Many of Azabel's classmates still seem half-stunned, but eventually some of them start raising their hands and adding in their own points, or asking questions - mostly about why created species have so many birth defects in the first place, is that really inevitable, or are people just used to it being but really it could be avoided with more effort. 

Ma'ar stays quiet. 

Aza writes up a list of his errors that could still be corrected (gryphons should have control of their own matchmaking and reproduction or at most he could impose a population growth cap if they're that hard to feed and an age limit if they're physically mature well before their emotional adulthood; it should be Very Obvious that he doesn't own them if he doesn't and if he does he should Stop; he should publish his process, even with some technical detail redacted, so people who are considering making a species have his example, and his hindsight perspective, to learn from; it should be clearer to the gryphons when he is imposing something on them versus e.g. it being a general Healers' policy that just hits them more frequently than it does humans). She presents it to him neatly numbered and bulleted at the end of class. There is a footnote that she would be delighted to help him with writing up the gryphon process book as a side project if they can come up with a meeting schedule that works around her classes.

Urtho asks her opinion on other students' points a few times, but the discussion wanders pretty far afield; someone asks if it's true that gryphons are all very bloodthirsty and if THIS was ethical, and Urtho argues that no of course they're not all bloodthirsty and then there is argument. 

At the end of class, he accepts the paper from her sort of absently and pats her shoulder. "Thank you very much, Azabel, I will definitely get back to you about this." 

"I look forward to it!"

Ma'ar asks her at the end of the next day if she's heard anything back from Urtho yet. 

(She has not heard anything back from Urtho yet.) 

"Not so far."

"D'you think he's mad?" 

"No, he took it really well! Though I'm not sure he understood my jab about mages acquiring power..."

"Mmm. I wasn't sure if he really didn't get it or was pretending not to because it made him look bad." 

"Yeah, I can't tell either but he didn't even make a little bit of a face that I could see."

"He seems like the sort of person who's - so sure he's good and right that he doesn't even notice people pointing out when he isn't?" Shrug. "Maybe that's uncharitable." 

"Well, I offered to help him write the book about gryphons he ought to write so maybe I will be able to figure it out with more exposure."

"Mmm. That sounds like an interesting book to help write, at least, if he does agree to it." 

"It'll be fun!"

Nod. "I'm glad you don't seem to be in trouble, anyway." 

Their ordinary routine continues. Urtho...does not seem to get around to responding to Azabel's note or request. 

She asks Skan if any of her suggestions have gotten as far as the actual gryphons yet.

Skan thinks. "There...wass an announcement that the gryphonss are obvioussly not Urtho'ss property and can leave if they wissh? Ssome people are talking about moving away, but mostly they were confussed why ssaying this mattered." 

"I guess that's something. I'll give it another week."

If she gives it another week, she will in fact receive a note from Urtho before that deadline, apologizing for being so busy and saying that he's taking her feedback into account and is she available at this time next week to have lunch again and discuss. 

Yes she is! She will be there then. Before that time she reads some extant books on hertasi to get an idea of what the field is like.

There are multiple published works about the hertasi! The Adept mage who created them published his notes as a sort of treatise, after the project was done and shortly before he died; the 'sort of' seems appropriate because they're not exactly well organized, or very complete. The exact details of the spells involved seem to have either been redacted or not considered important enough to write down. The notes also don't get into his thought process much, either the decision to make a species at all or the reasoning behind various judgement calls. There are some early design plans, with sketches of several different possible hertasi appearances before he settled on one, and then dated entries describing various stages of the project. It looks like he mostly worked on embryos in unhatched eggs, and transformed the original lizard stock into the final hertasi species over about four generations; only the final one was smart, however, he does note that he 'discarded' multiple attempts and started again from one of the earlier stages. (It doesn't sound like 'discarding' meant killing the adults, though he did have Healers permanently sterilize the reject-hertasi who he didn't want reproducing further.) 

There are also other books by later writers. Including a sort of memoir by one of the first hertasi in the final, approved cohort. He describes being born in the mage's creche, raised by human staff. He recalls, at one point, meeting his 'parents', from the earlier intermediate stage of non-sentient lizards, and how strange it felt, how it always seemed that his real parents were the humans who actually raised him and taught him to talk and read. He describes the awe and wonder of falling in love with a fellow hertasi, and having children together, the very first generation of hertasi with hertasi parents. (It doesn't sound like the mage who created them particular restricted reproduction, though partly this might be because he was very old when he finally managed a version he liked.) 

That's all very interesting, especially the hertasi's memoir. It's a pity there's not more on the earlier sapient drafts, she wishes she knew what those were like - though a few non-sapient generations to work out some kinks seems like a good idea to her. She brings all her notes on these books to her appointment with Urtho.

Urtho is slightly late for their meeting, and apologetic about it when one of his hertasi shoos him over to his office. "Azabel! I am so sorry, I must have lost track of time. How are you?"