"I read a lot of books and I have literally never heard of that before."

"Guess it's because I'm an old man, technically speaking. It was all the rage in the thirties."

"That makes sense. Okay, I'll play checkers with you."

Checkers and ice cream is pleasant.

Kent wins more of the matches on average, but Anna-Seraphina puts up a good showing.

It's fun either way.

After that they take care of school tasks - buy lunch or pack lunch? - and just before dinner, "Still want to come to the Spirit Association meeting after dinner?"

Pack lunch.

She sighs. "The reasons to haven't gone away."

"Nope, they sure haven't."

So after dinner, Kent does a little work in the big shelter building next door, and then they're off toward a neighboring town in the van.

Anna-Seraphina lowkey frets all the way there.

It's a nondescript office building. "It'll be alright. We'll do a little paperwork, we'll go into the meeting hall, they tell us some local news, they mention that we have a new member and might or might not want you to introduce yourself, there's some open discussion time where we talk about politics for a bit, and then the meeting is officially over but most people stay and socialize a bit."

"And what I did doesn't count as local such that they'd've heard of it, right?"

"They probably will have heard rumors. I can ask the local branch head to remind people to be civil if things start getting... Tense."

"Okay."

In they go. "Good evening, Patricia. I'm here with Anna-Seraphina Sawyer, we talked about her on the phone?"

"Oh, welcome. No membership fee for the first six months, as is traditional, I've got the membership paperwork here. Miss Sawyer, if you'd fill it out...?"

She accepts the paperwork, looks it over, and starts filling it out.

"You know the circumstances..."

"Yes, very much so. Several of us have similar."

"So you'll remind people about the association's codes of conduct, yes?"

"If it seems it will be necessary."

She tenses slightly when she confirms she knows what happened but relaxes when she fails to react badly.

"Anna-Seraphina, to summarize, it's basically... Any grievances between Spirit Bearers should be brought up politely, civilly, officially. If you act subversively or attack other Spirit Bearers you can lose seniority and maybe even membership in the Association, which is a bigger deal than many people want to risk."

"Why's it a big deal?"

"The best magical jobs, and all the monster-hunter positions, tend to require Association membership or vetting. If the Association kicks you out, you're not seen as a trustworthy Spirit Bearer. You get less pay, more suspicion, and ridicule or worse from other magical people. The converse is also true - if the Association says you've reformed and repented, most people will believe it."

"We don't issue statements like that lightly, though."

"That makes sense."

"It works a lot like a workers' union. A very powerful one whose duties extend a bit beyond what unions usually do, though."

Nod nod. She finishes the paperwork and hands it back.

"Well, this looks to be in order." Tap tap tap tap.

A printer spits out another set of papers. "We'll want to get your photo ID, activated form, after the meeting, if that's alright?"

"That's fine. Thank you."