"Eeeeeenh," Alli makes a buzzer sound. "Population one. That we know of, I guess."

"Two, my parents are both alive."

"Right, sorry. Plus at least one without a medallion."

Jenny is still stewing in a mix of guilt and priest-directed rage, but manages a confirming nod.

"You guys knew?"

"The only reason to keep it a secret was the concern that there might be somebody somewhere who would start a war over it, but sphinxes actually were extinct and the 'were' is because of how Isabella's mom conjured her up. And I don't think she's going to declare war on me. So I've been gradually rolling out the tidbit and we're going to go properly public at some point."

"Isabella's a-" Words fail Emma entirely and she just gapes.

Alli pokes Emma in the rump a couple times without much of a reaction, save for a tail swish that looks like a reflex. "Did you break her? Man, May, I think you broke her."

"Isabella's mom doesn't like it when things are extinct. So she tried to make a baby sphinx and a dragon to bring up, but the spell only worked on extinct things so Isabella's an only child."

Emma's tail smacks Alli, this time rather more intentionally. Emma herself just stares at May in bemusement. "She, um. Doesn't like extinct things? That's, uh. That's a reason, I guess."

"...have you not met Isabella's mom? Cause this would make perfect sense if you have ever spoken to her for more than a minute about global warming, trust me."

"She's very environmentalist."

"Oh. No, I don't think I met her." She frowns in thought. "Isabella isn't particularly, is she? I don't remember it, at least."

"She - gives the topic more thought than any random passerby probably does but does not feel as strongly about it as her mom."

Jenny lifts her head out of her hands looking both upset and annoyed. "I need to- just gonna- be right back," she mumbles, and heads to the counter to ask to borrow a phone. She's got some very pointed questions to ask her priest.

Emma watches her go in concern, but decides to wait till she's done. Instead, she asks May, "So, uh, if you're not a wyvern, what's different?" She smiles slightly. "Guess I know why I haven't seen you in fullform, but is it just the shape? Um, sorry if it's a weird question, just- dragon."

"Wyvern tails have barbs and mine doesn't. And dragons have a cool magic power. And if I produced wings they wouldn't replace my arms, and I don't know if wyverns actually ever have horns like mine or my color scales."

"...I don't suppose your cool magic power lets you make medallions," Emma says wistfully.

"I would be extremely reluctant to use my cool magic power to do any magic intended for use by anyone but me. It suppresses magic that's on me, personally, which means I can cheat a lot at spellcasting, but I wouldn't make an object with that cheating and hand it to somebody else. Me and Isabella still plan to work on that among other things but don't have a shortcut."

Emma only understands maybe half of what May's talking about, but she gets the gist of 'no such luck.' She hadn't been hoping, exactly, but her face falls a little anyway. "I- yeah, it's okay. I'm just, um," she gestures at her lower half, "kinda tired of being stuck in Avalon."

"I get it. I'm sorry. Maybe someday we can stop hiding altogether."

Alli snorts. "Our grandkids, maybe. I'd rather not turn into a lab rat."

"I'm not sure becoming publicly known is quite on the level of being a lab rat."

"Yeah, but I also don't wanna be the one to find out?"

"There's a huge number of critters. I would want to coordinate something with most or all of us at once."