"No. Is that traditional? She answered my questions about alternate dimensions and then walked me through a light spell. Which I'm supposed to practice supervised, so I thought I'd ask you."

"Ooh, I'm trustworthy! I can totally supervise your casting. If you're good it'll be fun, if you need practice I get to smush hobs. Mountain water-carrying isn't traditional, I think it's a reference to some old martial arts movie or something. That Mr. Miyagi kind of thing."

"Fortunately I don't have to start martial arts until this mini-term is over. When do we register for the one after this, anyway? Also: classes tomorrow, whee! Can we compare schedules to figure out when you should lie in wait for hobgoblins?"

"I get it. You're excited about chaos magic, huh? Okay, so I have -" Bella pulls out the notebook with her schedule in it. "Chaos magic same as you, econ while you're in the sims, history after lunch, seminar three days a week evenings."

"Not entirely about chaos magic, though that's gonna be cool as shit. Mostly I'm enormously and disastrously gay for Harry."

"...Is Harry a girls' name?"

"Not even slightly. I'm gay for him anyway. Being gay for someone is importantly distinct from having a crush on them; I am extremely gay for Harry."

"This must be interesting future and/or alternate universe slang with which I am unfamiliar."

"Mostly just me slang. I pay my words by the hour to mean what I tell them to."

"Anyway, looks like our best bet is probably going to be one-ish daily, optionally also Tuesday and Thursday evenings after dinner. I wouldn't mind sneaking in a shortish burst at seven in the morning since I have to be used to getting up that early anyway and need to spread it out, but I don't know your feelings on the concept of mornings and I can always just use that block for extra meditation. Or homework, I don't know my homework load yet."

"There is a lot of homework for most winter classes. Not Harry's, he hates homework, but the rest of yours are gonna pile it on. Man, you're taking econ, what are you doing with your life?"

"Taking econ. For three weeks. It was the most appealing thing in a slot I hadn't filled. So maybe meet early tomorrow before either of us have anything but calibrate from there before scheduling anything besides one-ish every day?"

"Sure. That should be enough anyway, probably. Magic practice, meditation, all that jazz."

Bella peers at her wrist device. "And maybe a bit today if you don't mind?"

"Oh, sure! Just let me finish destroying this lamb."

"Destroy away." Bella has already destroyed a bowl of tortellini soup and a slice of quiche; she goes and gets some chocolate cake a la mode and pops back.

Ariel is a brutally efficient eating machine. (One of her special talents with her personal field is the ability to strip the meat from a bone and deliver it into her mouth in a matter of seconds. It is horrifying. She enjoys it very much.) By the time Bella gets back with cake she's alternating between bites of apple and cracking open bones for marrow.

"Is there a reason," inquires Bella, "to do my homework somewhere other than one or the other of our rooms? For instance, do hobgoblins bite university property as well as people?"

"They will. Preferentially, actually. But I have really, really good reflexes and a lot of whack-a-hob practice. Might as well do it out in the woods anyway in case you get an electromagnetic one, though."

"Ah, yeah, wouldn't want to replace my shiny new futuristic technology. I assume you can direct me to choice woodsy locations."

"The woods are like 60% secluded grove by volume. I generally use the groves for more, uh, extracurricular activities, but there's no reason they couldn't work for this."

"Give me something my 'porting can treat as a location and we're off to the races. Where by races I mean the sitting still."