still be there tomorrow, and then they move on. Bella doesn't have her last class with either of them, so they will have to wait for her to find them after the last bell rings.

"Pffff. Pffff," says Savannah. "No, no, Darren - we made a deal when we were like - thirteen, I remember. I will not poach."

"What's so funny-to-extremely-specific-senses-of-humor over here?" inquires Bella when she shows up.

Savannah opens her mouth to answer -

- but Darren clamps a hand over her mouth and says in the most suspicious tone ever, "Nothing! Nothing was funny. Nothing at all."

"You are obviously lying to me," Bella points out. "It's, like, really really obvious."

"Why would I lie to you I don't lie I'm terrible at it nothing was funny nothing at all," he says at high-speed.

Savannah bursts into helpless giggles. Helpless, muffled giggles.

"I'm going to hope that you have a good reason and are not just messing with me for your amusement."

Savannah removes the hand, and through giggles, says, "He is really" (giggle) "embarrassed about it. It's not for his amusement, but I think it's funny."

Bella snorts. "How long does your dad usually take to get here?"

"Not very long!" answers Savannah. "A few minutes, I'd say."

"Okay. So soon enough I'll be distracted from wondering what was so hilariously embarrassing, I suppose."

Darren makes a sound and is very interested in his shoes.

Savannah pats his back. "Yup! Hopefully he'll recover by the time he gets to tutoring."

"As much as his embarrassment may entertain you, yeah, I don't think it would improve his didactic skills."

"Maybe he can do it in mime? While looking at his shoes the entire time?"

"No. I don't think so."

"Aw. But that would be so funny."

"You'll manage without somehow," says a recovering Darren.

"You may have had your recommended daily allowance of humor already," Bella points out to Savannah encouragingly.

"Fair enough. I can always tease him tomorrow."

Darren makes a face. "Thanks. I feel the love."

"People who Savannah doesn't love probably don't get teased at all, poor things."

"They don't! They live barren and empty lives. It's very sad."

Darren does not look convinced.

Bella pats him on the shoulder. "Enjoy your fantastic luck. You do not live an empty life."

"... Yay," he drawls.

"I'm not hearing the enthusiasm I expect from people living full lives. Maybe Savannah should tease you more."

"Do you want me to tutor you? I don't have to," he replies. "If I am not enthusiastic enough."

"I will take even uninspired tutoring, but I have every confidence that you can do better than that."

"I have," says Savannah, looking between the two of them with a grin, "so much material for it, too."

"Okay, but really, if I don't get to know what it is you could lay off the hinting when I'm here," Bella sighs at Savannah.

"Sorry. I'll back off," she agrees.

"Do you have a lesson plan?" Bella asks Darren.

"I do!" confirms Darren. "I'll let you pick and choose a bit what you'd like to focus on, though."

"Excellent, that sounds best."

"I do hope you'll like it."

And there is Vernon! He waves.

Bella also waves. "We had Mrs. Adams as a sub in English today. Darren says you know her," she remarks when he's near enough.

"... Lynn Adams?" says Vernon. "Huh. I know her, yeah. Can't say I'm surprised she just so happened to show up in your English class today. She does that, creepy as all get out. You want a demon expert you talk to her, she knows more than I do."

"Good to know."

Quite predictably, Darren will now be sitting next to her.

Vernon snorts. "Well I'll be. Guess she can teach. Wicked temper, that one."

"How is it you know her?"

"Remember that hellmouth I told you about? Poor woman lived by it. Met her there."

"Well, that sounds unpleasant. Where do these things pop up?"

"The way the angel explained it - they can be anywhere, except where there used to be one. I don't know all of those places, though. Sunnyvale in California's a sure bet for no hellmouths, that one I know for sure."

"Okay then."

"... If you're wondering, I'm pretty paranoid because of it. It's why I moved us to where the bugbear I'm friends with is. 'Cause she'd notice."

"She seems... noticing."

"She figured out Bella's not human," explains Darren.

Vernon laughs. "Ooooof course she did."

"I mean, there's the necklace, but it's tucked away and I've been leaning on the higher-collared portions of my wardrobe because winter, ugh, so yeah, she found out some other way."

"Couldn't tell you how. Might have to ask her, though."

