Blair finishes his sentence, holds up a hand to Edward and thinks, Give her a minute.

Edward gives her a minute.

"You good?"

"Use your words."

"I'm thinking of two in particular right now."

"'Fuck you,' 'thank you,' or 'worth it'?"

She takes half a second to marvel at the beauty of the world, at the strength in her limbs and the smoothness of her own voice, the magnificently precise control over her own body. Then she turns to Blair and smiles.

"Yes."

Now you're good, pronounces Blair.

"So you're not having belated second thoughts?"

"Not yet, no," she says. "But the real test comes later, I think." With people.

"Well. Hunting lesson?"

"Hunting lesson. Let's go murder some innocent wildlife."

Snort.

They go find some innocent wildlife. It is easily located, easily caught, easily killed. It is not easily table mannersed, but that will come with practice.

"Well, Blair ran out of books, but I didn't, if you haven't lost your taste for reading aloud. One of us could also nip out and bring you something to read. You don't seem imminently about to require subdual by two people, although if you require it by one I'd be better at it than him."

"No books for now, but later, probably. Thank you, though." She looks contemplative. "What I would really like to know is if I'm a witch or not. Because, kind of important. If I am one, it's not immediately obvious."

"Well, you may not be. If you are it will manifest one way or another eventually."

"For that to work you have to sacrifice a goat at midnight. That's how I got mine."

"Ah. Damn."

"Are you also allowed to eat the goat or does that invalidate the sacrifice?"

"Actually, as I understand it, eating the goat is traditional. The Greeks did that, then burned some of the nonedible parts so the pleasant smell would waft up to the gods."