"I'll find some taste-testers when I get home," she grins. "Hold a little tasting with, oh, sesame crackers and Brie."

He giggles. "I love it," he says. "—Ooh, there's a thought. How adventurous are you with trying new things?"

"Try me," says Lily, raising an eyebrow.

"Male nymphs ejaculate honey," he says, grinning. "It's got some nifty healing properties and it's reeeeally tasty."

"That would be much harder to market," she snorts. "And I doubt it'll do much for the vampire crowd. If you want to conjure some up I'd taste it, though."

He pulls another pentagon out of nowhere in particular and conjures a bottle - glass, like the jug, with a metal screw-on cap. The honey inside shades from dark purple at the bottom through dark blues to lighter ones and finally a vivid, slightly smoky green.

Lily sets down the jug of blood to unscrew it and pour a drop onto her finger to taste. "Not bad. The blood's going to be more popular in Aurum for palatability reasons as well as provenance reasons, though."

Celo laughs. "Now that's not usual," he says. "Most of the people who've had both like the honey better."

"Half-vampire," she reminds him. "Honey tastes like, well, human food, I can take it or leave it unless it's my very favorite thing - I'm interested in food, but it doesn't grab me by the survival instinct and say 'more please'. Blood, on the other hand - blood's life. It and its imitations."

He shrugs. "Food doesn't nourish me at all, but I still like it."

"Sure, and I like science fiction turn-based strategy games and they don't nourish me. I'm just saying, the blood's going to be a hit, the honey's a weird novelty."

"Mm, not what I meant, but whatever."

Lily shrugs. "Anyhow. Do you suppose all nymphs taste the same? Will they want to export? Her Majesty arranges mass conjurations of bubbly, but if I saw the coin you spent right this stuff'd be more expensive."

"Yeah, I'm a nymph, my blood is a magical substance, kicks it up a notch," he says. "I bet you other nymphs don't taste exactly the same. I could try talking to some, but not until Aether comes out with the whole other-universes thing."

"Of course not identical. I just meant all with the herbaceous health food theme. Our Bella told individuals before she went completely public, so maybe yours will too."

"I don't really want to be the one to explain other worlds to them, and Aether's not gonna jump at the chance to hang out with a bunch of nymphs," he says. "Herbaceous health food theme, yeah, probably. But I still might be different because I'm the only male nymph."

"Oh, hm, with humans I know gender doesn't make a huge difference, it's easier to taste if two people are related than if they're the same sex," muses Lily, "no idea about nymphs."

"If it was half and half I wouldn't expect it to make a big difference," he says, "but I'm such a one-off, there's no telling what else might be different, you know?"

"Yeah, that's a reasonable point. I'm almost tempted to visit, but Materia's flagged as no tourism."

Lily laughs, bites his wrist again, and has a taste. "Yeah, it's a little different, not very."

Another little flare of warm light heals the second bite. "And now you know," he says cheerfully.

"Yep. Thanks for letting me nibble," Lily says cheerfully.

Celo laughs. "No problem. Lemme know if you come up with any interesting uses for that stuff," with a general wave at the jug of blood and bottle of honey.

"Will do. I'll get people to fill out comment cards," she suggests.