"Is she relatively likely to be amenable to talking if I lurk after school some other day or should I be asking you to introduce me?"

"Should be fine to just lurk and talk to her. Be prepared for her to not be surprised at all that you're there, though. Bugbears, I swear."

"What is the content of 'bugbears, I swear' beyond being - noticing? Or should I just ask her? Is it weird to ask people what the traits of their kind of critter are?"

"Not weird at all. They usually get all explainy, if you ask 'em. Bugbears get some kinda - tracky... Thing? I guess? I dunno the technical terms. Lynn would always be able to tell where people were, though."

"Interesting. I haven't noticed anything that conspicuous for me."

"Peryton's ability ain't obvious, either. So don't feel too bad."

"Not bad really, just impatient."

Vernon snorts. "Of course you are."

"It's like you met me."

"Strange, I know."

Darren snickers.

"Where do you guys live?"

Vernon rattles off the address. It's reasonably close to Charlie's house, but not within walking distance. Maybe biking distance.

"Oh, I know where that is."

"We moved in to the grey brick house, if you know it."

"I don't know it that well, no."

"Ah, well. Least you'll recognize it, now."

"From what I know? Transfiguration, some elemental manipulation, some things with illusions; you can be invisible with them."

"Oooh, I want to be invisible. Unless it's horrifically impractical and I won't be able to use it to cover flying lessons."

"We'll focus on that one, then. It's not horrifically impractical, but if you want it to work on cameras too it's a bit trickier."

"Working on cameras is just the icing; the main point is that no one will know to point one at me if I am invisible and not sphinxing it up in locations with CCTVs."

"Yeah, I figured. But it's the kind of thing I'm going to warn you about beforehand so you don't end up on the news."

"I appreciate it."

He smiles back! "That's my job."

Savannah giggles. For apparently no reason.

"What?"

"Why wouldn't you want to become invisible, anyway? I don't get not wanting to learn it."

"Ehh, too much work. Like, yeah, it's useful, but honestly most of the time I can just do my own thing and get whatever it is I need done through that. Plus, not willing to play at stakes that high."

"At some point someone is going to have to be more specific with me about exactly what happens if one wrecks a spell besides 'considered harmful; avoid'."

"Okay. Thanks."

"So, wait, if invisibility is working on a principle according to which having your eyes invisible means you can't see - does that mean that while invisible you can't see - or is this side effect the result of forgetting a safety that under normal not-messing-up conditions will allow you to see?"

"Actually, that's exactly what makes being invisible to cameras tricky. If it's just people, you make yourself look invisible but light will still interact with you, they just won't see you or your shadow or anything. With cameras, you've got to actually make yourself properly invisible and that comes with the caveats of needing light to interact with our eyes to see. So it's a bit more delicate, because you've still got to make sure the specific part of your eyes that needs light to pass through it is visible. If you want it to be nearly perfect then you make it so that people don't see those, either, but I don't know of a way to trick cameras perfectly."

"...So the illusion that does not fool cameras isn't a thing out in the world so much as a - mental trick. I might regret asking, but how much mental trickery is there?"

"Hmm. Some? Problem is, I don't know all magic, so I can't give you all of the specifics, but the general rule is... If you understand what's at play you can figure out you're being tricked. I don't think there's any magic to directly hijack or steal thoughts or anything, but there's probably something that could confuse you into telling them yourself."

Bella nibbles her lip, concerned.

"... Sorry. Wish I had a better answer."

"You have anything in the way of paranoid defensive magic? Do I have, like, an energy supply I need to be conservative with or is it a matter of whether I'm willing to spend the time on any given thing?"

"Luck charms you already know about. There are other objects that do different things - I know there's one that will hide you from bugbears. There might be a few others that protect you from anyone messing with your head. I don't know how to make them, though. There's no energy supply, it's a matter of time investment. I suppose I can get started on magic tutoring now, we're not in school. I'll just be honest with you and say we're probably not going to get to any actual magic for a while, I'm afraid. You've got a lot of runes to learn before we do anything."

"How many is a lot?"

"Well. Remember the chemistry analogy? It's kind of like a mix of the periodic table and the alphabet. You can get by with just some, but honestly it's better for your magical education if you eventually learn them all. I'll teach the ones you can use for invisibility first, so it's not all just - here's a rune, here's another rune, okay now prove you can draw them fifty times. Once you've got enough runes for a spell I will help you cast it. It's getting there that's the problem."

