Softly, Adarin says to Isabella, "Another witch surrounded by witches is far less obvious than a strange set of obviously magical plants out in the wilderness."

"Yup! Thanks," says Zeviana, hopping aboard the cloudpine. Her daemon follows along after, finding a nice spot to cling to that's out of the way.

"If Pathalan had been female we were thinking Lecasryn," remarks Ranata, taking off again. "A lot of daemon names are unisex, but we thought that one sounded more feminine."

"I'm worried she'll irritate the queen," Isabella murmurs back.

"Ah. Well. I know my sister, so - what's the queen like? Ana's pretty happy to leave well enough alone if she respects all parties involved. I doubt she'd look on a queen of witches with contempt."

"You're welcome! I'm glad you like it."

Zeviana smiles. "So any witchy traditions that I should be aware of? Or do I just get to run around in the witchy getup and have people not mess with me, no extra complication?"

"Oh, yikes, she doesn't, does she. Well, maybe Ranata translating for her will help smooth things over as regards cultural missteps. Can you explain the spell to her over the phone when she realizes?"

"It's a little hard to describe a culture from the inside! The things I'm most aware of as 'witch things' are biological, or obviously related to biology - the lack of nudity taboo is because we're unharmed by cold and we can feel starlight and moonlight, for instance. Our daemons are always flying birds... we all learn to use bows and daggers, more or less well, and cast our kind of magic..."

"Hopefully. It might work, but it would take a while. Absurdly complicated spell, remember," he explains. "She might get annoyed with it and just tell me to teleport there and cast it on her. Or, she teleports here and demands it. Either one."

As she listens, Zeviana grins a little. "Oh, I'm going to like hanging out with witches. You sound fun."

"I guess that works. Teleporting sure makes life easier, doesn't it?"

"I think so! Oh, and we don't use money when we can avoid it. The clan lands are self-sufficient, more or less, but if we prefer civilization-type standards of living and need things from mortal producers we trade favors."

"Yup! It's a wonderful, wonderful thing."

"Favors mean more than money and are less easy to steal," says the not-witch in-training, understanding. "I am seeing no downsides. Witches are officially kick-ass."

"Speaking of which, I'm going to ask the alethiometer whether teleporting will allow rapid separation. I should've asked it for you; I need to get more used to checking things instead of going with my best guess. If Zeviana's going to pass for a witch..."

"And it means you don't have to set a fixed price and transact with just anybody who wanders by with the right number of dollars," nods Ranata. "It's only inconvenient if we want something from someone who doesn't want anything, but there's usually something to be done, and the clan has done some large favors for some chain stores so anyone can show an Olympic clan tattoo and get what they need from any instance of that store."

Adarin offers cuddles! "It's alright, Vern and I managed well enough. Ana might eventually want to be separated for practical applications and for passing as a witch, though - so the alethiometer is a good idea."

"Ooooh. Sweet! Now I really like you guys. Just walking in, showing a tattoo and walking out with what I need is way less hassle. I'm good with helping with large favors for not having to put up with that."

"You'd need to get the tattoo, of course, but I bet you and the queen can work something out."

"Heh, probably. I can play ball if favors are the kinds of things you do. Nice and straight-forward."