A few ticks pass, and then a girl with moonstone hair teleports to just a few feet away. 

"Hi, Zina, what's up?" 

"You will not guess what I overheard my dads talking about." 

"Were they complaining about my mom again?"

"No--well, sort of, but only tangentially. You know the new conception spell, the one to prevent doomed babies--"

"Yeah. Obviously." The Dragon Council doesn't give a crap about shrens, and her mom is her mom, but Mama actually talks to her line rep when something comes up. 

"Avetlarin, the copper wizard who invented it? Papa says she has a spell to let shrens fly." 

"I--hadn't heard that--"

"It doesn't shock me, I mean, have you ever even been to a shren house?" 

"Hatched in one, actually. Mom hadn't finished the house yet, and--Mama didn't come get me until both my clutchmates were dead."

"Huh. --Uh, anyway. I thought you'd want to know." 

"I very much wanted to know. Are you going to be offended if I run off immediately." 

Zina touches her diamond-shining hair. "I'm white group too, you know. Of course not."

"You're the best." And hug, and then she lets go and gestures and--

--then she is back home, actually, because she does not actually know Avetlarin's address off the top of her head. She's pretty sure Mama has a list, somewhere, of the approved casters for the new conception spell, and it'll be there--and then obviously Luci does not actually teleport onto Avetlarin's doorstep, because she's never been there, but she teleports as close as she can and then flutters over in fairy form and then she is on Avetlarin's doorstep knocking quite urgently. 

"Just a tick," calls Avetlarin, who has resigned herself to dragons showing up at odd hours for wizardly services.

A tick passes, she finishes her equation, sets down her pencil, flies down to the door in her falcon form for speed (why did it take her so long to pick a bird form, it's so convenient) and then a copper haired wizard opens the door.

"Hello, sorry for the wait, is this - are you looking to conceive...?"

“No, I’m a shren and I want to fly.”

!!! Oh and she's a white group yes that makes perfect sense okay can do.

"Oh! Yes, okay, hold on, let me get my things and then I can take you to the bottom of the world and you can fly."

Usually she'd charge for this, but financially she's really doing quite well, from the many donations dragons have sent her way, and she's a white group.

"Thank you so much." 

"It's my pleasure," she assures, then back inside for her notes she goes.

She returns with a packed satchel, locks the door, and then smiles at Luciwina and offers her hand for a teleport.

Ee! Handtake!

She teleports them to her usual spot on the bottom of the world, sensibly already stocked with a desk, a couch, and the scattered rainbow of hundreds of shren scales that were shed and then abandoned. Sometimes the owners want them for financial or sentimental reasons, but they often get abandoned more often than not. Probably at some point she should figure out something to do with them, but for now, they're just all around, making her feel warm fuzzies at how many people she's helped.

"Okay! Natural form first, please."

Moonstone scales tumble to the ground, adding to the mix as Luci takes natural form for the first time in over a century and a half. 

Avetlarin gestures and incants, then grins.

"Done. Have fun!"

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Flying in natural form, as a white-group, is--Mama never talks about it, and Luci can see why; and why Mom wanted Luci to hatch as an obsidian instead of a moonstone. Like, it's not that she didn't get it before, but--she didn't get it. She didn't understand the depth of what she was missing. 

After flying around for--some time, she lands, and turns back to human, form and--

doesn't cry. She's not going to waste the miracle worker's (this is a miracle, this and the babies, she doesn't care what Draconic has to say about it) by crying. But. 

"Will you teach me the spell please." 

Avetlarin looks up from the statistics on the state of the dragon magic reservoir she was working on, and looks slightly awkward.

"... I do think it's tricky enough that I feel, for safety, one should be a wizard to learn it, but I've published it in six countries and the shren houses all have copies and have a wizard on staff capable of casting it -" she begins, attempting delicacy.

"--I'm a wizard!" 

"Oh, er," she does not have a way to verify this information immediately, but a wizard will understand the written explanation - that's not as safe as she'd like but she did already publish it so giving her this information would just save her some footwork - she did not bring a copy but she's a wizard and she's ever wanted her notes from the other side of the world before - "one moment, I'll get a copy of my writeup of it."

Avet has solved the problem of poor planning and preparation by being a wizard. The spell to summon things from one's library without a circle is expensive enough to sting, but it's so worth it. Notes!

Luci takes one look at the writeup and starts asking intelligent questions about it! ...And also gushing about it, because actually this spell design is gorgeous. 

Oh good!! Actually a wizard!

She is immediately won over by the compliments because she is very proud of it, actually! Dragons don't want to talk about it, shrens are often not able to afford an education as a wizard, and everyone else thinks this is a weird niche issue that isn't worth this much work and care!

Anyway, Avet did bring spare paper in her satchel, and can make and then give Luciwina a copy.

"Here you are! Let me end the one I've got on you -" reversal! "- and you'll want the variant for casting it on yourself, which is in the second section." Mostly she's felt silly for inventing and then publishing that, since, as mentioned, shrens are often not able to afford an education as a wizard, but Ehail isn't the type to ask for flight time, so clearly the correct way to solve that is to invent a spell variant that lets a shren wizard cast it on themselves. This is a normal and proportional response to your friend being probably too shy to ask for flight time. "You'll want to cast it and then shift to natural right after, it's essentially the same spell, but built to wait until after shifting to activate."

