"It might not work but it might also buy you another week of Council debate, and if I can make a spell to get you home work at all it won't take me more than a month, so a week's something."

Oh, that's awesome, she wasn't expecting it to be so fast.

Does May have an idea of how likely it is she'll be able to get it to work? 

"I don't have a good estimate. Uh, drawing it alone might eat a day, I'm guessing it has to have a lot of oomph to do what we want it to do and that means it has to be big."

She can be patient, that's not the problem; if May is pretty sure she can do it than Dusk will mostly worry about being okay in the short term and if it's a longshot then she'll be more careful about setting things up so she'll be okay if it fails.

"I'm pretty sure I can do it if runecasting can do it. I just don't know if runecasting can do it."

- sorry. She didn't mean she thinks May is bad at it, she's just trying to plan.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just trying to explain why I don't have a better estimate for you. It's probably safest to assume you're stuck here, unfortunately."

All right. She can do that.

Vince expects to hear back from the council sometime today; she'll have a better idea of what's going on after that.

"Yeah. I dunno exactly how they'll react but finding you grownups and putting you in school is a safe bet. Uh - please don't go around saying I said I could get you home. People generally think magic is incredibly dangerous and I have private reasons to believe I can do it anyway."

Sure, she can do that. She hasn't told anybody about May yet anyway.

"Thanks."

May finishes her sushi and goes back to working on her runecasting.

If Vince hasn't shown up by the time she's done with her book, she'll move a little way off and start setting up an elaborate marble run.

Vince shows up when she is putting the first marble down the run. "Hey there Dusk!" he says. "Heard from the Council. They want to put you with Mr. and Mrs. Baker - they're a manticore and a Celean harpy respectively, with two grownup kids. One kid's still living at home but he can move in with a buddy to free up the room for ya."

Well, she said she'd meet them, lead the way. (She dismisses the marble run.)

"Sure thing, this way."

Chez Baker is a rowhouse. Mr. Baker is a cherry-red lion-monster with half a bright blue pool noodle attached to his tail by rubber bands. Mrs. Baker is a hunched scary-looking individual with four sets of wings - two small bird ones below and in front of two large bat ones - clawed bird legs, a bird tail, and an apron that says KISS THE COOK TO RECEIVE BROWNIES. The kid who's home is the same species as Mr. Baker and he's clearing out his stuff from his room.

She does her best not to stare; it's pretty good.

Hi; has she been explained to them?

"Yes, dear," croaks Mrs. Baker. "You must have had such an awful shock appearing here of a sudden."

Yeah. Cryptids are usually pretty safe; she hopes that one doesn't eat too many more people before they figure out what to do with her.

"I hope so too," says Mrs. Baker. "Do you want to come in? The popovers are just about to come out of the oven."

Sure. 

Mrs. Baker takes the popovers out with her bare claws, stabs each one with her thumb, and offers one to Dusk wrapped in a napkin so she can hold it without getting burned.

Okay. She blows on it and takes a bite.

So, uh, what are the Bakers like?

"Well," says Mr. Baker, taking his own popover in a massive paw, "we're homebodies, I suppose, which is just as well since we can't exactly go out and about, we'd cause car accidents! I do phone tech support and my wife here sold a cookbook, and sometimes sells crochet patterns. We like theater - I mean we can't go to the theater but we can get recordings in, is what I mean."

"And music," says Mrs. Baker. "Orchestras are my favorite."