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Time passes. Canada is cooperative about portals and now there's one each in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, on a second floor of the hub with customs agents Isabella is tolerating for the time being as long as they're well-behaved. Japan and Australia and the UK all follow suit at roughly the same time, so then there are portals in their big cities, too, a couple new ones per week. Other nations are slated to trickle in as they handle their red tape to deal with sudden new national borders that don't have the built-in delay of airplanes. Some of the parking garages are being replaced with custom-built installations. Isabella pays off her loan, renegotiates for the continued use of her shiny credit card, and has reason to be grateful for her retained law firm, which is kept busy by frivolous lawsuits by airline companies. She's not appreciably cutting into their traffic yet - sure, the price point is dropping, but they're still competitive. They can just smell their own demise coming from a mile away.
Five witches besides Isabella ward the colony site. Robots guard the site of the portal, obligingly letting colonists through during scheduled trips and reporting to Isabella by mirror if anybody else shows up. Other robots help the colonists with setting up their farms and houses in the warded area. It'll hold a city, no problem, although another transfer of silks and bags to pay for warding a second site is going to be called for before they get literally everyone across, since in addition to city they need farmland, and since they can't build vertically as effectively as fully industrialized Earthlings or the deceased aliens.
One day:
"It's been exactly a year now since you crashed my picnic. Let's go to a fancy restaurant and celebrate."
dark_light
dark_light
"Okay. Mirror me if you need something, try to avoid the hotel people needing to call me, I'll let you know when I have a place for you to park in my hub building, and you," she waves at Xiara, "can teleport away to a nice remote location whenever you have the mana - do make sure it's remote and not secretly on a cruise line or a nature trail or an oil tycoon's hit list, mirror me to check if you're not sure."
ofthefallen
"Very well," says Xiara. "I feel as if I should have you check regardless, since I do not know what any of those are."
dark_light
"And how much of an architectural footprint are you going to leave if seen from the air?"
dark_light
"Okay, I might stash you in a national park, I'll look around when I have a minute."
Isabella turns to leave them.
Isabella turns to leave them.
prodigal_miser
There is Adarin, cross-legged by the door, conversing quietly with Vernaia. About - stuff. Apparently.
prodigal_miser
Hurray! Wyoming!
"So I am a little annoyed that they interrupted our anniversary," says Adarin. "Something with mages and timing."
"So I am a little annoyed that they interrupted our anniversary," says Adarin. "Something with mages and timing."
dark_light
"They're really not very good at it, are they. Well, it's not midnight yet. Still time to do any other anniversary things you had in mind."
dark_light
"Well, I will be amenable to anything on the menu when you've made a selection, my dear."
prodigal_miser
"In that case..."
He puts Vern down, then - kiss!
Vern trills up to Path. Cuddles? Cuddles and daemon talks?
He puts Vern down, then - kiss!
Vern trills up to Path. Cuddles? Cuddles and daemon talks?
prodigal_miser
Wingsnuggles!
While their humans are busy, Vern asks Path, "Want to know about what Adarin and I were talking about?" (Nuzzle.)
While their humans are busy, Vern asks Path, "Want to know about what Adarin and I were talking about?" (Nuzzle.)
prodigal_miser
Vern giggles, nuzzling Path. "I figured. We were talking about if we wanted to marry you. We've decided that the answer is yes, but Adarin will want to - get everything in order before he actually proposes."
prodigal_miser
"Everything everything meaning planning out the wedding, too? No, he'd want Isabella involved in that, but... Finding a ring, making sure her father will not make angry faces at him over the dinner table for wanting to marry her, that sort of thing."