"My plan involved using magic to find a lost one," Isabella says. "If that doesn't work I'll try getting official permission to use Oxford's. Possibly by enrolling there."

"Well, sure," he teases, "if you wanna be boring."

"Witches used to be able to get away with murder. That's no longer true, and I don't think stealing a nearly-unique object from any entity with a lot of security and lawyers would be a good idea."

"Of course I will," she says, tucking her phone into her purse-knapsack-thing. "How long are you going to be in Rockland?"

"No idea," he says cheerfully.

"Okay. Were you going to take me to some manner of place? Metis doesn't expect me back any particular time this evening as long as I'm home in time for renewing the firepit spells."

"Which is when?"

"A little before dusk. There's some setup I'm supposed to do for her, and then we're performing the ritual during the exact minute the sun crosses the horizon."

"No strip clubs tonight, then," he says. "Unless you go back out afterward."

"Well, after we have the firepit fixed it's my job to cook dinner. That's about half of why Metis tolerates an apprentice, so she doesn't have to cook. She can but she doesn't like it."

Kas laughs.

"Does Rockland even have a strip club?"

"You live here, you tell me!" he says, grinning.

"I don't know," she laughs. "Why would I know that? I don't go to them. I don't even know where the grocery store is because we have a deal to get everything delivered."

"That's weird, don't you ever just wander around?" he says. "Whatever, I'll find one. I'll find a good one."

"When I wander around I do it well above street level," Isabella says pointedly.

He laughs. "You miss all the good stuff that way!"

Isabella gets up and picks up her cloud-pine. "I suppose I can see how you'd think that, since you can't feel starlight and moonlight," she says loftily.

"...What're they like?" he asks, his interest caught.

She heads out of the library, Path hitching a ride on the tiger-Petaal. "Like... well, they're different. I think if I wanted to approximate the sensations during daylight hours, for the moon I'd... hang up a lot of strips of silk with the highest possible thread count from the ceiling, and then fly through them. The flying part is important, even if you're not far off the ground. Maybe it'd be okay on a boat too, but the rhythm of walking is just all wrong for enjoying the moon. It'd be okay for the stars, though. Those are more like... snow. Being snowed on is a little bit like the feel of starlight. But only in the very, very coldest weather, when there's no wind. And these are bad approximations anyway, and I know cold is different for you."

"Cold is different," he agrees. "Does snow melt on you?"

"Of course it does. I'm perfectly warm," she says, patting his cheek. "It just doesn't bother me. It can't hurt me."

Surprised, he grins and leans into her hand.

She permits this for as long as seems reasonable for warmth-inspection, then drops her arm. Path flutters to her shoulder as they exit the library and whispers to her. "I don't think anyone's ever asked me what the stars and the moon feel like before," muses Isabella.