A stone canoe appears, hovering three feet over the water. There is a human sitting in the canoe. He looks quietly miserable.

Yvette looks at him, a little alarmed. At first because that human definitely just appeared out of nowhere, and she has to deal with unexpectedly being pressured to keep herself from murdering him for his delicious blood, and then because that canoe is floating three feet above the water and that is definitely not normal, and then -

Then she notices after a quarter of a second of stunned staring that she finds his obvious quiet misery intensely and very personally upsetting and that also when she's paying attention he's the most beautiful human she's ever seen in her life.

I apologize for appearing so suddenly, says the suddenly appearing human, by some means of mental communication that very conveniently transmits meanings rather than words.

Oh God, oh God, she's mated to the suddenly appearing human. It hasn't even been a decade yet, she thought her pickiness would buy her at least a decade before her species went and forcibly attached her to a stranger. Instead, no she miscalculated she is now stuck on this innocent person forever because she wanted immortality and magic powers and either gets a blissful eternity with him or eternal heartbreak, and this is way more than she thought she would be dealing with today she is not at all prepared to handle it.

She cannot quite compose her thoughts to something more clear than a vaguely directional panic. Communication's important, right, she should try that, he's successfully talking to her in that whatever the fuck that is. She should try to reply.

Her only success is a slightly strangled and distinctly un-vampiric squeak.

Well he really isn't sure how to deal with that at all.

Nope she can't, she just can't, she cannot handle this right now and she is doing him a disservice with her incompetence.

"C-can you, just. Wait right here. In your magical floating canoe. Because I think I need to get my brother because I am incapable of handling this right now, I, I'm - I'm sorry -"

He does not speak her language but he gets the approximate gist.

She attempts and fails at a smile, and then immediately flees at super speed without regard for freaking out the human, leaving behind her pile of pretty jewelry.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)

He can... just sort of... sit. In his canoe. Floating over this pond. Yes.

Eventually another pale, golden-eyed man shows up at unnatural speed. He bears some resemblance to the red-haired one that fled earlier.

"Hello," he says, a bit experimentally.

I'm sorry, I don't speak your language.

... That's all right, this seems to work fine. This is working fine, right?

Yes.

And in the thread of unspoken implications woven into the overt communication - he is just so, so confused.

Well that's. Certainly a person that his power is telling him about. A person that has devoted everything he is to one thing at great personal cost and suffering. Okay.

Sorry, that was probably a pretty confusing thing to arrive to - hi, I'm Blair. That was my sister, Yvette, she got overwhelmed by a number of things and retrieved me so I could talk to you and answer whatever questions you might have.

I am Korovai. I don't understand why my sudden appearance frightened her so much, but I'm sorry about it.

It is absolutely not your fault, and she's not upset with or frightened of you, but I'll relay your intentions to her when I get the chance. I can try to explain?

That would be helpful.

So, I'm a vampire, so's my sister. We both used to be human, and then at some point we changed species. This comes with a number of benefits and drawbacks, but in short, we get superpowers, a chance at immortality, and potentially a set of personalized magic powers, among other things. Some of the drawbacks are more obvious than others, such as an unquenchable thirst for blood that if we slip in our self control could potentially drive us to kill innocent people to try and sate our thirst, an unappetizing diet of animal blood if we think that killing people is wrong, flammability, slightly unpleasant throat pain, and a number of other more minor things. One of the stranger results of turning is that vampires have a bizarre mental construction that causes them to very occasionally fall in irrevocable single-targetted permanent love at first sight with someone that they could plausibly happily spend the rest of eternity with. Which is why my sister is now seeing how close a vampire can get to hyperventilating. Pause.

This is the part where I reassure you that she is not at all going to ask anything of you, and freely chose to become a vampire, understanding exactly what she was getting into.

I find it very implausible that anyone could happily spend the rest of eternity with me.

Blair considers him.

What makes you say that?

I am not presently happy and do not strongly expect that I ever will be.

What makes you so sure happiness is not a thing you'll ever get?

I have something very important to do, and I will not be happy until after I have done it, and I have no guarantee that it's possible.

.... My sister's got a similar project. That is, stopping vampires from killing people for food. She can be fleetingly happy in the interim, but it will always bug her if she doesn't manage it. So. Uh. I predict her response is going to be either 'All right, then we start with yours and then once that's done go do mine' or vice versa."

