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It is a lovely Saturday morning. Feathered children are watching cartoons; furred adults are eating brunch; scaled teenagers - one scaled teenager in particular, actually - is arguing with the proprietor of a magic shop.
"How did these items get made if there's no way to learn magic? Are the magicians homeschooling their children and not writing any books? How did you learn?"
"Half this stuff is antiques," says the shopkeep. "Look, asking me a dozen times isn't gonna make the answer more to your liking. I don't have Hogwarts in the basement, deal with it."
"But where do you get the stuff that isn't antique - who made the Avalon itself? - isn't anybody panicking about the medallion supply? -"
"Kid, nobody knows how to make medallions."
"But some people apparently know how to make luck charms and protection amulets!"
"I'm not going to give out my suppliers' personal information. I wouldn't do it even if you weren't annoying."
"There have to be books -"
"Does this look like a library to you?"
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maybeso
maybeso
"I'll get you a copy when it's filled in with the whole dictionary. I don't want to wind up with a mess where two copies of it are being edited differently, though, you know?"
asteptotheright
"Yes, that sounds untidy. And potentially problematic in more concrete ways."
maybeso
"Very. But you can check it for errors and reorganize it in ways that make it more useful to you and then I can replace my copy with your edited version, and so on."
maybeso
Textbook! There sure are a lot of things runes can do. There is a sidebar about how there are so many meanings but to get really fine control you need a good incantation which is the proper length and precision. It's no good 'scribing "fire" if you only want some and not all things to be on fire.
("Maybe this author just really likes fire.")
("Maybe this author just really likes fire.")
asteptotheright
Well, fire has its charms.
Incantations. If anything Kanimir's notes on incantations are even more thorough than usual, since they're more qualitative than the strenuously mathematical rune placement.
Incantations. If anything Kanimir's notes on incantations are even more thorough than usual, since they're more qualitative than the strenuously mathematical rune placement.
maybeso
May's notes are no longer wholly in standard English. She's inventing shorthand as she goes.
asteptotheright
Sensible. Kanimir would follow suit, except if he were going to do that he would want a well-indexed glossary, and that would probably take more time than the shorthand would save right now.
maybeso
The chapters on what all the rune meanings... mean... are all they have time for today, and then May has to leave. "Got homework - the dull kind," she apologizes, bundling up her belongings.
maybeso
"I'd be working out how to graduate early and get into college if I thought that would help, but I don't think they'd let me major in magic!"
asteptotheright
"Unfortunately, the state of magical education has not advanced to that point." Beat. "Yet."
asteptotheright
They proceed about like this for about a week.
It's the next Sunday when they finally finish the final chapter, at least the first time through.
It's the next Sunday when they finally finish the final chapter, at least the first time through.
maybeso
"Well, that was more fiddly than I was fantasizing but not as bad as it could have been," May says, shutting the book. "I think the best example spell to try is probably the one that boils water. I mean, it could kill us, but any spell could and boiling water unlike fire has a fixed temperature. Monday I can bring a run-off copy."
asteptotheright
Kanimir does not comment on how pleased he was by its fiddlyness. "Sure. I'll bring some materials to experiment with re-using a grooved template."
maybeso
"And I'll make some of the copies with lighter marks so we can trace over them if the Xerox doesn't cut it."
asteptotheright
He high fives her. He looks at her grin. It is a really nice smile. He opens his mouth. He closes his mouth. He says. "Would you maybe be interested in...meeting up for something other than magic sometime? Or not just magic? Or--I'm really terrible at this, sorry."
asteptotheright
"I--um--" He takes a deep breath. "You're intelligent and creative and interesting and you have a really pretty smile, and obviously if you're not interested that's fine, or anyway it should be obvious and I'm not one of those jackasses who thinks they somehow deserve any kind of attention from someone else that they're not interested in giving, but--if you were interested--I--"
maybeso
Blink, blink.
"Um, sure," she says. "We can get, I think dinner is traditional?"
"Um, sure," she says. "We can get, I think dinner is traditional?"