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Vivian is thrilled Isabella is all right. And now that some time has passed, she's extraordinarily proud of herself, as well. She did it. She brought sphinx magic back, it worked!
She moves 'spell can create non-extinct species' up her priority list. Someday, when it's safe, there can be more sphinxes.
She tells the owner of the Avalon magic shop that she's testing some experimental new healing spells and to let her know if anyone is interested. She pretends to be violently protective of "her spell" and insists on secrecy in spell casting, and only accepts those whom medicine could not otherwise help. 'Cancer curing spell' is less suspicious than 'spell nearly exactly duplicating sphinx magic' anyway. And she lets Isabella heal them, carefully, one at a time.
Vivian and Gianna continue to see each other. Gianna continues to be sweet and funny and fiercely, protectively loyal and just generally adorable, and Vivian is crazy about her. Work starts 'coincidentally' sending Gianna to San Francisco more often. When Isabella notices how much time Vivian and Gianna spend together, Vivian uses her questions as an opportunity to explain a few things. Isabella's reaction turns out to be, "Oh. Okay. I like her all right," before returning to her latest magical project, which makes Vivian giggle. How very like her daughter.
Life proceeds reasonably comfortably for the new few years. Isabella makes acceptable progress in school and astonishing progress in magic, or rather, she does whenever she can be lured away from 'casting healing spells' with Vivian. Vivian herself blows up a few beetles but eventually manages to create non-extinct species. Vivian claims a newfound interest in traveling to her friends, and periodically bundles Isabella onto a plane to go 'be a tourist' somewhere. Panda bears and Florida panthers start mysteriously, coincidentally increasing in numbers.
Gianna is still wonderful but she refuses to come out to Ilario, which Vivian... is upset about, but deals with. Reluctantly. It's not her place to say how and when Gianna comes out, if she does at all, but she hates feeling like a secret. The long distance becomes more of a sticking point. Vivian can't move to Italy or Gianna's friends would Find Out; Gianna won't move away from her brother. When Isabella is eleven, Vivian and Gianna reluctantly admit it's time to break up. It's about as amicable as they can manage under the circumstances, but Vivian still spends a couple of weeks sadly eating chocolate. Isabella is quietly soothing and spends a lot of time hugging her, which Vivian appreciates. Sphinxette snuggles are the best snuggles.
She throws herself into her work. She successfully creates a baby pegasus for a pegasus couple struggling with infertility, and suddenly finds herself with a second source of income. Critter couples hoping to adopt have very few options if they want a child of their own species- or they did, until Vivian. She charges more than the adoption centers, to encourage parents to take home existing children, but there's occasionally someone willing to pay. She contributes the bulk of her earnings to Isabella's college fund and uses the rest to reduce the amount of time she spends making charms. More time for Isabella, more time for magic research, more time trying to locate dragons. (She has been wildly unsuccessful at this task so far and she finds herself regularly heaping swearwords on runecasting's inefficiency at information gathering. This does not help.)
She dates a few more women, but nothing nearly as long as her relationship with Gianna. When Isabella is fourteen, she explains to her mother in her serious Isabella fashion that she thinks she likes women. But also men. Vivian tells her that being bisexual is totally okay, she will always love Isabella very much, and yes, it's time for the sex talk now.
More time passes. Vivian and Isabella continue to travel, mostly to China. They speak the language, they can visit Vivian's relatives in Wuxi, and people love Isabella. They ask her for pictures, they want to pet her hair, they tell her how beautiful and pale she is, they exclaim excitedly over her wonderful Chinese. Isabella's not wild about travel in general, but she likes China, and Vivian just laughs and takes advantage of it. The Chengdu research base is confounded but delighted.
Isabella is seventeen when Vivian overhears some interesting gossip in the Avalon. Someone turned up a wyvern in Toronto of all places, isn't that odd? A brand new one too, just found her medallion by accident. Who knew there were wyverns in Canada anyway?
Vivian didn't, that's for sure. Her friend Helen is roped into babysitting Isabella, and Vivian catches the next flight to Toronto.
Time to meet this wyvern.
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revivian
maybeso
It's an appealing career option. Trouble is I couldn't explain what I did to anyone who wasn't in the know.
revivian
I tell people, mostly honestly, that I sell custom made, very intricate jewelry. Though I think some people assume I'm paid for my volunteer work, too. There's options, if you're seriously inclined.
maybeso
I am inclined. Although I came to magic pretty recently and have already learned enough to be stunned that more people don't take it up as a career. Competition is thin on the ground.
revivian
High margins but small market, few learning opportunities? Plus the danger factor, not everyone can swallow spells ;_;
maybeso
Well, yes, but I didn't know I could do that when I took it up to begin with.
revivian
"And if you were anyone else, you would now be dead" does not seem like a helpful response here. Nor does an after-the-fact safety lecture.