Nod nod. "That makes sense. It's so elegant."

"Thank you! It was really important to me to make it - as easy to use and understand as possible, for ease of adding variants so wizards can hold up more than one at once? And this is also very dangerous to mess with, so that's why all of the safeties and the - way the spell fluctuates to match what's being pulled away from your wings. It's really very important that your dragon magic isn't disturbed by the spell, because shrens are already in kind of a delicate situation? Everyone is way more excited about the conception spell, but honestly that was just a matter of understanding the problem and coming at it from the right angle, this was much harder to get right."

Wait, that might not have been very intelligible without all of the rest of her notes. Hm.

"A delicate situation?"

"Oh, um - so the reason shrens can't fly is -" she switches to Draconic to explain properly, "- their dragon magic pulls at their bodies, and specifically their wings, to compensate for the deficiency in their dragon magic that would otherwise kill the shren, like how baby dragons used to die. So the inability for shrens to fly is actually an efficient survival solution, and it's why shrens always survive - your bodies have -" Ugh this is where Draconic starts having opinions, she huffs and switches out of it, "ingeniously adapted to compensate for the flaw that dragon magic introduced into your system."

Luci flinches when Avet starts speaking Draconic. 

"I see." 

She notices the flinch, but doesn't have context for the reason why.

"Sorry, uh - bit of a dark topic, I apologize. I just get excited at the prospect of having another wizard shren to talk to about this, dragons all kind of, er. Flee." Wince.

Eyeroll. "I'm sure they do. No, sorry, I'm fine talking about it, we just--hardly ever speak Draconic at my house, and on the rare occasion it gets brought out it's very much to make a point. So." 

"Oh." The prospect of avoiding speaking Draconic is a little alien to her, it has such convenient technical words, but she did just stop speaking Draconic because it's got one massive blindspot that a shren would on reflection live in. Hm. ... Maybe it does make sense to her, after all. She can be a spiteful bitch too, when she wants to be.

"Because it's - so rudely opinionated about shrens?" She clarifies, to check if her hypothesis is correct.

"Yep."

Nod.

"That makes sense. Sorry for using it, I'll - hm, probably need to invent some technical language for talking about this, actually...."

Actually, she now wants to invent a wizardry replacement for Draconic that doesn't have dumb opinions, but does have neat technical language, but logically speaking it's much more efficient to just invent the words she wants herself. Just, you know. Why can't all of her problems be solved with research wizardry? Unfair.

So unfair! Although to be fair research witchcraft is more efficient for some problems. 

"My mom's invented kind of a lot of technical vocabulary for niche wizard stuff, but I don't know if her research overlaps enough with yours for them to be useful."

"Well now I want to meet her and ask!" says Avetlarin brightly, wondering why the Dragon Council hasn't introduced them yet. Is it just the Dragon Council behaving badly? It's probably that, they're not great at introducing all dragons to all other relevant dragons that might come up, they just kind of expect everyone to hang out on Dragon Island like fitting into humanoid sized houses is a bizarre priority that should be ignored.

"I'm sure she'd love to meet you!" Oh hey speaking of Mom, Luci bends down and scoops up a handful of scales that fell off when she shifted. Mom is deeply sentimental and kept all her baby scales; Lucy isn't going to try to grab all of these ones, but a handful, sure.

Avet casts a spell to check the time. "I've still got an angle or so free, if you'd like to introduce me sooner rather than later? - Do you want all of your scales, I've got a spell for gathering all of them from a specific person, and - oh, damn, I've run out of bags," she muses, as she checks around her desk-and-couch setup. "So you'd either need to carry them all by hand or wait a degree for me to go find something to carry them with."

"It's not a big deal, this much is fine. Anyway, yes, I'd love to." She holds out her hand for Avet to take so she can do the teleporting this time. 

Hand!

"I might ever want to do some kind of art project with some of the abandoned scales, but that seems, er, a little conceited, and the shrens that grew them obviously get them first if they'd like them," says Avet, conversationally.

"Ooh. That's an idea to pursue, yeah." 

She teleports them to a little house in a neighborhood in Petar. 

There are two empathic signatures inside the house. One is reasonably normal. The other...is not. 

Leelufalesh's empathic signature tends to scare greens. It is, at any given time, an uneven mixture of rage, familial affection, and wizard nerdery. Right now that last one is dominant, but there's still a coil of dark, hot, bone-deep anger lying beneath the surface, like a crocodile drifting loglike in the water just waiting to snap. 

Oh, that's why she hasn't been introduced already. She considers her own opinions on the state of how dragons treat shrens, and - yeah, okay, fair enough. That anger is almost certainly justified.

It's rude to comment on empathic signatures, though, so she doesn't, and instead schools her own emotions to be... well, light and fluffy and innocent. She is here as Luci's potential friend and as a potential wizard correspondent! Please do not burst out of the water and try to devour her, crocodile empathic signature, she's friendly and probably in agreement with the direction of your anger! She just wants to be a nerd and fix all that is wrong with dragon magic.

Outwardly, she gives a friendly smile.

Luci pushes in the front door, calls, "I'm home! And I brought a guest!" and leads Avet to Mom's study. 