"Okay. What's the ballpark number of runes per spell?"

"Depends on the spell. The simple ones you start off with will have just four to eight or so, but around twenty tends to be typical. There's no cap for how many runes you can use, so if it's a super complicated spell you could theoretically use them all. I don't know what on earth that spell would even do, but it's certainly possible."

"This," predicts Bella, "is going to be fascinating."

Darren grins. "It really is!"

"Do you need to do runes every time for every spell?"

"Yeah. New ones, too, the spell itself will ruin the runes you draw when it's cast. You can get something that has a continuous effect that you can pull up again later, but you need runes to get that, too. Those are complicated spells, too, you can put them on people but it's safer to put it on an item, instead. That way if it fails, well a hunk of metal is disfigured, not a person."

"So if I want, like, a Ring of Gyges, that is theoretically doable?"

"Yup! Theoretically, anyway. That one would also be really complicated."

"And this would be a much better idea than casting a spell on myself that allows invisibility-whenever-I-feel-like-it, except for the part where the Ring of Gyges could be stolen and then we'd get to learn things about the effects of observation on human morality or whatever."

"Pretty much. But you can always retrieve a stolen magic ring, if something goes wrong with the casting of the spell on yourself, it's kind of... Really difficult to fix. So between the two, go with the ring of invisibility, for safety."

"How do magic items deal with persisting between forms? Same ring will not readily fit on a finger and stay put on a lion toe."

"Now you see why we don't have rings of shifting," points out Darren. "It's possible to have a ring that changes sizes when you shift - but it's easier to find other methods. A pendant that can clip to fur as well as clothes, a hair ornament, earrings - and the obvious choice of amulets. There are probably other options, too, but those are the ones I can think of off of the top of my head."

"I keep my shirt when I shift, so I guess I could work with a brooch, too. Maybe one of those expansible bracelets; I'd have to see how good sphinx wrists are at keeping stuff on. But if I have a magic object on my tail or clipped to my feathers it's just unavailable and not functioning while I'm a human, likewise if I have something on my thumb and then turn sphinx, or are you saying it falls off, or what?"

"It goes to... Wherever your clothes go when you shift. Unavailable and not functioning, but no one could steal them, at least."

"I wonder at what point a Tail Ornament of Gyges would kick in. It might make sense, for something I'd be most likely to want to use while in sphinx form, if it didn't have, like, a prolonged boot time."

"It would show up for use when you had a tail, I'd say. Medallion magic is weird like that. I wouldn't know how long a Tail Ornament of Gyges would take to work, but assumingly... Instantly? If made right?"

"When I was practicing over the weekend it turns out if I'm wearing sufficiently loose pants the tail doesn't even have to stick out, so that's going on the list of projects to consider for the long term." She opens up her notebook and starts this list.

Darren nods. "Good idea. But if I knew how to make an item of invisibility I would have one, so... That is nearing epic wizard levels and I am not there yet. I'm not able to say, 'Oh, yeah, sure, this is how you make a Tail Ornament of Gyges.'"

"How long have you been practicing?"

"About a year and a half? Or so? I started before dad got custody, but I had to do lots of it in secret because - well, magic. Kinda not the type of thing you do in public."

"Okay. Roughly how many hours a week, and how much do you think I'll be sped up because I'll have a teacher?"

"Hmm. It varies a bit, but usually... Twenty-ish hours a week? Sometimes more, sometimes less. Depends on how much homework I have and if I'm trying to accomplish anything specific in magic. Having a teacher will speed you up to where I am, but I couldn't tell you by how much, I've never been a magic teacher before. Once you're at where I am I would only be good in a peer-review sense, or splitting up what we study so we can tell each other about them later with less time sunk into it."

"Right, I meant sped up in a playing-catchup sense, not necessarily beyond, though division of labor and peer review will probably be a big deal too. Darren, I am not sure I'm going to have any time to actually learn Dungeons and Dragons, although I might let you explain it to me in enough detail that I can pretend that's why I'm at your house all the time."