It seems very likely that hers will be easier to solve than mine.

She'll fully support practicality.

What is the nature of the problem, exactly?

Vampires are, as a group, bloodthirsty unrepentant murderers. Humans smell extra special delicious, and it's hard to learn to resist the temptation to take a bite. There are exactly three that I know of that have not killed and eaten anyone, and one of them is my sister. She would like vampires to stop being compelled to eat people, and offer an incentivized non-people alternative that could persuade vampires that have been eating people for thousands of years and have grown accustomed to the delicious taste of it.

...This seems like a problem plausibly solvable with magic, he says.

Oh?

He pauses, thinking through what he wants to say.

...I came here from another world, and am originally from yet a different one. In the intervening world I acquired a kind of very powerful magic that I think could be used to assist in solving this problem. It is possible for other people to apply to its source. Attempts to acquire the magic take nine days each, and only one person can be evaluated at a time, but it is not dangerous to try.

Huh. Neat. Would it be useful towards your goal to have another person with this specific kind of very powerful magic helping you?

Potentially, yes.

Would you like to be properly introduced to my sister when she's calmed down a bit, then?

He nods.

If you would prefer that I speak your language, you can send it to me using this communication power, he says.

Actually I'd prefer to speak yours! Among vampiric perks is an improved memory. But I can get you mine, too.

I know several; it will take a few minutes to send them all.

Can we send languages at the same time? I could also send you all of mine if you'd like them, or a specific selection of them.

It can be distracting to send and receive at the same time. I'll send you mine and you can send back whichever you like.

He knows around ten languages at varying levels of fluency - his native Eivarne, and then Satni, Avashin, Northern and Eastern Hialene, and a handful of others; and last of all Aiha, which is completely unrelated to all the rest on every level and which he speaks with perfect native fluency.

Blair patiently waits, then responds in kind with fluent English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, several different branches of Mandarin, Japanese, Bengali, Hindi, Arabic, two forms of Latin (modern scientific Latin and old Latin in the proper pronunciation), Greek, Hebrew -

Then he pauses to check that Korovai actually wants more languages. He has more, but he sends the impression that this is enough to let him probably be able to speak to someone anywhere in the world. If he'd like to stop having more languages given to him, that would be perfectly understandable.

"This is fascinating," he says out loud in English. "If your sister won't mind the wait, I don't mind learning more."

"No, I expect her to be amused and say something mildly sardonic."

Languages! Turkish, Punjabi, Cantonese, Thai, Persian, Romanian, Ukranian, Welsh, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish...

This man knows a lot of languages. He apologizes for the eurocentricity of the languages, he's managed to pick up a lot of the major non-European languages, but hasn't had time to collect the minor ones and it's been very hard to get a lot of languages specific to Africa without actually going there, and he hasn't yet found the time yet.

He runs out. Eventually. He's not fluent in all of the languages he offers, but he typically knows enough of the basics to get across simple sentences and understand shorter ones.

"Thank you," he says, eventually.

"My pleasure!" says Blair, cheerily.

Korovai does not smile.

Yeah, Korovai does not seem like a smiling kind of person.

"Yvette's calmed down - she came within hearing distance for a little while to tell me she was okay, then left to give us privacy. She's probably experimenting upon an innocent rock with her magic for benevolent scientific purposes. It's the sort of thing she can keep at it for hours if she gets caught up in something." Meaning you do not have to drop everything to deal with her right now if you don't want to. "What do you want to do?"

"I'd like to hear more about the problem she is attempting to solve."

"Uh - there are some aspects I could explain to you myself - I'd be good for social and political parts, probably some behavioral and psychology too - but she'll be the one to talk to about the biological and scientific side."

"Then I will hear the social and related aspects from you and the scientific aspects from her."

"Fair enough. So, the way a typical vampire is turned is that they're kidnapped by a vampire that thinks they're worth turning for some reason. Typical reasons include mating onto the human - mate bonds are symmetrical when both parties are vampires - wanting to expand your group of vampires, or suspicion of magical powers upon turning. The consent of the human in question usually doesn't come up, it didn't with me. This illustrates how vampires don't typically see humans as people, and part of the situation newborn vampires are thrown into. To exacerbate this, turning itself is three days of what can kindly be called unfathomable and completely unmatchable agony. It is common, though not completely universal, to ask to die. It's hard to remember anything before the point of turning. I say this so you can get a complete picture of how much of a newborn vampire's previous life is ripped away at once, before blood even becomes a part of the picture. It helps explain the depth of the depersonalization."