"Hey, Mom," she says, opening the door, "you know Avetlarin, the wizard who did the spell to prevent dead babies? Well, I met her and I told her about you and she thinks you sound neat." 

"Does she." 

Luci's mom is an obsidian woman wearing a vampire form. She looks up at Avet with a raised eyebrow and an empathic-signature mix of wary respect and immediate readiness to lash out of Avet turns out to be That Kind of dragon. 

"I do!" says Avet, who is attempting to be so nonthreatening and friendly in the face of potential hostility - honestly she has some practice after facing down Jensaal - "Luci mentioned you have a lot of technical words for wizardry that are not in Draconic? I know we're all dragon-alikes and could understand each other, but it seems silly to go and invent words that might have already been invented yet? Especially for talking with non dragon-alike wizards."

"I don't see any reason why the word sisaak in Leraal shouldn't apply to shrens as well as siads; it's not like most humans or elves are familiar with the fact that shrens exist in the first place. And yes, I do, would you like to see my notes?"

Oh, does she see ever see why no dragons introduced her to this person. Um - no thank you on taking up your torch to go to war, ma'am, she'd like to stay out of that conflict as much as possible and instead be a peaceful wizardry nerd. Who has good opinions. Watch:

"Yes please! Do you want mine on shren flight? I am currently only a discount miracle worker and I find the idea of being a discount anything a little offensive."

She drops the pen she's holding. "Yours on what?"

"That's why I met her! The diamond--uh--" she glances at Avet and does not say the word she was going to say. "Your nemesis was complaining, and Zina overheard, and told me, and then I showed up on her doorstep. Flying in natural form is everything I dreamed it would be," she sighs. 

Avet beams at Luci, who, like all shrens, should have nice things and be able to fly in their natural forms like every other dragon-alike in the world.

"I invented a spell to temporarily grant shrens flight - this is Petar, right, I think it's been properly published here, but both dragons and non-dragons are so bad at distribution of anything shren related - hold on I'll make you another copy of it -" Paper! Notes! Spell! Then handed over to the terrifying dragon on a war path as a peace offering. Also principle, she never wants any shren to suffer from esu ever again, but still.

"Thank you--I assume you've been to all the houses--"

"And every home shren before shifting age," says Avet, nodding. "It's much harder to track down shrens once they're able to shift, I'm sorry you weren't told sooner."

(Avet's empathic signature does reflect her irritation that her really impressive and groundbreaking spell that saves babies from suffering in inconceivable agony for decades is not being distributed properly because of dragon racism. This is what the Dragon Council and line representatives should be for, but noooooo, we don't get over our flinch response like grown-ups, we're going to let the world be full of suffering because it's more comfortable...!)

"The babies are more important. Not that I'm not grateful for Luci's sake, but--"

"No, yeah, flying's wonderful but I would never take a place in line ahead of a baby."

She gets up to hug her daughter tightly. (Lovelovelove and exhausted, aching relief)

(Genuine joy at seeing people be happy and fulfilled.)

"It's mostly that I published this spell over a month ago," operational inefficiency, her one true nemesis, "and you've only heard about it now? I've been getting the babies since just before that, it was - literally testing on a volunteer at the bottom of the world, and then I and Ehail - she's a shren wizard, she lives here in Petar - split up to get all of the houses that day." She even used up one of her forms to make it slightly more efficient. Merfolk is a perfectly respectable form, and she's kind of looking forward to exploring the underwater side of the world now, but still. Serious business, getting all of the babies as soon as possible!

"I usually don't go to the shren house in person, I just send money." 

"Seeing the screaming babies makes her angrier, and some of the babies are green, and--it can set up a bad feedback loop," Luci murmurs to Avet. 

Nod. Yes, understandable, the screaming babies were awful.

"Yeah, I'm not blaming you or the shren houses, just. I wish it were better distributed, you know?" It's her best work as a research wizard, and it's being marginalized! TERRIBLE.

"The Dragon Council are a bunch of--" and she says a word that cleverly portmanteaus "siad" with an absolutely vile Vampire swearword. 

!!! This elicits cackling!

"I - I can't disagree," she giggles, "though they are sort of paying me to keep being a research wizard, so, please don't expect me to go tell them that to their faces."

"I wouldn't bother going there to say it to their faces without an actual reason. They're not worth the travel." 

"Every now and then Mom's line rep sends her a new communication crystal and she immediately loses it in, like, a swamp or something," Luci stage-whispers. 

"Oh no," snorts Avetlarin. "I guess I can't blame you. I'm still coasting off of my conception spell, so. I really can't lose mine. I have dragons showing up at odd hours to request children. Because inventing the spell clearly means to the Dragon Council that I should be available to cast it." Sigh. Dragon Council.

"Mama keeps hers, we're not cut off if something important comes up. But, uh."

"I won't say you should refuse to cast the conception spell just to spite them. It's an important spell. But none of my," she snarls a Draconic word that refers to blood-linked family without implying any degree of affection, "are foolish enough to ask me for things, anymore." 

