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Ranara and her little daughter Azabel move to Urtho's Tower when the latter can say six words ("up", "mama", "milk", "no", "now", and "please") and hasn't started to walk yet. Ranara sets up to teach little children to read, ones who don't have evident Gifts yet - Ranara herself has Mindspeech, is all, with about a classroom's worth of range. Azabel sits in on classes, worn on her mother's back or later plopped in a corner with toys or, when she's only four, plopped in a corner with a book, younger than the other kids in the class. When Azabel has in fact sat through her mother's curriculum she is turned somewhat loose, to walk very carefully up and down and around the Tower, exploring.
smol bell in urtho's tower
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small-and-alone
"I probably have a lot more reflexes than you for what to do when I'm scared."
small-and-alone
"It's - less effort in a way, right, to do things on reflex. Instead of having to think, and have it be confusing sometimes."
anticipating_night
"Yeah. Whereas I don't have a lot of - endorsed processes for how to behave under circumstances that so seldom come up for me."
small-and-alone
"Mmm." He leans against her in silence for a moment, then looks up, curious. "What sorts of things do you have reflexes for, then?"
anticipating_night
"Huh, that's a good question. I have... mental habits I reach for if people interrupt me, because I don't like that but don't want to be super prickly about it. I have scripts for with patients when I'm not sure what to say that usually last me until I prompt something that gives me a better idea. I have reflexes not to waste time - Ranara can let entire days escape, if she gets distracted and I don't."
small-and-alone
"Oh, that's smart. The last thing, I mean, although, er, all of them are pretty sensible. I think I've got some of that too, but - I guess most of my reflexes are still built around expecting I'll be in danger a lot."
anticipating_night
"Whereas I am very seldom in danger but every day I wake up and find I have a day that needs stuff to do in it."
small-and-alone
Sigh. "I - really hope my life ends up more like that. And less like the other thing."
anticipating_night
"I'm kind of surprised it's taking you so long to - adapt. You had some incidents here but, like, I have too, and surely the frequency is down?"
small-and-alone
"I feel like I've mostly adapted all right? But - it doesn't make the old reflexes go away, it just means I get new ones as well. And...I think maybe it takes longer to get. For things that aren't emergencies."
anticipating_night
"Huh. I'm not sure why that would be. I guess maybe stress can make you learn certain things faster but I've never watched somebody's clockwork ticking away while they were in a fight or anything."
small-and-alone
"Sounds inconvenient to try to do that! It'd be interesting research though."
anticipating_night
"Maybe if I'm ever, uh, injured and hiding out somewhere while there's a fight in the street, I will take the opportunity to investigate, but I certainly hope it doesn't come up."
anticipating_night
Pet pet. "It's nice to know that you haven't just been tolerant of my company all this time."
anticipating_night
"I knew you liked me more than anyone else," she clarifies, "but I didn't know that was - much at all."
small-and-alone
"Huh. Well, I've enjoyed your company about as much as I do now for - a long time, it's hard to remember exactly. Years."
small-and-alone
Ma’ar giggles a little. “It’s a thing that happens in stories, right, a boy liking a girl but she doesn’t like him so much at first? Aala says so anyway.”