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Aurin holds his mother's hand as she leads him from the street to his aunt and uncle's house. He's been here only a couple of times, and can't remember most of them distinctly; they're sort of awkwardly related, his dead father's half-brother and the wife thereof. But now they have a baby parunia, and that means there is a dragon related to Aurin who is not too far from his age, only thirty-one years younger. This is apparently the sort of relation that it will be particularly enriching for Aurin to meet. They can do this now instead of waiting a month, because parunias don't die when they're babies; this one is safe, unlike the miscellaneous cousins on his mother's side he's never met because they are all in too much danger to get attached to (and have all succumbed to that danger). So here they are. Even though it was a very long flight and he couldn't ride his mother for takeoff and landing when she had to be a heron, only for the middle part.
Alys knocks on the door.
After Finnah has been living with Mial for two months, she writes her mother a letter, which no one else in the household is invited to see. She gets a reasonably prompt response, which no one is allowed to see. This goes on every few months. Finnah does not seem to enjoy sending or receiving the letters but continues regardless.
Between letters, Finnah relaxes. She eats normally and expresses lucid, if often scathing, opinions about things. She flies around and plays board games with Mial and fingerpaints and sings and reads and accompanies her host family on trips to places that are not Aurin's house. (Aurin himself relaxes around her - though he is obedient to his mother's instructions about remaining human- or eagle-shaped - but Alys mostly doesn't, albeit with the utmost politeness.)
Between letters, Finnah relaxes. She eats normally and expresses lucid, if often scathing, opinions about things. She flies around and plays board games with Mial and fingerpaints and sings and reads and accompanies her host family on trips to places that are not Aurin's house. (Aurin himself relaxes around her - though he is obedient to his mother's instructions about remaining human- or eagle-shaped - but Alys mostly doesn't, albeit with the utmost politeness.)
Mial is pleased with Finnah's recovery! He is curious about her letters, but upon discerning that she does not want them read, immediately promises not to read them.
He is also pleased that Aurin is not being so weird about Finnah anymore.
He is also pleased that Aurin is not being so weird about Finnah anymore.
While most institutions that teach wizardry (at least, the tradition practiced by nonfey air-breathers) are principally geared towards adults or at least adolescents, there are a handful, including a newish one in Paraasilan called Binaaralav Academy, that will take kids as young as six-equivalent if they can pass the admissions tests.
Upon learning of this, Mial studies fiercely for the admissions tests.
He is sixty-two, and he passes on the first try.
He is sixty-two, and he passes on the first try.
He does that. And also spends an entirely decorous* and proportionate** amount of time racing around the house cackling gleefully and hugging anyone who will hold still long enough.
*No.
**Also no.
*No.
**Also no.
Finnah will usually hold still long enough.
She has long stopped writing letters to her mother; she has nothing much to distract her from hugging a Mial who wants to be hugged.
She has long stopped writing letters to her mother; she has nothing much to distract her from hugging a Mial who wants to be hugged.
"Yeah," he says, un-gleeing slightly. "Which will be weird. And I'll miss you and Mom and Dad. But I can still visit home! And I'm gonna learn wizardry!"
"It'll be great! I'm gonna learn wizardry!"
And, his capacity to stay still exhausted, he birds off at top speed to find someone else to hug and cackle at. He will get back to Finnah soon enough, never fear.
And, his capacity to stay still exhausted, he birds off at top speed to find someone else to hug and cackle at. He will get back to Finnah soon enough, never fear.
Finnah has no doubts on this subject.
Binaaralav's break ends, and Mial's first term starts. He is placed in a room with an elf boy of comparable equivalency, given his class schedule, taken on a tour with the other new students through the important classroom buildings and the cafeteria and the library and the light's office and the stairs and between-building glass-enclosed bridges connecting these locations, and presented with the option to sign up to be bitten by small vampires who are attending the school on a faculty-orchestrated rotation.
Binaaralav's break ends, and Mial's first term starts. He is placed in a room with an elf boy of comparable equivalency, given his class schedule, taken on a tour with the other new students through the important classroom buildings and the cafeteria and the library and the light's office and the stairs and between-building glass-enclosed bridges connecting these locations, and presented with the option to sign up to be bitten by small vampires who are attending the school on a faculty-orchestrated rotation.
Mial investigates the vampire thing.
When he discovers that it will make them live longer, he signs right up.
When he discovers that it will make them live longer, he signs right up.
And so before there have even been any classes yet he is visited by a small vampire who knocks nervously on the door and is let in by the elf roommate. The vampire looks at the elf's eyes and then concludes that Mial is probably who he's there to see. "Um, hi."
Which is weird, but he supposes it must be convenient for people who aren't shrens. He reads one of his class books.