He snickers. "Kinda understandable. Magic basically replaced Dungeons and Dragons for me, anyway. I just miss it sometimes."

"Maybe when you are an epic wizard in real life that will be sufficiently satisfying."

"That's my hope! It'll be lots of fun to just - be super magic."

"Yes. We will be the most wizardy winged quadrupeds ever." Bella holds up her hand for a high-five.

High-five! "Yeah! It'll be great. I'm so glad I have a magic-buddy, now!"

"I'm glad I don't have to dive into volatile Chemistrylike Magic without a teacher!"

Darren snorts with laughter. "It's fun but also not really. I am very careful."

"And here I am to reap the rewards of your exquisite care."

"Go for it. I'm very pro-sharing of knowledge."

"I know. I found that out before I knew anything else about you."

He snickers. "I would be disappointed in you if you hadn't figured it out by now."

"You do not have a slow student, promise."

"Good! Want to get started properly, then?"

"Yes please. Overview - what is there to it besides runes? I think you mentioned chanting?"

"Any other language works fine? No matter how well you learn it?"

"Yeah, even if you become fluent it's not your first, apparently that's got some importance weighed towards it. I don't know how people who grow up bilingual do, maybe both languages are just barred for chanting."

"Okay. So I guess I'll fall back on Spanish unless - if I recall right you're in French? Will it be really inconvenient for us to be working in different languages?"

"I'm in French. It's what I use for chanting, I thought about Latin but it wasn't offered in school, so I went with French. It might give us some problems cheating off of each other's chants, and it'll keep us from catching mistakes with chants as easily as we would if we spoke the same language, but other than that and it should be fine. Not really that inconvenient, just a little bit."

"So probably slightly less inconvenient than me trying to catch up with you in French, too. Okay. I do all right in Spanish, I'm not fluent but - how ridiculously weird-looking is it going to be if I go to Señora Goff and ask her to check my grammar?"

"Depends on what you want to say. If you use the right excuses for it you can probably get away with it not looking too weird. Dungeons and Dragons might be a good scapegoat. 'Okay, so my character is going to say this at some point in time and I want to get the grammar right' or something."

"Why would my D&D character be speaking Spanish?"

"Because they are from a country that is equivalent to Spain and you like being authentic?"

"Hmmm. I don't actually know Señora Goff well enough to guess if she'll buy it. I can try it with something relatively innocuous, I guess, unless literally all of the chanting is 'magic thing, magic thing, happen now, in real life, also the person casting this is a literal sphinx' or whatever."

Darren snorts with laughter. "No, they usually don't go like that, but many would be weird in casual conversation. I doubt you tell dirt to wake up, or for the air to sit still so it can listen that regularly. Some are innocuous, though."

"Maybe my character is writing weird scrolls? Is that a thing D&D characters do, write weird things on scrolls?"

"If you take the skills necessary for it, yeah - that's a thing you can do. You have to be a spellcaster, though. It's basically storing a spell for later, so more of the chants would make sense."

"Is there any good reason not to be a spellcaster?"

"In Dungeons and Dragons? Well, you are really squishy and don't have much magic at early levels. So you hide behind the warriors and barbarians after casting like - flare or something and pray nobody sees you and how defenseless you are."

"Sounds like a ripoff. Isn't there magical defense?"

"Well, of course, but those show up later levels and for balance reasons they don't let you wear armor and reliably cast spells. In practice, once you get past the first few levels you can start pulling your weight, and after that you start carrying the party. Epic levels you are scary."

"How does armor get in the way of casting spells? It has to be sufficiently maneuverable that you can fight in it if you're going to wear it at all."

"Because if wizards got to wear full plate armor the warriors would cry themselves to sleep at night."

"So basically the advantage of being a warrior is that you can clank."

"And hit things. Don't forget hitting things."

"Speaking of my real-life total inability to acquire combat skills, among other things, where do you think you'd start on fixing my clumsiness problem with some sort of spiffy accessory?"

"Hmm," he says, tilting his head and thinking. "I think it's possible, certainly, and I have some ideas but I don't know how to explain them when you don't know any of the runes. I can make that a long-term project? I need to get more item creation practice, anyway, what with how I want to make more medallions."

"Right." Bella writes this idea under 'ornament of Gyges' on her list.

