Kerron goes up to her to get a closer look at the colorshapes. Many of them are "shaped" like bats, which is funny, since none of those meanings he can see have anything to do with bats. They fly around and around. He's trying to stop tracking them with his hands because Addy says that will slow him down at reading them. He folds his hands behind his back.

"Hullo," says Kerron. "Mummy doesn't want to hurt your city! It's okay!"

"My mummy's the Joker. Don't worry! I can tell what people wanna do and she doesn't have any colorshapes about any cities."

"Magic!" says Kerron. "And just my mummy, nobody else's. I don't have any little brothers or sisters so far. But that's okay 'cause lots of people in the coven have kids my age so there's Henry and Brandon and Lily and everybody to play with."

"That's... nice," she says tightly.

"Yup!" says Kerron, who is good at goals and not so good at tone of voice or facial expression.

"Mummy's fun! She does magic a lot, she makes magic coins for the Empress all the time but she keeps some and she makes stuff appear or she sometimes is a he and she makes stuff be more fun than it starts out being. I thought she made this door when I found it but now I'm not sure, I think maybe it only happened."

"Your mother did not make this door," she confirms.

"Oh well. I bet she'd like it! There's all kinds of stuff here. Mummy mostly likes stuff," Kerron says, nodding sagely.

"She doesn't like stuff that makes me or Daddy or our friends sad," says Kerron thoughtfully. "And she doesn't like being stuck in one place or being lonesome. One time a lady who is like the Empress but not put her someplace lonesome that she couldn't leave and it made her really sad but then Daddy fell in love with her and asked nice and the Empress asked the lady who's like her to let Mummy out to come live where we live and she did." Kerron nods smartly. That is the end of this story.

"I used to know your mother," she murmurs. "Or... maybe 'know' is the wrong word. I met her, anyway." She smiles wryly. "We didn't get along."

"That's sad," says Kerron frankly.

"Yes," she sighs. "Yes it is."

"How come you didn't get along?" Kerron asks. "Most people can if they try! Esme says that. She's Lily's mummy. And also some other people's mummy, like the Emperor."

"Oh. Huh," says Kerron. "Was it a long time ago? Most grownups did some bad things a long time ago and then stopped." Pause. "Most of the grownups I know, anyway."

"About six months," she says. "For me."

"Oh, that's way before I was born," says Kerron unconcernedly. "Okay then."

"What?"

"How long ago were you born?"

"It was March seventh!" says Kerron obliviously.

"And," she says, smiling despite herself, "what's the date today?"

"May sixteenth!" Kerron nods. "I know dates."

"Yes you do," she agrees. "Is magic involved somehow in how fast you're growing up?"

"Not especially. Even half-vampires who aren't witches or ingots grow this fast," says Kerron. "Wolves are slower, and humans, but I like growing this fast, it was boring not being able to talk. I'm gonna learn to read soon. It's not fair that Henry can already."

"...I see," she says, trying not to laugh.

"How come you wanna know so many things about Mummy when you don't wanna ever see her again anyway?" Kerron asks.

"...Because I don't understand her," she says. "I used to think I did, but I really don't."

"Why'd you think you did if you didn't?" asks Kerron.

She shakes her head. "He used to act... very differently... from how it sounds like he does now."

"People do that all the time," Kerron says. "They grow up and learn stuff even if not everybody does it as fast as half-vampires."

"Mass murderers don't turn into doting parents that often," she mutters, mostly to herself.

"What? No, they totally do!" laughs Kerron. "There's lots of vampires who have kids and almost everybody who's been a vampire for more than like thirty years ate lots of people before! But they stopped because now they know that you can eat animals and also there's magic and also the Princess brings home golden bubbly from -" He looks around him. "Hey wow is this Milliways? That's where the Princess gets golden bubbly from!"

"...Yes," she says, rubbing her forehead. "This is Milliways."

"Ooooooh," says Kerron.

She snorts.

"I could get bubbly here - or blue, they have blue - there might even be other stuff," he says, bouncing, "those are just the ones the Princess brings home - oh, except I don't have any money."

"The first drink's free," says the bat lady.

"Oooh," says Kerron, and he runs up to the bar much more quickly than a human with such short legs would be able to, and he asks "Can I have a thing that's like golden bubbly and like blue but not either one that's nice and good for me to have?"

