Time passes.

Isabella's robot army cleans up the remaining robotic forces of their hated enemies without casualties, obligingly repurposes themselves for helping with infrastructure and explaining what she finds in the computer systems, and is generally convenient and helpful.

Adarin finishes the armor silk spell. Isabella's set are cosmetically special - mostly black, but with forest-green twining over the fabric and edged with pale blue as though she's been accumulating frost. In them, she looks almost more like a witch-garb-inspired runway model than a witch, but she loves them and promptly switches to wearing them all the time. (He asked if she wanted to wait till Christmas. She said no, and then teased him that he'd have to think of something else for Christmas.) He makes more, but doesn't pretty them up; they're for other people.

The portal network and the personnel helping with it expands. The hub building is operational on schedule and the surfaces with portals in them are moved there after being temporarily closed on their far ends. The price point starts dropping. Isabella's staff starts making progress on getting the necessary permissions to put portals in foreign countries. Isabella acquires ludicrous amounts of money; she's waiting for slightly more ludicrous amounts before she pays back her loan, though.

Zeviana and Luzia continue to get along famously without that much in the way of Serious Relationship Conversation. Zeviana does useful things for the clan and makes friends and generally fits right in. Ranata shows her interesting places on the Earth; with the help of her nepotism-based access pass to the portal network, this is mostly within the United States to start, though teleportation makes other continents more convenient to get to than they might otherwise be. Still, most of her time is spent on clan lands, which makes it at best inconvenient to scry on her from New Kystle.

Path continues to touch Adarin occasionally, briefly, especially if Isabella's off somewhere; he seems to do it mostly for a sort of check-in with the comfort it provides. Sometimes and apparently for separate reasons he will solicit extended petting, which seems to be more recreational than soothing (it's possible to tell mostly because of the way Isabella will go limp and smiley and heavy-lidded wherever she is in the room when this occurs). Vern doesn't touch Isabella again. Isabella is unbothered; she doesn't expect it.