He nods thoughtfully.

"So the next traditional part of the turning experience is giving the new vampire their first - meal." He closes his eyes and hisses slightly. "In the form of about half a dozen victims, neatly tied up and waiting for when the vampire finishes turning." His voice begins taking on a very passionless quality. "I'm fluent in over forty languages, and I have difficulty describing being faced with that without any kind of forewarning. Especially after three days of torture, in a whole new body with a whole new set of instincts, including the super speed to immediately do the very first thing your instincts tell you to do without giving you time to reconsider or try to fight it. And it is difficult to fight it. It's like resisting a feast when you're starving, or a breath of air when you're suffocating, or water when you're burning from the inside out. It's all of them, all at once, and more."

"That sounds very unpleasant."

"Yep. Worse, drinking someone's blood is - let's go with rather incomparable, and leave it at that. Drinking human blood makes it harder to resist drinking it later, because instead of just imagining what it tastes like, it's known in agonizing, perfectly memorized detail. So that neatly sabotages every vampire from the beginning, confronting them with both the prospect of being a murderer and having to resist that. To add to it, they have a whole new circle of friends that treat eating people as normal, natural, just a part of how the world works, the humans are all just meant to be food, and anyway they'll all die eventually anyway. It's such an easy idea to cling to when your entire life has been ripped away with you and you've woken up one day to become a monster.

"So trying to come at the problem through morality is - not at all viable, frankly. Not for the vampires that are already out in the world, anyway."

Nod.

"Quenching the unquenchable vampire thirst would go a long way, but not the entire way. It would prevent accidents and some portion of the deaths, but vampires acquire the self control to resist eating every human they come across for simple practicality, and that the vampire government will kill them if they don't behave themselves well enough to plausibly hide their existence from humans."

"I'll have to talk to your sister to see how easily I can quench the unquenchable thirst."

Nod. "She hasn't had long to work at it, admittedly, but she'll definitely help how she can."

Nod.

"Complicating things is the secretive vampire government. They do a number of very useful things, such as keep vampires from turning children and creating newborn armies, keeping vampire society from collapsing into chaos, that sort of thing. Which is wonderful and useful. But they have also made it illegal to tell humans about vampires without then either killing them or turning them, and predictably as a group have exactly zero regard for human life. Worse, they have magic powers of their own that lets them stay on top, not all of them nice and friendly. One of their leaders, Aro, can gain someone's entire set of memories by touching them. They have a number of other witches - the term we call people with magical powers - that give them various advantages against other vampires that might like to rule the world."

"...They also sound like a problem in need of solving."

"They are not nice people, but I think leaving vampires without a governing force would be worse than leaving an amoral one in charge," says Blair diplomatically.

"I'm aware of the principle."

There's a story there that Blair is studiously not going to ask about.

"All right, just making sure."

He nods. "Yes."

"So in other news, if you could please not wander around telling people about how vampires are a thing, I'd appreciate it."

"Yes, of course."

... Yeah he's starting to see how this guy is compatible with his sister.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

He nods.

Smile.

"Anything else I can help clarify?"

"Not that springs to mind immediately, no."

"All right. Want to talk to my sister, then?"

Nod.

"All right then."

Zip, and away he goes to find his sister.

She is standing perfectly still, carefully experimenting upon a rock with transmutation.

"Hi," she says, changing it back to its original composition and dropping it unceremoniously on the ground.

"Hey."

He hugs his little sister.

Hug. Yes, excellent, this helps.

"So, I have formed opinions about him if you'd like to hear them?"

... Nod.

"He's thoughtful, empathetic, kind, outrageously devoted to his morals - which I think are to your taste - and a smidge nerdy. He's - I think focusing on the task in front of him exclusively because it's what he does. He's devoted himself to doing something that's outrageously difficult - I didn't ask what it was - and it's hurt him a lot, and caused him to retreat as far inward as he dares. But he's not going to stop until it's done, because it's his responsibility, something he's not going to ever be the kind of person to walk away from, and it's the right thing to do. And until he can eventually complete his impossible task, he'll happily solve uh. Your. Impossible task. Because it's the right thing to do and he acknowledges that his will take a while."

