"Ooh? Your immortality project?" inquires Castarilan on Ranata's behalf, since she's still fussing with food.

"Among other things. I'll test it on Dad when I'm ready if he doesn't object."

"Long as you're sure it won't backfire horribly, Bells."

"I hope it works," says Adarin with a smile. "I wouldn't mind being immortal."

"Seems to go over pretty well with the immortal types. Though I suppose they aren't proper immortal depending on how you look at it."

"I'd like to make a dent in that, too, but people have put a lot of concerted work into protection spells in general already, so I might have less novelty to contribute."

"And if you get immortality down then you have the rest of forever to work out all of the other problems."

"Exactly! Here's hoping the Olympics don't get into a war or something before I manage it."

"Oh, sweetie, I really doubt that'll happen," says Castarilan.

"We're not an aggressive clan and no one has a fight they're interested in picking with us," Castarilan says.

He smiles, a little. "That's also good. She's an all-powerful witch, I know, but I do like seeing her safe."

Snuggle. "The problem with clan wars is that by and large there are witches on both sides. But Castarilan's not wrong, we're probably in good shape."

Snuggle! "Yeah. I'm extremely glad. Who would I talk about colonizing Mars with if you were in a war?" he teases.

"Yes, that would certainly be the first concern on your mind, I'm sure."

Adarin snickers. "Yup. Huge, dramatic war between witches going on, magic flying around at all sides - and I'm like, 'Darn, I have no one to talk to about Mars anymore.'"

"Wars actually contain a lot of archery and dagger combat," says Castarilan. "It's too easy to sneak up on someone who's casting, and the most effective combat spells take a long time. More efficient to bless all the arrows ahead of time from the safety of clan lands and then shoot at each other."

"Ah, I see. In that case." He pokes Isabella's nose. "No wars, especially. You are only not a clan embarrassment with a dagger."

Isabella laughs. "I'm a reasonable shot. But not a champion at that either, I'll grant."

"Fine, fine. No dagger combat, then," he says primly.

"I will do my best to avoid it."

He smiles brightly. "Good!"

"Food!" announces Ranata from the kitchen. "Everybody get your butts in here!"

Isabella laughs again, gives Adarin a swift little kiss, and heads into the kitchen.