"Thank you," murmurs the dragon.

"You're welcome."

Cam, meanwhile, is looking for Idania.

Idania is writing on the ceiling of her house! It looks to be something about runecasting.

"Hey, Idania, can we have you standing by to keep an eye on the dragon if Adana wants to leave him?"

"Mm? Sure, I guess. Leeeet me just -" Write write write scribble scribble write. "There! Okay, let's go."

"Whatcha working on?" Cam asks as they head back for the Belfry.

"You know how the spellbinders have this thing about needing to fit an entire spell in their heads?"

"Yeah. You're trying to patch that?"

"Patch, no, I'm - most of the magic we're working with is intellect or working memory based. Theirs especially, at least when inventing spells. So I want to figure out how to make an item that helps with working memory and speed of thought. Seems like it would benefit just about all of us, and it would speed up anything I want to do after that considerably."

"Nifty."

"I think so! It's tricky, though, but I will get it eventually!"

"We will all be very appreciative." Here is the Belfry. There is a dragon in it.

"Hello again, dragon who broke my leg and also squished me."

The dragon does not answer her.

That's okay, Idania wasn't expecting an answer. She'll just be floating, over there. Judging.

Adana - looks at Idania with a bit of a concerned look. Then she looks at Cam. "Hey, sweetie. Do you have some free time to talk about - things?"

"Of course, angel."

"It would be a little after-school special if he just blinked and was like, 'what, you mean sphinxes and their friends are people too? Gosh!'," Cam points out. "Abject surrender is probably a best case scenario."

"I know, but it's still very frustrating. I told him about the alts part, to try and get him to - start seeing sphinxes and their friends as people, and that didn't get anywhere. Not even the part where I told him I was an alt of the 'peryton assassin.'"

"He might not have believed you."

"Probably," she sighs. "Solving racism: surprisingly difficult."

"I suppose we could arrange for him to need to summon a sphinx to help him save large quantities of people in a way that leaves him at her mercy and - oh, wait."