Adarin winces at this pronouncement. "Yeah, that... Would be painful. I think my sister would prefer it over as quickly as possible, though. Can't say I blame her.

"I would have still done it the long way, I think, if presented with the options - but I was a special case, I promised Path that if he really couldn't stand it I would come back. He held out okay."

"Aww. That's very sweet of you," he pronounces. "I probably should have talked it over with Vern more, but we'd been avoiding the subject because it bothered both of us."

Isabella nods. "We had lots of time to anticipate it. We were a slightly late settle - not enormously late, just closer to my fifteenth birthday than my fourteenth."

"Makes sense. Part of me wants to have seen what growing up with a daemon would be like, but I realize for that to be true I wouldn't have any magic at all. And that would be terrible."

"Hmm. Well. It's kind of hard to explain, since she's just always been there and I'm just used to her. It's like her feelings are subtle or quiet, and anger's the strongest because she has so much reason to be angry. So while she can be nice when she's angry, it's not the first thing you see."

"I'm not sure I follow."

"This is surprisingly difficult to do. She's nice, but for a large portion of her life being nice got her into more and more trouble. So she hides it, disguises it and lashes out because she was hurt and doesn't want it to happen again. Does that make more sense?"

"Yeah. Defense mechanism."

"Pretty much. It's actually kind of depressing."

"It sounds it. Poor Zeviana. I hope she likes the clan better."

"Me too. If she doesn't, though, I think she'll do better in this plane in general because the people who hurt her aren't present."

"Until we import a lot of refugees."

"Actually, most if not all of the refugees wouldn't be people that hurt her. But if that changes, then - well. I will tell them to stay away from my sister."

"Does that tend to work?"

"It usually does, because Ana kind of frightens a lot of them."

"I guess that's reasonable."

"She has been known to cause large amounts of property damage when they try to make her do things. That probably helped."

"What did they want her to do, besides get married and pop out babies?"

"To be a good little girl and do exactly what she was told," says Adarin in a deadpan.

"Well, yes - but what is the content of 'what she was told'?"

"Where to be at a certain time, what to wear, how to act, what to say, how to eat, what sorts of hobbies she could have - that sort of thing. They wanted her to be perfect."

"That seems like the sort of thing with an obvious backfiring risk."

"It worked on my mother. So I suppose they thought it would work for her, too. Technically they did the kind of thing with me as well, but most of the things I like to do were fine with them. So."

"At what point did she run off to live in a planty maze?"

"Well, we technically first escaped when the world got invaded. Some things happened, but immediately after that she ran off to live in a pretty maze."

"'Some things happened', huh?"

"Shortish story? I knocked myself out holding up the shield, Ana wanted to kill all invaders ever, but she couldn't because the mages were leaving and taking me with them, so she went, too. Right after that was when she got upset with me, because I didn't want to just - leave the people in their influence. She just wanted to get away."

"I can kind of sympathize with her, but most of my impulses lie more along the lines of pathological amounts of helpfulness, so..."

He snickers. "I love you. Yeah, I'm about the same. I get where she's coming from and didn't try to stop her any more than presenting my argument, but I couldn't make the same decision."

Kissesssssssss.

Adarin supports this plan. Kisses. All of the kisses.

Really? All of them? That's pretty impressive. There are so many. And they come in so many kinds, too.

Yup. He supports them all, and their various pros and cons. Diversity is important.

What a lucky witch is his girlfriend.

He does love making her happy!

It's entirely reciprocal.

Hurray! Look at them, caring about each other's happiness.

Isabella pets his hair and says, "Sure." She hands the phone to Adarin. "It's your sister."

"It's okay. Remind me to turn my phone off next time though."

"That we were...? Well, that's kind of weird, but I'll live."

"I mean I didn't tell her, she just kind of... Figured it out," he continues, blushing.

"Is it because no other timing for an interruption could have irked you that precise amount, or something?"

"Awww." Snuggles.

Snuggles! "Also I think she's a bit of a pervert sometimes. It just happened to be right this time."

"Has she guessed this before?"

"Yup. Never been right about it, before, though."

"I have been operating under the assumption that I took your virginity."

Adarin blushes furiously. "You'd be correct."

"Vice-versa, if there was doubt - I wasn't being shy, I just never met anybody sufficiently appealing to bother."

Nuzzle, nuzzle. "You definitely qualify as sufficiently appealing."

Well now he just has to kiss her!

Oooooh! Score!

Kisses are lovely - hopefully this time they won't be interrupted!

Isabella interrupts them. Briefly. To turn off her phone.

He loves her. She's smart.

Hurray! Mutually beneficial relationship!