"Do you want me to actually get started on teaching you about the runes?" teases Darren. "We can talk about Dungeons and Dragons some more, if you like."

"Gimme a rune."

"Yeah, no kidding." She was expecting to wind up with a chart, but this rune has taken up the entire page by itself, the drawing in the middle and notes orbiting it.

"This sounds like the sort of thing that really ought to be handled by computer programs, actually, but I anticipate enjoying it."

"If you can program something to figure this out for you, I will throw myself at your feet in awe. Since placement and size of runes also matter. Because why not, right?"

"I can't program. Maybe I'll learn. In my copious spare time."

"I'm sure you'll have so much now that you've started learning magic," Darren drawls.

"Maybe that'll be the division of labor. I'll catch up to you and then start learning to program while you collect information for me to eventually incorporate into the program."

"Hmm. Maybe. That would be useful. I like this plan, if it's viable."

Bella goes back to her long-term projects list and writes automate some runing subtasks? under the existing items. "How were these runes originally discovered-or-invented, or don't you know?"

"Discovered. There's a way to find new ones and that's how I learned most of the ones I know. Thing is, you have to reference something that the potential rune has through another rune, so I don't have any idea how it got started. I'm actually pretty sure there are runes I just don't know."

"What do you mean, reference something the potential rune has?"

"Like..." he draws another rune. "This one's got the same aspect of persistence that the one I showed you has. It's got lots of other completely different things to it, but these two have that in common. So if I made a spell that uses the first rune and looks for something with persistence, this rune can come up."

"Huh." Bella copies the second rune onto a fresh page. "Okay, and what else does this one do?"

"Cool. So the finding new runes - I guess you find yourself looking at an insoluble puzzle and then you're like 'if only I could get X without all this Y and Z, let's see what other runes do X' and then you find something that doesn't do Y and Z but maybe it does P and Q and with any luck they're easier to cancel?"

"Pretty much. I spent around three months just trying to find out new runes and nothing else. It got kind of dull after a while, so I went back to making spells and looking for more runes if it seemed like I needed them. I found lots of runes over the three months, though. It helped a ton, it's just mind-numbingly boring if you do nothing else but that."

"Yeah, that sounds like it'd get old. I'm sort of glad I'm the second one of the two of us finding out about magic, because I am selfish and terrible."

Darren snickers. "It's fine, you're not selfish and terrible. I can't blame you, I'd want the same. I had fun figuring things out, though, so I think it's all right."

"I'm totally selfish. I will accept your correction on 'terrible'."

"Where are you selfish? Not wanting to spend months doing nothing but looking for runes? That's sanity, not selfishness."

"I'm selfish in general. Everything is about what I want. It's just that I happen to want nice things for other people a lot of the time - the mental framing is still very self-centered."

"... I'm not sure I understand? You want selfless things for selfish reasons? Is that what you mean?"

"Something like that. I want, like, world peace, in roughly the same way that I might want a sandwich. 'Selfish' is descriptive, here, not a value judgment."

"That's... Quite different from how I think. But it's still rather nice," points out Darren.

"I am aware that I'm unusual in this respect."

Darren shrugs. "That's fine? I like you as you are. I mean, I came to the same general conclusion, so it's like - different variables adding up to the same sum."

"How charmingly mathematical."

He snorts with laughter. "Thanks. I have to keep my nerd reputation up, somehow."

"The Dungeons and Dragons and the notetaking could not possibly do by itself." She turns a page. "Gimme a rune."

"Makes sense." She takes diligent notes in the format she seems to be using. "I'm making a batch of flashcards when I get home. And when I have more of them down I'm making charts."

"I've got some flashcards, but when I tried to make a chart I needed bigger paper and couldn't manage it. Maybe if we get something like the huge rolls of colored paper at school, like the ones we use in projects. Or a really big chalkboard or something."

"Excel spreadsheet. I told Charlie I wanted my own laptop for my birthday, I will tell him I need it early for magic reasons."

"But then I can't draw the runes in Excel! I'd have to name them. Some of them I know the names of, but a lot of them I haven't bothered to name and just go with what they look like because I've been working solo. Also it would annoy me to meet another magic person and not have consistent names for them."

"There's probably a way to haul pictures into an Excel sheet."