It's about the texture of a milkshake, and it's yellow. "It looks like a pina colada! That's my favorite thing that's not a blood synthetic," Kerron says merrily, running back with his drink to where Roberta sits. He sips. "Doesn't taste anything like it, though, but it's good! I guess you wouldn't like it 'cause you're a human."

"I guess I wouldn't," she says.

"What's it like being a human? I don't know too many of those. Just a couple imprints from the wolf village, that's all," says Kerron.

"I don't know what it's like not being a human," she says, "so I'm not really sure how to compare."

"I like it," says Kerron brightly. "...I guess Mummy's technically a human. But she's so magic I don't really count her." He waves a hand.

"I'm getting that impression," the bat lady agrees dryly.

"Well, like, if you and me raced I'd win, but if me and Mummy raced she'd win if she wanted. And she wouldn't if she didn't and she prob'ly wouldn't but she could."

...That seems to say a lot about the Joker, actually. If only she understood it all.

"I wouldn't race with anybody who wasn't a hybrid or a wolf or magic anyway, it'd be boring, we'd know who was gonna win without running at all," shrugs Kerron.

"If only more people thought that way," says the bat lady.

"Yeah! But if you don't know who's gonna win, then it's fun, you can run and run your hardest and then you know! I'm gonna be in the Ultra Olympics when I'm old enough," Kerron adds. "I have to be three and a half, but then I'm allowed. I might do something besides running though."

"Something such as what?"

"Like I could do gymnastics, or swimming, or tennis, or whatever, you know, Olympics type stuff," says Kerron. "Henry's daddy runs the whole thing every year."

"And Henry's daddy is...?"

"His name's Emmett. Do you know him too?"

She shakes her head. "No. I've met your parents and your empress and I think that's it."

"Ooh, when'd you meet Her Majesty?"

"Last month."

"Huh. I don't remember anybody talking about visitors to Aurum then. Did she go here? Usually Her Majesty doesn't come here, just Her Highness."

"Time works strangely at Milliways," she evades.

"Is that why you didn't know what date it was?"

She nods.

"What's your world like? I've never been to any besides Aurum. And here if here's a world."

"No magic," is the first thing she thinks of to say.

"That's awful!" says Kerron. "Magic is great! I have lessons with Addy for it every week. I'm much better at colorshapes now."

"What... are these colorshapes, exactly?"

"They're -" Kerron waves around at the colorshapes orbiting Roberta herself, then puts his hand down again. "They're not really colors or really shapes but it feels like they are, and they tell me what people want, and if it has to do with me. I'm a witch and an ingot. I'm the first witch ingot ever! Addy thinks it's because Mummy's a mint and Daddy's a witch."

"What," she asks patiently, "are witches and ingots?"

"Witches are the kind of magic that Aurum had to start with," Kerron says. "There's lots of witches. Like me, and Daddy with his timer, and Her Majesty has something that makes a lot of other powers not work on her, and Alice can see the future, and Jasper can feel other people's feelings and push on them, and Addy copies other people's powers - that's why she's my magic teacher - and the Princess tells the truth, and like that. And ingots are a kind of magic from the same world as mints. Like witches sort of. People have powers that do stuff. But not exactly the same, Addy says, so I can have both."

"Lucky you," she says, amused.

"Yeah!" agrees Kerron. "Addy wants Mummy and Daddy to have more kids so she can see if they're witch-ingots too. Addy likes figuring out magic stuff. She's got really simple colorshapes and they're pretty much all about that."

...Despite her best intentions, she finds herself asking, "And what do Mummy and Daddy think of that idea?"

"They haven't decided yet!" says Kerron. "I think they're gonna wait a little while before they have more though. I was an accident. I heard them talking about it when I was a day old and now I know all the words and Jasper thought I was gonna have complex from it but I dunno what a complex is or where I'd find mine if I had one."

"What's funny?"

"You'll understand when you're older," she assures him.

"Awww, man."

"Oh. I know my parents love me," says Kerron. "There's all these colorshapes about it and they're easy to read when they're about me! So I'll be fine," says Kerron.

She smiles again. "That's good."

Kerron nods.

"You must really not like Mummy and Daddy," Kerron says, peering at the colorshapes. He starts to trace the path with one finger, then he stops and picks up his synthetic again for a big swallow. "You sorta explained about Mummy, but why Daddy?"