"I thought about it, but - I do also sometimes need access to records on Dragon Island, and to ask my line rep for things, and I was planning to be available to cast it before, just. I don't super appreciate not being consulted on that. I decided I wasn't going to let their - themness - affect how I'll actually conduct myself. But between that how how the conception spell is available to every wizard from Petar to Esmaar and Mekand, and the flight one," which is objectively a much more impressive bit of spellwork!!!! "is mysteriously much harder to distribute is - well. They certainly aren't good at winning my favor. But the ones who suffer if I didn't distribute the conception spells are, ultimately, the babies, so." Shrug.

Nod nod. 

Leelu goes over to one of the shelves and pulls out a thick notebook full of neatly-indexed technical neologisms. It has several color-coded bookmarks organizing it into different sections or marking pages she refers to particularly often. 

Eeeeeeeeeeee technical vocabulary!!! Avetlarin immediately drops the adult and responsible persona in favor of acting more her age. She's not quite 200 yet, and sometimes it shows.

"Thank you! May I make a copy of this - I don't have enough paper on this, do you mind if I teleport off, get paper, and then make a copy of this?"

Luci is a little younger than Avetlarin--the acting more her age is endearing. 

"Be my guest."

"Thank you!" she chirps, and off she teleports. She's soon back with a stack of paper; teleporting right back where she left, and immediately casts the spell to begin making a copy. Wizardry notes, wizardry notes, one of her favorite things, eeheehee~

Leelu, on the other hand, is reading Avetlarin's notes on the flight spell with a deep appreciation of her own. 

It's her best work!! She was very motivated!! She had some talent during and after college, but didn't really have anything to point it at for a while. Most of the wizardry she'd find maximally convenient for her life was already invented by someone else. (She might ever at some point invent something for summoning her stuff that's more channeling capacity efficient, it's not her favorite thing to cause herself pain every time she wants something she doesn't have on her.) But then she sat down and was thinking about what she should attempt to invent a spell about, and, well, here she is. Apparent expert on dragon magic before the age of 200, and discount miracle worker attempting to remove the 'discount' in that epithet.

And also she's bouncing happily about ~wizardry notes~.

"You shouldn't discount yourself." 

"Hm?" says Avet, looking up from wizardry notes.

"You called yourself a discount miracle-worker. I disagree with the qualifier." 

"Oh. Thank you. I - it's - all of the screaming emergencies are handled? And I am legitimately very proud of myself. But it's just - I'm not done? Not until all shrens can just. Turn into their natural form and fly down to fetch groceries or carry their loved ones or whatnot, without it being an emergency. That's the miracle I really want, you know?"

Shrug. "The work will never really be done. It doesn't have to be a stopping point to be a miracle."

"That's fair. But also 'discount miracle worker' is both an amusing gloss and - not leaning into... I do not want to buy my own propaganda, you know? I'm just a person who is doing her best."

Her lip quirks upward, a sort of wry amusement at how trying at all is still exceptional. 

"Nevertheless. What you've done is--I don't know that you understand it, if you've never been around a baby shren for more than a few degrees," she says softly.

"I - well. Not for very long, but. This all started because I - went to a shren house to try and figure out why shrens live when many baby dragons don't. And, um. Green group. I - don't think I can really understand, but... I couldn't just... leave it at the conception spell and stop?"

Nod. 

"Twenty years, and I didn't manage anything in time."

"I had help," insists Avet, immediately. "Ehail's been working on this for centuries, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without her analyzation spells, and she hadn't been able to analyze any dragons, because, well, dragons, but -" Avet. Take the compliment. "- thank you. It's my best work. I'm very proud of it." Smile.

"...Ehail, the silver at the Kep Island Shren house?"

"Yes! Her. I wanted to have her as a coauthor on this, actually, but she didn't want the attention, she has an amazing patience for sorting through data."

She curses softly under her breath. "I shouldn't have let being angry keep me away." 

"It's - hard, how everything shren related is isolated and taboo to acknowledge, and people that aren't dragon-alikes don't - get it. Or understand the importance. I think - sharing knowledge is the best way to build to a better future."

Pause. "So, uh, want to be research penpals?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Excellent! Thank you."

That gets her an actual smile that doesn't have any irony about other things being bad, behind it! 

"My own research is somewhat more diverse, but I have an index."

"Yeah! I like it, thank you! Though I might need to consolidate these into little - separate subject books for easy summoning, I like to be able to grab the small specific thing I want to look at instead of having a giant book. It's better for travel, which," she smiles ruefully, "I have been doing a lot."

"Oh, that shouldn't be too difficult--" she reaches up for another large book, which turns out to be several thinner books clamped together at the spine. 

Oooooo!~ Fortunately, she has enough paper for this!

Behold: a happy research wizard.

Areas of interest: 

-Lights, the general whatthefuckery thereof, more of a literature review than independent research although there is some of that. 
-Conjuration spells: how complex can those get, actually. 
-Past scrying: can you get information in formats other than visual.
-Item enchanting, especially data storage such as picture crystals and music crystals. 
-Spells for repairing things

Huh! Yeah that's a very eclectic list of things, but maybe Leelu has an interest in - preserving lost music and art? That seems to be the throughline here. Anyway, Avet likes these subjects and is audibly appreciative of them! She even has some notes on subjects Leelu might want to look up, and what libraries to do so at; it becomes clear that most of Avet's talent involves being very organized and very curious.

