"We should go find one, then."

So they do. 

Terel picks out one. Not the best-known, but apparently his lawyer brother insists that they're steady and reliable and don't blink at odd work.

And they're in Suvak?

A branch office is. Suvak's not quite as big as Windvale or, say, Chicago, but it's at least a mid-sized city.

Open now?

Indeed so! Terel follows him there but is largely absorbed in some required reading about wandmaking.

Sadde will just enjoy his presence, then, though largely absorbed in trying to wrestle his brain into a less mopey state.

The tax office is up front that it will take a while, even if the eidetic memory for irrelevant minor details on the two contracts he signed and his deal with Nick helps a fair bit.

'A while' as in a few hours, a few days, a few weeks...?

Hours. Four to six. And it doesn't all need to be today, taxes are actually due at the end of the month. They run once every three months.

So he can do this overnight while Terel's asleep, yes?

...Sure. This isn't the first time they've scheduled night appointments for Fair Folk.

Good, he doesn't need to sleep so this works out fine.

Back to the library?

Library!

...he will still be very unvampiric.

Yay, learning. He does seem to be cheering back up.

...Scratch the library, Terel wants to play a match of Kings, that chess-like game, against Sadde to see how badly he'll lose to that vankire cognition.

"Um."

"I know, it's almost masochism, but what I'm trying to do is force myself right over being bothered by the gap. Progress, already."

"Um."

"Um?"

"I understand on a purely cognitive level that you're expressing a perfectly valid preference over what you should experience but I also understand on a more basic level that it will upset you and the only thing worse than anything bad happening to you is me causing something bad to happen to you."

"Well you intend to turn me, expecting me to not really like the drawbacks or the pain, for the later benefit, this is similar on a much smaller scale isn't it? Or am I thinking about it wrong?"

"Well no we're getting Alec to cover you so you won't have to go through that. And even if Alec weren't a thing... I'd be in—not as much agony as you, but nearly enough, for the entire duration. I'd be physically unable to leave your side, I think."

"Um. You want me to hop worlds for this? ...Intolerable pain doesn't sound very fun, I get it. But. Better go make sure we can if major decisions like that are being based on the assumption."

"Yyyeah, I guess. Uh, why wouldn't I—well I guess the portal could have closed or... be one-way only..." Oookay now look at the rising panic here.