"Why, these rumors do fly fast, yes there is."

He offers her his arm.

"Ready, fair maiden?"

...she sporfles, but takes his arm.

He leads her to his car, and they drive to a small but charming Italian place.

The waiter seats them promptly.

"So, how've your two days been?"

"Not bad. Some inter-family politics, but you knew that. Kit had a bit of a disagreement with the family after they refused to apologize."

She raises an eyebrow. "For... having their house burned down?"

"For putting that on the table? There's this annoying kid, too, that I keep having to deal with at work. I don't know, that's how I've been doing."

"Sounds like what you need is some time off all that, I think."

"Sounds like it. What about you, anything going on?"

"I have been practicing magic! My mother turns out to be completely unable to perform any. And it turns out that in addition to getting really tired after doing lots of magic there are also some pretty comical side effects to running out of 'lifeforce.'"

"I've heard of it. Kit started running down his magic just for the effects, when he was a kid. Dad worried about him, and their dad didn't approve, either. I never let it get that far, myself. What was the weirdest one?"

"My room got filled with balloons. One of them had water in it instead of air. Exactly one. And it still floated somehow."

"Really? How long did it last?"

"They just stayed there. I still have the popped balloons back home. Do you know why it happens?"

"Not really. I'll get back to you on that, one of my parents will know."

Would Sadde like to place her order? Breadsticks can only do so much.

Sure! She'll have this kind of pasta and... some stuff, she's not actually sure.

There are plenty of options. Alistair has some pasta and a salad.

"How did you get caught in the storm, anyway? When I first met you?"

"Was on my way home from school, the storm just—appeared, out of nowhere. One moment, sunny, the next, flooding rains."

"Not the worst timing. On the way to school would have been better. I can't wait until college." 

"Amen. What do you wanna major in?"

"I haven't decided for sure. Maybe economics, maybe finance, maybe I'll enlist and go with French or Arabic." 

"Enlist? Really?"

"It's an option. Maybe not my best one, but my dad did, for a while." 

"Huh. That was somehow not what I expected the scion of a family of sorcerers to do."