And Leelu can have her notes on dragon magic, the dragon magic reservoir, the properties of shrens and their lack of flight, and her still-incomplete work on what looks like some kind of shield that will prevent the shren contagion from spreading even in natural form. Inconveniently she does not have data on a dragon becoming a shren, and she is rather lacking in consenting test subjects, but she has a lot of ideas and can be so very thorough.

...She taps a finger thoughtfully. 

"If you had a consenting volunteer," she says slowly, "do you think you could really make use of that?" 

"I think so, yes, though I - obviously feel uncomfortable asking anyone to do this on purpose, but I - really only have educated guesses as to how a dragon becomes a shren, not a perfect understanding? Which makes making a shield less of an elegant fix of the problem and more 'fit literally everything it could be into one spell that won't kill the caster.'"

"I'm trying to decide if I have any reason not to besides not actually being able to evict Draconic from my head."

Blink blink.

"I - um. I - are you sure??? I mean even discounting Draconic there's a lot of very useful data on Dragon Island and, um, well." Shrens are not allowed there, for very obvious reasons. Every dragon goes around in their natural form on Dragon Island, and a shren would be - well. A risk to everyone.

She waves a hand dismissively. "Of course I'm not sure. If any of the aversion to the idea is my own, I haven't had time to dig it out from under fucking Draconic yet. But it's something to consider."

Nod.

"I'll - okay. Um. I will be working on this regardless, and probably if there is only ever going to be one volunteer, I should stuff everything into a shield spell and test that, instead of just - um. Having more data." Much as she likes data. Much as she wants an elegant solution instead of... literally everything she can think of.

"I can't imagine you'll find another one, no."

Yeah, no kidding.

"Yeah," she agrees, softly, and still - boggling. It's ever occurred to her to try and test this on herself, but - listen, she will do a lot of things for the sake of advancing wizardry for dragons and dragon-alikes everywhere, but literally sacrificing her natural form is a bit too much for her to seriously contemplate.

Leelu hasn't taken natural form since her daughter hatched. What is there to give up? 

Also, her line rep would finally stop wasting communication crystals by mailing them to her. Officially being out from under the Dragon Council's thumb, instead of just being theoretically willing to fight them, has a certain appeal.

(She briefly fantasizes about telling no one, then going to Dragon Island and infecting everyone there. But, uh, no, absolutely not, that would cause so many more problems than it would be worth. But thinking about it doesn't cause problems! Mmmmmmm.)

"I'll, um - I - I'll." Brain broken, words not found, try again later. "- Um, my address for letters is -" and she rattles off her house in Esmaar, still - boggling a little. But. Letter address. Important!

Leelu writes it down in a notebook specifically for writing down addresses. 

Okay. Good. That's good.

Avet sort of hovers awkwardly, her brain still broken.

Fortunately, she's interrupted by her brother songing her, and jumps, casting a timekeeping spell and then swearing at it.

"Iiiii am terribly sorry but I am really actually late to meet up with my brother, which I acknowledge is very convenient for my inability to say words right now but is nonetheless actually true, thank you for having me um - let me know if there are any issues with the notes or if there's anything you want to expand on?"

"I will." Honestly she's kind of amused instead of offended by how broken Avet's brain is. 

Well Avet is terribly embarrassed about her brain being broken regardless! Sorry!! She'll fix it soon enough, promise!!

"- Tell Luci I said bye and to thank her for introducing us, and thank you for having me, and it was lovely to meet you, and I'm going to teleport now thank you bye!"

"Goodbye." 

And then she goes and tells Luci and Lavi the whole story, including the possibility of volunteering for shren infection. Laviwina is...disconcerted, albeit less brain-broken than Avet. 

Luci is...thoughtful. It'd have to be her, right, it'd be weird to ask someone else, and...she's also experiencing Draconic having opinions at her. 

"If you say no, I'll tell her I decided not to and never say another word about it." 

Hug. "I appreciate it. I--am going to have to think about it." 

Hug. "Take all the time you need." 

"So, what distracted you this time?" wonders her parunia half-brother, amused, when Avet arrives.

"Well, um, dragon magic wizard stuff?" she hedges. Which is her way of warning that it'll be about shrens.

Yeah, he doesn't care. Shrens are not a topic for polite dragon company, but the pride of his sister causing them to fly beats out all of his discomfort. It's a weird niche, and Draconic doesn't like it, but Draconic has yet to officially give her a title to befit her baby-dragon saving status, so Draconic can go stuff it. Being willing to poke strange things is what got her this far, and it's not like their mother or her husband are very good at supporting these ambitions. Good in other ways, but neither particularly like biting down on that distasteful topic.

"Full story, please, I support your miracle ambitions."

"Right," says Avet, and she begins explaining.

" - so then she just, just, asked if a volunteer to - to," and she tries her best to not let Draconic get to her, but she has to lower her voice anyway, "to demonstrate what it would look like to - become one, in front of an analysis spell, would help, like that's a normal thing to offer anyone!!"

That causes Sivaeth to perk up. "She did? Just like that, on the promise of a maybe? ... Why??"

"I-I-I mean I don't totally understand, but she's kind of at [nonviolent but hostile]" this being one of those useful Draconic words she likes so much, "war with the Dragon Council, most dragons, and I think Draconic as a language? And she said the only reason not to was not being able to evict Draconic from her head. Which, I, I just, I. What!"

