"Okay," she replies easily. "Thanks."

"Also if you go there you get one too. So now I have one of those."

"Is it a unicorn?"

"She, and no."

"He got a kagu. Mine's a little owl. But we left them home, because the last time we brought them along, someone tried to grab mine and someone did grab his."

"I am sensing that's bad. Adarin! Scale of one to ten."

"Twelve."

"You do that to someone on my planet, on purpose, and you get caught, nine times out of ten you will be put to death by the criminal justice system."

"Good. It rated a twelve."

"I'm doing better," says Adarin.

"Who the fuck did it? I will go over there and rip her heart out and feed it to her, you do not do that to my brother, never."

"He wouldn't let me shoot her," Isabella points out.

Adarin rolls his eyes. "Only one."

"I'll take it. I see her, she's going to be missing some teeth."

"Most people wouldn't be able to leave their daemons home. But it's possible to stretch the bond till it allows arbitrary comfortable distance, which all witches - like me - do, and which Adarin has also done."

"I like having one. She helps with subtlety, and is sort of a... Buffer to get emotional weirdness out of the way. It helps with honesty, though not directly, and it helps with multi-tasking. In the world itself, it works, but here it doesn't."

"So I can either dance the tango with plane hopping and never get to just visit my brother again, or get a huge weakness that has to stay next to me at all times, but is good at socializing. Great."

"I would visit," says Adarin quietly.

"Somehow I'm not picturing you as a unicorn person."

Zeviana grins. "You're a smart one. Have I mentioned that I like you?"

"You have, in fact."