"Probably, but then I have to have a scanner or try to draw in Paint or something. Which I can't do, because drawing with a mouse is annoying."

"I think I could manage approximations that were close enough for casual reference."

"Maybe you can, but I'm a perfectionist and them being too squiggly would really bother me."

"Okay, then you don't have to use my spreadsheet."

"I'll have to see how squiggly your runes are. Which, by the way, I will make you draw them, later, and correct handwriting. So that'll be fun."

"Thank goodness I have excellent handwriting."

"That's the spirit."

"What general class of problems results if a rune is drawn wrong? It's like it's not there, or you get an unpredictable subset of effects, or it just straight-up explodes, or what?"

"It's like it's not there, which... sounds innocuous enough, except if it's used in a spell and it's there to stop another rune's effects..." he trails off. "Bad things."

"I assure you I am never going to be asking what happens if I do something wrong so that I can then merrily go do something wrong."

"Good, because I would make faces at you, then."

"And that would surely be more terrible than any failed spell."

"Oh yes, certainly. You heard my sister, some of the ones I make are terrifying. Apparently."

"Just like spell-botching I shall diligently avoid ever finding out the details." New page. "Gimme a rune."

This one's notes gets footnotes on the back of its page. Bella is enthralled the entire time.

Darren notices! He will tailor his lesson plan because of this. The next rune is another less physical rune, and requires some more explanations - but once explained it makes sense.

"You," pronounces Bella, footnoting this one, "are a good teacher."

"Thank you!" says Darren, delighted. "I'm glad you're enjoying this."

"So am I. It would be so disappointing if there were real magic and it was intolerably boring."

"Me too. I spend hours on magic, it would suck if it were just... 'Press a button fifty thousand times, get magic.'"

"Oh my God that would be terrible."

"I would be okay if it were just 'Press a button five times' but fifty thousand and I would just feel like I was wasting my time."

"Even if it was 'press button fifty thousand times, world peace' - that would be disappointing. I'd press the button but I would complain about it."

"Yeah. I'd want to keep track of how many times I press the button so I could at least make the final button press suitably dramatic."

"Cameras, beautiful lighting, music, weeping war widows giving heartfelt speeches about how today is the day it can finally be over. Gimme a rune."

And she writes this down. They could pass the entire afternoon like this, swapping between runes and chatting.

"You have that right."

Bella is happy to be shown all kinds of runes. She was not actually aware that he was sticking to a specific genre for a reason.

"Can the ones I've got now make any spells?"

"A few, yeah. But I haven't gone over how to lay out runes yet, so... Sorry, we're still on the boring stuff."

"I'm not bored. Maybe make me a sheet of paper with clean and tidy instances of each rune so far on it and I can practice at home where I won't be taking up your time when I don't strictly have to have it?"

"Yes, but since I don't literally live here, it seems smart to save the practice that I can do alone for later, and do stuff that I need you for while I'm here."

"True," he says. "Okay, I'll make a list of runes and check your work, later. Proper teachering, hurray."

Bella pats his arm. "Hurray. Is now a good time to teach me how to lay them out or should I learn more of them alone first?"

"Now works for me," he agrees.

"All right. What're we gonna do, O Teacher?"

"He's off work at nine and I can call him whenever after that. I wouldn't try to cast with this messy thing, this is just a - composition."

He nods. "All right. We should um - probably eat, now that I think of it. I don't even know what time it is."

Bella looks around for a clock. "Yeah, food sounds great, I - forgot to explicitly ask if I'm invited for dinner."

"If I was not invited for dinner I would call my dad at nine and eat leftover spaghetti, it would not be a huge deal. But thank you. What're we having?"

"I'm not sure. Dad's taking care of it, I think. We should go ask."

"Okay." Bella stands up and streeeeetches. She's been hunched over her notebook for a long time even for her.

And there he is, in the kitchen. He looks up, amused. "You two have been busy, I take it?"

"Yes," beams Bella.

Vernon laughs. "Aaand - Darren?"

"Didn't do any magic, only showed her runes and how to lay them out."

"Good," says Vernon. "So, opinions on dinner? Savannah wants Chinese."

"I like Chinese. Good with most anything in the genre but I can produce specific opinions if you want me to and give me a menu to look at."