"Eh. When you get old and big enough, your natural form stops being convenient to use for flying around places. I mostly go eagle instead, these days. I get that part. It's just - a lot of trust, to definitely become a shren, on a maybe that you'll be able to stop it from ever spreading again."

"That's your reaction. You're astonished at the level of trust, not at, the, the, this???"

"You've already stopped shrens from being born," he points out. "If you succeed at the shield, no one would ever become a shren ever again. No - tragic accidents, no flight risks, no detours for dragons to go around the shren houses. It'd fix a lot."

"I - yes it would -"

"And, if you succeed, and put every shren under a shield, they can all hire wizards to cast the one spell that lets them fly, or learn to cast it themselves, and then they could just. Well, not fully be a dragon, but have all of the characteristics of being a dragon after magical handicap assistance."

"I mean obviously I agree, it's just, you're..."

"What part of 'support you in your ambitions of being a miracle worker' was confusing to you?" he wonders, amused.

"The - the - implications of becoming a shren just to help me!!!"

"Do you need me to project calm at you, here?"

"No, I'm fine, just, just." She buries her face in her hands. "Mom would freak."

"Okay, maybe let's not have me be the definite purposeful shren experiment that you observe in order to understand what's going on," he muses. "The guilt would probably fuck you up, anyway. I'd be a terrible big brother to do that to you. But the second test, of the shield itself? That's just trusting you, isn't it? To have gotten it right?"

"I, that, but, you. ... If I fuck up and shren you I'd -"

"Shren flight is harder, isn't it? More dangerous? I've paid enough attention to your talks to catch that."

"... yes..."

"And you got that right. On your first try."

"I, there, I." She turns into a falcon and hides under the table. "I'm being bullied. You're bullying me."

"I'm supporting and encouraging you!" he corrects, cheerfully.

There is a disgruntled bird noise from under the table, and she bites his ankle. Not hard, just to let him know she's cranky.

Snort.

"There, there. I won't if you'd actually have a meltdown over it." He reaches down to give his sister a little scratch. She's so adorable as a bird, it reminds him of when she was a little baby dragon. "Just, hey. I'm in your corner, okay?"

Sad bird trill, then she shifts back to human so she can cry properly. Sniffle.

"... Thanks. Um. Can I hug you, you're the best big brother. Ever. In all of time."

"I've had a lot of practice," he says, scooping his little sister into a hug.

Hug.

"You have to be the one to tell mom," she informs him, after a while.

"Yep. My risk to take, and all that."

Leelu sends Avet a letter, about a week later, asking more about the dragon magic analysis and some details of the work she did on the shren flight spell and affirming that she's decided she's willing to turn into a shren For Science but since they only have one shot at this she wants an experimental procedure they're both satisfied with set up first. 

(Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!)

Yeah, agreed - Avet actually wants to integrate Leelu's work on recording data to record the whole thing on a crystal, so they can reference it in detail later and never ever have to do it again. It's really really important to Avet to get this right. Here are her notes on how she can maybe integrate the dragon magic analysis into a recording, does Leelu see other ways it could pick up relevant data...?

Also she has a volunteer for testing the shield once they have that. So. Um. Yay?

Oh, that's interesting, who?

(There's no reason the person using the dragon magic analysis has to be a dragon, they could get a handful of volunteers to record the analysis on different crystals for different angles, Areelu has some non-dragon Wizard Nerdery penpals she could invite...)

Her brother.

(Those ideas all sound excellent!

... Avet will ask Ehail, though probably Ehail doesn't want to hear about this at all, and wants to be exactly zero involved. Avet will have a long internal debate about this, draft several versions of the letter she'll send to ask, and then send one delicately proposing a hypothetical to her shren friend, of a perfectly ethical scenario in a safe and isolated location, with only consenting and fully cognizant adults, that probably Ehail can guess the implications of if she wants to, and pretend isn't real if she does not. It's... the best she can do, really. She doesn't want to blindside her.)

Ehail is concerned that it would happen too quickly to see anything, if you could even find someone to cognizantly and adultly consent.

That - is a legitimate concern! And a good point! She was already planning to have it recorded on a crystal, this gives even more reason for that.

And, uh, surprise, Avet found a dragon to cognizantly and adultly consent. She has a white group shren daughter and wants her to be able to fly wherever she wants. This being the only explanation she expects another dragon-alike to find at all intelligible, and it's true. Leelu's war on Draconic is present but not exactly relevant.

.........that can't possibly be the case. Can it?????

Has Avet already reworked the analysis spells to work through a crystal so the magical interaction can be recorded? It'll have to be the kind of crystal you can slow down playback for by a lot. At least a hundred times, and if they make ones that go slower that would be better.

It is absolutely the case, and yes, Avet thinks it's kind of insane, too. The dragon's name is Leelu, line name falesh, lives in Petar, will probably accept a letter from Ehail. She actually is a wizard who specializes in information retrieval and recording (among other things), which is very relevant and useful to this particular case!

Anyway she's reworked the majority of the analysis, but she's trying to add in extra details of how dragon-magic interacts with a shren's wings, she really really really wants to not lose a single milli-split of data due to carelessness.

