Adarin winces. "Er. Sorry. I hope I didn't insult you, or - something?"
"It is... rumored impossible, in practice just ludicrously difficult, to insult a witch," shrugs Isabella. "I am not insulted."
Cooking, cooking, slice, slice, slice, turn on stove, more food preparations, curiously investigate array of availably spices and pick out ones that seem appropriate.
Path goes on fanning his witch. She sprawls and supervises and ices her neck.
Adarin's jacket comes off, and his hair goes up into a ponytail due to heat. Then, back to cooking. He can indeed cook! He seems to be making a stir-fry of some kind. It smells delicious.
Soon enough, it's done. The stir-fry finds its new home is now on three plates, and one of those is offered to Isabella.
Halfway through (when Path has returned from this errand), she says:
"When are you planning to separate? If you're still planning to."
Happy eating, nom nom. Vern gets some, too, because she is his daemon and that seems like the appropriate thing to do in this situation.
Vern makes a sad sound when Isabella brings up separating. It earns her a soothing pet. Adarin replies, "I'm not sure. We... Still need to, but honestly I'm not much looking forward to it, now. It's nice to have her just around."
"She'll still be around after," Path points out. "Separation isn't like intercision."
Adarin tilts his head. "Hmm... Explain intercision? It sounds very definitively bad, but didn't translate."
Isabella is the one who answers Adarin: "It's... Possibly entirely mythical; the sort of thing you hear about obscure poorly-understood tribes doing to manufacture slaves or religious sacrifices or whatever. But in theory it'd be not just stretching but actually cutting the person-daemon bond. The daemon would still exist but wouldn't be part of the person anymore."
(Path stops fanning her; she picks him up and holds him close to her chest.)
When he gets the explanation, he winces, and picks up his daemon to deposit onto his lap and pet, soothingly.
Softly, Adarin says, "That sounds - barbaric is the best word. Inhumane, too. Just from - being here for a few days, I'm going to have to give an emphatic no."
"Yeah. It's not something you actually have to worry about," Isabella reassures him.
Pet, pet. Then, food. Nom nom.
"It's not dark enough to see the light effect from goddess's magic, is it. I'll have to wait," he says, after a peek to a window.
"Aren't you trying to be more patient?" asks Vern.
"Trying, not necessarily succeeding."
Isabella chokes slightly on a bit of potato.
Then he realizes and coughs, a bit. Second time he's caught off guard by witches, today. His odds aren't in his favor.
"Uh. I'm likely to be around for around a week or so, with occasional visits in the future," he begins delicately. "But no, no - 'claiming at daggerpoint' or anything. I'm not really - I wouldn't like getting forced to, anyway? I'd just leave and that would be that."
"I am," says Isabella, "sorry about that."
"It's hardly your fault," points out Adarin. "I was just confused until I realized what she'd meant. I thought that sort of thing was on the decline...?"
"Metis is a lot older than I am. There's... adjustment to do."
He snickers. "It was rather funny, though. Did she want the answer to be yes so I would cook?"
"Wanted to know if she needed to cover for me with the cops if your family reported you missing, more like. Please rest assured that I'm not going to attempt to claim you or anybody at daggerpoint. I actually don't - date at all."
Well.
"I continue to be on board for 'let's not be horrible to the opposite sex' - it'll catch on eventually."
He doesn't ask about the dating. If she doesn't want to, she doesn't want to. That would be that, except - Vern nudges him and gives him a meaningful look. She's right, of course. He'd regret not knowing.
"Any particular reason, or just no interest...?" he asks, gently.