"I - he - he looks miserable." Is there a way I can fix it can I make it better is there a button to press to solve this problem right now, she doesn't manage to say.

"Yeah. I get the impression that he hasn't had the happiest life. The only way that one's fixable is by getting him out from under his crushing responsibility - in the right way, because he's not going to drop it - and then helping him have a happier life."

Yvette indulges in a whine.

"Yeah, I know." He squeezes her slightly. "I'm sorry it's not fair."

"It's not very fair for him, either, in the middle of - whatever he's doing - and suddenly there's a vampire making gooey eyes at him -"

"No. Nothing here is fair for anyone, because the world sometimes sucks. But it's not your fault, okay?"

"Isn't it?"

"Last I checked, you weren't a fortune teller, Yvette. Yes, it is unfair to be in his situation. But you weighed your options and your potential benefits and drawbacks, and despite Edward's commentary, it wasn't poorly thought out. It's also pretty unfair to ask you to die. We just had one of the potential obstacles show up earlier than expected."

Whine.

"Yep." Such hug. "I know. Grey areas are upsetting like that. I'm sorry. I think the best thing you can do right now is just - go be a positive person in his life."

"And what if I'm just this awful bundle of extra unwanted responsibilities and vampiric romantic angst and complication, dragging him down further?"

"... That is the absolute most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Hands down. I mean, yeah, I see where you're coming from, but come on, it's you."

"I am not the most emotionally stable person ever! I am definitely feeling some vampiric angst right now!"

"Oh, no, you feel bad things sometimes, the horror. How dare you. What a monstrous thing that absolutely no one else in the world has ever been through before. Surely everyone in your life should shun you, because you are not a beacon of positivity all the time."

"That's not my point!"

"No? Then how about you actually see if you're a positive or negative influence on his life before deciding what you are to him?"

"... God, I'm sounding like Edward now," mumbles Yvette. "All dramatic angst and stupid self hatred."

"He has good qualities, promise. They just - don't play well with some of yours. But yes, stop."

"But Blair, overdramatic angst is so emotionally comfortable!"

Snort.

"There you are. You can linger in emotionally straightforward angst for a while if you need to, but I think you'd rather not buy a house and stay."

Sigh.

"No. Let's. Actually grow a spine and go say hello to - um. .... Blair what is his name?"

"Korovai." He kisses her on the forehead. "Now go on, then."

He releases her from the hug and makes a little shooing motion.

"Ass," she says, without heat, failing to disguise the smile.

Then she takes a deep breath and goes to talk to Korovai.

"Hello," he says in English. "I exchanged languages with your brother; I can do the same with you if you like."

"Hello. I certainly wouldn't mind, though if it takes a lot of time, I think I'd prefer to hold off on any equivalents of Welsh, if Blair gave you Welsh. At least for now."

Treating this in a business-like fashion helps. She can do business-like. Hell, working as a nurse practically requires one to master it. This makes it much easier to interact with him without flailing socially.

"I can give you the five main languages of my world, then, and omit the more obscure ones?"

"That sounds good. Can you only send your original languages, or any new ones that you pick up, too?"

"I can send any that I know."

"Useful," she says, smiling slightly. "Especially since you spoke to Blair."

"I now know a very large number of languages," he agrees.

He sends her his world's main five. Eivarne, Satni, Avashin, the two major dialects of Hialene.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Your brother said you could tell me more about how vampires function biologically?"

She nods. "A bit, yes. How much detail would you like, and would you like me to compose my lecture with a specific topic in mind?"

"I would like as complete an understanding as possible. I'm particularly interested in how the thirst works, because that is the problem in need of solving, but more information is better."

She represses the adoring smile because it's not super relevant right now. It's present in spirit. (And somewhere in her eyes.)

