She's giggling. "That was fun!"

"Might be good to work out codes in advance, though. But I definitely like flying."

"It's nice."

"Why are there spells specifically for turning people into sparrows?" she wonders.

"It's not specific. The same spell with small variation can do other animals. But sparrows are one of the animals fairies have enough information about."

"Oh. ...must it be animals? Or, rather, must it be nonhuman animals?"

"I don't think it would work with turning people into humans because it's built into the spell that you can't talk or do sorcery while you're changed."

"Oh, it's a spell for turning you into something that is constitutionally incapable of those things? ...that's kinda mean."

"That's why I wasn't sure I'd be able to cast it on you. It's basically what fairies do because we can't kill each other, it's not like turning into a sparrow is the only way we get to fly."

"Wow that's annoying. And, like, there are much worse animals than sparrows—I presume toads and snails are the same spell?—to turn people into..."

"Yeah. Same spell."

"Well, that's a shame. But maybe some of the same principles could be used to get me my gendershifting—or even generalised shapeshifting..."

"Maybe. It'd be a huge project."

"Yes. Yes it would."

That is not the tone of voice that someone who is daunted or displeased would use.

"It might take years."

"Well, yeah, but the result's worth it. And trying to develop magic for years might be fun by itself."

"This did not seem to be how you felt about plain speak stuff."

"It wasn't how I felt about waiting decades until a language was old enough to count as something-or-other. I'm much more okay with waiting when I'm actually doing something about it. Although I mean, I would've been doing stuff in general anyway while I waited, it'd just be a project in the back burner."

"You'd have to make sure the language was used a specified amount."

"Yeah, now we know that, at the time I was complaining about it I thought it was something about age."

"Ah."

"I'm okay with waiting if it's necessary, it's just not doing things that bothers me. These months of—planning, and executing, were about the first break I took in doing things in years."

"It was sort of doing things."

"Well, when I say 'doing things' I tend to mean more productive or active things than watching a screen all the time."