"I recommend making a good impression on the queen."

"I'm not quite sure how to do that, but I guess I can try. How do I make a good impression? Adarin's not here to give me cheat sheets on people, so you get to stand in for him."

"Well - she's a queen. So, be respectful, and polite. She won't like it if there are secrets kept from her, either. And if her daemon is present at the time your Lecasryn should talk to him."

"Her daemon might be somewhere else. If you're going to pass for a witch and hold up to any scrutiny you'll need to separate."

"Adarin managed it, right? Then I'll probably be fine. It sounds bad, but I've been through bad things before. What does it involve?"

"Walking away. A few hundred yards tends to do it. There's a sort of wasteland, very far north, where daemons can't go, and that makes it easier, but it's not necessary."

"Eh, okay. I might poke my brother for tips first because he knows me and will know what would help me out."

"That makes sense."

"Yeah. He's pretty good at translating things for me. Like for half of our childhood he was slipping me magic notes because he could teach me better than the people who were trying to."

"Magic notes? Are these notes about magic, or notes that are themselves magic?"

"Notes about magic. Like rather than using big fancy words he'd switch to explaining concepts and it would all just make sense."

"Your kind of magic seems very different from witchcraft. I wonder if any of it even applies across systems or if it would be like trying to use - color theory to predict the weather."

"I dunno! I don't know about your magic and Adarin's the magic nerd anyway. I just kind of do stuff sometimes. I'm good with plants."

"I suspect the queen will want you to help with the herb gardens. Maybe the food plants too."

"Sure. What kinds of ways of helping? Just making them grow faster, or making them immune to pests and diseases and stuff, oooor...?"

"Those sound good. All the plots on the clan lands have climate control and watering handled; we have more trouble with weeds, and with getting yields up."

"Oh, that's easy. Weeds are pretty simple, I just make them not want to grow in certain areas. Then for yields, I just help out the ones that I want to grow."

"I think you and the queen will get along famously."

"Good! Because I still think I like you guys."

"Hopefully the opinion will persist when you've met more than two of us."

"Yeah. I mean, I dunno, other witches might be terrible and then I'd just leave. I'd have to see."

"Well, I don't think they're terrible, but I might be biased."

"Heh. That's okay, I'll see what they're like."

"Most of the clan isn't on clan lands at any given time. My husband lives within easy flying distance, so I split my time, but plenty of witches settle elsewhere and rarely visit. Others grow up on the territory, though."