"All right. First of all, vampires live entirely on blood, be it from animals or - not. The thirst is always present, even when a vampire's full, though it's quieted the more well fed a vampire is. By the same metric, it becomes more unpleasant the longer a vampire goes without feeding, and flares up when smelling humans. Vampires are also venomous, and the production of venom flares similarly upon proximity to humans. This venom is what turns humans into vampires, in large quantities. In smaller and more typical quantities, it's merely debilitatingly painful for the victim until their assumed demise. Typical feeding schedules vary from one week to one month between meals, dependent on the amount of blood imbibed and how long the vampire is willing to put up with the discomfort of their thirst. Longer times between feedings are perhaps possible with appropriate application of willpower, but are less tenable. The longer gone without feeding, the more desperate a vampire starts to become, the more their instincts start to assert themselves, and the more everything with a heartbeat starts to look appetizing."

Thoughtful nod.

"The blood we drink is actually processed, too, water doesn't provide any thirst quenching benefits. The regeneration effect is slower the less well fed the vampire is, though I haven't had the chance to properly test the drop off rate there, yet. Unwillingness to test my self control." And wasn't that a good idea, isn't she glad she keeps herself so well fed, what with her very human mate.

"I'm still trying to isolate precisely which parts of the blood itself are being used for what. The different types of blood have different effects - a vampire that drinks human blood is stronger than one that doesn't, but also wilder, more prone to solving their problems with violence, and has red eyes. A vampire that drinks animal blood is more able to form social bonds and peacefully reside with other vampires, with the obvious cosmetic effects." She motions to her eyes. "Typical groups of vampires are one to four, because any larger than that and they'll start getting territorial and grumpy. Whereas all of the golden eyed vampires I've met have an easier time not getting into fights. I'm not sure if it's a nutritional deficiency of some kind that shakes out to be beneficial by chance, by starving the more monstrous parts of a vampire, or if there's something in human blood that's doing it. I've noticed no variance in psychology from different types of animals. Carnivores, ah, taste better, but I'm no more aggressive by eating them than I am from eating deer. Which seems - strange. What with how greatly species vary."

"I... have the magical ability to observe and understand all the properties of anything I touch," he says. "Which seems potentially useful in context."

"... Yes, that sounds very useful in context. Ah. Depending on how you'd prefer to use it?" She hesitates to actually say I completely understand if you don't want to touch me, because actually saying that sentence out loud would sort of be like plunging her hand into a fireplace, but she makes an expression that communicates that she's not going to try to weasel him into doing things he's not comfortable with.

"It would be inexcusably negligent not to inspect at least one vampire this way."

They are just going to keep being awkward at each other, aren't they.

"We do have at least two of those available," points out Yvette after a pause, a little wryly. Trying to dissolve as much awkward as possible with tactical application of sarcasm. Except wait what if that just makes her sound callous shit why is this so hard. "Either of which would likely consent. Or I could, um - transmute a rock into a bit of vampire, but that might be even less palatable."

"...a transmuted rock sounds potentially useful as a separate experiment," he says.

"Whatever experiments you're comfortable participating in. I'm not squeamish."

Someone who was less observant, or paying less attention, might miss the complicated emotions inspired by that last sentence.

Less observant people might not notice, but she is a vampire with more sensory input and brainspace than she can use responsibly, and he is her mate. Of course she is paying a slightly disturbing amount of attention to him.

"... I - sorry, was that too flippant of me?" she offers, hesitantly.

"You reminded me of my best friend for a moment. I miss her."

"Ah. I'm sorry." The sentence, Is there some way I can help, can I make you some resemblence of okay I'll do it in a heartbeat, dies on her lips for being too creepy. She just - looks at him. Fretfully.

"If I ever find my way home, I will see her then."

Yvette nods.

"I'll try not to delay you," she murmurs.

"You are unlikely to be a significant delaying factor."

She decides that she is not going to angst and attempts a smile. Key word: attempts.

(Being told she won't delay him - kind of stings. A little. It shouldn't, but it does.)

"That's the plan," she agrees. "I - don't know if I can help you get home, but if I can, I will."

"Thank you."

This encourages a spark of earnestness out of her hesitant little smile.

"Anyway. What would you like to do first? Or - is there anything you need, I know you have," she waves a hand, "weird magic powers but I don't know if you need to eat and sleep?"

"I do not need to eat or sleep."

"Okay, but do you want to? Or - does not having a chair besides your floating boat bother you, are there comforting things you might like to have?"

He considers this question.

"...I don't tend to think in terms of what is comforting."