Absolutely, this is not the kind of data you could possibly collect twice. It's bewildering that it might be possible to collect once. Maybe you want, like, a dozen different kinds of crystals all pointed at the... event?

Are the Dragon Island type people going to be mad about this????

Yes, exactly, and Leelu wants to bring in other people to also record the event.

So... Avet's read is that they will sort of be upset about this, but mostly in a 'why would you ever do such a wretched and awful thing' kind of way. Avet expects to get a lot of blowback, but it will, she thinks, be considered worth it for a shren contagion shield, and the means to keep all further dragons safe. If all factors are studiously recorded and all safeties are followed and it's very very clear that this was all ethically done. Helpfully, Leelu is not well liked by the Dragon Island people, has not visited in years, and her inability to show up on the island and her subsequent exile from dragon culture will be actively celebrated instead of seen as a tragedy.

Also Avet will have her own mother running some kind of interference. (Sivaeth has already told her about this. He was very efficient and there was apparently only minimal shouting.) She will push the angle of this is a noble, knowing sacrifice for the greater good of dragons, and - they will get their permission in advance after dragons have had like, a year or two to argue about it, which they are absolutely going to.

Well, that at least gives them some time to make the analyses and the crystals cooperate.

Exactly!

... Also she'll be the one to tell Leelu about this. In person. She sends a letter that includes the normal wizardry nerdery, and then something to the effect of 'I have a proposal you're not going to like but I feel I should make it in person,' and the request to come visit.

...Yeah, sure. She's not thrilled by the request but Avet has earned a lot of benefit of the doubt from her. 

Okay! Here is Avet. She's fidgeting and nervous. Less nervous than she was on meeting Leelu, actually, this is something that she has every reason to despise, and she had ever reason to like Avet.

"Sssssso I think it'd be best for avoiding shren and dragon conflict, if we gave the Dragon Council a heads up and officially got permission," she says, wincing as she already knows it'll be hated.

Empathic signature: incredulity, disgust. 

"Why?"

Yep. Yep yep yep. About what she expected.

"I do not want any backlash for this to hit any shren at all," she says, very seriously. "And - you know that's where it would go, given half a chance."

Ugggggghhhh she's right. 

"I would be a shren," she grumbles, "couldn't it just fall on me anyway?"

"I - think many would be assholes and try to think of you as a wronged victim instead of a perpetrator. I really, really, really do not want any of the fallout to hit any shrens. I know it sucks, but - it's best if we get the agonizingly slow process started sooner rather than later, because we'll be getting the crystals and recording and analysis equipment perfect anyway. This way they waste as little of our time as possible. Because they're going to try."

"If any of them speak to my line rep, she'll be sure to assure them that I am not innocent." 

Sigh. 

"I hate the idea of giving them any power in this situation." 

She hates them, too. Deeply, down to the bone, hate like a cold that will burn your finger if you brush against it. 

Yeah. Valid. Avet's not up to that level of hatred, but she's also not a mother.

"I know. I'm sorry. They don't deserve it, but it's not about them. It's about preventing them from hurting anyone else, as much as we can."

Sigh. "Fine."

It's not fine. But she's agreeing to it. 

"It's not fine," agrees Avet. "But thank you."

"... Bright side, you'll be able to be incredibly smug about saving them when they don't deserve it. Moral superiority, and all that," she offers, after a pause.

"...Hm...I might be able to work with that."

"Spite can be healthy and productive if channeled appropriately!" chirps a dragon who has perhaps a lot of practice.

Grim smile. "Oh, I know plenty about how to channel spite." 

Luci glances out the window. It's a bright and clear day, and the few clouds are small and fluffy-white. Terribly inappropriate weather that couldn't produce an ominous KRAKATHOOM to punctuate that statement if it tried. 

Avet grins unrepentantly! She's not intimidated by this person, and wouldn't be even if the weather were appropriate for ominous statements! She won her over with her sensible and logical argument! VICTORY.

"Anyway, uh, that was the main thing. Though also Ehail wants to watch and help with the analysis planning, and might write you at some point, if she hasn't already?"

"Not yet. But I would certainly appreciate more help, especially since she invented the analysis."

Nod! "She had a really good thought about wanting a crystal that could record in enough detail timeline wise, she was worried it could happen too fast to see the data properly -"

And back to nerdery. Truly, she is herself.

Leelu has some thoughts about crystals--she has a bunch of half-drawn-up ideas for crystal enchantments, as well as a few completed ones, but for example she hasn't been able to get this one to record brainstates to work in anything like the requisite amounts of detail. She does have some workable ideas for recording things through a spell, though. 

Ooooo. Variety is extremely good for this! Avet supports recordings in multiple formats. And Leelu mentioned she'd want to invite other wizards to cast the recording spells besides just Avet, yes? Possibly they can diversify their recording options in case one set picks up something better than another set?

Yes, definitely. She has a proposed diagram for the setup, with the area where she'll be in natural form outlined in this circle here, and then crystals here, here, and here--she might need to do a three-dimensional model, actually...

She sends Ehail a letter introducing herself as Avet's volunteer and also here are her recording crystal notes. 

...

