"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."

"Oh? That sounds pretty nice. I'd be annoyed if I had to stick around one area all the time."

"Not at all. Isabella apprenticed for a while with an Olympic witch who lives on the other side of the country entirely, although she quit recently to do things I don't fully understand with Adarin and his magic. And now she has that house in Wyoming."

Zeviana snorts. "Magic nerds. I swear."

"I sometimes teach little witches introductory magic when there's a batch of them around, though I'm not as intense about the subject as Isabella."

"No wonder he's over the moon about her. Adarin's a huge, huge magic nerd. Just goes and talks magic theory to himself for a while and comes out with a thing that does stuff."

"I love his translation spell in particular!"

"Oh? What's it - oh. Oh fuck. I forgot to get him to cast it on me!"

"Oh dear. Do I need to turn around?"

"Eh, maybe, unless you have a way to contact him and be like, 'Hey, dork, you forgot your sister.'"

"Well, I could call her on the phone."

"Isabella? Huh. Yeah, sure, that would work, I guess."

Ranata stops the cloud-pine and lands so she won't have to replace the phone if it breaks, and dials, and hands the ringing phone to Zeviana. "Just talk into it when it stops ringing."