Well that's just the saddest thing ever, isn't it. She wants to hold him and tell him that the world can wait fifteen minutes for him to figure out if he wants comforting things, except also she's sort of granite-like in texture and would probably accidentally crush him to a pulp. Plus he might not want her to. So. Good reasons not to attempt that.

She considers. "... All right. Then what about in terms of what would make you more - more efficient?"

"It would be good to have somewhere to sit other than my boat," he acknowledges.

She considers. She doesn't really have access to chairs - she could probably make one in a reasonable amount of time, she's certainly copied materials from enough chairs to cobble something together. But he might not like to sit awkwardly in a chair in the woods.

"Would you like me to get you a chair, or find you an unused room with a chair, and - perhaps a place to put your boat?"

"What do you mean by an unused room...?"

"There are a number of quiet places to sit that would be easy enough to find, mostly empty classrooms in the nearby university at this hour, or I could acquire some of the local currency and find you a hotel room."

"I am... disadvantaged by my ignorance of local society."

"Ah. I'm - not certain how to succinctly describe it without knowing the societal background you come from. I could just take you to Oxford if you'd like to see it for yourself, or clumsily attempt to explain it."

"If taking me to Oxford would not lead to trouble, that seems like a reasonable approach. As for somewhere to put my boat..."

He glides, in the boat, over to solid ground. He steps out of the boat. He puts his hand on the boat and it shrinks and rolls itself up into a little ball of stone, which he puts in his pocket.

That - is definitely itself. She blinks.

"It shouldn't lead to any trouble, but it is a fair distance away. I ran from there to here in a few minutes, but I run very fast. Do you have an inconspicuous method of travel? I - hesitate to offer to carry you. While I have excellent self control so far, I haven't had enough practice with the strength, and wouldn't want to hurt you."

"I am extremely difficult to hurt, but I would prefer to travel under my own power. What do you mean by inconspicuous?"

"Something that would transport you quickly, but still give me the time to sense nearby humans so that whatever that was transporting you could be hidden. Since it's likely to not be something ordinary. If your boat has accurate aim, you could use it to go to a secluded place closer to Oxford, stow it, and we could walk the remaining way?"

"If you can tell me the approximate distance and direction of such a place and send me an accurate mental image of it, I can go there. My boat does not need to be shaped like a boat in order to teleport."

"Ah, I'd want to be sure it was actually empty of people before sending you there, for fear of accidents. Do you mind if you make several shorter teleportations, so I can quickly verify each spot you travel to is suitably deserted?"

"It wouldn't be necessary. My communication power works at a distance."

"Ah. Then I'll go find you a suitable location." Something occurs to her, and she pauses thoughtfully. "Would you like Blair to come along, with or," she has a bit of trouble with this next part but powers gamely on without a noticeable pause, "instead, if that would be more comfortable?"

"I think it would be good to have him along."

Probably because they are both horribly awkward, and Blair is better at not being that thing. She is going to - try not to read any more into it than that. For the sake of her own sanity.

"All right. Shall I go and find him, or would you like to contact him with your communication power?"

"I think you should go and find him."

She nods, then goes off to find her brother. (Staunchly refusing to overthink anything.)

Of the two of them, he's the tracker, but she's still a vampire. Following his scent's definitely within her abilities. So she does that.

He notices her nearing him soon enough, and meets her halfway.

"Hey."

"Hi. Korovai doesn't have any experience with our society, so we thought it might be a good idea for him to take a look at Oxford. He thought it'd be best if you came along."

"Sure, of course."

That sure is an assessing look he's got, though.

"... We're kind of painfully awkward. It's a problem. I'm trying to mitigate my end of it, but it's hard to not be awkward in our specific situation."

"Ah, and I am to be the anti-awkward, got it. Good, I'd make a shit chaperone."

Snort.

"No. That - no. It's the twentieth century, Blair. I do not need a chaperone. I especially do not need my brother as my chaperone."

They start heading to Korovai.

"I'm crushed. What if you're caught behind an overlarge bush and he has his way with you?"

Hey, he's supposed to be the anti-awkward. Teasing his sister is part of the job description, right? Right.

Yvette rolls her eyes, and does not dignify that with a reply.

Then: Korovai!

"Hi."

"Hello."

Oh, yes. He can see their problem already.

"Hey. So am I carrying you or do you have -" He spots his sister's smile, and answers his own question. "- teleportation," he finishes, anyway.