Ehail's just not gonna engage with the volunteer thing and instead produce technical commentary of the sort you're good at when you like drawing every single leaf on an imaginary tree with no shortcuts in your spare time.

Oh wow this is really good commentary!!! Leelu is going to try like a dozen things based on it and report back with her results. 

Ehail will draw more leaves commentate for as many rounds as is helpful in her small perfect handwriting.

While her mom and Ehail are working out the details of recording crystals, Luci goes to visit Avetlarin again. She's also a neat person to talk about wizardry with, and...

She brings Zina with her this time, because Zina does, also, think Avetlarin is deeply cool. Which, what dragon wouldn't? (Especially dragons willing to tolerate the company of shrens.)

Knock knock. 

"Coming!" calls Avetlarin, and she flies down as a bird to her front door and opens it. "Oh! Hello. Are... do you need a second wizard for double flight, or...?"

"No, this is mostly a social call. This is my friend Zina, who told me about your flight spell."

Oh. Wait, people have social visits without scheduling them first?? From non family members??? With people they barely know???? Deeply weird, Avet does not understand.

"Oh," she says, her expression one of an introvert who has been surprise social called but is trying to handle this gracefully. "Hi, nice to meet you, Zina, I'm Avet. Um - do you want to come in?" That is the normal social thing, right, she's totally doing great at this. "I have, um. Tea?" Oh no she's falling down on being a hostess, she should have snacks and she mostly doesn't!!!!

"...Sorry, is this a bad time?"

"No, it's just, I, am surprised and usually schedule my social things? I would totally have cookies or something," that she would request one of her nearby adorable neighbors to please bake for her in exchange for gratis wizard work, like how normal people acquire baked goods, "if I was expecting company?"

"Oh. Sorry, I'd've called ahead if we had a crystal."

"You can mail people," Zina says dryly. 

"Yes, but that's--perfectly reasonable and now I feel silly." 

... Giggle.

"Anyway, now is okay if you don't mind me maybe getting interrupted by someone else that might want wizarding from me, since these are officially my working hours, and don't mind my sad lack of snacks."

"I actually did have a wizardy question that this visit was uh sort of partially a pretext for. And which. I could also have sent a letter about." Who's blushing in embarrassment, it's definitely not her. 

Honestly, the embarrassment helps Avet feel more at ease! The extrovert seems to have realized that this should please not be repeated, which is the very important part! She's still got a couple relatives that are still working on that. (Avet is still practicing how to enforce boundaries in the apartment that is Entirely Hers, where people only visit to see her. There's a learning curve.)

"It's okay," she reassures, stepping out of the way of the door to invite them both in. "What's the wizarding question?"

"I was wondering if I could see your notes for developing the conception spell, to see if I could work out a reversed version." 

"You can! A... reversed version?" The first thought is a conception spell for a baby that will definitely die, which: no, why, but that's almost certainly wrong, so what would actually make sense? "A contraception that always works unless a baby dragon could be conceived safely?"

"A conception spell for use with a non-dragon partner, to make sure you get a thudia instead of a parunia."

"Oh! Okay, gotcha. I don't see why not, it should be pretty straightforward?" Not what she was inclined to think of, she was under the impression dragons with non-dragon partners... probably wanted parunias? But it makes sense that a shren would want to avoid being the mother of a dragon, doesn't it, hm, Avet really should have thought of that...

She could walk the short distance to her office and retrieve her notes on the subject with her hands, but also, she is a wizard and will find it faster if: spell to summon literature. This is normal and appropriate, and besides, she was going to make tea. Notes go Luci-wards, and then it's setting the kettle to warm and retrieving cups.

"That is so cool," she sighs of the literature summons. 

"It is moderately expensive and stings!" says Avet, very brightly about casually causing physical pain to herself. "It might not after I get a familiar, but I've been both picky and purposefully trying to get used to channeling sting. With a drake familiar I'll probably be able to manage teleportation circles. Which I really feel there should be more of in the world, so."

"Oh, right, sting is a problem for most people."

Oh. Right, shren.

"Yeah. ... You know, if you want to leverage that and do teleportation circles or other expensive wizard work that usually involves sting, I'll be perfectly supportive, I think there's probably a niche open for you?"

But that sounds like less time for research Research is for figuring out how to do additional cool things; neglecting the cool things that already exist is contraindicated. 

"You know, you're right. Well, I think you are, I haven't actually looked up how much those cost to cast; I don't care about sting but I do very much care about death."

"Hm! Teleportation circles might not be the biggest potential lifesaver there, large economic benefits notwithstanding, though I suppose if you did enough of them to become filthy rich it'd even out if you threw your money appropriately? I'm not sure what would be the biggest death preventative for equivalent channeling sting, I haven't considered things in those terms before?"

"I meant that I care about not trying to cast spells big enough to kill me. Which is not to say that I'm not also a big fan of preventing death!"

"Oh. Reasonable," says Avet, a little embarrassed that her immediate thought was how to leverage shren pain tolerance combined with wizardry to SAVE PEOPLE, SOMEHOW, but also. ... not embarrassed, that's actually pretty cool of her and she's proud of herself? Being an adult is hard, okay.

"You're right, though. Inventing new spells is cool but I should spend more time finding spells that already exist and mostly aren't in common use because of sting. Especially if there's life-saving low hanging fruit."