"Your daddy doesn't like me," she says, and there's something else she almost wants to say to him, but she doesn't.

"Daddy likes most people," says Kerron quizzically.

"He doesn't like me," she repeats firmly.

"Why not?"

"I think you might have to ask him that."

"You don't know?"

"Can I help? I bet I can help!" says Kerron. "Daddy's simpler than Mummy. Mated vampires are kind of like that. Most of his colorshapes are about wanting her to be happy and safe. Most of the rest are about me. Some of the ones that are about me are about her too."

"Most vampires are in love with other vampires, and then the colorshapes go in both directions, and Mummy's not a vampire and now I'm scared she won't want to be with Daddy forever."

"I'm sorry," she repeats.

She shakes her head again.

"It sounded like you were about to guess."

"I don't want to guess."

"Why not?"

"I don't like thinking about it very much."

"Because I don't."

"That's only a pretend answer."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

She shrugs. "Well, then, I don't know what to tell you."

Kerron drinks his smoothie, looking suspiciously at her.

She raises her eyebrows.

Finally his smoothie is gone. "Maybe I'll go home now," he says.

"Bye," says the bat lady.

"And I'll tell Mummy and Daddy that I met you and that you want them to leave you alone," he says, nodding smartly. "And then they won't bother you, I bet."

"Maybe not," she says wryly.

"Why would they bother you when you don't want them to?" Kerron asks.

"That's a very good question," she says, "and I don't know what your mother would say if you asked it of her, but I bet it would be educational."

"Okay, I'll ask her then," says Kerron, and he hops off his chair and trots over to the door.

The bat lady goes back to staring out the window.

Kerron goes back to to where his family lives, looking for Mummy.

"Hi!" says Kerron. "On my way home from magic lessons I found Milliways! I met a lady whose colorshapes had lots of black bat shapes in them flying round and round and she had colorshapes that were about you, Mummy, so I went and talked to her."

"You're okay?" Nathan says. "Did you tell her who your mummy is - what happened?"

"She asked and I said," Kerron blinks. "I'm okay. We just talked. She's a human, she can't hurt me, why are you scared?"

"Your daddy and the bat lady don't like each other much," the Joker puts in, glancing up from his sewing. "What'd you talk about?"

"That! But she wouldn't say why," says Kerron. "And I told her you didn't have any colorshapes about any cities so she didn't have to worry about that, and she said she didn't understand you but she met you once, and she met the Empress one time, and she wanted to know how you could be my mummy and I told her magic, and she explained what a complex is and why Jasper thought I was going to have one but I don't 'cause I know you love me."

"And she said that mass murderers don't turn into doting parents but I said obviously they do, like, all the time," says Kerron, nodding to himself. "And I explained about how half-vampires grow, and she said the first drink is free so I got a synthetic thing that looked like a pina colada but it tasted totally different and it was really good, and I told her about the Ultra Olympics, and there's no magic in her world at all and that's sad, and -" Then he repeats the part of the conversation about why Nathan might not like the batlady. Verbatim, including the part where he quoted Addy about how Mummy turning would simplify things.

"You've never wanted to turn," Nathan says. "Kerron, kiddo, even if something like that happens, you'll be fine, okay? We both love you."

"Henry and Lily and Brandon don't have to even worry about it," Kerron says.

"Henry and Lily and Brandon don't have me for a mother," he says. "That's life. Wanna hug, munchkin?"

Kerron jumps into his mummy's lap.

"Yeah," sighs Kerron.

"Good," he says, kissing the top of Kerron's head again.

"You know, it's not just humans who don't have mate bonds, it's half-vampires too," Nathan says. "When you get older -"

"EW-EW-EW," says Kerron, clapping his hands over his ears.

He snickers and ruffles Kerron's hair.

"I'm just saying, if this is the kind of thing that worries you -"

"EW," says Kerron loudly. "Nope I'm gonna grow up and be like Addy instead because EW."

"I think we've been told, sweetie."

"Well good."

He laughs.

"You should try really hard not to fall out of love with Daddy even though you could," Kerron tells his mummy sternly.

"I like being in love with your daddy," he says. "I don't wanna stop."

"Good," says Kerron contently, and then, because this magic lesson let out just before his bedtime, he flops onto the Joker's chest and snores.

The Joker picks Kerron up and puts him to bed.