"Second thing. You can bring him along with you, right?" she asks, of Korovai.

"... Yes?"

"Excellent!"

Her brother is just as fast as she is, but his reflexes are imperfect, and he's willing to humor her joke. So she can demonstrate her enhanced speed to mess up her brother's hair before zipping away.

Straight faced, he fixes it.

"I probably deserved that," he says, sagely.

"You definitely did!" she calls back, because she's not yet out of vampiric hearing range.

For Korovai's benefit: He definitely did.

He - doesn't smile. But he looks less miserable than usual for a moment.

Blair smiles, a little.

"Oxford's got some impressive libraries, if you like libraries. The place is very academic. Also pretty, but Yvette's here to raid them for their chemistry secrets not their architecture."

"I do like books."

"We can definitely wander into a library or two! ... Not all of them, granted, I think there's a few that are only for students, and we'd have to break into those. Which, uh. I don't think I want to be that thorough of a tour guide. But a lot of them are public and are free for wandering."

He nods.

"Anything else you might like to see? I admittedly don't really have a comparison point of what your world's like. There are some pretty churches, if you'd like to see pretty churches."

"Are there gods in this world?"

"If there are, they're so hands off that no one can seem to agree on them. Most major religions tend to agree that there's one all powerful god that oversees and watches over us all, and then disagree on the details of doctrine."

"There were gods in my world once. The last of them killed each other in a war that sank a continent thousands of years ago. There have been no new ones since."

Blair nods.

"Sounds like a mess. I'd facetiously offer to lend you a spare continent, but we uh. We filled the scenic one with convicts, and somehow I don't think you'd want the frozen one. Even with the penguins."

"We make do with the one we have left."

"You only have one? That sounds..." He considers, then decides upon, "Lonely."

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Multiple continents gives geographical isolation, which gives space for different cultures to evolve. Meaning more diversity of ideas and different viewpoints. I like getting the chance to travel the world and see what a part of the world is like when its people have different priorities than what I'm used to. Not to say you don't have diversity on your continent, because I have no doubt that it does and it would amaze me. I just - I live for going to strange foreign places I've never seen before. Figuring out the different patterns groups of people can fall into when left to their own devices. It's not the number of people, it's the variety. Feeling like I'm free to go somewhere far away if everything starts feeling too familiar."

"I suppose I wouldn't know."

Shrug. "It matters more to different people, and it's not for everyone. I know Yvette's not as interested in wandering the world as I am. She wants to find a hill and build a castle, I want to wander around looking at castles and helping out where I can."

"I already have a castle, and I would like to return there."

"We'll help get you back."

Nod.

I've found an isolated spot that's free for boat-based transportation. Whenever you're ready.

Show me?

She sends a visual of an out of the way spot behind what's probably a shed.

He takes the ex-canoe out of his pocket, expands it to the size of an apple, teleports himself and Blair to the spot behind the shed, shrinks the stone ball back down to marble size, and puts it back in his pocket.

"Okay," declares Blair, "I have to say. That is the most adorable transportation method."

"Adorable? Really, Blair? Let the man have his perfectly ordinary magic teleporting boat without potentially belittling it."

"I'm not sure it qualifies as a boat any longer."

"It was boat shaped when I first encountered it, it will forever be a boat to me."

Aaaaa he is less miserable this is fantastic!!!

She probably had some kind of train of thought there, but it's gone now. Lost to the glee.

Wow. These dorks.

He'd be tempted to leave them alone, except they're about to hit an awkward iceberg. He can tell. They still haven't figured out what to do with each other. So:

"Is it forever a boat just because you saw it first as a boat, though? Lots of things get re-purposed all the time, should they have to carry their histories with them in whatever form they end up taking?"

"As an ideal, no, probably not, that sounds awful. As an actual implementation of an ideal - the alleged boat is not going to mind, because as far as I know it's an object. I would rather save my pedantry for a place where it actually matters."

"Like right now?"

Sniff.

"Well, yes, of course. Winning petty arguments with my brother is practice for winning petty arguments with less annoying people."

"And she absolutely must win petty arguments," explains Blair, mock-seriously.

It's... good that they are happy enough people to be like that with each other. It reminds him of himself and Ruava. He doesn't know how to say either of those things.