Well, now you belong to the tiny market, congratulations.
Well, now you belong to the tiny market, congratulations.
revivian
The two continue to email. Their interactions are mostly confined to discussions of magic, but given the people involved this doesn't limit them much. They discuss spells and magical specialties and useful textbooks and the minutiae of the magical community. For all intents and purposes it's like Vivian's developed a second student, just at a distance. She's careful not to take time away from Isabella, since Isabella will always come first, but Isabella has enough of her own projects (plus what homework she must do to continue to qualify as a home schooler rather than a truant) that it never becomes an issue.
If it were anyone else, Vivian would worry about not being able to check pronunciation in person- phonetic guides only go so far- but... May swallows spells. She decides not to worry about exploding, mispronounced spells.
She does research the ability, though. Just in case.
And when she's found enough passing references to dragons as 'spell-eaters' and similar, she emails May. I've found some books that talk about swallowing spells. Would you like a copy?
If it were anyone else, Vivian would worry about not being able to check pronunciation in person- phonetic guides only go so far- but... May swallows spells. She decides not to worry about exploding, mispronounced spells.
She does research the ability, though. Just in case.
And when she's found enough passing references to dragons as 'spell-eaters' and similar, she emails May. I've found some books that talk about swallowing spells. Would you like a copy?
revivian
References arrive in a list. There's even a short bibliography. All the books are about dragons.
There's... kind of a trend? I'm sorry, I looked, I couldn't find anything about other species being able to do anything like it.
There's... kind of a trend? I'm sorry, I looked, I couldn't find anything about other species being able to do anything like it.
maybeso
I've never met any other wyverns except for the question mark that is my parents. Are we not related?
revivian
They are, but the magics don't seem to overlap. It's not uncommon with critters; Nemean lions and gryphons and sphinxes all descend from lions in some way but they all have different abilities.
maybeso
There isn't a response for a while.
Then:
Yeah, you caught me. Let's not put the charismatic megafauna in a zoo, huh?
Then:
Yeah, you caught me. Let's not put the charismatic megafauna in a zoo, huh?
revivian
Vivian winces. She didn't mean to make May feel threatened. She writes a quick note to reassure her.
I have absolutely no interest in zoos, promise. But if you wanted to learn more, do you want scans of anything? I know some of my books are kind of obscure.
Then she goes to find Isabella to report.
I have absolutely no interest in zoos, promise. But if you wanted to learn more, do you want scans of anything? I know some of my books are kind of obscure.
Then she goes to find Isabella to report.
shesepankh
"Does she know I'm a sphinx?" Isabella asks. "Or didn't you tell her that part?"
revivian
"I wasn't going to say anything without permission from you, sphinxette. What do you think?"
shesepankh
"It's probably safe. It sure doesn't sound like she has ambitions of starting a war."
revivian
"Ambitions of memorizing spell books, maybe? But I think you're right."
Vivian emails May again.
Books incoming! Sorry you're about to get a million emails, the scans are pretty big.
Also- thank you for telling me. I know it was scary. I was only trying to protect my daughter. She's... actually a sphinx. I was afraid of what would happen if a dragon found us.
Vivian emails May again.
Books incoming! Sorry you're about to get a million emails, the scans are pretty big.
Also- thank you for telling me. I know it was scary. I was only trying to protect my daughter. She's... actually a sphinx. I was afraid of what would happen if a dragon found us.
maybeso
...So you went on the offensive, so to speak?
How did you come by a sphinx daughter?
How did you come by a sphinx daughter?
revivian
Investigative, at least. We'd both of us prefer not to hide her existence, and you seemed my best shot at finding out if it could be safe.
Setting aside the issue of 'why', which is a long and fairly personal answer- as for 'how', I believe I've mentioned the spell to you?
Setting aside the issue of 'why', which is a long and fairly personal answer- as for 'how', I believe I've mentioned the spell to you?
maybeso
Yeah.
Your methodology could have used more than two minutes of thought. Worked out okay, but, seriously.
Your methodology could have used more than two minutes of thought. Worked out okay, but, seriously.
revivian
It certainly could have gone better!
Unless you have some concerns about sphinxes I should know about, my daughter and I will probably discuss a slow reveal soon. I know she's been eager to be less secretive about her healing. Anything you can think of?
Unless you have some concerns about sphinxes I should know about, my daughter and I will probably discuss a slow reveal soon. I know she's been eager to be less secretive about her healing. Anything you can think of?
maybeso
Assuming you mean reveal to critters/knowledgeable humans instead of the general population, media probably won't be that much of a problem, but I bet people would be worried about a recurrence of the war, so I'd be inclined to do it with her. But I don't know which of my parents is a dragon or how many others there might be - known to themselves or not.